die.Sincetheirgillscanextractoxygenfromwaterbutnot
fromair,fishoutofthewatercannotbreathe.Thefishonsale
in
yoursupermarketmayhavediedslowly,fromsuffocation.If
itwasadeep-seafish,draggedtothesurfacebythenetofa
trawler, it may have died painfully from decompression.
When fish are caught rather than farmed, the ecological
argumentagainsteatingintensivelyrearedanimalsdoesnot
applytofish.Wedonotwastegrainorsoybeansbyfeeding
themtofishintheocean.Yetthereisadifferentecological
argument that counts against the extensive commercial
fishingoftheoceansnowpracticed,andthisisthatweare
rapidlyfishing out theoceans.Inrecent years fishcatches
havedeclineddramatically.Severalonce-abundantspeciesof
fish,suchastheherringsofNorthernEurope,theCalifornia
sardines,andtheNewEnglandhaddock,arenowsoscarceas
tobe,forcommercialpurposes,extinct.Modernfishingfleets
trawlthefishinggroundssystematicallywithfine-gaugenets
that catch everything in their way. The nontarget
species—knownintheindustryas“trash”—maymakeupas
muchashalfthecatch.^23 Theirbodiesarethrownoverboard.
Because trawling involves dragging a huge net along the
previouslyundisturbedbottomoftheocean,itdamagesthe
fragileecologyoftheseabed.Likeotherwaysofproducing
animal food, such fishing is also wasteful of fossil fuels,
consumingmoreenergythanitproduces.^24 Thenetsusedby
thetunafishingindustry,moreover,alsocatchthousandsof
dolphinseveryyear,trappingthemunderwateranddrowning
them.Inadditiontothedisruptionofoceanecologycaused
byallthisoverfishingtherearebadconsequencesforhumans
too.Throughouttheworld,smallcoastalvillagesthatliveby
fishingarefindingtheirtraditionalsourceoffoodandincome