To fish or not to fish, that is the question this choice selection of “No Fishing” signs attempts to answer definitively and by the way, negatively.
Oily Man River
No Fishing in Cleveland, you say? That won’t come to a shock to Clevelanders, witnesses to a long, sad history of Cuyahoga River fires. Just to be clear, the grossly polluted and oil slick covered river itself went up in flames, no less than 13 times between 1868 and 1969.
Cleanup efforts over the past half-century have done much to restore the Cuyahoga, however, with a milestone reached in 2019 when the Ohio EPA declared that fish caught in the river were safe to eat. We can’t say whether the signs above (dated 2010 and 2006, respectively) are still posted but either way, local fishermen who eat what they catch do so with more than a grain of salt. (image at top via Eugene Kim and image above via midiman)
Longfish
Would you go fishing in Loch Ness? Kinda seems like asking for trouble, doesn’t it? After seeing the No Fishing sign above, we feel the same way about Lake Rotorua in New Zealand. Of course, fishermen who get mocked for exaggerating the length of their catch can just tell disbelievers the fish they caught was “off the charts”. (image via karlnorling)
Oh The Mermanity!
What sort of reverse catfishing is this? Now hungry Brits will be giving their favorite chippy the side-eye while wondering exactly how “sustainable” modern fisheries really are. In any case, the unusual graphic and this sign from Islington, central London, makes us wonder if the message isn’t so much ‘No Fishing’ as it is ‘No Fraternizing With Fish’. (image via Matt Brown)
Bluefish State Blues
One might infer from the stencilled advisory on this trash bin that folks were in the habit of dumping fish, in whole or in parts, inside. Not a very de-scent thing to do if you know what we mean (and we think you do, especially in summer). So please obey this sign and help clear the air along this stretch of the Tennessee River in bee-you-tiful Kentucky Dam Village, which would be a dam welcome change. (image via Midnight Believer)
Trash Fish
Life ain’t easy for an inner-city fish – according to the photographer, life in the above run-off ditch ain’t even possible. That said, local authorities in Harrisburg PA (just north of the infamous Three Mile Island nuclear plant) are still trying to do right by our finny friends and deny them booze, smokes and junk food which could stunt their growth… those spoilsports! (image via justindula)
Are three-eyed fish back on the menu? Check out Gone Fission: Chernobyl’s Cooling Pond Fish Farm!
