Sardine Chic Needs a Rethink: You Can Make Waves for Sardines
This summer, the fashion industry is flooded with sardines! From sardine-beaded bags to sardine dresses, the tiny fish is making a splash. But before diving into this style wave, ensure your fashion statement isn’t harmful to fish.
Are Sardines in Style? How to Make a Compassionate Fashion Statement
While wearing animal-themed clothes can be a fun and compassionate choice, avoid items that trivialize or commodify animals. It’s best to skip sardine motifs that show fish in a tin or on a plate, even if the item is made with vegan materials. Wearing clothes that show fish in tins or depict them as items instead of individuals perpetuates speciesism, the misguided belief that one species is more important than another. Every animal is someone. Instead of wearing clothes featuring tinned fish, embrace designs that show living sardines or opt for sardine-inspired outfits by donning vibrant silvers, greens, and blues to match their beautiful scales.
Sardines are master communicators and synchronizers. Neuromasts, made up of tiny nerve endings, allow sardines to sense vibrations and movements in the water. Sardines use this special sense to coordinate with the thousands of other fish in their school to swim as one fluid body that gracefully glides through the ocean.
Sardines are often stolen from their ocean homes by trawlers—enormous bag-shaped nets pulled along the ocean floor, capturing everything in their path. These nets rip hundreds of tons of fish out of the ocean. When hauled out of the water, surviving fish, shrimp, and other sea animals undergo excruciating decompression. The fishing industry kills more fish each year than all other animals used for food combined.
Make Waves for Sardines: What to Do When You See Sardine-Themed Fashion
Don’t just swim by if you spot someone sporting sardine earrings or carrying a tinned fish purse. Politely strike up a conversation and share why you love sardines as individuals. Explain that sardines are communicative, curious, community-oriented fish who deserve to live in their ocean home. Your kind words might inspire them to rethink how they view fish, fashion, and food.
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