Create a campaign that supports PETA's mission to sensitize humans to the plight of allanimals killed for food, including fish.

Fish Sentience

Fish are intelligent animals who feel pain just as dogs and cats do. Neurobiologists havelong recognized that fish have nervous systems that comprehend and respond to pain. Fishand Fisheries cited more than 500 research papers on fish intelligence, includingdocumentation that fish use tools, have impressive long-term memories, and maintainsophisticated social structures. Fish develop relationships and show affection by gentlyrubbing against each other. They have individual personalities, communicate with eachother, and grieve when their companions die. There are no regulations to ensure thehumane treatment of fish, and when they are pulled from the water, they undergoexcruciating decompression. The survivors are then slowly suffocated, frozen, hacked apartwhile they are still conscious, or crushed by the weight of other animals.

Environmental Concerns

Today's commercial fishers use vast "factory" trawlers the size of football fields andadvanced electronic equipment and satellite communications to track fish. Huge netsstretch across wide swaths of ocean, swallowing up everything and everyone, includingturtles, sea birds, and dolphins. Ninety percent of large fish populations have beenexterminated in the past 50 years, and a report published in the journal Science estimatesthat by the year 2048, our oceans will have been completely depleted.

Fish Farming

Fish farms wreak havoc on the surrounding ecosystems. Contaminants from ocean-basedfarms, such as enormous amounts of fish excrement, dead fish, swarms of parasites, anduneaten food laden with antibiotics, regularly seep into open waters. Non-native farmedfish also frequently escape from the enclosures, competing with native fish for food anddisrupting gene pools. Severe crowding on fish farms causes injuries and major stress to theanimals, leading to outbreaks of disease, including parasites that consume the flesh of livefish to the bone. Fish are often deprived of food for days or even weeks leading up toslaughter in order to reduce waste contamination of the water during transport. Some fishare killed without being stunned. Their bodies are cut open, and they are left to bleed todeath. Other fish are killed by simply draining water away from them so that they slowlysuffocate.