Applied Ethics and the Fishing Industry

eth-ics – noun - The rules or standards governing the conduct of a person or the conduct of the members of a profession.

Ok, so I was 11 years old at the time. I wouldn’t even hear the word “ethics” until Saved by the Bell: The College Years tackled the topic 3 years later with the episode where Benson plays their professor and leaves their test out so they have to ponder whether or not to cheat. But I guess that raises a completely separate philosophical query – “can a kid who is unfamiliar with such a code of behavior be held accountable?”

Governing the conduct of a person, eh? Governing in what capacity? Remember, I’m 11 in this scenario. As long as I don’t make a sucker deal when trading baseball cards, I think I could be considered ethical. Let’s see, being 11 would have put me in 5th grade. I pretty sure I was fair to other people. But does being ethical extend to how an 11 year old treats God’s other creatures?

Considering the fact that it has existed since man first found open water, I think that the fishing industry is widely considered to be ethical. The premise of man catching fish for food and sport is fair, as long as you can assume the maxim that the fish have been given the same opportunity to angle for humans. Sure, the scales are tipped towards humans in this match, but that doesn’t mean both cannot play the game. This is my explanation for shark attacks – fish just trying to rack up a few points in the 4th quarter of a blowout.

When I was 11, I would spend much of my summer at the lake across the street from my house. Granted, this body of water is a lake like David Arquette is a “movie star,” but it satisfied myself and the other neighbor kids for many a summer. Sure you could swim and raft and do other stuff at the lake, but we were there to fish. With no intention to clean, cook, and consume our catch at day’s end, our brand of fishing was clearly for sport.

And what a sport it was.

Without a fishing pole, lure, worm, or tackle box in sight, I would set out on my excellent angling adventure with three tools – a net, a bucket, and a loaf of bread. After all, as experience showed, this is all you need to haul in a catch of oh, I’d say, 40 fish? Oh, there’s one other requirement for this method.

The fish have to be dumb as rocks.

The lake was/is stocked with small sunfish, ranging from 4-8 inches in length. They may not be big fish, but when you are wading into the water thigh-deep armed with only a net and a small piece of bread, that’s probably a good thing. Now while traditional fishermen may stand on the bank and cast into the water some 20 yards from their position, the 11 year old with the ethics problem goes right to the fish.

Step 1: Crush the bread so that when placed in the water it sinks.
Step 2: Place the head of the net on lake floor directly under bread.
Step 3: Watch the fading white piece of bread sinks towards the net.
Step 4: When bread disappears from view, pull net quickly to surface.
Step 5: Place freshly-caught fish (sometimes 2) in water-filled bucket.
Step 6: Repeat 40 times, or until dinner.

Two ethical questions arise from this method.

1 – Is it ethical to catch fish in this fashion? Should the age-old method of aquatic hunting be reduced to a sneak attack from below?

2 – Is it ethical that when one returns the fish to their residence in the lake, a few are selected not to be gently dumped back into the water, but skipped across the lake surface?

Fish never learn.