Would You Like Smoked Fish?... No, Thank You

[Keith Maitland]

FLY-FISHING on a local lake a few years ago, I caught two rainbow trout. As is my habit, I opened up their stomachs to see what they’d been feeding on. To my dismay, I discovered that each trout was full of cigarette butts.

They had eaten these in mistake for the pellets they’re fed when they’re released into the lake. Each butt would have been full of nicotine and had been thrown into the lake as stub-ends by fishermen.

Since that discovery, I have never eaten trout or salmon again and no longer fish for them.

[Brownie]

I like both salmon and trout but have never fished.  I can understand how it would be aesthetically displeasing to find fag ends in the fishes' guts but is it dangerous to eat a fish which has swallowed them?  Does the nicotine get into their blood stream and stay there or is it excreted fairly quickly?  I really don't know but that, I believe, would be the point that would stop me eating the fish.  I think we would have heard about it if it was dangerous to our health, we hear about everything else, the slightest thing in fact.

[Harrowby Hall]

You said "a few years ago", Keith. How many years ago?

Have you caught any trout recently and performed a similar examination? The incidence of smoking has greatly reduced.

As brownie suggests, this may be something which is aesthetically displeasing rather than hazardous. It could be that the lake water effectively diluted or removed any nicotine anyway.

I know nothing about fish physiology, but in mammals nicotine acts as a neurotransmitter in the parasympathetic autonomous nervous system. Did you note any unusual behaviour in the fish?

[Sebastian Toe]

FLY-FISHING on a local lake a few years ago, I caught two rainbow trout. As is my habit, I opened up their stomachs to see what they’d been feeding on. To my dismay, I discovered that each trout was full of cigarette butts.

They had eaten these in mistake for the pellets they’re fed when they’re released into the lake. Each butt would have been full of nicotine and had been thrown into the lake as stub-ends by fishermen.

Since that discovery, I have never eaten trout or salmon again and no longer fish for them.

How many butts would need to be in a lake for all trout and salmon there to fill their stomachs?

If it was me, I would fish in a different lake!

[ekim]

One of the latest scares is the prevalence of plastic beads being found within the sea creature food chain.  Perhaps one of our emergent properties is going to be PVC lined arteries.

[Bubbles]

FLY-FISHING on a local lake a few years ago, I caught two rainbow trout. As is my habit, I opened up their stomachs to see what they’d been feeding on. To my dismay, I discovered that each trout was full of cigarette butts.

They had eaten these in mistake for the pellets they’re fed when they’re released into the lake. Each butt would have been full of nicotine and had been thrown into the lake as stub-ends by fishermen.

Since that discovery, I have never eaten trout or salmon again and no longer fish for them.

Hi Keith

What a shame it put you off.

Some anglers have used cigarette butts as lures to successfully catch fish.

http://www.saltstrong.com/articles/weird-fishing-lures/

However I have always tried to make sure our dog never picked any butts up as they are rumoured to be lethal to pets.

https://dogs.thefuntimesguide.com/2008/10/dog_cigarette_butts.php

I've never found any in any of my fish, fortunately (and it's the nicotine in the butt that's the problem not the butt itself.)

You need to find a better fishing lake.

[Brownie]

You said "a few years ago", Keith. How many years ago?

Have you caught any trout recently and performed a similar examination? The incidence of smoking has greatly reduced.

As brownie suggests, this may be something which is aesthetically displeasing rather than hazardous. It could be that the lake water effectively diluted or removed any nicotine anyway.

I know nothing about fish physiology, but in mammals nicotine acts as a neurotransmitter in the parasympathetic autonomous nervous system. Did you note any unusual behaviour in the fish?

They were seriously depressed.  Whether clinically or reactively we cannot tell but there could be a link between their depression and the likelihood of being caught, killed and eaten.

[Harrowby Hall]

They were seriously depressed.  Whether clinically or reactively we cannot tell but there could be a link between their depression and the likelihood of being caught, killed and eaten.

Human conversation: Don't throw stones in the water, you'll frighten the fish away.

Fish conversation: Do eat those funny-tasting round things, you'll frighten the humans away.

[Brownie]

This is why there were so many butts in the water!

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/GNPr8TrJnGg/hqdefault.jpg

Fish don't have lungs, when the fag is finished they swallow the tip.