CAMPAIGN AGAINST SWISS ‘CATCH & RELEASE’ BAN REACHES CANADA

EFTTA'S aim to fight for the future of fishing knows no bounds...and even spread to Canada recently when lobbyist Jan Kappel featured on one of the country's most popular radio shows.

Jan was contacted by CBC Radio to appear on 'As It Happens' - a radio current affairs programme that has been running for more than 35 years and covers important news stories from around the globe.

The reporting team was interested in the recent catch-and-release ban in Switzerland and believed the story would appeal to Canada's huge recreational fishing population.

In a seven-minute interview, Jan told how the ban had been implemented as part of wider animal welfare legislation but that its effects on angling and the environment in the country - and across Europe if others countries adopted similar policies - could be devastating.

Jan said that organisations like EFTTA feared the ruling could effectively lead to an angling ban, as anglers would not kill fish just for the sake of it, and then governments would have to find other ways to enforce the legislation.

"We are trying to make the politicians see sense," he said. "An angling ban is not good for conservation or fish.

"They need to understand that if anglers disappear, they will lose their eyes and ears in the aquatic habitat and the environment."