The broader scale of the stocking tale

Actually predating our website news item, Stopping stocking – a story 40 years on, there was an interesting article in the New York Times Opinion regarding the Cost of Trout Fishing.

Douglas Thompson, a Professor of Geology at Connecticut College, reluctantly gave up fishing ten years ago after fully appreciating the wide ranging impacts that a century of stocking non-native fish had wreaked upon the landscape that he loved. Brown and rainbow trout are both non-native to the north east of the USA, but have been extensively stocked into rivers and lakes. 

This assessment contains some scary figures, and spans from the use of unsustainable marine fisheries to grow farmed trout to a size for stocking through to the follies of regulatory agencies that set uniformly high catch limits which draw no distinction between native versus non-native trout. As Douglas says, anglers need to hold themselves to a higher standard than the rules that govern their actions!

While the continent, the scale, and the species may be slightly different, the messages are ultimately the same and are close to the heart of the Wild Trout Trust.
Thanks to WTT friends in the Appletreewick, Barden & Burnsall Club for alerting us to the letter

Read the article here.