# Do vegetarians eat seafood? Isn't seafood considered meat? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 1, 2003, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-vegetarians-eat-seafood-isnt-seafood-considered-meat/204909 "2003-10-01T13:03:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-vegetarians-eat-seafood-isnt-seafood-considered-meat/204909/22 "2015-11-23T01:57:46Z")
FYI, this is a 12 year old thread. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-vegetarians-eat-seafood-isnt-seafood-considered-meat/204909/23 "2015-11-23T02:53:20Z")
> [@veggie\_lover](#): > > typically vegetarians don’t eat seafood. Veganism is the best to go if you are trying to avoid all animal products (including fish) There a lot of great vegan recipes out there. Here are some great resources… I reported this as a spam bump, but that’s offensive. I should’ve called it a tofu bump. ---
**Author:** ![yawuntz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a5b964/32.png) [@yawuntz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yawuntz)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-vegetarians-eat-seafood-isnt-seafood-considered-meat/204909/24 "2015-11-23T03:01:35Z")
Sea cucumbers should be ok. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-vegetarians-eat-seafood-isnt-seafood-considered-meat/204909/25 "2015-11-23T03:33:17Z")
> [@alterego](#): > > I am a vegetarian and I do not eat sea-food. The kind you are referring to are called _near-vegetarians_. > [@treis](#): > > Isn’t this why the word pescatarian was born? Right. > [@alterego](#): > > I am an octo-lavo vegetarian. I’m an ovo-lacto-carno-pesco vegetarian. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-vegetarians-eat-seafood-isnt-seafood-considered-meat/204909/26 "2015-11-23T06:01:58Z")
> [@TaxGuy](#): > > The real answer is as follows: there is no canonical definition of the terms “vegetarian” or “vegan,” so anyone can eat whatever the hell they want and then call themselves one of these things, and they won’t be “wrong” or anything. I know I am responding to a very old post, but I want to correct this frequently-repeated misunderstanding. There may not be a canonical definition of “vegetarian,” but the term vegan was coined by a specific man, Donald Watson, and indeed has a specific definition. Other people are free to coin and define their own words, but please stop pretending “vegan” doesn’t have an explicit, known definition, even if some people use it confusingly. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-vegetarians-eat-seafood-isnt-seafood-considered-meat/204909/27 "2015-11-23T06:13:46Z")
(elegiac) Ah, 2003! We were all so young and stupid! ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-vegetarians-eat-seafood-isnt-seafood-considered-meat/204909/28 "2015-11-23T08:03:43Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > FYI, this is a 12 year old thread. Shame. I wanted to point out that if the following means anything at all: > [@alterego](#): > > …I am an octo-lavo vegetarian… -it means ‘a vegetarian who washes eight times’. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-vegetarians-eat-seafood-isnt-seafood-considered-meat/204909/29 "2015-11-23T21:37:43Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > I know I am responding to a very old post, but I want to correct this frequently-repeated misunderstanding. There may not be a canonical definition of “vegetarian,” but the term vegan was coined by a specific man, Donald Watson, and indeed has a specific definition. Other people are free to coin and define their own words, but please stop pretending “vegan” doesn’t have an explicit, known definition, even if some people use it confusingly. The horse has already left the barn on that. Watson himself defined it two different ways (dietary and lifestyle/ethics), and it has been used that way continually ever since. Quite a lot of people are only on a vegan diet and do not agree with the tenets of veganism. Others argue over what qualifies as “exploiting” animals. It’s actually quite rare that the person who coins a term gets his definition respected–especially when describing a belief system. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-vegetarians-eat-seafood-isnt-seafood-considered-meat/204909.md?page=1)