A Fin-tastic Oppor-tuna-ty! Biloxi Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum Nets Offer to Display PETA’s Famous Fish Empathy Quilt

For Immediate Release:
September 2, 2025

Contact:
Alex Payne 202-483-7382

Ahead of Fish Amnesty Day (September 27), which reminds everyone that fish should be respected, not killed, PETA sent a letter today to new Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum Executive Director Brandon Boudreaux with a krilliant offer to start his tenure off with a wave of compassion by displaying PETA’s historic, one-of-a-kind Fish Empathy Quilt to counterbalance the museum’s seafood industry-centric displays.

The Fish Empathy Quilt measures more than 300 square feet and is made up of more than 100 unique, handcrafted squares from names including cartoonist Harry Bliss and oceanographic explorer and film producer Jean-Michel Cousteau. PETA’s quilt has made quite a splash around the country, including a monthlong stay at Eureka City Hall in California.

“Imagine getting stabbed through your sensitive mouth, yanked from your home, and being left to asphyxiate or impaled and gutted while you’re still fully conscious,” says PETA President Tracy Reiman. “This horrific fate happens to trillions of individuals every year, which is why PETA urges everyone to see marine animals for who they are and please, go vegan.”

A recent study found that fish can experience disabling and even excruciating pain for at least 10 minutes—and, in some cases, for over an hour—before their brains shut down and they become unconscious. Fish Amnesty Day was launched in 1997 and is celebrated annually on the fourth Saturday in September to promote compassion for marine life.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness and free vegan starter kits for anyone thinking of making the switch. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.

PETA’s letter to Boudreaux follows.

September 2, 2025

Brandon Boudreaux

Executive Director

Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum

Dear Mr. Boudreaux:

Good tidings! I’m writing on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals—PETA entities have more than 10.4 million members and supporters worldwide—first, to congratulate you on your new position. We’d also like to offer, on loan, a thought-provoking, historically significant, and downright fintastic item to your museum ahead of Fish Amnesty Day: the world’s first and only Fish Empathy Quilt.

While the quilt may seem unorthodox compared to other memorabilia in the museum, we believe that as the new executive director, you have the opportunaty to bring a fresh perspective and make changes for the better. PETA’s quilt is a vibrant, creative depiction of compassion for fish and other marine life. It features more than 100 unique squares contributed by individuals from around the world. It consists of six sections of varying dimensions, which can be displayed separately or clipped together as one large quilt of over 300 square feet.

It’s ofishal: People are becoming concerned about the unsustainable global fishing industry, and so the market for vegan seafood (and there are now even vegan caviar and shrimp!) is projected to reach $1.3 billion in the next few years. Fish suffer enormously when they’re dragged from their homes in nets or impaled with hooks and suffocated or stabbed and gutted alive. Many fish are killed by asphyxiation, and studies show that fish can experience up to 22 minutes of intense pain with this method—even though they, just like dogs and cats or you and me, have individual personalities. They communicate with each other, show affection, and are extremely resourceful. More and more people are realizing that fish deserve to be treated with kindness, and PETA’s Fish Empathy Quilt beautifully reflects this awareness.

Your museum is missing one thing, and we’d gladly fill that gap! We’d love to loan our quilt as a special temporary display at the Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum and would invite our members and the public to see it. It would be the perfect way to shellebrate Fish Amnesty Day, which is observed annually on the fourth Saturday in September to remind people that every fish should be respected. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Thank you for your consideration.

Very truly yours,

Ingrid Newkirk

Founder