A divorcee who attached his “cursed” wedding ring a fish’s tail before releasing it into Lake Michigan is receiving backlash from the state’s Department of Natural Resources for actions that the department says border animal cruelty.

‘CURSED’ WEDDING RING FOUND ZIP-TIED TO STEELHEAD’S TAIL DURING FISHING TOURNAMENT

Capt. Jason Rose came forward as the owner of the mysterious wedding band that was found attached to the tail of a steelhead fish reeled in during a fishing competition on Lake Michigan last month. Rose said it had been four years since his decade-long marriage ended when he decided to strap his “cursed band” to the fish’s tail before releasing it across the lake seven weeks before it resurfaced.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources called the move “irresponsible.”

“Just the way that it was put on, you should have known it was definitely going to cause some damage over time,” Brian Gunderman, the fisheries unit supervisor with the DNR’s Southern Lake Michigan Management Unit, told 24 Hour News 8 Monday.

“It’s one thing to catch a fish. You need to hook a fish to be able to catch him. It’s another thing to inflict extra pain on it before you release him,” Gunderman said. “I like to think that he didn’t think that it was going to harm the fish.”

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Rose told NBC Chicago he never expected the ring to have stayed on the fish for as long as it did. He previously said that he worked as a fishing guide for years, something that caused tension in his marriage. He decided to release the ring on the fish's tail as a poetic form of justice to symbolize his marriage's end.