Cruel treatment
There is strong evidence that fish can feel pain and even show fear. Virtually every fish caught in commercial fishing dies from suffocation. Fish caught in deep waters suffer even more: when they are on the surface, depressurization can lead to rupture of their internal organs.
One of the fundamental concepts in the field of animal rights is “speciesism”. This is the idea that people often see certain animals as unworthy of sympathy. Simply put, people can sympathize with a cute and cute furry animal, but not with an unsympathetic animal that does not make them feel warm. The most common victims of vidism are chickens and fish.
There are many reasons why people tend to treat fish with such indifference. The main one, perhaps, is that because fish live underwater, in a habitat different from ours, we rarely see or think about them. Cold-blooded scaly animals with glassy eyes, the essence of which is unclear to us, simply do not cause compassion in people.
And yet, research has shown that fish are intelligent, able to show empathy and feel pain. All this became known relatively recently, and until 2016, dedicated to this book was not published. , published in the journal Nature in 2017, showed that fish rely on social interaction and community to cope with stressful situations.
Harm to the environment
Fishing, in addition to the suffering it causes for underwater inhabitants, is a global threat to the oceans. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “more than 70% of the world’s fish species are systematically exploited”. Fishing fleets around the world are upsetting the delicate balance of the underwater world and destroying ecosystems that have existed since prehistoric times.
Moreover, fraud and mislabeling are widespread in the seafood industry. One from UCLA found that 47% of sushi purchased in Los Angeles was mislabeled. The fisheries industry has consistently failed to comply with catch limits and human rights standards.
Raising fish in captivity is no more sustainable than captive trapping. Many farmed fish are genetically modified and are fed a diet laced with high doses of antibiotics. And as a result of fish being kept in overcrowded underwater cages, fish farms are often rife with parasites.
Among other things, it is worth remembering such a phenomenon as bycatch – this term means underwater animals that accidentally fall into fishing nets, and then they are usually thrown back into the water already dead. Bycatch is widespread in the fishing industry and preys on turtles, seabirds and porpoises. The shrimp industry sees up to 20 pounds of by-catch for every pound of shrimp caught.
Harm to health
On top of that, there is clear evidence that eating fish is bad for health.
Fish can accumulate high levels of mercury and carcinogens such as PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls). As the world’s oceans become more polluted, eating fish is fraught with more and more health problems.
In January 2017, The Telegraph newspaper: “Scientists warn that seafood lovers ingest up to 11 tiny pieces of plastic every year.”
Given the fact that plastic pollution is only increasing daily, the risk of seafood pollution is also expected to increase.