Written by PETA
Do you know what you're seeing when you look at seafood? It seems that most of us don't. When Consumer Reports tested 190 different samples of fish from restaurants and stores, they found that more than 20 percent were being marketed as something other than what they actually were. A similar investigation by the Boston Globe found that as much as 48 percent of fish flesh is mislabeled.
The findings will no doubt dismay people who try to buy only species of fish that they think are sustainable. But "sustainable" is simply a marketing buzzword that the seafood industry likes to use. Eating any fish at all contributes to the decimation of the ocean's ecosystem.
© Alaska Fisheries Science Center
The massive nets and long-lines used by factory fishing trawlers are indiscriminate in what types of fish they catch, and fishers simply toss overboard the dead or dying dolphins, sea turtles, and other "bycatch" they don't want. Farmed fish such as salmon and sea bass are often carnivorous, so many pounds of wild fish must be caught to feed those on farms.
Whether the label on the package matches the fish under the cellophane, one thing we can be sure of is that the flesh we are eating came from an intelligent animal with a unique personality who did not want to be gutted alive or suffocated. If we can eat faux fish, such as Vegieworld's codfish, salmon, shrimp, and tuna, that tastes the same, is free of harmful toxins like mercury and PCBs, and doesn't claim any animals' lives, why not?
Written by Michelle Sherrow
Forty-thousand young salmon are swimming free in San Francisco Bay this week after someone cut the netting of their cramped holding pens.
© Robert Koopmans | iStockphoto.com
The salmon were being held in 25-foot-by-16-foot-by-8-foot pens, and with 20,000 to a pen, this means that there were more than six 10-inch fish per cubic foot. Fish kept in such crowded conditions often suffer from severe injuries, and in such filthy conditions they are also susceptible to parasites that can eat their faces down to the bone. On fish farms, as many as 40 percent of the fish die before they are even scheduled for slaughter.
Farming salmon—for commercial use or for enhanced angling opportunities—also depletes the ocean of other fish. It can take more than 5 pounds of ocean fish to produce just 1 pound of salmon.
Do fish a favor, and leave them in the water where they belong. Enjoy a day on a boat or hiking near a creek without hurting animals, and leave fish off your plate with delicious faux-seafood recipes.
Written by Heather Faraid Drennan
In just three months, 180 sea lions and seals off the coast of Canada have lost their lives because they had the audacity to eat fish that farmers wanted to kill themselves. Many were shot by Canadian fish farmers, who are allowed to shoot animals who try to scoop a fish or two out of massive ocean-based aquafarms. The rest died from drowning when they became entangled in the aquafarms' nets. We don't even have a guess as to how many birds were killed for daring to try to take a fish.
sly06 | cc by 2.0
The human taste for fish has exhausted the oceans to the point that 90 percent of large fish populations have been exterminated in the past 50 years. Fish farms only exacerbate the problem because it takes several pounds of wild-caught fish (used for feed) to produce 1 pound of farmed fish. Fewer fish in the ocean means fewer fish for seals and sea lions to eat, so is it any wonder that they are attracted to fish farm "all-you-can-eat buffets"?
Our neighbors to the north aren't the only ones who want to keep all the fish for themselves. A bill in Congress would allow the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service to shoot any sea lion caught eating endangered salmon from the Columbia River. Ironically, humans, who are the ones responsible for dwindling salmon numbers, can continue to eat all the salmon they want.
The real solution to the depletion of salmon stocks is considerably less violent: Stop eating fish. And ask your representatives not to support any legislation that promotes killing sea lions.
A new bill in Congress would allow the National Marine Fisheries Service to shoot any sea lion they spot doing the unthinkable—eating. When salmon migrate up the Columbia River from Oregon to Washington, some sea lions use the opportunity to grab a couple of meals. That doesn't sit well with anglers and the fishing industry, who want to grab more than a couple, so both states started "removing" the sea lions in 2007 until a lawsuit filed by animal protectionists put a stop to those shenanigans. Now sea lions are facing the firing squad again, although human beings are still allowed to catch salmon from the Columbia River.
Salmon have been driven to the brink of extinction not by sea lions but by humans, who continue to gobble up fish despite the widespread collapse of fish populations. During the past 50 years, 90 percent of fish populations worldwide have been decimated, thanks to the increasing use of factory fishing trawlers that vacuum up everything—and everyone—in their path. It is estimated that the oceans' fish stocks will be completely depleted by 2050. Fish farms aren't the answer, either, since it takes 5 pounds of wild-caught fish to produce 1 pound of farmed fish and the pollution and cruelty of these factory fish farms are now well known.
You can help by keeping salmon and other fish off your plate and by contacting your legislators and asking them not to support legislation allowing the killing of sea lions.
Two fish-farm managers have been charged with cruelty to animals after thousands of fish were found dead at a Scottish salmon farm. Authorities and the Scottish SPCA are investigating what appears to be a case of chemical poisoning. Unfortunately, cruelty is common on fish farms, and in the U.S., there are no regulations to ensure the humane treatment of fish.
To increase their bottom line, fish farmers cram as many fish as possible into extremely small enclosures. Injuries, parasitic infestations, and diseases are common. To keep the fish from dying in these horrible conditions, farmers lace their food with powerful chemicals and antibiotics, which people who eat the fish ingest in turn.
In fish-slaughter plants, fish are completely conscious while their gills are cut, and they are left to bleed to death, convulsing in pain. Large fish, such as salmon, are sometimes bashed on the head with a bat, and many are injured but still alive and suffering when they are cut open.
Fish are playful, social animals, much like kittens. Find out more about the hidden lives of sea kittens and how you can help keep them in the oceans and off people's plates.
PETA created a Top 10 Reasons Not to Eat Salmon list a couple years ago. With the report of a man contending that he got a 9-foot (!!!) tapeworm after eating undercooked salmon hitting the news cycle, it looks like it's time for the list to be updated.
In a lawsuit filed on Monday, a man said he ordered salmon salad for lunch from Shaw's Crab House in Chicago in 2006 and fell violently ill. He later passed the giant (three yard sticks long!!!) parasite, which a pathologist determined came from undercooked fish, such as, yes, salmon.
So, which current top reason not to eat salmon does a 9-foot (!!!) tapeworm knock off? The Environmental Working Group estimates that 800,000 people in the U.S. face an excess lifetime cancer risk from eating farmed salmon. Would you rather have cancer or a tapeworm? Studies have also shown that children born to mothers who eat fish are slower to talk, walk, and develop fine motor skills and that they have weaker memories and shorter attention spans (fish collect toxins). Hmm … brain damage or tapeworms? Tough choices ahead!
Oh, wait! Sorry for making a big deal about the fact that the tapeworm was 9 feet long. It turns out that tapeworms can measure up to 50 feet long. So I guess 9 feet is nothing to worry about. No big deal.
Take a look at our original Top 10 Reasons Not to Eat Salmon list here, and let me know what you think about this whole, um, adventure.
Written by Joel Bartlett
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