Sport fishing — angling for recreational rather than food purposes — raises animal welfare questions about pain in fish during hooking, fight and release, with catch-and-release practices particularly debated.
Sport fishing welfare is genuinely contested because the welfare implications of catch-and-release depend on how seriously one takes fish pain and stress. If fish experience significant pain during hooking and the fight to exhaustion, then catch-and-release causes harm for recreational purposes — a harder welfare case to justify than food fishing. Welfare-minimising practices exist and should be standard: barbless hooks, minimal handling, immediate release, wet hands and avoiding high water temperatures. The evidence for fish pain has strengthened significantly in recent years, making the welfare case for catch-and-release welfare reform increasingly compelling. Fishing for food, with humane dispatch, has a stronger ethical case than prolonged catch-and-release fishing.