Reprinted from a June 8, 2008 column in the Morgantown Dominion Post
Catch-and-release fishing is an extremely important component of fisheries management programs. First, it is a great way to allow recreational fishing while protecting a fisheries resource. Second, it promotes the idea that fishermen and women do not need to kill and keep every fish that they catch.
Why would you need to protect a fisheries resource? Perhaps it is a relatively new and growing fisheries. Or, that fisheries might have suffered a major decline for some reason and managers are bringing population levels back to their historic levels. In these situations, you can use catch and release to provide recreation while protecting the species, and allowing fishermen and women to continue to fish gives them a good reason (and the knowledge of what is going on) to protect the fish involved.
Then there are the trout streams that are limited, beautiful, and in heavy demand. By making sections of such streams and rivers catch and release, you protect the resource and still get the recreational benefits. In short, catch-and-release fishing is a win-win for everybody.
And so, when I saw this recent headline, I was completely baffled. "Swiss Government to Ban Catch and Release Fishing." But in hind sight I shouldn’t have been. Society has been slowly changing, moving away from common sense fish and wildlife management toward activities that on the surface appear to be more humane for animals. In Switzerland, as in other European countries, various animal welfare legislation has been passed. This new ban is a part of that evolving situation. This new law is about the prevention of suffering in fish. (Let me see if I’ve got this. We’ll kill every fish instead of having the option to release some and that will lower suffering. That indeed appears to be the (il)logic.)
What this new 2009 law does is force the fisherman to immediately kill every fish caught (with a sharp blow to the head), thus eliminating conservation and fish management practices. In fact the regulation says you can’t go fishing for fun. The verbage is "it is not permitted to go fishing with the intention to release the fish."
The legislation does several other things. No live bait or barbed hooks (with a few exceptions). All anglers will have to take a course on the humane methods of fishing. That’s interesting, but it won’t save fishing in Switzerland. If the new law is enforced, then you literally will have no recreational fishing in Switzerland. You will also lower fish populations and remove the ability for fish managers to do their job. Indeed, if enforced fisheries management and recreational fishing will be lost somewhere between good intentions and bad legislation.
Consider what fishermen do. They buy fishing equipment so they, and their families can go fishing and have fun. They like to bring home some fish to eat, but they also want to release smaller fish and release non-target fish that they catch. Not with this new law. You catch it, you kill it. Great lesson for young kids.
Consider what would happen if we passed such a law in West Virginia. First, you’d have violators everywhere. You’d have to. A person goes catfishing, and catches a carp. They don’t want to keep the carp so they throw it back. Wrong. A trout fisherman catches a six-inch fish. Too small to keep so they throw it back. Wrong. How about those little four-inch bluegills? You catch it you kill it.
Second, you would lose a ton of anglers. With that loss of fishing, you’d lose equipment sales, and thus, you’d lose the federal excise taxes on fishing equipment that comes back to West Virginia to fund much of our fish management and boating programs. You’d lose fish managers and fisheries biologists. In short, you’d lose fish and fish habitat.
I know this new Swiss legislation sounds a bit ridiculous and it is. But these things are a sign of the times where someone means well, but common sense goes out the window. Where this Swiss legislation is headed is to punish someone who injures or stresses a fish. That is exactly where we are headed. No placing of fish in a well in your boat, and then release that fish when you catch a bigger fish. No, because such holding stresses the fish. So much for bass tournaments. Germany has a regulation that prevents catch and release and they also have an evolving, but strong, animal protection law. There is precedent for what is happening in Switzerland.
What do such trends spell for hunting? Pretty obvious.
The solution? Slippery hands. I have no idea what the regulations say about catching a fish, then just as you get ready to club it to death, it "slips" from your clumsy little fingers and flops back into the water. Catch and release? Hmmm.
