SKEENA ANGLER ROB BROWN Angling ethics V grabs us by the scruff of the neck and rubs our faces in vivid imagery that would have taxed the imagina- tions of our great grandfolks. For example, television once enabled me to ride in the ocean going canoe of a primitive whaler. There were na exploding harpoons here, The captain impaled his quarry by hand and hung on as the whale dragged him, and the camera crew, and me, for a great distance. There was also a camera underwater to cap- ture the struggle from a whale’s eye view. By it- self, a pictorial history of the whale’s last gasps would have been bad enough, but the sound- track was enough to convince all but the stone © hearted that this act was immoral. Whales sing. They sing beautifully in sweet cetaceous harmony that defies our understand- - ing but speaks to our hearts. As it tore through the ocean trailing plumes of blood this wailing whale sang the blues with the kind of agonizing inflection that prompts salty tears. Thanks to footage like this, whaling fell into almost uni- versal disfavour. Once a robust industry, whal- ing, despite some recalcitrant Russians and Jap- anese, is on the way out, for people can neither: justify nor tolerate such cruelty to animals, even if it means the loss of jobs. So the great beast, Noah’s fish, fares a little better these days. but what about real fish? What if they could vocalize? What if a rainbow trout could be heard as well as seen? What if it howled in pain as it leapt out of the water in a frantic attempt to dislodge a hook from its jaw? Would we still fish for it? Would we still con- sider sportfishing a morally sound pastime? This is the kind of question A. Dionys deLecuw, Senior Habitat Protection Biologist for the Ministry of the Environment, Lands and Parks, painter, musician, philosopher, and angler for forty years, asks in his paper Con- templating the Interests of Fish: The Angler’s Challenge, recently published in the Journal of Environmental Ethics, Angling, deLeeuw argues, is a form of hunt- ing. To back this assertion he shows how both blood sports share a similar history and litera- ture, Both endeavours are done for recreation, both involve a search for a target animal which is not handicapped or restrained in any way dur- ing the hunt, The object of both sports is take control of the quarry. The animals being pursued by hunters and fishers share the basic instinct to survive, which is complemented by an atray of habits requiring behavioural and physiological processes made possible by a brain, a circulatory system, as well as a central nervous system. In both forms of recreation the practitioner puts the interests of sport above the individual interests of his or her quarry. In one aspect, however, the two sports are different. In a successful hunt death is inevitable, and desirable. In angling, the fisher can release the catch if he or she desires. In the last few decades, the practise of rcleasing fish has grown to the point where those practicing it exceed those who do not by a considerable margin. The ethical bunter is highly sensitive to the animal's pain and suffering and makes every effort to minimize both, ultimately subjecting his quarry to a quicker a death than offered by nature, and one Infinitely preferable to that given animals by the livestock industry, But in sportfishing the opposite is true. As deLeeuw points out, ‘‘anglers intentionally override the interests of fish. The enjoyment of catching fish for sport, in large measure, con- sists of purposely inflicting fear, pain, and suf- fering on fish by forcing them to violently ex- press their interest to stay alive.’’ The reason a rainbow trout is more highly prized than a suck- er is largely for the violent fight he puis up when hooked, Ironically, when an ethical angler killsa fish he employs the hunting ethic and dis- patches it quickly. “Cruelty,” says deLeeuw,‘‘is the voluntary infliction of unnecessary or avoidable pain,” A common argument in defense of sporifishing furns on the contention that fish feel little or no pain. Not so, says deLceww, enlisting an im- pressive list of scientific research for support. Says aeLeeuw, ‘The very real challenge to anglers, then, is to find a justification of their cruel treatment of animals (fish), a justification which must aiso satisfy the ethical hunter's re- quirement for the humane treatment of animals (game), Unless such a justification is found, I see no clear resolution of this dilemma other than for hunters and society generally to aban- “TERRACE STANDARD — The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, April 16, 1997 - BS Riders smash hill records | Bikers bail on the slopes after an exhausting ride LAST YEAR’S race must have been a dislant memory in the minds of athletes competing in the 1997 Shames Mountain Climb and Crash. At the 1996 event, a spring blizzard tore into the mountain bikers like a rabid pitbull. This year, Warm sunshine lapped their faces like an affectionate puppy. Tn fact, the weather just couldn’t have been better two weekends ago for the annual event. “The conditions were just perfect,’’ says Mike Christensen, of the Terrace biking club, TORCA. “‘I think that must have been a factor in the times.”’ Christensen says that racers haven’t trained as much as usual this year because of the sceming- ly endless winter. So he wasn’t expecting to see Terrace Open draws birdie enthusiasts great race times. But with the sun beaming down, riders raced to record times in both mens’ and womens’ cat- egories of the climb. Derek Zimmerman of Prince Rupert sprinted Terrace’s Mike Christensen to the finish line, Outpacing him by just-a second to lake the record time of 44:(10. , “Em pretty excited about them. I think they have tons of potential. -Mike Christensen on local bikers- Prince Rupert’s Berndt Guderthan was third, one minute behind the two leaders. Terrace’s Cheryl Steele also finished the climb in amazing time, Steele broke the old womens’ record with a time of 54:43, Sam Buchanan of Terrace was second. In the Junior mens’ category, it was Brandon Smoley of Terrace taking top spot at 46:00. He was followed by fellow Terrace riders Jon Lam- bert and Adam Spensley, ° Christensen says he was especially pleased with the turnout of Junior riders (those’ under 18). . oe : “I’m pretty excited about them,’’ he says. ‘‘T think they have tons of potential.’’ Christensen was also the winner of the crash portion of the race. After the ride up from High- way 16 to the ski lifts, competitors had to take part in a dual ‘slalom at the bottom of the pan- handlerrun, oe , “Tt’s as much luck as anything elsc,’’ he says. “You just try to make it without crashing.”’ Christensen also says there were lots of skiers and speciators out enjoying the snow and sun, and he thanks Tim and Steve at Shames for all their efforts to make the event a success. TORCA will hold another climb and crash April 20 in Smithers. The next Terrace race is tentatively scheduled for May 18 at Red Sands. MORE THAN 40 competitors from five northwest com- munities smashed their way through the 30th annual Ter- race Open Badminton Tournament, held two weekends ago at Thornhill Junior. The competition was hat, and Prince George and Terrace athletes were on fire, taking home the lion’s share of the medal tally. In the Ladies’ A, it was Terrace’s Nancy Condon finish- ing second to Judy Flaherty of Prince George, while in the Mens’ A, Norm Parry of Terrace took second place, just behind Lance Gordon of P.G.. Parry was also awarded ‘‘Top Skills Achiever’? for win- ning the skills competition. Meanwhile, the Ladies A doubles was won by Terrace’s Karen Resch and MaryLouise Crespo, while Norm Parry ieamed up with Dan Tuomi of Smithers to take second. in ibe A event, The Mixed A saw more success for MaryLouise Crespo. She took top spot, along with teammate Dave Munro. In the B Mens’ doubles, the team of Ron Julseth and Henri Michaud took top spot, followed by Terrace’s Carl Goodall and Simon Dorer of P,G.. The Mixed B saw Karen Kuemper of Terrace team up with Lance Gordon of P.G. for a second ptace finish, while Henri Michaud took first place in the Mens’ C singles. Finally, in the Mixed C flight, Dan and Cailin Kovacs of Terrace took silver. Mui Luc was also presented the ‘“‘Achicvement Award’’ for her dedication to badminion in Terrace and for her coaching of the Junior Club. @ Pitching practice OUR BANTAM girls are busy preparing for an intemational softball tournament that takes place in Ketchikan, Alaska over the weekend. That's pitcher Pamela Austin practicing for the event, The girls leave for Alaska tomorrow, Youth hoop tournament ends season ELEMENTARY schools in Terrace finished off their basketball season two weekends ago, with the boys’ and girls’ grade seven basketball championships. Nine schools and more than 200 athletes took part in the tournament. But when the dust finally cleared, it was Clarence Michiel and Uplands schools who ended up sharing top honours. This was the first year that both tbe boys’ and girls” teams competed at the same time, and it turned out to be a big success. “Tt was very exciting,” says Bill Gook, coach from Clarence Michiel, “Having both boys and girls teams together added to the feeling of school spirit. The Grade seven gisls from Clarence Michiel looked unbeatable ai they trounced the competition — winning five straight games to take the championships. Uplands, the other finalist, ended up in second place, while Veritas and Centennial Christian tied for third. In the boys’ draw, it was Uplands who this time bad the upper hand against another strong team from Clarence Michiel. It was a tight final game, but Uplands ended up on top — win- ning by just two points. Clarence Michiel ended up second. kak Gook also points out that Basket- ball BC's player development pro- gram kicks off with player identi- fication camps at the end of April. The Under 15 teams will go to two regional jamborees, while the Under 16s will be going to the Summer Games in Burnaby and the Under 17s will go to identificalion camps. The top 64 players from that pro- gram will then altend a supercamp in July and from there, one male and one female team will be selected to go to two intemational tournaments, Any girls wishing to participate in the development program should at- tend the basketball camp at Thorn- hill Jr. April 26 at 9:00 a.m.. Fisher rink wins season-ender rink of Terrace. to take the win. scason.’’ ANOTHER CURLING season has come to a close, cul- minating with the popular Mens’ Loggers’ Bonspiei, held a few weekends back at the Cunling Club, A total of 43 rinks competed at the 42nd annual event, including 22 from out of town. That’s down a bit from pre- vious years, and it meant organizers could cut. out. the middle-of-the-night draws. ‘Some people were actually pretty happy about that,”’ says Keith Melanson of the club. ‘Overall, it turned out to be a very successful spiel,’’ , _ Terrace competitors fared well in this year’s tourney, winning three of the four events. In the A event, first place went to the Fisher rink, fol- lowed by the Lafrance rink from Rupert and the Truesdale ’ The B event was a complete sweep by Terrace curlers. First place was picked up by the Kutenics rink, followed by the Grant rink and the D, Melanson rink, The C event was the only one won by a visiling team,. In this case it was the Brise rink of Telkwa, followed by Ter- race’s Weissner rink. Finally, the D event saw Terrace again take top spot. The local Griffith rink beat out the Middleton rink of Hazelton The Loggers’ Spiel ended Terrace’s curling scason, which Melarson says proved to be.a good one, “The leagues were down slightly, but overall It was good,” he says. ‘‘We’re already looking forwards to next Renovations currently underway mean the club will have ancw look next year, wot And Melanson says the club is expecting to host the BC Postal Playdowns next season, He ‘also hopes to host the Elks Nationals in 1999. , Oe don all sport fishing,’’ Given the rise in animal rights advocacy, and for our own peace of mind, we sportsmen need to meet this challenge. THE WINNING RINK — that's Dan Fisher, Ross Smith, Henry Rauter and Ken Feddersen, winners of the A event in the 1997 Loggers Bonspiel.