Is catch&release fishing actually a morally acceptable hobby? both from humanitarian and enviromental perspective. Isn't it cruel to plunge a sharp hook into the mouth of a living creature just to play with it for a while, and then release it back into the water a few minutes later? Every minute out of the water is a huge stress for the fish and a chance to suffocate it to death, the hooks penetrate directly into the tissues, often piercing completely through the mouth. Someone might say that in a sense it is a form of torture/animal abuse and that if fish could scream, people would abhor fishing

Isn't ending their suffering and killing them on sight just better? At least morally acceptable?

bumb, I always eat them

The idea of catching a sentient creature just for entertainment, without need for food or survival, can be ethically troubling. If the same was done to mammals, it would likely be considered abuse

>>2821225 (OP)
Fishing is a blood sport, just like boxing. Both parties agree to it. The fish is a murderous creature, and I'm a guy with a hook and line. Won't someone please think of the bugs?

>>2821225 (OP)
>fishing
>morally acceptable
It's not, you have no survival need for it, you just want to pretend to be a primitive to refuel some of your extinguished masculinity.

>>2821225 (OP)
I used to do it. Then a fish died swallowing the hook. Felt not worth it for my entertainment. So i fish to eat them now.

>>2821225 (OP)
I'm not above throwing some panfish or a bass back, but when I'm fishing for trout, I'm playing for keeps.

>>2821225 (OP)
I've caught the same exact catfish in the pond behind my house like 20 times and he doesn't seem to care all that much since he keeps falling for the exact same bait, sometimes when I release him he'll even just hang around until I throw him food instead of swimming away

Bass are eager to eat crayfish which will be angrily clawing their insides for minutes at the least so I don't think they're in agonizing pain from a hook piercing the thin skin between their mouth bones

>>2821225 (OP)
throwing fish back that you don't wanna keep is fine. fishing just to make a pic and throw it back s pretty gay
>>2821710
you gave stockholms to your catfish

you legitimately just dont have the conversation with yourself. the simple truth is that niggas get eaten sometimes. there is a billions of dollars industry based entirely on special string sticks and lures to bring in fish. Millions dollars more are invested in industries dedicated to raising smaller things to be used as live bait for larger things. I try and minimize the suffering of any given fish I catch, but ultimately the fact I pulled him from his house and am soon to be pluging knives into his flesh really does still make me the dick in the situation.

Fish themselves are amoral. If you could fit in his mouth he would gladly eat you if he caught you swimming. That is the only thing stopping him from doing it.

>>2821225 (OP)
>read up on "fish don't feel pain"
>"they're too stupid to have conscious awareness" basically
also if you look up those videos of squids being tortured as food, they say "they removed the brain" but the brain is between the eyes
sad that we're causing such suffering because people choose to believe the lie

>>2821926
>just dont have the conversation with yourself

>>2821950
>fish don't feel pain
They do, but not in a way that matters, they are not mammals or anything close

>>2821225 (OP)
I always kill the fish and throw the dead fish back when stuck in catch-and-release areas/seasons/size limits. If the fucking DNR won't let me keep them, fuck em. Maybe they'll stop making so many stupid rules. I help fish by shooting cormorants, egrets and herons. Let's do things that actually work.

>>2822891
No, you don't. You're an edgelord faggot who brags on the internet about wanton waste and illegal hunting that never happened in an attempt to be cool.

>>2822895
You're right, that was bait. I actually follow the regs to a T. One time I caught a brook trout on a stream that was catch and release for brook trout only, but it was hooked through the gills bad and I kept it because I didn't want it to go to waste for nothing. It's illegal to keep the fish, it's also illegal to toss dead fish back. So I follow the spirit of the law. Also, I basically ignore the possession limits in my freezer - if the daily limit on walleyes is 5 and the possession limit is 10, idgaf if I have 20 or 30 sets of fillets in my freezer. That's about as far as I'll go.

>>2822891
Jokes aside you're a piece of shit

>>2821225 (OP)
catch and release for the sake of it is dumb af, fishing and killing everything you get is almost as dumb. releasing the sizes and species you dont want if they are gently hooked is the way to go. if they are hooked badly you kill them anyway.

>>2821225 (OP)
Probably not. Even aside from harm to the fish via hooking them, there's the environmental damage over time from all the line, hooks, and lead that gets stuck in bodies of water.

>>2821473
nice

>>2821506
makes sense.

>>2825928
that's it.

We dont have an abudnace of fish in ireland like canada or usa so we throw most back. Most of the fish you would catch or that anglers target here would not be considered good eating. Perch, Pike, Tench etc. So most anglers fish for fun and relaxation and release the fish. Thats coarse fishing. Sea fishing is a different story. Lots of different fish you can catch and alot of people 85% keep fish from the sea. Game fishing in ireland for salmon and trout has a long trdition of catch to eat but alot of anglers including myselfe advocate for catch and release for salmon as irish salmon populations have been decimated. Prime fisheries like the Galway stretch of river corrib that saw hundreads of salmon caught every season back in the day only sees about 30 or 40 fish caught in the entire season these days. So yeah I dont see anything wrong fishing for food or for fun the fish will be fine as long as not deep hooked. Ive caught northern pike 15lbs plus that had rusty hooks in their throat and were all good fat and healthy.

>>2821225 (OP)
Man, if catch and release fishing is too much of a moral quandary for you just take up knitting or something.