We advocate on all animal protection and exploitation issues, including experimentation, factory farming, rodeos, breeders and traveling animal acts.
FROM
Ingrid Newkirk as published on
NYDailyNews.com
June 7, 2018
Hundreds of thousands of people worldwide will observe World Oceans Day
on June 8. The focus of this year's event is on preventing plastic
pollution, and it's certainly a worthy goal.
But are we missing the bigger picture? Claiming to care about fish who are
swallowing straws while we continue to eat them by the billions is a little
like donating an X-ray machine to a hospital and then going out and breaking
someone's leg.
Fish, octopuses, lobsters and other sea animals are every bit as sentient,
sensitive and in some cases as intelligent as the dogs and cats who share
our homes. They have unique personalities as well as specific likes and
dislikes. They experience pleasure and feel pain.
A banded severum who lived in an aquarium in my home first taught me this,
years ago. Every evening, this fish would position himself in the only part
of the tank that gave him a view of our family room door. He'd hover there,
watching and waiting for my husband to come home. They had developed a
routine, and the fish would loll near the top of the tank to get his back
and sides stroked. He was also particular about his décor; if you moved a
plant, he'd move it back, pulling it along with his mouth. He played games,
too — hiding and then nipping the cat's nose if she tried to drink from the
tank. This clever fish showed me that traits like the desire to enjoy life
and the ability to communicate with others are not uniquely human.
Nirvana sang “it's okay to eat fish 'cause they don't have any feelings.”
This couldn’t be further from the truth.
The ocean is full of smart, friendly individuals. An Asian sheepshead wrasse
named Yoriko has been visiting a diver in the waters off Japan's Tateyama
Bay for more than 25 years. Upon seeing the diver, the huge fish swims up
for a kiss and a gentle pat on the head. Fish are loyal, too: A brave
pufferfish refused to leave the side of his companion, who had become
trapped in a net in Thailand's Chaloklum Bay. Even when a snorkeler
approached the pair, the free pufferfish continued to stand guard. The diver
— who was with a conservation group — freed the trapped fish, and they swam
happily off together.
Octopuses use tools, and in captivity, they've been known to open childproof
jars, play with toys, deliberately short-circuit bright lights and make
daring escapes after determining that no one was watching. Like humans,
lobsters have a long childhood and an awkward adolescence. They carry their
young for nine months and can live to be more than 100 years old.
The fishing and seafood industries subject these captivating individuals to
what can only be described as torture. Octopuses and other marine animals
are routinely hacked apart and served to diners while they're still alive
and writhing in agony. Some people consider this entertainment. And lobsters
feel intense pain when they're dropped into a pot of boiling water and
cooked alive, thrashing wildly and desperately trying to escape.
Commercial fishers trawl the ocean with miles-long nets that scoop up every
living being in their paths. Fish are scraped raw by the rocks and debris
that are caught in the nets with them. Then, they're hauled out of the sea
and left — gasping for oxygen — to bleed or suffocate to death on the decks
of the ships. Their gills often collapse, and their swim bladders can
rupture because of the sudden change in pressure. Some suffer for as long as
24 hours. Thousands of "accidental" victims like turtles and birds are also
caught in these nets or snared on the baited hooks that cover 40-mile-long
"longlines" every year. The fishing industry's indiscriminate practices have
caused swordfish and marlin populations to decline by 90 percent and the
Pacific bluefin tuna's to drop 96 percent.
The ocean is beautiful and deserves to be protected. But without the
fascinating, intelligent, unique individuals who call it home, it's just a
giant mass of water. This World Oceans Day, let's pledge to protect not just
the water but all its inhabitants as well — by not eating them.
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