A report in a Liverpool newspaper told the story of a young man who was kicked in the face and head whilst fishing in a local park and subsequently had all of his fishing equipment stolen. The newspaper readers incensed that somebody taking part in such a peaceful pastime should be so beaten for the sake of his equipment, inundated the newspaper with offers of replacement tackle, umbrellas and other gear.

A heart-warming story of human kindness, for how could so-called civilised human beings contemplate inflicting such injuries upon a fellow creature? How indeed.

Angling is the most practised pastime in Britain with about four million participants. The popular image is of peaceful, wax-jacketed, pensive philosophers casting lines not to catch fish, but for the excuse to sit in solitude, in harmony with nature. The reality for many anglers - and the "angled" - is quite different.

Fish are not simply caught and conscientiously cast back; they often suffer a protracted and painful death by suffocation or, like the Liverpudlian angler, are clubbed into submission. They are often 'played' by the angler, sometimes for an hour or more until they tire and are easier to catch: they then usually spend several hours in a keepnet, particularly if they have been caught in match conditions.

Coarse fishing is the most popular form of angling. It involves the capture of largely inedible fish which are usually returned to the water. As the fish are returned to the water with the hooks removed, there is a widely held belief that no harm actually comes to them and the fact that the fish often 'return' to be caught again is said to display their 'enjoyment' of the 'sport'. In fact, fish return because they become accustomed to receiving food in that area.

Fish are caught using single, double or treble barbed and unbarbed hooks which lodge, theoretically, in the lip of the fish and are then removed by hand, with forceps or using a strange medieval-looking implement travelling under the rather gruesome title of a disgorger. Hooks are not always easily removed as they frequently lodge in the body of the fish, causing considerable suffering when the hook is removed.

Arguments rage between animal rights groups on the one hand and angling groups the other, as to the exact amount of harm caused to fish, wildlife and the environment of the waterways. Angling groups tend to see themselves as conservationists and protectors of the countryside whereas animal rights groups, such as the Campaign for the Abolition of Angling (CAA) [now called Pisces], see angling as a damaging activity and certainly not a sport. According to CAA the argument that anglers prevent rivers from turning into open sewers is simply a diversionary tactic to avoid addressing the issue that fish actually feel pain.

The Association of Co-operative Anglers (ACA) do undertake a considerable amount of work to clean waterways and to ensure that polluters of waterways are prosecuted, but the CAA say that these activities are essential to keeping the waterways open and clear to enable anglers to fish. If the waterways were of no benefit to the anglers then they would not be overly concerned with the rivers and streams. CAA argue that there is a wide range of organisations involved in practical concern for the countryside and not just the areas containing fish.

The National Rivers Authority (NRA) is obliged to maintain, develop and improve fisheries for the benefit of "everybody including anglers". They have to maintain stocks at a reasonable level and are the issuing body for anglers' licences which sell at a cost of £12.50 (with concessions for disabled and unwaged). The licence allows the angler to use two rods and line, but, in order to fish, they must then obtain a permit to fish along any given stretch of a river. Brian Briggs from the fisheries department at NRA's northwest office said that anglers, on the whole, are very helpful in assisting the NRA to carry out their duties, "they know when there is something wrong and they are very good at contacting us".

When questioned about the damage caused by discarded fishing materials, such as lines and weights, Brian Briggs seemed to think the problem was caused by a minority and thinks that the majority of anglers are conscientious about taking care of the waterways. The use of lead weights over one ounce is still permissible, but, according to Brian, weights under one ounce were banned two to three years ago by the national imposition of a bye-law.

Weights under one ounce were the cause of poisoning and choking of river birds and other small wildlife, but Brian says "it would have to be a big bird to swallow a one ounce lead weight". According to Rina Milsom at Swan Song - a group working to make anglers more aware of the injuries their pastime may inflict on swans and other waterside wildlife - 'dust-shot' is still used by anglers and is as harmful as any of the weights banned by the national bye-law. Dust shot are tiny lead weights which anglers tie together, "and they also still use the weights which have been banned, although I have to concede things have improved" says Rina.

Other items of fishing equipment cause considerable damage to wildlife and could not be covered by a bye law unless it outlawed angling as a pastime. In their book So You Want To Go Fishing, Len Baker and Rina Milsom explain with the use of numerous photographs the damage that is done to birds by discarded hooks and lines.

If a hook becomes embedded in a bird's throat it needs to be removed by a vet, otherwise the bird will develop septicaemia. If there is a line still attached to the hook, which apparently happens when an angler accidentally hooks a swan or other waterbird, panics and cuts the line, worse injuries can result. As the bird swallows the line the action of the gizzard muscle pulls the hook embedded in its throat. In effect the bird tears its own throat and dies.

Injury is not only caused by the hooks. The lines, which are made of non-biodegradable, strong nylon, can tie down waterbirds' tongues rendering them unable to eat and sever limbs as the birds struggle to escape lines caught in vegetation.

