Re: NANFA-L-- Releasing native fish back to the wild -- EVER

Bonnie McNeely (bnmcneely-in-sbcglobal.net)
Wed, 23 Aug 2006 13:43:55 -0700 (PDT)

The bait industry is a part of the whole "sports" fishing industry, and one of the more unsavory parts of it. Live bait is grown in aquaculture, transported in marginal conditions, held at dealers in marginal conditions, and then dumped into public waters, sometimes whole states away from where it originated. Hatcheries produce fish, haul them off to streams, and dump them and the water containing them into the stream. In Oklahoma it is legal for dealers to collect public property (forage fish) and offer it for sale. Whatever the wholesalers have left after making their deliveries, they dump (not legal, but done). They may be many miles and several drainages from where they started.

So, I agree that we are a smaller part of the problem than some others are. So, if a fellow only murders one person a year, while a mobster murders many, is the first person not guilty?

So far as legalities being taboo -- why? The best way to keep our hobby reputable is to be legal and ethical. If a particular law is non-sensical, work to change it. But, the laws disallowing private placement of aquatic organisms into public waters are there for good reasons. Just because all the exceptions that make no sense exist doesn't mean we should follow the laws.

Dave

Jase Roberts <nanfa_list-in-jaseroberts.net> wrote:
If I collect and release a dozen native fish in the course of the year (back to the same area I got them), does that have *any* ecological significance when compared to the thousands of fisherman and bait dealers collecting and transporting tens/hundreds of thousands of baitfish in local waters, usually in horribly overcrowded and stress-inducing conditions ideal for transmission of disease (which is both legal and common)?

Hmmmm... I get the sense that discussions of legality are a bit of a taboo here.
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