I got invited to go fishing with some coworkers and had to say no. It’s kind of a shame since I don’t have any friends and it was a chance to do something social, plus the area they wanted to go is chill and out in the woods. But I’ve never been comfortable with fishing. It’s a big part of where I grew up. Lots of people don’t even eat the fish. They toss the poor things back in the water.
Maybe I could still go but just hang out on the shore.
Used to fish for food as a kid and into teens and I’m pretty numb to it.
Catch and release, even when done properly, is a bit on the edge for me though. It’s not needed and when enough people do it, which there are, it fucks up food chains.
When I’m catching to eat, which is how I learned to fish, I’d kill them pretty much immediately by destroying their brain. They don’t have thick skulls, since gravity isn’t an issue, so one good whack in the right spot ends them quickly.
Might looks brutal though, there’s blood for sure and sometimes they’ll flop for awhile even without a head.
All this said, fish are basically a nervous system. Their brains are super basic and aren’t exactly capable of pain, fear, and emotional trauma in the way we feel it.
I get the natural reaction to empathize and anthropomorphize everything as a caring human being, but fish are really fucking dumb and are damned to a cruel fate because the food chain of the ocean is fucking horrifying.
You just need to Google “fish feel pain” to see that the science is against you on this issue.
Edit: it’s cool if you’re past this time in your life. Fuck knows I’ve had enough bullshit in my past that I’m not proud of.
It’s not. They are able to learn, yes so are a lot of things, but the type of pain and fear that humans have is not really there.
Either way I’m done with this. I recounted my experience sustenance fishing as a kid and said that fishing for sport was bad. I still got called an animal abuser, so kindly fuck off.
edit: I’m being a dick here from the other comment chain. This is fine and worth noting, it’s also why I don’t like catch and release.
Maybe I could still go but just hang out on the shore.
hell yeah, because at the end of the day he wasn’t inviting you with the purpose of actually catching fish, he was inviting you to chill. depending on how chud he is, you could maybe just say you’re vegetarian but you’d still be happy to come along? thats what i’ve done, and then i just take my sketchbook and chill on the lakeside. the vibe is the same.
i enjoyed fishing as a kid mostly just to eat the fish
i spear fished a couple times too, that was fun
though we werent exactly rich so it was more just to supplement our diets cheaply. we had a pretty big garden too. instead of fertilizer (too expensive sometimes) we’d grind up leftovers and bones and throw them out into the dirt. sucks that you cant use human poop for fertilizer smh
sucks that you cant use human poop for fertilizer smh
You can if you pasteurize compost it
imagine wanting to pasteurize your own poop no thanks lmfao
ill let some government agency figure that shit out (literally)
I should’ve said compost rather than pasteurize, although a compost pile or waste treatment plant can get hot enough to kill most harmful pathogens. Still, processed sewage shouldn’t be used for food crops, especially for vegetables or fruits that will be eaten raw.
https://modernfarmer.com/2014/07/stink-human-poop-fertilizer/
Fishing is great fun, and yes, that includes catch and release fishing.
I’m more and more getting the impression that this site is full of shut-in city kids who’ve never even seen a tree irl.
Not that there’s necessarily anything wrong with that, but jesus fuck. Good luck building a communist movement by telling people that doing anything other than eating beans and shitposting on twitter in your concrete-box apartement is a deadly sin.
I’m so crippled by social anxiety that I can barely make it to the grocery store without having a massive panic attack even on a good day. I can’t keep a job for more than a year, I’m a fucking alcoholic, and I’m alienated from my own family. Going fishing on the local lake or the fjord is one of the few things that keeps me alive. But sure, I’m really fucking ableist.
Way to completely miss the point.
