Got into a ‘discussion’ with my husband about this last night. I asked if that was fish the chef was cooking on the Food Network and he said, “No, it’s a show about meat.”
Me: Fish is meat.
Him: No it isn’t.
Me: It’s the flesh of an animal, how is it not meat?
Him: Because it’s fish!
So. . . is fish meat? How do you define what meat is?
I suppose it is a matter of semantics. Fish is, well, fish meat, but not red meat. Fish is an animal, but I am not well-informed enough on fish anatomy to argue whether fish muscle is as “meaty” as cow muscle.
To a vegan, the answer is “yes, fish is meat”, to a carnivore, the answer may be “it ain’t steak”.
Can’t help but re-live my college days with The Smiths
Being of a non-Catholic persuasion, fish flesh is meat by my standards.
Meat comes from any form of life that takes in oxygen, and gives off carbon dioxide.
I could get into a long diatribe about silly religious dogmas, but this ain’t the place.
This reminds me of conversations with people who insist fish and birds aren’t “animals” - meaning, I presume, they’re not mammals.
It’s the flesh of an animal - therefore it’s meat.
Interesting, because plants do that too. 
Would you call oysters a meat? Of course fish - anatomically speaking - is meat. But in culinary convention fish is something different than meat (understood as mammal muscle). Actually, sometimes poultry is not included into meats. So first get your standpoint right (culinary tradition, anatomy or your own opinion) and then argue whether it’s meat or no.
A steak is meat, a chicken breast is meat, esgargot is meat, a fillet of fish is meat, spinach? Not meat.
If it is green it is either not meat or meat past it’s expiry date. Fish is absolutely meat!
Well now, I thought I made my standpoint perfectly clear. Fish is the flesh of an animal, so it is meat.
Lemme ask you from the culinary tradition, if fish isn’t meat then what is it?
:dubious: Cite?
Plants consume CO[sub]2[/sub], and give off O[sub]2[/sub]…
I would call oysters very yummy sea flavoured meat!
Fish isn’t considered to be meat under the Jewish dietary laws. Fish are different enough from mammals that they need not be ritually slaughtered.
of course fish is meat.
only when they’re making food. plants need to breathe too.
meat at the farm!
Yes. Shellfish is meat, as far as I’m concerned.
Any categories we apply could be argued to be arbitrary, of course, but animal flesh=meat is where the accusation is least likely to stick.
Classifying fish as ‘not meat’ just doesn’t seem a very useful distinction (unless it’s a case of coercing your ethical/religious dietary restrictions to mean what you would prefer them to mean - in which case it’s useful, but not really very truthful.
Exactly. Reminds me of the bio professor asking one of his students to define a mammal, and on getting the answer “erm… covered with hair… gives milk…” said crisply “So far, you haven’t eliminated the coconut”. 
During Lent? Not meat.
Back when I was a vegetarian? Meat.
Depends on context, I guess. From any biological standpoint, I’d definitely call it meat. From most other views, I wouldn’t. If someone said “My doctor says I need to lay off the meat”, I wouldn’t assume he’s including fish in that.
Some meat sources are argued to not be meat, because some people want to get around religious restrictions, and eat meat when their not supposed to. Fish, snail lobster is all a meat if the part your eating is the flesh.
Meat = muscle and or some organ tissue to me. When it comes to fish, trout may not seem like “meat” but ahi tuna and swordfish sure do, at least to my palate. However liver seems like “meat” to me and it’s not muscle.
So I’m going with “meat” = Animal based protein.
Well, if they hadn’t suffocated first, you might have had to slaughter them. How about whale meat? Not sure how they kill whales, but if they were drowned them as opposed to slaughtering them, would they be meat…or vegetable…or something else?
I’m not trying to be rude, just wondering.
No, it isn’t. At least to a lot of people from a number of cultures. A phrase like “Neither fish nor flesh nor good red herring” doesn’t just pop up because people like the sounds.