Barangaroo – A group of “fish” wearing blue body paint and wrapped in netting lay on Barangaroo Wharf this morning, just days ahead of the Sydney Fish Market’s 36-Hour Seafood Marathon, known as the “festive frenzy”, during which tonnes of aquatic animals are sold for human consumption.
“The ‘festive frenzy’ is a 36-hour representation of the hell on Earth endured by fish who are netted, dragged out of their aquatic homes, and cut open, all so that their flesh can be sold to consumers,” says PETA spokesperson Emily Rice. “This festive period, PETA is urging everyone to extend the season of good will to fish and all other animals by choosing delicious vegan Christmas meals.”
Half of all fish consumed worldwide each year spend their lives in cramped, filthy enclosures on commercial fish farms, where they commonly suffer from parasite infections and diseases or sustain debilitating injuries. Wild-caught fish slowly suffocate or are crushed to death when they’re dragged from the oceans in huge nets – along with unintended victims, such as dolphins, turtles, seals, and others – and the throats and stomachs of those who survive are cut open on the decks of fishing boats.
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” – notes that fish feel pain, have unique personalities, can recognise human faces, and can retain memories and think ahead. Despite this, because of speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview, more fish are killed for food than any other animal – so many that they’re measured in tonnes, rather than counted as individuals.
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