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Is Fishing On The Norfolk Broads A Blood Sport?

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Miles
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Is Fishing On The Norfolk Broads A Blood Sport?

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I have often come to moor a boat at a public mooring and been met with a veritable barrage of fishermen who blatantly refuse to move out of the way, which they are obliged to do but seem to have serious issues in doing so. In fact, I have never met one who willingly relocated to allow my vessel to moor. In addition, I have on numerous occasions been travelling down the navigational channel only to have a load of abuse yelled out as I have taken someone's fishing lines which happened to be completely in my path of navigation.
I have always been perplexed as to why moving out of the way is such a problem for these people. As one they are obliged to and secondly, they are fishing in a public boat mooring which is pretty self-explanatory. It's almost like driving into a public car park only to find someone has put up a tent.

However, above and beyond the anti-social nature of most fishermen, I can't help but wonder what on Earth they are doing anyway. You see, I have seen the swans at Wroxham wrapped in pike lures and have had to rescue several myself, one nearly dying in my hands. I have seen the Egyptian Geese hopping about with fishing lines wrapped around their leg slowly being amputated. I have seen the trees filled with fishing lines and of course, I have seen the nylon bracelet that forms around your prop shaft. I have even heard the screams of otter cubs that have grabbed bait only to find themselves in a most unpleasant scenario...it does seem quite barbaric and pointless.

Pointless because the fish are not eaten, it is not survival, it's just an act of trying to outwit a fish with a hook, send it through a traumatic experience and then once it has been dragged through the water by a hook in its mouth, it is then placed in a suffocating environment waiting hopefully for the hook to be pulled out of its mouth or gills. After that trauma, it is then faced with being released not always to survive.

Now what is the point of that?

For those of you who believe that fish do not feel pain, then let it be known that they do. If they didn't they would not survive. All living organisms share a common denominator and that is the will to survive. Pain is an alarm signal that an organism is in a non-survival situation. Being pulled out of your natural environment with a hook in your mouth is going to hurt like hell...quite literally.

Even weirder is that if this activity was conducted on any other living creature, such as a dog, a bird, or a deer...it would be deemed psychotic and cruel yet with fish it just gets overlooked and the only reason is because you don't hear fish scream.

I have thought about writing about this for a long time now as I was mad about fishing as a kid, however, now as I am in my fifties my perception of it has polarised 100%.

Below is a small article I came across recently that delves into the subject of fish and pain. I would urge all to read it, not to stop people from fishing as that is never going to happen, what I would hope it does at the very least is to make people think the next time they fish. Primarily to ask themselves if they have really thought about what they are actually doing and just how comfortable they really are in pursuing that activity.

In her treatise "Do Fish Feel Pain?", biologist Victoria Braithwaite posits that the evidence supporting the notion that fish experience pain and suffering is as robust as that for birds and mammals.

Fish refrain from emitting audible screams when ensnared by hooks or exhibiting overt grimaces as hooks are forcibly dislodged from their mouths. However, a discerning observation of their conduct reveals manifestations of suffering. Braithwaite and colleagues, conducting experiments involving the exposure of fish to irritant substances, noted behaviours akin to human responses: diminished appetite, accelerated gill activity, and a propensity to rub affected areas against the tank's interior.

Neurobiologists have long acknowledged that fish possess nervous systems capable of perceiving and responding to pain. These aquatic creatures, sharing traits with "higher vertebrates," harbour neurotransmitters like endorphins designed to alleviate suffering. A meticulous mapping effort has identified over 20 pain receptors, or "nociceptors," in the oral and cephalic regions of fish, precisely where an angler's barbed hook would penetrate their flesh. Dr. Stephanie Yue, in her treatise on fish and pain, underscores the evolutionary adaptation of pain perception, asserting that such a trait is unlikely to vanish within a specific taxonomic class.

Recent studies corroborate the capacity of fish to experience and react to pain. For instance, when rainbow trout received painful injections of acetic acid or bee venom in their sensitive lips, they exhibited behaviours such as cessation of eating, rocking on the tank floor, and rubbing their lips against tank walls. Those injected with a harmless saline solution displayed none of these abnormal responses.

Trout, characterized as "neophobic," displaying aversion to novel objects, exhibited reduced responses to a vibrant Lego tower when injected with acetic acid. This suggests a heightened focus on the pain experienced, while those injected with saline, or administered painkillers post-acid injection, maintained customary caution towards the new object. Analogous findings in human patients suffering from painful medical conditions reinforce the understanding that pain disrupts normal cognitive functioning.

A study in Applied Animal Behaviour Science revealed that fish exposed to painful heat later displayed signs of fear and wariness, indicating their ability to both experience and remember pain.

Research from Queen's University Belfast asserts that fish, like other animals, learn to avoid pain. Rebecca Dunlop emphasizes that pain avoidance in fish is a learned response, adaptable to diverse circumstances. Consequently, if fish perceive pain, angling cannot be considered a non-cruel sport.

Likewise, the University of Guelph's research concludes that fish experience fear when pursued, transcending mere reflexes. Dr. Duncan, heading the study, affirms that the fish exhibit genuine fright, expressing a preference for avoiding such situations.

A 2014 report by the Farm Animal Welfare Committee supports the growing scientific consensus that fish can detect and respond to noxious stimuli, experiencing pain.

Dr. Culum Brown, after reviewing nearly 200 research papers on fish's cognitive abilities and sensory perceptions, asserts that the stress fish endure when removed from water may surpass that of a human drowning. He highlights the prolonged and slow nature of fish mortality in such instances.

Although anglers may be averse to contemplating it, fishing, upon closer inspection, reveals itself as more than a mere sport. When fish are impaled on hooks and forcibly extracted from their aquatic habitat, it's not a game to them—they are genuinely frightened, in pain, and struggling for survival. Professor Michael Stoskopf of North Carolina University emphasizes the unjustifiability of assuming fish do not perceive pain merely because their responses differ from those seen in mammals subjected to chronic pain.

Dr. Culum Brown's research leads him to the conclusion that the cognitive and behavioural complexity of fish necessitates a capacity to feel pain, and the potential cruelty inflicted by humans on fish is staggering.
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