Hook and Line Saves Nine

Fish aren't caught how they used to be, but some say they should be. Of the many gear types to choose from, there is general concensus that family-owned hook and line is one of the best, especially when compared to other gears.

In 2000, hook and line fisherman Paul Parker gave a testimony before the U.S. Senate where he criticized trawling due to its high amounts of bycatch--fish caught incidentally and then discarded overboard: Our current management systems ignores bycatch and fails to perform full cost accounting of the bycatch impacts of fishing...A dead fish is a dead fish, whether it s landed at the docks or thrown overboard. Parker calls for stricter observer programs for every fishery.

In some more recent news, a Nova Scotian fishing company announced it would move to hook and line and estimates that the Georges Bank haddock, hake, pollock and cod they catch will cost about 20 per cent more than the same fish caught by trawlers, which drag along the ocean floor and destroy habitat for juvenile fish. Most of the hook and line caught fish will be exported to the U.S. Today's hooks are no longer made from shells or bone (human bone in the case of this ancient fishing hook from Easter Island)...