Accidental kills outside limits?

[lefty]

A strange thought occurred to me today -- size limits not only forbid keeping fish outside certain size ranges, but also using them for bait, or otherwise killing them -- for example, discarding them onshore...

What about accidental kills while trying to remove a hook? I'm a rank novice when it comes to unhooking fish -- just starting to get comfortable holding them.

"It is unlawful to destroy unnecessarily any inland game fish taken from public fishing waters." Does "unnecessarily" usually account for unhooking accidents?

I'm wondering if I ought to file off my barbs until I gain more expertise at removing hooks. I'm most interested in catch-and-release at the moment anyway, and I've read one recommendation that keeping the line tight on retrieve would help more than a barb anyway.

It kinda seems like a catch-22... if I need to be certain not to accidentally kill anything of illegal size, that kinda discourages me from trying to remove my hooks, for fear of accidentally maiming the fish. Which kinda discourages me from even trying to catch 'em...

I'm probably thinking too much...
Kevin