• Why You Shouldn’t Eat Fish

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    Here’s a list of reasons why you should eliminate fish from your diet:

    Fish Sentience

    https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/fish-feel-pain-180967764/

    “The collective evidence is now robust enough that biologists and veterinarians increasingly accept fish pain as a reality.”

    http://fishcount.org.uk/fish-welfare-in-commercial-fishing/fish-sentience

    “Having examined the research that has been done for some species of fish (a relatively small number of species have been studied), this panel concludes: “The balance of the evidence indicates that some fish species have the capacity to experience pain.”

    “In the light of evidence reviewed … it is recommended that, where considerations of welfare are involved, all vertebrate animals (i.e., mammals birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish) should be regarded as equally capable of suffering to some degree or another, without distinction between ‘warm-blooded’ and ‘cold blooded’ members.”

    https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/animal-emotions/201406/fish-are-sentient-and-emotional-beings-and-clearly-feel-pain

    “In her very interesting book called Do Fish Feel Pain? Dr. Braithwaite concluded, ‘I have argued that there is as much evidence that fish feel pain and suffer as there is for birds and mammals — and more than there is for human neonates and preterm babies.’”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pain_in_fish

    “Fish fulfil several criteria proposed as indicating that non-human animals may experience pain. These fulfilled criteria include a suitable nervous system and sensory receptors, opioid receptors and reduced responses to noxious stimuli when given analgesics and local anaesthetics, physiological changes to noxious stimuli, displaying protective motor reactions, exhibiting avoidance learning and making trade-offs between noxious stimulus avoidance and other motivational requirements.”

    “The question is not ‘can they reason?’, nor ‘can they talk?’, but can they suffer?” ~ Jeremy Bentham

    FISH LIKE TO BE PETTED

    What’s wrong with eating fish?

    Drug contamination – “Something fishy is going on in a major waterway where the aquatic inhabitants have been found to be high on a cocktail of 81 different drugs including cocaine and anti-depressants.” https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/fish-test-positive-cocaine-cocktail-7443169

    Mercury – “The danger level from consuming fish depends on species and size. Size is the best predictor of increased levels of accumulated mercury. Sharks, such as the mako shark, have very high levels of mercury. A study on New Jersey coastal fish indicated that one third of the sampled fish had levels of mercury above 0.5 parts per million, a level that could pose a human health concern for consumers who regularly eat this fish.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_in_fish

    Cholesterol – Fish contain cholesterol, and saturated animal fat, whereas plants do not.

    Fishless oceans – “3/4 of the world’s fisheries are exploited or depleted. We could see fishless oceans by 2048.” http://www.cowspiracy.com/facts/

    Fishing net pollution – “The study also found that fishing nets account for 46 percent of the trash, with the majority of the rest composed of other fishing industry gear, including ropes, oyster spacers, eel traps, crates, and baskets.” “Ghostnets, a term coined to describe purposely discarded or accidentally lost netting, drift through the ocean, entangling whales, seals, and turtles. An estimated 100,000 marine animals are strangled, suffocated, or injured by plastics every year.” https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/03/great-pacific-garbage-patch-plastics-environment/

    Bycatch – “For every 1 pound of fish caught, up to 5 pounds of unintended marine species are caught and discarded as by-kill” http://www.cowspiracy.com/facts/

    Modern day slavery – “Based on the six risk factors, we considered the top 20 fishing countries, which combined provide over 80 percent of the world’s fish catch. Slavery in these nations’ fisheries would thus profoundly impact the degree to which slave-dependent seafood exists in the global supply chain. Our analysis identified China, Japan, Russia, Spain, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand as being at high-risk of modern slavery in their respective fishing industries.” https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/2018/findings/importing-risk/fishing/

    Speciesism – If you choose to kill and eat fish, even though we don’t need to, you are contributing to speciesism, and you cannot condemn the killing and consumption of other animals, such as dogs and cats, in Eastern countries.

    Fish Alternatives

    Videos / documentaries

    Conclusion

    1. Fish are alive, sentient, and can feel pain.

    2. We don’t need to eat them, and there are many alternatives.

    3. The fishing industry involves slavery, kills many creatures as ‘by-catch’, and pollutes the ocean.

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