Tortoise Power, I think you make some excellent points. I made similar observations in the “leave the Mamma’s alone” thread a while back. The species isn’t in danger, so some of the measures necessary for other species might not be needed for Haruan for instance. I can see you’re already aboard in terms of ethical fishing and regardless of why you release haruan, you do it. However, there are many who do not, nor even think about it.
Fish management is specific to species, specific locations and specific waterways and we all know waters where Haruan have been all but wiped out. These waters need our help even if the species doesn’t. Those waters that have healthy populations of fish need to be maintained that way for future generations.
CnR isn’t about not taking a fish for the table, but about doing away with the kill everything mentality. Take only what you need. I have seen guys in Malaysia catch fish and throw them up the bank. They don’t want them. They are not taking them home, but they kill them anyway. Why? I have seen guys take home enough fish for themselves, their friends, their relatives, their next door neighbour and half the people in the Kampung. Many of these fish probably end up in the bin, although the justification is to give them away. Don’t these guys want to fish tomorrow?
In my experience, the enlightened guys who recognise the need for restraint and fish conservation do it all the time with all species in all waters. This is good. Those that do not recognise this need will continue to kill everything regardless of the species or the location. This is obviously bad.
It’s forward thinking and restraint incorporating sensible size and bag limits and CnR of small fish and unwanted fish that will make a difference. Unless our angling future is in pay ponds with stocked fish of only those species that can be bred in captivity. TP, you say yourself that Haruan are getting more difficult to catch in the wild. CnR isn’t necessary to preserve the species, but how about those waters where stocks have already been depleted and it’s no longer worth fishing? Could CnR here help to rebuild stocks in these waters? Perhaps that’s the reason why pay ponds are so popular here, because all the wild places with easy access have long ago been cleaned out. It doesn’t have to be that way.
I think many of us who fish want more than that out of our fishing. We want wild fish stocks in their natural environment and we want to enjoy the great outdoors as part of the experience. Most pay ponds can’t provide that, athough there are a few well kept ones that come close.
The mindset of CnR has benefits in all those areas, even if the species of fish in question might be very common in the particular waters that you fish. Or even if they are so common that they are leaping up the bank to get at your baits in a cultured pond that you can fish from the back of your car.
The guys who CnR probably also take their litter home for instance. They try, as I do, to set an example for others to follow. They have made that jump in their thinking and it has multiple benefits.
For me at least, there’s so much more to fishing than fish farms and pay ponds. It’s that element of what fishing means to me personally that I feel we owe to our children. It’s being taken away at a rapid rate!
