We will do everything we can to end this blood sport. Toni Vernelli, PETA's campaign co-ordinator, said that, when the public understood the cruelty of angling, they would join the movement to ban it. Hooking is bound to cause pain, and when fish are pulled out of the water they begin to suffocate to death. Angling is the largest participatory sport, with up to six million adherents. The biggest group is of coarse anglers whose season started a few weeks ago.
Coarse anglers compete in weekend matches which saboteurs have attempted to halt.
There are also 650,000 fly fishermen fishing for trout and salmon. A stretch on top-grade salmon rivers can fetch L1 million.