Suffering to birds is, according to animals rights organisations, only the tip of the iceberg because the suffering to fish has been underestimated for far too long. According to Ben Pontin at the Hunt Saboteurs Association, "angling is no different to any other blood sport. Just because fish are cold-blooded and live in the water does not change the fact that one creature is being killed or injured for another's sport." A spokesman for Animal Aid said "we are completely opposed to angling. It is the torturing of fish for pleasure", whilst a spokesman for the RSPCA said "fish feel pain and angling causes them to suffer trauma and disease as revealed in the Dutch report."

The Dutch report is a study carried out by Professor F J Verheijen and Dr R J A Buwalda at the State University of Utrecht in the Netherlands entitled 'Do pain and fear make a hooked carp in play suffer'. The study was initiated by the Dutch Society for the Protection of Animals (DSPA) and was financed by the Dutch government, various angling organisations and partly by the DSPA.

The experiments were designed to "find responses indicative of pain and fear, to differentiate responses indicative of pain from responses indicative of fear, and to investigate whether fish find pain or fear the more unpleasant." Another aim of the study was to estimate whether or not pain and/or fear make fish suffer according to "definitions of suffering (in mammals) where suffering is attributed exclusively to the highest levels of stress".

The report concluded that although the sensation of pain for the fish is very real "the pain produced by impalement contributes less to the unpleasantness of the catching procedure than fear". Skilful 'handling' by anglers was found to cause the fish less distress, but often it is the case that the angler is young, inexperienced or both and the fish is caused undue distress.

If the fish is held in a keepnet "respiratory problems occur frequently". According to the experiment, "the custom of holding fish in keepnets has some of the characteristics of category D biomedical experiments (Category D is part of a five stage system which measures distress in animals and includes, for instance, 'induction of an anatomical or physiological situation that will result in pain or distress; prolonged periods, up to several hours or more, of physical restraint)."

So, despite assertions by the National Federation of Anglers - no other angling organisation contacted replied to questions asked - it would seem that fish do indeed feel pain and suffer fear. A defence of coarse fishing is presented merely by the mention of the 'Medway Report' (Report of the Panel of Enquiry into Shooting and Angling 1976-1979, chaired by Lord Medway), but it states that match fishermen see "fish as an expendable resource, placing an obligation on the riparian owner or water authority (now NRA) to make good the wastage." Further, the Medway report notes that "inconsiderate treatment of fish by match or other coarse fisherman is periodically anathematised in the angling press . (A perusal through a couple of the angling magazines revealed a monotonous display of men holding dead fish.)

According to the 1970 National Angling Survey, - as quoted in the Medway Report - 67 per cent of all anglers participate in coarse fishing and of them, 50 per cent fish as often as once a week during the season. The survey also revealed that 22 per cent of Britain's anglers practise game fishing - salmon, sea trout, brown trout and rainbow trout - at some time during the year. The game fishing angler apparently requires more skill and efficiency in landing his catch than the coarse fisherman. An apparent anomaly in the fishing statistics requiring a "special mention" in the Medway Report, is the eel. Although eels are apparently caught accidentally, they swallow baits so deeply that disgorgement is impossible without causing injury to the eel. Further complication is added by the 'writhings and lashings' of the eel when out of water. Eels are also caught for 'sport' and for eating.

Sea angling is another branch of the activity, practised by 47 per cent of anglers at some time during the year and involving such fish as pike, carp and larger fish like shark, tope and conger. The Medway Report did mention a report it had received about "callous, ill-treatment accorded to a captured shark on board a boat in waters off south-western England."

"How do you feel about actually killing, or catching and having to handle, a sometimes large creature that is still living?" is a question which remains unanswered by several angling organisations approached in the course of researching this article, despite their members devoting so much time to catching so many fish. We can only assume that the failure to answer is based upon the fact that they have never thought about it before or, that they are disinclined to answer: guilty conscience perhaps?

The Manchester Animal Protection Group (MAPG) are running a campaign of non-violent sabotage of angling events, which involves wading or swimming in the water where angling matches are taking place or by making loud noise near match 'pegs'. Like other animal rights groups they believe that angling is another blood sport and should be treated as such.

MAPG activities include taking ghetto blasters along to matches so that fish will not approach the area where anglers are sitting. In June of this year MAPG staged a demonstration outside Trafford Angling Supplies in Stretford then took part in non-violent indirect action against some anglers on the Bridgewater Canal in Manchester.

MAPG intend to continue their action in two areas: non-violent action; and action to convince local authorities to change their policy towards angling. Initially, the object is to discover the policy of each local authority and then attempt to obtain total or partial angling bans, and restrictions on various aspects of angling by writing to Leisure and Recreation Departments and Parks Departments.

Ken Watkins, chief administration officer at the National Federation of Anglers in Derby, provided, somewhat reluctantly, and far more aggressively than any other contact made for the production of this feature, information the sport of angling.

"What does The Vegetarian magazine know about angling ?" asked a sneering Ken Watkins when contacted to provide the angler's answers to allegations made by animal rights groups. "You don't know anything about angling" he continued, warming to his subject, "you've probably not been near a river in years". "Yes, but what do you say to the argument that fish feel pain, Mr Watkins?"

