Anglers are naturalists

Page 1

ANGLERS ARE NATURALISTS R . B . RICKARDS

The title which I inherited from that star of TV, John Wilson, was actually 'Anglers and naturalists'. I changed it immediately, though leaving it on the conference programme, because it seems to me that anglers are naturalists. At the bottom line they have little choice: you cannot catch your supper if you do not understand its natural history. All fishing tackle and techniques are devised to exploit the mode of life of the quarry. Understanding its mode of life means understanding also its interactions with other creatures in the natural environment. Why am I making such a song and dance about this? Simply to remind you that nature does include fish. You wouldn't think so if you read the nature notes in newspapers, or the numerous natural history partworks or columns run by Sunday newspapers and the like, or the many television programmes. In the media as a whole 'naturalists' study a) birds; b) mammals with nice faces and fur; c) amphibians sometimes; d) plants sometimes; e) reptiles and invertebrates rarely; and, lastly, fish (hardly ever). There is, of course, a clear biological classification involved here, as well as the cuddly factor: birds and mammals are higher (and later) forms of life than amphibians, reptiles and fish, the last going back to over 500 million years, and invertebrates rather longer. But there is something else too: fish are far less easy to observe than creatures that live on or above the land surface. The interface between air and water is much more of a mirror than a window. Every angler knows just how difficult it is to point out to a non-angler the fish that swims just below the surface, let alone at any depth. Angling is, in fact, one of the most efficient ways of studying the wet medium, even if your object happens to be fried trout rather than the strictly scientific. This last approach is, of course, only largely true of game fishermen and sea fishermen; coarse fishermen - a misnomer if ever there was one - are genuinely interested in what 'appens down there. It is, perhaps, salutary to reflect upon how one major facet of coarse fishing - match angling - actually began. Charabanc loads of working class men left the main towns on one weekend day, usually Sunday, to indulge in angling. For convenience they fished together in rows, and competition between them sprang u p quite naturally. Despite the economic rigours of the time, their catches of small roach or dace were not needed as food: but their capture opened up a whole new, beautiful world nature to these industry-hardened men. They made it a principle to return the fish to the water, after appreciating them for what they were, as well as the environment in which they lived and the countryside around them - a contrast to their place of work and their homes. 'Catch and release' as it is now known world-wide, is catching on in many other countries. Yet it began in the industrial revolution, in working class Britain. Well over three million anglers are now involved in this country; many are still, broadly speaking, working class. It is this body of people who will be most seriously affected if some of the more lunatic of

Trans. Suffolk

Nat. Soc. 27 (1991)


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.
Anglers are naturalists by Suffolk Naturalists' Society - Issuu