Fish

Fish are sentient animals endowed with remarkable intelligence, distinct personalities, long-term memories, and a neurological and physiological capacity to suffer that is no longer in scientific doubt. Yet, they are subjected to industrial and recreational exploitation of unimaginable violence. Whether through open-sea fishing, recreational angling, or intensive farming, billions of individuals are subjected to permanent agony, mutilations, and extreme captivity conditions.

1. RECREATIONAL FISHING AND SLOW SUFFOCATION

Recreational fishing is a particularly cruel practice. With their mouths pierced by a sharp metal hook, brutally pulled out of the water, seized with convulsions, and struggling in an environment that does not allow them to breathe, they are either killed instantly or, more often, left to slowly suffocate in the open air or thrown back into the sea traumatized and sometimes fatally injured. Fish suffer excruciatingly at the hands of anglers. When taken out of the water, their gills collapse and stick together, and their swim bladder can rupture violently due to the sudden change in atmospheric pressure. This experience is terrifying for animals that possess nociceptors and intensely feel pain. The duration of their agony varies depending on the species, size, and ambient temperature, and can last from 25 minutes to over 4 hours of slow suffocation.

2. POST-CAPTURE STRESS AND INTERNAL INJURIES

Anatomically, physiologically, and biologically, the sensation of pain and the central nervous system function very similarly in fish, birds, and mammals. Behavioral studies have shown that fish caught and released (the "catch and release" practice) undergo severe physiological and biochemical stress, characterized by an explosion of cortisol and lactic acid levels, to the point that they frequently die from circulatory shock. Furthermore, fish often swallow hooks deeply. Anglers typically try to remove them from their throats by inserting their fingers or metal pliers, pulling not only on the hook but also on the gills, throat, and intestines, causing fatal internal hemorrhages. When anglers handle fish with bare hands, it destroys the fine layer of protective mucus covering their bodies that immunizes them against pathogens. All of this weakens them lastingly and makes them easy targets for predators once released back into the water.

3. ECOLOGICAL DAMAGE AND FISHING DISCARDS

Victims that are caught and released often prove unable to flee or fight off attacks on their nests during the breeding season. Some protective fathers permanently abandon their offspring after such trauma. On a larger scale, industrial fishing causes colossal devastation: for every kilo of marketable fish caught, up to 5 kilos of unintentional marine life (sea turtles, dolphins, sharks, seabirds, and non-target fish), known as bycatch, are also captured, mutilated, killed, and thrown overboard. Fish trapped in giant trawls can no longer move, and most die either from crushing and suffocation under the weight of other animals or from sudden decompression, a phenomenon that forces their stomachs and internal organs out through their mouths. They suffer unspeakable pain by suffocating in contact with the air, being dissected alive by pressure, or being rapidly cooled in ice while still conscious and agonizing. Lost or abandoned industrial fishing nets, known as "ghost fishing," account for 46% of the plastic present in the oceans and continue to blindly trap and asphyxiate millions of marine animals until death ensues.

4. INTENSIVE FISH FARMING AND SLAUGHTER METHODS

Intensive fish farming (aquaculture) involves enclosing millions of fish in floating sea cages or land-based tanks at extremely high densities, with almost no room to swim or express natural behaviors. This extreme crowding leads to constant friction, open wounds, and the rapid spread of deadly viruses, bacteria, and parasites such as sea lice. To counter these epizootics in these artificial environments, fish are routinely fed massive doses of antibiotics and chemicals. Before slaughter, virtually all farmed fish are completely deprived of food for several days or even weeks to empty their intestines for processing. The large-scale slaughter methods used are extremely violent: alongside live gutting, gill-slitting, and suffocation by lack of water, fish are frequently gassed with carbon dioxide (which causes a chemical burning sensation and panicked asphyxiation in water), beaten violently with wooden or plastic clubs, pierced in the brain using a metal spike, or mass-electrocuted to bleed out and die slowly while remaining fully conscious.