No, it's not "whatever".....Much of the reason why many people don't take PETA seriously is because they over exaggerate, publish false or half truths and are way too radical......No offense Omorrkh, but I can tell you don't know too much about sport fishing....I get the impression that you tend to believe everything you read as well.......
Fact of the matter is, that recreational fishing is BETTER than commercial fishing for a multitude of reasons....There are limitations on size, species and quantities, areas to fish, not fish, etc.....It's sport fishermen who lead the way when it comes to conservation. You might want to look into it...Organizations like B.A.S.S. have
LED the way with conservation efforts for years...............The DEP has put laws in place to prevent overfishing and allowing species to repopulate after years and years of overfishing.....Laws that didn't exist until recently.....In fact, the DEP in CT & NY has recently trimmed the number of days commercial fisherman can fish down to 68 per year....At one point - as recent as 10 years ago, the number of permitted fishing days was over 150......PETA doesn't tell you about this because it doesn't help their cause....
Fish that are caught and released properly live another day....Undersized or illegal fish caught in the commericial fisherman's nets.....? Well, unless they toss them back quickly - which is not too often.....well, they die.
People have been catching fish since prehistoric times.....It's not going to change because PETA doesn't like it......And if they picket me or my son at the lake or anywhere else I am fishing, I can only hope they know how to swim because if they get in my face they're getting wet.....
Boy, I am VERY argumentative lately! It must be an age thing........
Marc, You're right...native brook trout are very small in comparison to their hatchery cousins, but people do catch them. They are difficult to find though......The effectiveness of trout management parks has proven to be a very good thing in CT.....When managed correctly, fish holdover and are allowed to grow and establish their own colonies within these bodies of water....Now, they have to work harder on the Bass limits......
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The sport fisherman......
) and I know for a fact that nobody here catches any native species, or at least, they don't keep them. Most of the natives are much smaller than the stocked fish and are under the minimum size. There is also very little environmental damage - most of the fish are caught shortly after stocking and are replaced every few weeks, but everything is still going on and living normally.
