Those that are eager to ban fishing argue that commercial fishing is destructive to the habitat due to fishing techniques. The effects of fishing on the bottom of the ocean are listed in the December 1998 issue of Conservation Biology , and explains how the lower part of the net moves across the ocean floor like a road grader. This scrapes off the top couple of inches of mud on the ocean floor. Unfortunately, it is within this mud or sand that most invertebrates live. Environmentalists also are also concerned with sport fisherman violating fishing rules, although their concerns are not limited to them ignoring these rules.
Sport fishermen demand fish, and thus hatcheries have been created.
In Washington, on the Hoh River and its south fork, hatcheries have become a serious concern. Hatcheries are designed for sport fishermen, and thus must be harvested every year. Sadly, the average fisherman struggles to tell a native fish from a fish raised in a hatchery. This means that fish must be marked so that the proper fish are caught and harvested. According to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife this year many fish won t be marked on these rivers.