I am pretty sure the guy that caught this fish was ignorant of the fact that he could no legally harvest a wild coho salmon because I doubt he would have had his picture taken for all the internet to see. However ignorance is no excuse and hopefully the OSP found out his identity and he was cited.
The person taking the picture might have been from that tackle shop in the back ground and if it was I amazed he didn't tell the guy he had an illegal fish in his possession.
The photo appeared on ifish.net and what also amazed me was the number of people making excuses for this idiot! At least one being a professional guide!
Are ethics not important? Is being informed and educated not important anymore? Apparently so.
Of course the over zealous thought police on that website have since removed the controversial thread.
There is enough information out there these days so a "Duh I didn't know" just doesn't cut it anymore.
The other problem is stupid people that think they will never get caught!
ReplyDeleteThis is due to a lack of education ,not from being stupid in school ,but a lack of this knowledge ,being put forth to anglers ,that wild fish shouldnt be taken and that they are a valuable resourse to imporoving the wild fishery later on .
ReplyDeleteSome harvest of wild fish may be ok if the runs of wild fish were massive ,but they have only been good in certain areas ,we need to protect their habitat more then ever and try to educate the public about why killing wild fish at this point is so wrong for the species .
This could also be an a lack of being able to read ,or just being plain stupid . i fish is a joke people just cant handle being wrong .