"What evidence do you have that fish feel pain?" retorted Ken, still managing to avoid answering a simple question, "There are some studies which say they feel pain and others that they don't. There was that study, years ago don't know what it was called, said they didn't feel pain." When faced with the fact that professors at the State University of Utrecht had in fact completed a study in 1988,which revealed that fish can experience pain near to a degree which can be compared with human reactions of that kind, Ken, rather puzzlingly, exclaimed "Do you know that the Germans kill fish?"

Explaining to Ken that Utrecht is in the Netherlands and not Germany, and further referring to the Medway Study of 1981 still did not elicit a response to the original question. Ken retorted that "the Germans do kill the fish anyway, at least we return them to the water". He then embarked upon a history lesson. "Fishing has been going for years, since the year dot. You can't sit there start saying that fish feel pain, fish don't feel pain, it's a well known fact that they're cold-blooded creatures. We are water watchdogs...you probably do not know the first thing about waterways, these are just your opinions, what would you know about waterways."

Ken added that hooks, even barbed hooks, "do not cause any injury to fish anyway. It would be like you getting a pinprick in your finger, you're implying it is something else."

When asked about the justification for using keepnets he insisted that "keepnets cause no harm or distress to fish, are you joking?" Ken was then informed of the widely held belief that it is actually considerably more cruel to keep the fish in keepnets for hours and then cast them back into the river than it is kill the fish immediately: "What?" Ken exploded somewhat over dramatically, causing, regrettably only temporary deafness to his interviewer. "That's a very strange thing to be coming from you." He continued, presumably rhetorically, "Is fishing legal?". That would to be a stranger question coming from the chief administration officer of one of the country's largest angling organisations. When asked for his thoughts and feelings on the sabotage of angling events Ken persisted with his barrage of personal comments and accusations and managed to avoid answering the question four times before being pinned down to admitting that he did "not understand sabotage at all, it is illegitimate interference with my enjoyment of the waterway. I don't like motor racing, but I don't stick bombs in the middle of the track. Don't you think it is wrong?". It has been impossible to find records of any sabotaging event involving the use of explosives and Ken was unable to furnish details himself.

The National Federation of Anglers may be well advised to employ a press officer who would be better equipped to distinguish between simple questions, implications and opinions. Fury, shouting and rudeness do little to present a positive image of angling or anglers to the public or the press.

Coarse anglers pride themselves on the fact that, unlike sea and games anglers, they return fish to the water unharmed, but according to the Campaign for the Abolition of Angling (CAA) "they delude themselves. Coarse fishing is probably the cruellest branch of the 'sport', as the others involve the fish being 'despatched' almost immediately on leaving the water."

The CAA claim that "fish are very prone to stress upon a change in oxygen concentration, temperature, sudden noise, vibration and light intensity." Dr Phil Williams, a fish biologist and member of the National Association of Specialist Anglers, has admitted that "avoiding subjecting fish to some degree of stress when fishing is impossible".

"A fish is deceived into impaling itself onto a (usually) barbed hook, resulting in tissue damage and, in medical terms, the infliction of an injury. The angler may then 'play' the fish in order to tire it and allow it to be landed" according to the CAA.

CAA also say that because the fish cannot obtain oxygen from the air and because the fingers of the angler feel like red hod pokers to a fish, extreme stress is caused to the creature. During the handling process "a protective mucous covering which provides the creature's waterproofing and protects it from fungal and bacterial infections is damaged".

Despite assertions to the contrary from anglers, fish do sometimes swallow hooks making their retrieval very difficult; suffering is prolonged and it is likely to result in damage to the fish's gut and subsequent death.

Another stress-inducing part of the process, according to the CAA, is the use of the keepnet which is "an essential feature of match angling, but if the pleasure angler uses one, it is purely for the self-satisfaction of gloating over the catch at the end of the session." Stress for the fish is aggravated by "size of net and the type and number of fish caught and kept.

"Within the net metabolic waste products build up and physical damage may occur to the imprisoned fish. Disease thrives in such an environment and a subsequently 'liberated' fish will have undergone a traumatic and disabling experience with perhaps fatal consequences."

How do you kill your first fish? Does it die quickly with one neat blow or does it need repeated bashings until it resembles pate rather than trout.
Peter Cockwill, Angler's Mail, 19.3.88

I'd only just settled down when I heard a noise in the bush behind me. There, tangled was a wren, it took only a few seconds to free it, but I remember thinking as I released the bird "What stupid thoughtless bastard left this line here?"It was only as I wound it all up and noticed the hook that I realised that the stupid thoughtless bastard was me.
Tony Locke, Coarse Fishing, June 1988.

The fish I catch must feel pain and I do for the most part ignore this fact when fishing. If I didn't I probably wouldn't fish. I certainly would not stick hooks into mammals for example and get away without feeling extreme disgust at myself.
Anonymous letter to the CAA, June 1988

Firstly, to say that fishing is a caring sport is ludicrous. Anglers may participate in a caring manner, but it cannot be said that an element of risk to the fish's welfare is not always present. No matter how careful anglers may be, the fish population will always suffer.
C D Downes, Coarse Fisherman, August 1984.