By law, it is illegal to set a net that might impede the movement of migratory fish. A Water Authority/landowner inspired rule to protect King Salmon and Prince Sewin.
The Sea Fishing Authorities resent this somewhat, for interfering on their pitch.
Under this law, potentially any net set at sea is illegal.
Obviously there has developed a compromise on this.
There are seasonally forbidden zones around river mouths. "Red" areas. This is based on the belief that salmon tend to lurk around the mouth of their home river, waiting for conditions to be right for migration upstream.
If you do catch Salmon, you have to throw them back.
DEAD OR ALIVE.
Should you be caught with a ‘naughty’, as the fishermen called them, all gear that was instrumental to the offence could be confiscated: As well as net and boat, they could seize your car.
Where I was fished, we had a water bailiff of the highest order. His patience and persistence in pursuit of miscreants was legendary.
I have left a fine dead fish for the gulls on a drizzly beach miles from anywhere, at three in the morning, in the belief that he could be lurking behind a bush.
I still mourn the fish I had to “discard”.
I hated the waste.
If they were in nets I’d set at sea, I tried using them for bait. I even ate some raw. I threw back live ones, only to be told that they would probably die later from infection in the net wounds.
I was caught in a moral tangle.
I wrote to the Water Authority, pointing out how immoral and counter-productive the situation was. Netsmen discarded ‘naughties’ surreptitiously, in case the Water Authority extended the forbidden “red” zones to embrace that spot.
It was a classic ‘policemen and plunderers’ scenario.
I suggested a ‘tallybag’ scheme.
Under it, netsmen would be issued with numbered, sealable bags. If they caught a salmon, it was their duty to take it to an agreed location; perhaps the local shop’s freezer. From there it could be collected by the Authority and auctioned. The money could go to help restocking. The netsman would be paid a token amount for participating.
If bags went missing, they would have to account for them. A salmon not in a bag would be contraband.
I couldn’t see any serious flaws in this plan. It would stop the waste, remove the moral dilemma, and reveal the numbers being caught.
The Authority would have none of this, dismissing my idea without any detailed discussion.
Poor law encourages "authoritism'> the blind, unquestioning enforcement of Law for Law's sake.
Once I caught such a fine cock salmon I hadn’t the heart to waste him. It was a blustery day, but there was a solitary figure on the beach. I went in close with my boat, and flung the fish at his feet, shouting that it was a present, and not to say where it came from.
That night, he held a barbeque, and word of the generous grey boat was broadcast wide.
If news of it reached the bailiff, he left me alone. There would probably have been a salmon-eaters revolt if he had intervened!
Law should encourage individual morality and group co-operation for the greater good.
Regulations that encourage 'discard' discourage both.
Law has to embody respect for the spirit of Life.
Even when that life is lying stiff in my net.
