| Sea Life |
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DOLPHINS
With this method, dolphins are surrounded by huge nets (easily 1km long and about 100 metres deep) as it is assumed the Tuna are below the Dolphins – entire schools of Tuna can be caught this way, effectively also trapping and catching Dolphins as collateral damage! In the 90’s, ‘dolphin friendly’ tins of tuna began to surface, and while some companies have been responsible, others found this to be a great marketing tool, even though they didn’t practice so called Dolphin friendly methods. And while the USA defined what is Dolphin safe, it includes an annual allowable collateral damage quota of Dolphins! So the reality is there is no such thing as Dolphin friendly tuna! Gill nets are legal and are the biggest killers of Dolphins.
If you care about Dolphins, clearly, refusing to eat sea-life is the answer. There is also the issue of Dolphins in captivity; Dolphins are social and intelligent beings with advanced echolocation, which means they can ‘see’ for great distances. Locking Dolphins in the water equivalent of a dark dungeon has resulted in many suicides, where they just sink and stop breathing. As Dolphins have to want to breathe, they can just switch off, unlike humans for whom breathing is an automatic function.
FISH The most commercially abused animals on the planet, other than chickens, are fish. Most don’t consider that fish are sensitive, sentient beings and recent studies clearly indicate what many have known for a long time; fish suffer.
On an individual level, what would you think if someone caught a land animal with a baited hook, then reeled them in and drowned them? This is exactly what happens to fish.
Anyone who has ever had a fish hook stuck in their flesh knows just how painful it is, and this is no different for fish. Pain and tissue damage are intensified when double or treble hooks are used, and when the hooks are pulled out, often roughly, while fish are still alive.
Many fishermen who would never consider hunting for sport, yet quite happily grab a rod and head for the waters. Fishing, quite simply, is hunting in water. Unfortunately those who genuinely believe that ‘catch and release’ fishing is acceptable often cannot, or will not, believe that a hook in the mouth causes immense suffering.
 Fish feel pain and stress like mammals, including humans. They also produce the same pain-blocking substances as humans called endorphins, which block pain by stopping the release of substance P. Fish have many nerve endings in the mouth, so hooking certainly causes terrible pain and of course gaff hooks, where used to haul them out of the water, further increases this pain.
The live fish used as bait in game fishing may have lines threaded through their eyes. In game fishing marlin or swordfish, for example, are ‘played’ on the line for hours on end which causes stress and exhaustion, as well as immense pain. With regard to pain or suffering, there is no difference between warm-blooded and cold-blooded animals. Fish suffer even if they are released after capture although many are left to suffocate to death on land. This is the same as drowning for a human, and must surely be a terrifying experience.
 When it comes to pain, the suffering is the same for all animals. (Dog to be used for live shark bait) In many areas, such as memory, the cognitive powers of fish match or exceed those of vertebrates, including non-human primates. They do have long term memories, which help them with complex social relationships. Their spatial memory allows them to be make their way through the water using cues such as polarized light, sounds, smells, and visual landmarks.
A recent issue of Fish and Fisheries, cited over 500 research papers on fish intelligence, all proving that fish use tools, and that they have impressive long-term memories and sophisticated social structures and yes, are intelligent, some species more so than non-human primates. " Fish constitute the greatest source of confused thinking and inconsistency on earth at the moment with respect to pain. You will get people very excited about dolphins because they are mammals ... and about horses and dogs if they are not being treated properly. At the same time you will have fishing competitions on the River Murray at which thousands of people snare fish with hooks and allow them to asphyxiate on the banks, which is a fairly uncomfortable and miserable death ." (Dr B. Runciman, Professor of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, University of Adelaide, Australia)
Fish have a layer of skin and mucous over the scales. This layer is very sensitive, and is essential for the health of the fish, for example, to keep out infection.
Damaging a fish's slime coat has been compared to third degree burns in humans, so even if released, the fish has suffered a hook in the mouth, the stress of being handled, the pain of the hook being removed, often not too gently and the damage to the mucous layer and subsequent burning pain, and of course, the inability to breathe while in air.
Fishing, by all accounts causes more suffering than hunting land animals.
Does this sound like a harmless pastime? Something to teach our children?
CEPHALOPODS Without exception, all cephalopods are active predators and the ability to locate and capture prey often demands some sort of reasoning power, but especially Octopi and Squid. They display exhibit remarkable spatial learning capacity, navigational abilities, communication skills and predatory techniques. Octopi have been known to be able to perform complex manipulations of their tentacles and be able to unscrew the lids of a jar. Cuttlefish in particular have been said to communicate with one and other by a complex series of instructions communicated to other cuttlefish by rapid changes or flashes of body color. This form of communication is also said to be used in the squid and cuttlefish’s mating rituals. Taken from a book by Jacques-Yves Cousteau ; "When one thinks of how long it takes to teach a dog something as simple as sitting up or shaking hands, one must admit that an octopus learns very quickly; and that above all, it teaches itself. We did not show it what to do. With a dog, it takes months of patient work before the animal will do what one wants it to do. The difference between a dog learning and an octopus learning is the difference between training an animal and allowing an animal to exorcise its intelligence in determining the means to be used to overcome an obstacle in certain circumstances."  Their ability to solve problems, overcome obstacles and the fact that all knowledge (of survival) is acquired for themselves, in contrast to vertebrates, where knowledge is often transmitted from generation to generation, is quite awe-inspiring.
Do these amazing and incredible earth-bound (sea-bound) aliens deserve to be caught, killed and pickled as a starter or fried and eaten?
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