Fishing
 

Fishing in America – it's more than a hobby, it's a piece of the soul. Picture this: an early morning, mist rising over a lake in Minnesota, a thermos of coffee close at hand, and only the splash of a fish breaking the silence. Or the raw power of an Alaskan river, a salmon fighting on the line, surrounded by wild mountains. Maybe it's the warm mangrove shallows of Florida, dreaming of hooking a tarpon or snapper.

Here, everyone fishes: from grandpas in caps on wooden piers to dads showing kids how to bait a hook for the first time. It's the thrill of sport fishing, the quiet peace of casting a line in a pond, and cherished family traditions camping by the water. "Catch and Release"becomes a philosophy, a sign of respect for nature.

And in the evening – stories around the campfire, boasting about the catch (or the tales of "the big one that got away"), and the smell of frying fish. It's simplicity, freedom, and a connection to a vast, beautiful country. Cast your line – and feel America.

Re: Fishing
 

What are you smoking? Salmon, maybe? :unsure:

Re: Fishing
 

Its literally chucking a line into a body of water.

Re: Fishing
 

Needlessly tourturing another animal for your own amusment by piercing it's month with a metal hook.

No thanks.

Re: Fishing
 

lol and I thought I was being negative!

Re: Fishing
 

Not just that, but it’s stressful for other fish who may observe a fish getting hooked.

https://www.duewestanglers.com/do-ot...llen%20comrade.

Re: Fishing
 

I think on this specific issue humans are entitled to hunt. If you so chose not to, fair enough.

Re: Fishing
 

Why?

Re: Fishing
 

In my view it's more of a duty.
It was our ancestors who wiped out most of the apex predators, so it's up to humans to keep their natural prey in check or we end up with overpopulation and unhealthy species.

Sorry if I'm taking this thread a little seriously.

Andy

Re: Fishing
 

I don't fish, but it seems more appealing than whacking a small, hard ball around the countryside for four miles. :unsure:

Re: Fishing
 

Sacrilege!

Re: Fishing
 

My daughter, Meg, just sent me a picture of the beautiful bass she caught this morning. Will be a lovely dinner at her place tonight.

Re: Fishing
 

Sounds wonderful!

Re: Fishing
 

Freedom of autonomy. People are sick of 'can't do this, can't say that'.

Re: Fishing
 

Well, they are still very tasty

Re: Fishing
 

I think they are also sick of entitlement.

Re: Fishing
 

Fishing is not entitlement. You can't tell people what to do and what to think. Ergo we have the Orange Man

Re: Fishing
 

I was using your word.

Re: Fishing
 

Agreed. Most states require a license to hunt because of animal over population. While I'm not a hunter, I have lived in states where hunting was allowed and monitored to thin the herds, i.e. deer, which were then taken to be processed for human consumption. Man is carnivorous and has hunted since the first club was made. Today's society allows limited and supervised hunting. I have eaten bear, deer and moose when visiting my Canadian Native Indian family. I enjoyed them all.

PS Where is the difference from raising chicken or cattle for human consumption?

Re: Fishing
 

There is no difference in my mind!

My motto is, if I eat it, I should be able to kill (hunt) it

Re: Fishing
 

Definitely. We eat a lot of fish at our house.

Re: Fishing
 

The difference is likely less suffering.
The lives of animals in most factory farms, from which almost all meat comes, is entirely one of suffering. They have been selectively bred to produce meat quickly at the expense of being healthy animals. They are kept in conditions which are conducive to make money and not to be healthy/happy animals. They are subjected to various cruel practices, a very long list including but nowhere near limited to: removing beaks because the poor conditions causes pecking, cutting off pigs' tails without pain relief, gestation crates for sows that stop them moving, forced impregnation of cows by metal rods as soon as possible after birth, baby being taken away after a day and either killed (boys) shortly thereafter or placed into the same life as mum. They cut the eyes off of shrimp/prawns to get them to lay eggs.

Fishing on a commercial scale causes devastation to the oceans as well as suffering for fish. They generally die from being crushed under the weight of the haul, or from suffocation (slowly). 2.7 trillion fish are killed yearly which is a frankly incomprehensible number and scale of suffering. Many of these are not even eaten they just got dredged with everything else and get disposed of.
A million is just about graspable. A million seconds is 12 days. A billion seconds is 32 years and a trillion seconds is 32,000 years.

Recreational fishing certainly causes some pain for the fish involved, though significantly less than what's at the supermarket.
Same or possibly better for hunting. A wild animal with a reasonable life ended with a good shot is likely one of the best ways to obtain meat in terms of amount of pain/suffering caused. (If meat must be obtained).
Raising animals for meat yourself where you know they can have good conditions is also possible but a lot of work, expensive, and low-yielding.

There is no doubt that these animals can feel pain and suffering. Pigs and cows are intelligent way beyond - they form close relationships, they play, they grieve, they remember. Honestly they are not so different to dogs.

This causes significant cognitive dissonance. I don't agree with animal cruelty, but I l like meat. Therefore most tend to pretend that reality is the Old MacDonald happy farm.

Re: Fishing
 

The human mind is only capable of visualizing numbers up to about 1,000. Anything beyond that is just "a lot" .... Imagine a group of people - you can count 10 people in a couple of seconds, one hundred or a few hundred people you can likely estimate fairly well - maybe you have experienced office fire drills when the building is evacuated, or remember school fire drills where the entire school was grouped on the playing field. But if you see a very large crowd any number you estimate - 10,000, 20,000, 40,000 is little more than a guess, unless you have actual experience of counting and estimating crowds at events, such as policing large events.