Do fish feel pain? Yes. Fishes and other marine animals have a nervous system that is designed to process pain signals. In addition, fishes behave in ways that exhibit pain when they are subjected to stimuli that would cause physical pain to any other animal, including humans. In this video we can see the evident suffering of a fish caused by the fish-meat industry.

Fishes and all other marine animals are complex animals with distinctive personalities. They have social structures, they recognize individuals and nurture relationships (including with humans at times), and most importantly- they feel. Not only pain, but also joy, care, stress, concern, fear, excitement and so much more.

According to studies and FAO numbers, it is estimated that each year 970 - 2,700 billion fishes are caught in the wild, of which about a third to a half are used for fish oil or fishmeal. Omega 3 can be easily obtained from flaxseeds, chia seeds, walnuts or algae. Fishmeal (from ground up fish bones) is mostly used to feed farmed animals who are themselves abused for meat, dairy or eggs.

In addition to this, we kill around 37-120 billion farmed fishes every year, mostly for fish-meat consumption. It is also estimated that we kill about 170-400 billion farmed Decapod crustaceans. The number of sea animals we torture is overwhelming and the damage we are doing to the ocean and its other inhabitants is outrageous. However, the good news is that each and every one of us can choose to stop contributing to these industries.