Record Catfish Dies Enroute to New Home

[AngryAmish]

<http://www.wltx.com/fyi/fyi.aspx?storyid=27624>

"A record 124-pound blue catfish that was pulled out of the Mississippi River Sunday has died while being taken to a sporting goods store.

A biologist says its captors took special
precautions to make sure the 58-inch long fish would be "comfortable" during the trip from Alton, Illinois, to Kansas City, Kansas where it would have gone on display in a sporting goods store.

The biologist says "we're baffled by this."

However, the biologist says because the fish was "very old" and "very heavy" the travel stress "could have been too much."

This is a tragedy. Look at the size of that thing.

[progressivebydesign]

1. Why are we not baffled?

You don't need a degree in science to figure that out. Should have been left alone...

[Triana]

2. Why in damned Hell didn't they leave it where it was?

Why do these redneck idiots think they NEED to make a freakshow item out of the catfish?

And they killed it trying to do so. Good enough for them, but I feel sorry for the fish. Damned idiots.

[DS1]

10. Sport fishing is dumb

In my never that humble opinion.

Oh look, this one is too young, rip the hook out of its mouth so it can die slower instead.

[sui generis]

3. dumb buncha inbred fucking rednecks /nt

[Shell Beau]

13. Harsh.

[Catchawave]

4. Stress maybe ?

How 'gently' was this old guy handled pulling him out of the water initially? He was probably dying within moments of that lovely little struggle. Stupid Humans, I tell ya :+

[Egalitariat]

5. And it's hard to kill a catfish....

I've even seen one swim away after I'd cleaned it. That fish beat the state record by more than 50%. Wow.

[beam me up scottie]

6. I feel sick.

"The store manager says officials are going to make replicas of the big fish that was nearly five feet long."

They should not have been allowed to do this. We have no right to exploit another living creature.

[snooper2]

11. exploitation of catfish...

Is pretty low on my list of fucked up things humans do. Actually, at the bottom of the list. :eyes:

[driver8]

17. It is not just the "exploitation of catfish" that is fucked up...

It is the fact that this magnificent creature lived all of these years, and would have kept living, if some asshole had not tried to put him on display. It was an unnecessary death...and that always sucks.

Ok, it was "just a catfish", but this could apply to any animal.

[snooper2]

21. He should have just taken a picture, and thrown it back in the river

But this is nothing to get too upset over :)

[beam me up scottie]

22. Knuckle-dragging mouth breathers fall pretty low on the evolutionary scale

But it's okay, really, it's not your fault. Some humans are just more evolved than others.

"For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love." --Pythagoras, mathematician

The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creatures that cannot. ~Mark Twain, What Is Man, 1906

"I cannot fish without falling a little in self-respect...always when I have done I feel it would have been better if I had not fished." Henry David Thoreau, author

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. -- Mohandas Gandhi

"If a man aspires towards a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from injury to animals." --Albert Einstein

"There is no fundamental difference between man and the higher animals in their mental faculties... The lower animals, like man, manifestly feel pleasure and pain, happiness, and misery." --Charles Darwin

[underthedome]

15. This is 9/11 all over again.

sniff sniff.

[beam me up scottie]

23. self delete

[underthedome]

26. What are you trying to say? nm

nm

[beam me up scottie]

31. Nevermind.

I didn't realize this was moved to the lounge.
I should have anticipated the lack of empathy and dismissal of cruelty.

[mark414]

37. they're not

it's dead

[ClintonTyree]

7. Did that guy CATCH the Catfish?

If so, the struggle to land it probably sealed it's fate. A fish that old, that large, would expend a tremendous amount of energy fighting to not be caught. I think the transfer of it was a moot point after the catch, it probably would have dies anyway.
I'm NOT condoning what they did, but being a fisherman I know that a fish that big would have practically killed itself trying to avoid capture.

[AngryAmish]

8. The fish pulled him 3 miles

It was a really long battle, from local news reports.

