Fishing is not something nice that fathers do with sons or lads do with their mates, it’s torture and animal abuse in the name of entertainment. It has to stop in this day and age.
 

Angling

Imagine reaching for an apple on a tree and having your hand suddenly impaled by a metal hook that drags you—the whole weight of your body pulling on that one hand—out of the air and into an atmosphere in which you cannot breathe. This is what fish experience when they are hooked for “sport.”

Many people grow up fishing without ever considering the terror and suffering that fish endure when they’re impaled by a hook and pulled out of the water. Recreational anglers rarely stop to contemplate that fish are complex and intelligent individuals. In fact, if anglers treated cats, dogs, cows, or pigs the way they treat fish, they would be thrown in prison on charges of cruelty to animals. Even when anglers put fish back in the water after torturing them, many of the fish die from their stress and injuries. A 2006 study conducted during and after a Wisconsin fishing tournament found that hundreds of fish who were caught and released had died within a few days.

Why not let fish enjoy the beautiful day, too, by leaving your fishing gear at home? Click here for more ways to help fish.
¹ Associated Press, “Hundreds of Wis. Bass Found Dead After Meet,” 24 Jul. 2006.

Health Concerns

Deadly Poisons From the Deep

Fish flesh today is badly contaminated with toxic chemicals that are known to cause cancer and brain degeneration and is also the most likely of all foods to make you sick from bacterial contamination.

Think Fish Is a Health Food? Think Again.

Fish live in water that is so polluted, you would never dream of drinking it. But you’re ingesting this toxic brew—bacteria, contaminants, heavy metals and all—every time you eat fish.

	Researchers at the University of Illinois found that fish-eaters with high levels of PCBs in their blood have difficulty recalling information they have learned just 30 minutes earlier.6

Fish’s bodies absorb toxic chemicals in the water around them, and the chemicals become more concentrated as they move up the food chain. Big fish eat little fish, with the bigger fish (such as tuna and salmon) absorbing chemicals from all the other fish they eat. Fish flesh stores contaminants, such as PCBs, which cause liver damage, nervous system disorders, and fetal damage; dioxins, also linked to cancer; radioactive substances like strontium 90; and other dangerous contaminants like cadmium, mercury, lead, chromium, and arsenic, which can cause health problems ranging from kidney damage and impaired mental development to cancer.^{1,2 3,4} These toxins are stored in the body fat of humans who eat fish and remain in their bodies for decades.⁵

	Seafood is the number one cause of food poisoning in the United States.8 Seafood poisoning can result in extreme discomfort, kidney damage, nervous system damage, and even death.9

Seafood is also the number one cause of food poisoning in the United States. Many of our waterways are polluted with human and animal feces, and this waste carries dangerous bacteria like E. coli. So when we eat fish, we are exposing ourselves to the unnecessary risk of contracting a nasty bacterial illness that can lead to mild to extreme discomfort, nervous system damage, and even death.⁷

According to a report by the General Accounting Office, the seafood industry is dangerously underregulated. In fact, the Food and Drug Administration doesn’t even bother to test most fish flesh for many well-known chemical and bacterial health hazards.¹⁰

Read about the toxic mercury levels in fish »

¹The Delta Institute, “Health Impacts: PCBs”.
²Jeff Kart, “EPA Testing Saginaw River, Bay for Dioxin Levels in Sediment,” The Bay City Times, 25 Oct. 2004.
³Savannah River Site, “Eating Fish From the Savannah River,” 1 Oct. 2001.
⁴The Delta Institute.
⁵Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Healthy Eating for Life for Children (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2002) 54.
⁶Susan Schantz et al., “Impairments of Memory and Learning in Older Adults Exposed to Polychlorinated Biphenyls via Consumption of Great Lakes Fish,” Environmental Health Perspectives, Jun. 2001.
⁷Reuters, “CSPI: Seafood, Eggs Biggest Causes of Food Poisoning in U.S,” CNN, 7 Aug. 2000.
⁸Reuters.
⁹eMedicine, “Food Poisoning Symptoms,”.
¹⁰Center for Science in the Public Interest, news release, “GAO Gives Failing Grade to FDA Seafood HACCP Program,” 13 Feb. 2001.