There is a problem which has been plaguing the fishing community for many years, but which is finally being addressed in a constructive manner. This problem is known as overharvesting, and it is essentially tearing the foundation out of the ecosystems of a lot of excellent fishing habitats. Simply put, a lot of individuals and companies have been taking too many prey species out of the ecosystems, and they have been unable to respawn to a sufficient extent to survive and feed the predator species that require them to live. However, the use of lures has been extremely helpful in beginning to stem the tide of this unfortunate habit than mankind has taken up. Luckily for us, it isn’t too late to ease off.
The overharvesting of a prey species is the worst thing that you can do to an ecosystem. Not only do you run the risk of decimating a local population of the species itself. That would be a bad enough thing just on its own. You also run the risk of also starving the fish species which feed on that prey, thus essentially turning a great spot to fish into a dead spot. And with the de facto removal of the fish, there are other problems that you will have to deal with, such as an overabundance of algae.
Fortunately for humanity, we have not completely overharvested our supplies of prey species. And we also have the good fortune of having developed and widely implemented the use of lures as a substitute for those potentially endangered species. When you use a lure, you do not have to concern yourself with losing a bunch of bait, or with your bait potentially dying off before it gets you some fish to eat. While it might seem to be a less effective alternative, in a lot of cases the fish can not tell the difference.