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Fishing is a time-honored method of obtaining food. Since the dawn of history, every civilization has had its own rituals and techniques for capturing and ingesting our piscine friends. People still fish in these modern times but mostly for relaxation.
The art of fishing, however, has become somewhat commercialized. People pilot their gaz-guzzling bass boats through man-made lakes and toss thirty-five dollar lures at thirty-five cent cuts of meat.
Much this high-end gear is environmentally unfriendly, especially mono-filament lines. Nearly 100,000 metric tons of tackle and fishing line end up in the oceans every year. Our lakes aren’t faring much better. Lead weights, now illegal, were once used to sink the hooks. These poisonous weights have built up by the ton in our waters.
Here are a few tips to green up your fishing trip:
1. Use biodegradable fishing line.
2. Make sure your sinkers are eco-friendly. Lead weights have long been outlawed, but if you buy some second-hand fishing gear, it might be worth making sure that your sinkers aren’t made of lead.
3. Leave the motorboat at the dock. Take a canoe. It’s a good workout.
4. Don’t take separate cars to the water. Make sure to carpool to cut down on emissions.
5. Catch your own live bait. A minnow trap is relatively inexpensive, and it can be reused. Earthworms are easy to find. You can dig for them or wait for it to rain. This will reduce the amount of packaging waste that you create.
6. Use live bait over lures. Live bait will be eaten by fish. It has no negative environmental impact. Lures will sit at the bottom of the lake, sometimes indefinitely.
7. If you have to use lures, use a biodegradable one. They exist. They dissolve within months.
Remember to enjoy yourself and respect nature. We want to make sure that our children can enjoying fish in the same way that we do.
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