Fish-pain charges `absurd' says club president

Marty Sharpe
The prospect of anglers being prosecuted for causing pain to fish is "absolutely absurd" says Hawke's Bay Sports Fishing Club president Brian Pritchard.
The question over whether fish feel pain has been raised by Northland SPCA inspector Jim Boyd, who believes gamefishing caused fish "severe distress".
He cited incidents in which marlin were caught after 14-hour struggles.
Mr Boyd has warned gamefishers they could face fines of up to $125,000 and/or six months jail for cruelty to fish. Two researchers, Jeffrey Masson and Auckland University professor John Montgomery have claimed that fish do feel pain, contrary to previously-published claims.
While marlin are a rarity in Hawke Bay (the last one to be landed was two years ago), sharks are regularly caught in struggles that can last up to six hours.
"There is no scientific evidence of pain caused to any fish," Mr Pritchard said.
"These days most of the big game fish are tagged and released," Mr Pritchard, who has been an angler for 40 years, said.
"We actually play a big part in marine research. Tagging is the only way, scientifically, we can trace the big fish like marlin".
He said the number of fish that died after being tagged and released had been misreported, and estimated there would be a survival rate of "close to 100 percent".
Mr Pritchard said there were about 3000 anglers in Hawke's Bay, with little in the way of big-game fishing. The biggest fish caught in the bay were sharks, several of which were caught during the Coruba fishing contest held every Waitangi weekend.
It took between one and six hours to land a Mako, Mr Pritchard said.
"I think it would have been better to consult the public on their views rather than go straight to considering prosecution," he said.
Fly-fishing writer Bob Fenton said the question was "an interesting one".
He said a recent study by Dr James D Rose, a professor of zoology and physiology at University of Wyoming, concluded that "awareness of pain depends on functions of specific regions of the cerebral corte- that fish do not possess".
But Mr Fenton said he believed marlin and big-game fish were more likely to feel pain than other fish, due to the way they were hooked.
"I have a feeling that the a way a marlin is caught would cause pain. It involves a big hook and bait that goes right down the stomach.
"At the time it's felt by an angler it's held pretty firmly in the fish's gut. That's why, I must admit, deep-sea angling doesn't grab me the way trout-fishing does," Mr Fenton said.
"In a trout the hook is just in the jaw."
Mr Fenton said it would not be long before angling of all sorts was under attack due to the question over whether fish felt pain.
"I believe there's a fight looming, even with fly-fishing. In certain parts of the world this anti-angling movement is sweeping in to the hearts and minds of the animal protection campaigners," Mr Fenton said.