Fish
What Everyone Should Know About Fishing and Aquaculture
Why Should We Talk About Fish?
Billions of fish and other sea animals are killed every year for food. Research supports that fish can feel pain and stress. Fish suffer when caught and killed without effective anesthesia.
Fishing pressures fish populations and damages ocean habitats. Bottom trawling harms life on the sea floor, and fishing gear often captures unintended animals.
Fish Have Feelings
Studies on rainbow trout have shown pain receptors and changes in behavior after harm. Research on gilt-head bream indicates emotion-like states. And with one species of surgeonfish, scientists found that physical touch can reduce stress.
Sources: Sneddon et al. (2003), Sneddon (2015), Cerqueira et al. (2017) and Soares et al. (2011).
A Horrible Death
Fish can suffer prolonged pain when killed without effective anesthesia, such as suffocation out of water or bleeding out. How fast they lose consciousness depends on species and method.
When some fish are rapidly pulled up from deep water, pressure changes cause serious injuries—swim bladder expansion, bulging eyes, and stomach protruding through the mouth. Releasing them back doesn't guarantee survival. Death risk varies by species, hook location, water temperature, depth, and handling.
Sources: WOAH on anesthesia and euthanasia of farmed fish, NOAA on barotrauma and Bartholomew and Bohnsack (2005).
More Fish in the Sea?
Fishing pressures fish populations and destroys ocean habitats. Bottom trawls damage life on the seafloor, and fishing gear also traps animals it doesn’t target. Whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals, seabirds, and turtles can become bycatch.
Longline fishing uses lines stretching kilometers, carrying thousands of hooks.
Sources: Hiddink et al. (2017), NOAA on longlines and bycatch, FAO on fishing gear and Read et al. (2006).
Factory Farming
Farmed fish live under harsh conditions. Sea farms keep fish in open net cages. The waste releases nutrients, copper, and drug residues. Fish feed, like for salmon, often includes fishmeal and fish oil from wild fish.
Both stunning by blows to the head and electric immobilization can render fish unconscious if done properly. Mistakes risk fish remaining conscious during slaughter.
Sources: Environmental Protection Agency on sea farming, Study on wild fish and nutrients in salmon farming (2024) and WOAH on anesthesia and slaughter.
Recreational Fishing Is Not a Harmless Hobby
Recreational fishing is often portrayed as peaceful leisure, but catching and handling fish causes pain and stress. Hooks can wound fish, with hook placement affecting death risk.
Catch and release doesn’t guarantee survival. Death risk depends on species, hook location, water temperature, depth, and handling.
Sources: Sneddon (2015) and Bartholomew and Bohnsack (2005).
Fish are sentient beings entitled to freedom from unnecessary pain and death—even when humans exploit them for entertainment.
Crustaceans
Research supports that ten-legged crustaceans like lobsters and crabs are sentient. Boiling them alive raises serious animal rights concerns.
Source: UK Government’s Review on Crustacean Sentience (2021).
Dangerous Fish?
Some fish contain environmental pollutants like mercury. Levels vary, with large wild predators often having high levels. The Food Authority issues special advice especially for children and pregnant women.
You can get omega-3 without eating fish. Walnuts, chia seeds, and flaxseeds provide ALA. Algal oil supplies DHA and in some products EPA. The body converts limited ALA into EPA and DHA.
Sources: Food Authority on Mercury, Food Authority’s Advice on Tuna and Other Fish and NIH on Omega-3.
What You Can Do
It’s simple—you can eliminate fish and shellfish from your diet. By doing so, you will save many lives and cut profits for a global industry that harms millions of sentient beings daily and destroys our environment.
While you’re at it, why not try a plant-based diet and reject cruelty completely? Sign up for our 22-day vegan challenge at VeganerUdfordringen.dk.
Facts About Fish
In FAO's 2025 global assessment, 35.5% of marine fish stocks studied were overfished. Source: FAO (2025).
A 2024 study estimates that between 1.1 and 2.2 trillion wild fish were caught annually from 2000 to 2019. Source: Mood and Brooke (2024).
Many fish species produce sounds using muscles, swim bladders, or movements of hard body parts. These sounds serve communication. Source: Rice et al. (2022).
Whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals, seabirds, and turtles can become bycatch in fishing gear. Source: Read et al. (2006) and NOAA.