A recent Vox article
discusses a new study that claims fish can recognize faces.
Published in the Scientific
Report, the groundbreaking findings show that our finned friends are more
intelligent than you may think. Even though they lack the complex brain
structures of humans, archerfish learned to recognize human faces with
surprising accuracy.
Scientists trained them to spit water at an image of a particular
face in order to receive a food reward. They found the archerfish could
distinguish one face from 44 others with up to 81 percent accuracy.
Watch.
In a New York Times op-ed, ethologist
Jonathan Balcombe made an excellent ethical argument against eating fish:
What I’ve uncovered indicates that we grossly underestimate these fabulously diverse marine vertebrates. The accumulating evidence leads to an inescapable conclusion: Fishes think and feel.
Fish are intelligent beings capable of feeling pain. This is
no longer debated. What should be asked is whether it’s ethical to hook or net
living beings, watch as they fight for their lives, and then ruthlessly skin them alive.
It’s time we started respecting fish as the complex, sentient
creatures they are. It’s time we left them off our plates.
Click here for savory vegan seafood recipes.