In an editorial for Project Syndicate, titled “If Fish Could Scream,” Peter Singer, author of Animal Liberation, lays bare the immense suffering and pain inflicted each year by commercial fishing. Citing studies that have found the nervous systems of fish to be similar to those of birds and mammals, and behavior suggestive of pain, when fish undergo experiences that would cause other animals pain, Singer argues that if we cannot learn how to capture and kill wild fish humanely, we must find alternatives to eating them.
Singer discusses the absence of humane slaughter requirements for fish, and the consequent abuse of fish, including dumping fish caught in trawler nets on board ships to slowly suffocate, and the use of “gill nets” – fine nets in which fish become snared by the gills – leading to suffocation due to gill constriction, or hours entangled in the nets before they are pulled in.
Singer also cites a report released last month on fishcount.org.uk that reveals the staggering number of fish killed for food each year – at least one trillion, with calculations suggesting the figure could be as high as 2.7 trillion. This figure, Singer notes, does not even factor in fish accidentally caught and discarded or bait fish, impaled on hooks to catch target species.
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