The Fishing Industry
The Greatest Animal Welfare Scandal of Our Time?
An Animal Aid report looking at the impact of eating fish on animal
welfare, human health and the environment
Introduction
The warnings related to the ocean and farmed fishing industries are
coming faster and harder. Species that were once plentiful are being
eliminated. Mechanised fishing technologies are also taking their toll
on vast numbers of bystander marine animals who are hooked, netted and
dredged from the ocean floor as 'accidental' victims. Meanwhile, we
treat the world's oceans as dumping grounds for our toxic effluent and
imagine that the waste is out of harm's way because it is out of
sight.
Can fish taken from this environment be the supremely healthy and
wholesome 'brain food' portrayed in official nutritional guides? Or is
fish meat fundamentally compromised by the presence of chemicals
linked to cancer and birth defects? Then there are the salmon and
trout factory farms with their enfeebled, lice-infested inmates
swimming in the murk in endless circles. Do their lives matter?
This special Animal Aid report brings together - in succinct,
bullet-point style - key data and observations about the
environmental, human health and animal welfare dimensions of the
fishmeat industry. It is the plight of the fish themselves that, until
now, has received precious little attention. The first thing to note
is that there is now a scientific consensus recognisingthat fish are
sentient creatures. The government's own advisory body on farming (the
Farm Animal Welfare Council) stated in a 1996 report on fish farming
that fish have all the nerve chemicals and cell receptors necessary to
experience pain and stress. FAWC based this finding on a comprehensive
review of the scientific literature. A great deal of additional
evidence for fish sentience has come forward since.
Given the methods used to catch, haul in and kill ocean fish - all of
them ungoverned by any welfare code - the question can reasonably be
posed: does ocean fishing represent the greatest animal welfare
scandal of our time? Farmed fish fare no better. Welfare protocols
have been committedto paper but these still allow as many as 50,000
fish to be confined in crowded cages, swimming in water that is filthy
from their own waste. They are killed by a variety of brutal methods,
such as being clubbed, gassed and asphyxiated. Some are gutted alive.
Others have their gills cut and bleed to death.
The Dutch seem to be leading the way in pondering the question of fish
suffering and how to minimise it. Killing experiments - carried out on
behalf of the government, the fish industry and an animal welfare body
- found that after being gutted, 25-65 minutes elapsed before fish
were 'insensible' - that is to say, incapable of feeling pain. In the
case of asphyxiation, the time interval was 55-250 minutes.
Champions of fish meat regard, as their strongest suit, the product's
alleged health benefits. In particular, there is the omega-3 issue -
this being an important polyunsaturated fat found in oily fish such as
herring, mackerel and fresh tuna. However, not only is up to 30% of
the fat presentin oily fish of the unhealthy, saturated variety, but -
according to an expert in the field - vegetarians and vegans can meet
all their omega-3 requirements from soybeans (including soya milk and
tofu), walnuts, rapeseed oil, flaxseed and dark green vegetables such
as spinach. (See pages 14 & 15)
At the end of 2005, European Union countries squandered an opportunity
to set meaningful fishing quotas that would have provided breathing
space for species such as cod and blue whiting - the latter being the
staple food of Europe's salmon farms. Whenever action is proposed,
those who make their living from catching fish claim their position
will be dangerouslycompromised, even though present practices are
themselves leading the industry to oblivion. Equally, the public is
being persuaded that fish can remain on the chip shop menu and on
supermarket counters and nothing very much need change. But reality
beckons.
This report demonstrates that the ocean and farmed fishing industries
hurt the seas, pollute freshwater lochs, are nutritionally dubious and
represent an animal welfare nightmare.
http://www.animalaid.org.uk/veggie/fish.htm
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