https://ero.ontario.ca/notice/019-0518
Reducing the number of species used makes sense.
We fully agree with banning live bait use and storage in brook trout farms. Please increase the ban on live bait to all areas. The use of live fish, frogs, and other animals as bait (which means being terrified with a hook attached to them) is cruel and outdated. There are less inhumane ways to angle (though no form of angling is humane).
Limiting release to same bait management area, rather than killing unused bait fish, is less bad than the current ban on releasing live fish back into the water, though live bait should still be banned. (To avoid water contamination, each unused live fish could be individually removed from the bucket and released before water disposal away from the waterway.)
Longer licences (3 years) for sellers should not be given.
Do not add new species such as Banded Killifish.
Bait harvesters requiring a course on how to catch bait fish could be replaced with a course on phasing out bait capture and phasing in skills for humane jobs. This would prevent unemployment of bait fishers.
One issue of use or disposal of bought fish in two weeks is that fish end up being killed. Please allow any unused bait fish to go to a farm sanctuary that has ponds that are not connected to, and are at least 30 metres from a waterway, before a ban on the use of bait fish. These "bait" fish are sentient animals.
