You know, the vegetarian thread below got me thinking. I know so many people who are won’t eat beef, chicken or pork for “moral” reasons, but who have no problem eating seafood. The same people would recoil in horror at the thought of eating venison or other wild game.
Look, fish are wild animals, and in spite of what you might think, they are in limited supply. With commercial fishing techniques and growing demand for seafood, fish populations are crashing around the world.
When the early English explorers came through the Grand Banks (Grand Bank?), they noted with astonishment that you could simply lower a basket into the water there and bring it up full of fish. I read a while back that the Grand Banks has been closed or severely resticted for commercial fishing (I forget which) because there are so few fish left there. The story is the same everywhere. Now, fishermen are going after species which used to be considered “trash fish”.
For my money, people who avoid meat for ethical reasons ought to be even more concerned about eating seafood. I have pretty much stopped eating anything except farmed fish, though I have no qualms about eating a big ol’ steak.
It depends on the “ethical reasons” for avoiding meat, does it not? If one avoids meat because there is essentially no way to consume it without supporting the slaughterhouse industry, and it is that industry’s ethics that one opposes, there is no ethical barrier to fish consumption if the fishery industry does not engage in similar practices.
If, on the other hand, one’s “ethical reason” is that it is wrong to cause the death of a sentient (however defined) being for one’s own consumption, than yes, a person would probably be more consistent if s/he were a vegan. Most people I know who hold this view are in fact vegans.
I know of no one who avoids meat because of a concern for de-populating the cows.
Finally, many vegetarians avoid meat not for any ethical reason at all, but rather for personal health reasons. So avoiding fish is irrelevant if the person believes fish to be healthy.
Regarding overfishing, there seems to have been overfishing of many fresh-water and near-shore salt-water fish in the past 50 years. But a) the jury is still out on this subject, as there are other factors in play (such as pollution, weather variations and the like) and b) farmed fish are starting to make up the difference.
I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids!
There are many different types of vegetarians, some eat fish, some eat foul, etc. There are fruitarians who only eat fruit and I think there are some people that only eat seeds. There are breatharians who eat nothing.
Macrobiotic diet No. 7 is only rice, to each his own.
For moi? I ALWAYS look for the tuna that isn’t dolphin free. I think it has better flavor. Just kidding!
Good points, and maybe my post wasn’t a shining example of cogent logic. I guess my point is that many people who avoid meat for ethical reasons (whatever the specifics of their ethical concerns may be) tend to be folks who are also deeply concerned about environmental issues. To me, the destruction of the oceans’ wildlife populations (and not just “cute” dolphins) is a subject which is not getting enough media play, and is something we need to think about. Let’s all eat some good old farm-raised catfish!
I’ve tried to stop eating clams & scallops due to the habitat destruction caused by harvesting the beds. For those that are looking for farmed fish, I believe that Tilapia is/can be farm raised and is very tasty (IMO).
A point in every direction is like no point at all
Don’t know about fish feeling pain, but my theory has always been that because fish can’t vocalize their pain, people assume they don’t feel it. In other words, if fish could scream, there would be a lot fewer people eating fish. Just a theory…
“If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? Maybe we would, if they screamed all the time, for no reason at all.” -Jack Handey
Tracer may have a point there… fish sticks today hardly resemble the ones I remember from years ago. I’m not even tempted to eat one today. It looks like fake fish flakes.
I don’t know either whether or not fish feel pain, but I certainly remember my ex mother-in-law commenting on how she always felt sorry for the lobsters when she first placed them into the boiling water. She said she could hear their brief cries, but she loved eating them anyway.
Needless to say, I’ll never bring home a live lobster.
I agree that farmed fish (or seafood) would be the way to go.
You can stand tall without standing on someone. You can be a victor without having victims. -Harriet Woods-
Manhattan nailed the essential points. A vegetarian friend ate fish, and was constantly ribbed for eating “swimming vegetables”. Of course there’s the old saw about not eating anything with eyes, but some wag will mention spuds.
I’m a limited carnivore, i.e. eat meat in small quantities, but never met seafood I didn’t love. That said, I will not order swordfish due to overfishing. Most red meat is farmed, and some fish can be farmed with varying success. Cultivated salmon does not taste like wild salmon, but is that slight taste difference worth destruction of a (delicious) species?
I know that anthropomorphic biases have no place in ethics, but gotta say I have just don’t have the gut level (arf!) reaction to shellfish that I do to warm furry mammals I saw in kiddie books. Dumping a live lobster in boiling water gave me pause, a la Woody Allen–but heck, I got over it and did the lemon-and-melted butter with messy gusto anyway.
I’m not saying that this is easily defensible in any ethical sense. But my dietary qualms are pretty much limited to supply and demand. My loving the taste of other critters doesn’t translate into the right to eat them into extinction.
On rereading that, I think I’ll go nosh down on a PB&J.
