Our 5th annual Respect for Fish Day honored and defended fishes and aquatic life throughout July. They are among the most ignored and killed animals on the planet; here are some of the ways we campaigned for their protection.

We partnered with Fish Feel to urge legislators to ban horrific bowfishing tournaments. These contests glorify violence and the killing of marine animals, some even encourage youth to participate in the killing. You can still help by making calls, posting on social media, signing, and sharing the alert.

Influential animal rights advocates and marine experts, including Captain Paul Watson, shared their Fish Tales with us - personal experiences and realizations that changed how they viewed marine animals and why they stopped eating them.

Our Farmed Animals Campaigner, Lia Wilbourn, with Environmental Campaigner, Jack Gescheidt, hosted the Respect for Fish Day outreach event in San Francisco to engage and educate the public on fish sentience and the fishing industry. They also shared their own stories that made them stop eating fishes and gave out brochures, snacks, and merch.

Our Wild Animals Campaigner, Katie Nolan, led an Online Expert Panel on Fish Sentience, with incredible facts and stories about fishes. Guests included Jonathan Balcombe - author of What a Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of Our Underwater Cousins, Mary Finelli - founder of Fish Feel, and Chiawen Chang - fish behavior scientist at NYU.

We asked our supporters to share their own Fish Tales too. Special thanks to influencer Maria Grace Postiglione for sharing her thoughts: “I realized the awful reality of the fishing and “seafood” industry. Fishing is not only cruel but also damages the ecosystem and kills off other marine life as well, destroying the food web. As humans, it is our responsibility to choose kindness towards all beings, including fishes. Veganism has advanced and will continue to advance. It is the way of the future.”

With over 2.7 trillion marine animals killed every year, the fishing industry is a leading cause of species extinction. According to a study by a team of international scientists, fish populations declined by 87.7% between 2003 and 2019.  

Fishing is destroying marine ecosystems, causing species extinction and releasing greenhouse gasses, while discarded fishing gear is the largest cause of plastic pollution in our oceans. 

It is scientifically proven that fishes and all marine animals are sentient. They have a wide range of intelligence and emotions, they feel pain, pleasure, bonding, and stress, and many have been shown to express empathy. Fishing inflicts extreme suffering on them, similar to that of a drowning human. Their bladders often burst when being pulled out of the water, the hooks are no different from being stabbed. 

Marine animals deserve respect and to be left alone, free from harm by humans. As the leading nutrition experts in the world have concluded, when a whole-food, plant-based diet is available to us, we do not need to eat them or any animals to survive and thrive.

Be one less person hurting animals, the oceans, and our environment. Vote with your dollar for justice and compassion; stop eating fishes and all animals, and please speak up for them.

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To find out more about how you can get involved and help protect marine animals, visit our Respect for Fish campaign.

Support our work to help marine animals by making a donation today.