In the aquaculture industry, over 167 billion individual fishes are bred and then killed for food every year. These figures do not include over 604 billion invertebrates like crustaceans that are also bred and eventually killed.
March 25th, 2023 is the World Day for the End of Fishing. Created in
2017 in Switzerland by the association Pour l’Égalité Animale this
day sees participation from animal advocacy organizations all over
the world to call for an end to fishing and aquaculture farms.
As part of this initiative, Animal Ethics calls for the abolition of
fishing and aquatic farms because it inflicts death and suffering on
sentient beings. The scale is enormous and still growing, and we
must try to end it before it spreads further.
The scale of fishing
Fishes, crustaceans, and cephalopods make up the largest group of
animals that are killed each year for food. Estimates suggest that
up to 2.3 trillion individual animals of all species are killed
annually.
In addition to fishes, massive fishing operations target decapod
crustaceans like crabs, crayfishes, shrimps and lobsters. Octopuses,
squids, cuttlefish and other cephalopods are caught and killed as
part of intensive fishing operations.
The process of capturing fishes is traumatic, stressful, and causes
injuries if not immediate death. Some animals are trapped under the
weight of thousands of other fishes, causing them to suffocate, some
get impaled in fishing hooks when used as bait or when caught. Some
have their organs implode due to changes in pressure when they are
taken from the depths of the ocean.
Even if they make it through all of this, they eventually are
“processed”, frozen alive, cooked, or eaten while still alive and
conscious.
Huge numbers of invertebrates also go through immense suffering
during fishing operations when they are scooped up in huge nets and
left to die in immense pain on fishing boats. More than 400,000
trawlers from 65 countries catch 1.3 tonnes of shrimps that are
caught and killed annually. This equates to trillions of individual
animals. Due to their small size, these animals are consumed in much
higher numbers.
Aquaculture industry
Another area of growing concern is the quickly advancing aquaculture
industry. It is estimated that 167 billion individual fishes are
bred and then killed for food every year. These figures do not
include over 604 billion invertebrates like crustaceans that are
also bred and eventually killed.
Invertebrates like shrimps, crabs, lobsters, octopuses, squids, and
crayfish are increasingly being bred in intensive fish farms.
largely because it is being pushed as a sustainable alternative to
fishing in the open seas. But this means that far more individuals
will suffer. Looking at the issue of fishing in terms of
sustainability misses the most crucial factor: the wellbeing of the
victims of the practice.
Because of the nature of this kind of farming, the animals are
vulnerable to diseases which are often excruciatingly painful and
very often lethal. These diseases also spread to wild sea animals,
causing even more suffering. The antibiotics used to treat the
diseases often end up causing side effects.
These animals are sentient
There is evidence as acknowledged by the Cambridge Declaration on
Consciousness and various behavioral studies that show fishes and
many invertebrates are sentient. This means they have the capacity
to feel pain and suffering as well as joy. Invertebrates like
crustaceans meet many of the physical, neurophysiological, and
behavioral criteria that are associated with sentience.
Despite this knowledge, every year trillions of aquatic animals are
killed because of human disregard for their wellbeing. The fact that
they are counted in tons rather than individuals indicates not only
the scale of the operations but also the degree of disregard for the
animals themselves. These are individual beings who are being harmed
and killed.
There is no reasonable justification
Many justifications are used by humans as excuses to continue
causing these harms. These arguments are based on factors such as
mere species membership, size, habitat, or lack of human-like
intelligence. Such differences are irrelevant to the wellbeing of
these animals. Disregarding their interests is simply speciesist
discrimination.
We know it’s unfair to discriminate against human individuals based
on the color of their skin, their gender, or their cognitive
capacities, but simply due to the fact that humans have the ability
to feel pain and pleasure. We now know that fishes and many other
aquatic animals can feel and suffer too. Let’s give them the same
consideration.
We must use this opportunity to spread this message on a wider scale
to elicit change now and prevent future suffering for the many
individual aquatic animals who will exist in the future.