[Blue-Jay]

9. Now he can be with Bubba the giant lobster

in that big fishbowl in the sky. :(

[ronnykmarshall]

20. Don't forget about poor ol' Pinchy!

[Shell Beau]

12. He was obviously happy where he was.

Damn, they should have thrown him back! :mad:

[driver8]

14. Man, that really sucks! This poor catfish should have been released

after Bubba has his picture taken with it. The poor catfish was probably so stressed after having a hook pulled through his mouth and then dragging Bubba and his boat three miles, that he died from shock.

This really sucks. Why do people have to fuck up everything?!

[joeunderdog]

18. Did anyone notice that the fish was OUT of water in the picture?

How could he have died? Is that what they're asking? A 3-mile ride on the end of a hook for a decades-old scavenger who is then taken out of the water for pictures. Call the detectives.

Imagine if a fish hooked your grandfather and then brought him to the bottom of the lake for a photo op.

[driver8]

19. Yeah, I noticed that when I first saw the picture. I thought, "Damn,

they didn't release it." I then read the story and saw that the hayseed was going to display the catfish in a restaurant or something. I thought the fish was dead in the picture...how the hell did he hang on to a live fish that big? Maybe he was near death already.

[datasuspect]

16. wow. just wow. how truly sad

i only hope someone among them has a good hush puppy recipe and the use of a commercial deep fat fryer.

[beam me up scottie]

24. Why did they move this to the lounge?

nt

[RetroLounge]

25. It's just a fucking fish.

Catch it and release. Or not.

Eat it, or not.

Take a picture of it, or not.

Stuff it and display it, or not.

Last I checked, Fishing isn't illegal...

It's just a fucking fish. A HUGE world Record fish, but still just a fish that eats shit off the bottom of the river.

Get over it.

:eyes:

RL

[Maddy McCall]

27. I vote filet it and eat it.

That one fish would feed a whole family for a year. YUM!

[BearClaws]

29. Yupp

On the scale of national importance, it ranks just above zero.

[TheMightyFavog]

35. Thank you, RL.

My sentiments exactly.

[MissMillie]

28. Makes you wonder

If the fish were that fragile, was catching it such a big deal?

[ronnykmarshall]

30. Hell, it probably jumped in the damn boat.

Fish: Lemme just save you the trouble. Fuck it, I'm old.

[WeRQ4U]

32. It's sad that the fish died.

I catch and release when fishing, and I always get a little unnerved when a fish dies in the process. I have my own little mourning session.

However, although this may be of utmost importance to many on this board, it ranks just above ironing my underwear as far as importance and concern.

Sad? Yes, a little. Outrageous and breathtaking = God I hope not.

[Shakespeare]

33. A catfish that size isn't actually that rare.

My uncle caught a 104-pound catfish last year, one pound shy of tying the state record (Louisiana). Most of that fish is now in his freezer.

My grandfather (before he died), who was half Blackfoot indian and absolutely fearless, had a couple of fishing spots he refused to go back to because he'd seen catfish bigger than the one in the photo with this story (and was seriously freaked out by them).

There are still lots of roadside attractions along state highways in the south and southwest, and when I was a teenager, one of the tiny gas stations in east Texas (on the highway from Dallas to Lake Tawakoni) had a catfish about that size in a large aquarium.

It's too bad that the fish died, but believe me--catfish that size are more common than you might think.

[RebelOne]

38. Yes, extra-large catfish are very common.

Believe me, I know all about it. I am a copy editor for 10 state hunting and fish magazines and read thousands of fish stories. But it was a record-size for Illinois. There are bigger catfish in other states.

[sleipnir]

34. Once again, WHY ARE SCIENTISTS THE ONLY ONE'S WHO ARE BAFFLED?

"The biologist says 'we're baffled by this.'"


Some one asked this last night, and I repeat.

WTF is it about scientists that allows them to be constantly "baffled?"

Pat, I'd like to buy a thesaurus, please.

[El Fuego]

36. He should have let the poor fishie be.