I don't worry much about scent for salmon, halibut is another story. We should be careful about what we put in the ocean. I agree with you however that it is important to keep perspective and not as sport fishermen beat ourselves up for using a little WD40. A tiny amount of WD40 spray on flasher swivels is not going to be the straw that kills the oceans. I suspect the moms putting suntan oil/lotion on their children at Parksville beaches may be more of an issue. Certainly the creosote leaching out of pilings is likely to be. One wonders how many billions or trillions of cans of WD40 equivalent an Exon Valdez or a blown offshore well head that runs for months in the Gulf puts in the ocean. Then there is all the worlds shipping that flush their tanks and bilges, most of the time hopefully when they are at least a little away from the coast. I was once out off Esq. in a buddies boat salmon fishing in bumpy water when we ran into a diesel slick so thick the smell was making me dizzy in rather strong wind and was glad neither of us smoked. How many millions or billions of cans of WD40 equivalent is still leaking out of sunk WW2 shipping into the ocean 75 years later or out of a sunk BC ferry for that matter. Street storm water runoff from Vancouver and Victoria vehicles with bad motor seals likely puts far more oil in the ocean in a year than all the cans of WD40 sold in BC. We should be conscious of what we put in the ocean and do our best to limit it but lets not lose perspective or accept the notion that somehow angling is the great polluter and therefor embolden those who want to eliminate it.
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