Fishing tackled: Sport fishing causes needless affliction

Editor's note: Mike Handley submitted this column in response to J.D. Richey's column "Lobbying for the other PETA," which ran March 7 in Outdoors.I took my son to the beach. Just the two of us. He and a tough summer had been screaming for it. Our car landed at a cottage next to the ocean and a tired, hot nine-year-old already wearing a bathing suit saw little wisdom in formalities like registration or unpacking. To the beach!But we couldn't ignore a commotion in the parking lot. A local kid was using a rubber band to blast paper clips at a little frog in a mud puddle. And someone had called the cops. The deputy sheriff arrived, rescued the frog, put the youngster in the squad car and explained to the crowd that the boy was often in trouble. A result, he said, of a broken family and child abuse. One more ride to headquarters and another stern lecture for the bad kid.Soon my son and I hit the beach and eventually found an opening between surf fishermen where we could swim without getting entangled in their lines or maybe hooked and reeled in. It sounds funny to say that " but there were scores of these people with their rods pointing toward the surf. Some were hardened, leathery types with coolers of beer. But many of them were just families with children who looked a lot like us and were simply doing what families are supposed to do on summer vacation. Yes, fishing and unwinding and bonding and all that. Shrieks and applause greeted the animals yanked from the water and dangled by hooks jabbing through their mouths, their body weight tugging away. Some people pulled the hooks out and threw the fish into buckets until dinnertime. Many other people pulled the hooks out and just tossed the fish back into the water, for humane or ecological reasons no doubt. These were not bad people. I bet many of them shun fur, cringe at hunting and coo at their pets. And most would probably have joined the mob against the frog child. But the obvious was not lost on my kid. He asked me to call the sheriff.Youngsters say strange things. After all, there had to be some perfectly logical reason why torturing a frog for sport is considered an act of cruelty to animals, yet torturing a fish for sport is not just legal but also regarded by the public and localities as an uplifting and wholesome recreation for the entire family. I told my son that, instead of calling the sheriff, we'd go to the library first thing in the morning to find some answers.In the meantime, an evening of channel surfing (the TV kind) was to beat out unpacking by a few hours. Although we'd seen most of the commercials before, it had never occurred to me how many feel-good television commercials feature fishing: those for banks, beer, travel, insurance, cars and phone companies. No escaping it " fishing has become Madison Avenue's clichÃ© for the good life. TV off.The morning arrived and became uncomfortable. The material we found at the library painted up a picture that was clear and to the point: Fish and frogs and dogs and humans are all vertebrates whose nervous systems are quite akin, regardless of brain size, especially when it comes to feeling pain. A fish's mouth parts turn out to be exceptionally nerve-rich. A fish caught and released is severely traumatized, often fatally. And, in the case of deep-sea fishing, the animal's internal body parts frequently rupture from dramatic pressure changes while being yanked to the surface. My God!Now don't get me wrong! If I were starving, I'd catch me a fish or drop Bambi without blinking. And I think the term animal rights has got to be one of the stupidest public relations moves of the past century. But let's call a spade a spade here. The evidence shows that sport fishing is one of the cruelest forms of hunting. At least biblical figures with little else to eat used a net. Even the lowly fish himself is mercifully expeditious with his own prey. So, how do I explain to my son that people who wouldn't harm a fly (or at least wouldn't pull his wings off first) would choose to unwind, get close to nature or bond by putting some fish through a living hell?I told him I didn't think most of those people really comprehended what they were doing. The facts seemed to be safely hidden away at the library.We wrestled with it all for a while and then went through the motions of being carefree beachgoers. We learned to appreciate a good wave together, perused pirate maps and built one kool sandcastle. But, for better or worse, the endless images from the beach, TV and library had changed us. We spent our last afternoon scrawling giant anti-fishing messages in the sand. Personally, I think Fishing Is Cruel! would have been preferable to Fishing Sucks! But at least his heart was in the right place. According to George Bernard Shaw, Custom will reconcile people to any atrocity. We saw proof of that at the beach. Yet it shouldn't be overlooked that people, unlike fish, are blessed with a conscience and a free will when it comes to fun and dinnertime choices. And, given good reason and enough time, people traditionally change.A millennium or two ago, gladiators and cockfights symbolized the good life. Fifty years ago, it was fur, hunting and cigarettes. And now, my son and I " who have never felt closer " hereby jointly nominate sport fishing to that same hall of fate. Consider it bonding.Mike Handley is a narrator and TV/radio commercial spokesman based in Citrus Heights who reads the Auburn Journal during regular visits to his cousins who live in Auburn.