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Catch and release kills as well

Plan to ban northwest BC catching of trout and char criticized

Dear Sir:

Banning an entire region for trout and char retention in the absence of sound scientific data is not only absurd, it’s downright reckless and self-serving.

And hardly a substitute is the lack of fishing skills to determine a species population.

Where do our license fees and tax dollars go if not to support the very fishery they’re supposed to?

And by self-serving I mean to say the very notion that driving a hook into a fish and playing it has no ill effect is a very naive belief because the truth is at least half or more such caught and released fish peter off and die of infection or trauma.

What some don’t want you to know is government fisheries representatives are vigorously lobbied by commercial fresh water fishing guides who want nothing more than to systematically exclude recreational fishing residents like they did in Europe.

Why do you think they all come here to fish? And when they do it means dollars for their guides.

The same thing goes on in hunting. I’m not saying all guides are greedy, just that some are and go to great lengths to disguise it.

If there is a real issue with the hardy trout and char which we all know are in sufficient abundance based on what we hear from skilled anglers in our communities, why then does the ministry propose excluding only retention?

If it is as serious as some writers proclaim, then ethically we should stop all forms of negative impact on these species by banning catch and release, too.

In fact, some of our most concerned and vocal anglers should outright volunteer to ban all forms of fishing in open support of what they claim as fact.

Please support the petition.

Donald Rolfe,

Kitimat, BC