Ln June 27, the municipal council of Saint-Etienne (Loire) adopted a wish for national regulations to ban live fishing. It is the fifth municipality, all political colors combined, which, in the name of the animal condition, publicly asks the government to put an end to this fishing technique consisting in using live fish as bait. Even if fish are the great forgotten of the animal cause, we are witnessing an awareness among politicians and in public opinion.
On March 12, it was the opening of trout fishing in France. In the four corners of the country, fishing associations have been busy organizing massive stocking of trout during the weeks leading up to this opening. Stocking is the equivalent of raising animals called “game” intended for hunting, applied to fish and recreational fishing: to amuse recreational fishermen, farmed fish are thrown into the rivers, ponds and lakes.
Although they are emblematic of it, trout are not the only species of fish to undergo stocking for the purpose of fishing. The Paris Animals Zoopolis (PAZ) association estimates that each year in France, at least five million trout are affected by this practice. Upstream of this practice, there is a fundamental step: breeding.
Fish caught by fishermen
Stocking involves the massive birth of fish: they are reared until they reach a certain age, and above all a certain weight, according to the wishes of the fishermen. Then, the fishing associations order and buy the fish by selecting the species, weights and quantities, as one chooses merchandise in a store.
The fish are then transported to the selected water bodies to be thrown into the water. At the opening of fishing, farmed trout unsuited to life in the wild are easily trapped by fishermen. Brutally extracted from their environment and injured by the hook, they are often abandoned on the ground, where their agony by asphyxiation begins. Some fishermen do not bother to kill them to end their suffering.
Let’s underline what our society refuses to see: even if they don’t have vocal cords, fish resist, they struggle as best they can, they are also elusive when you want to catch them by hand, in short, they don’t give up. We can see this by studying the arsenal of fishermen: the fishing tackle is all more innovative than the other to counter this resistance (treble hooks, barb hooks, soft, floating, sinking or hard lures, attractants, spoons… ).
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