Many marine animals, including fish, feel joy, suffering and pain just as land animals do. The Animal Justice Party believes their current treatment is inconsistent with these basic scientific facts and must change.
Some marine animals, like dugongs and turtles, are killed as part of indigenous tradition. Others are caught as part of an elaborate sport fishing culture; including marlin, swordfish and sharks. The AJP doesn’t believe that a culture or tradition of any age or extent is a justification for killing; let alone killing using painful or drawn out methods.
Eating fish, whether farmed or wild, is incompatible with AJP’s advocacy of a plant based diet.
- To protect all marine animals and their environment as a matter of urgency from adverse commercial industries including, but not limited to, fishing (wild and farmed), gas exploration (including seismic testing), land based agricultural run off and harmful dredging.
- To invest in further development of biodegradable products and work toward the banning of harmful plastics.
- To invest in research and development to clean up our oceans.
- To reduce harmful anthropogenic noise in the ocean and waterways, regardless of source.
As interim measures, some changes are required urgently:
- To conduct an audit of nutrition advice from Government and other bodies to ensure it is evidenced based. The background to all nutritional advice should first make it clear that eating fish or any other marine animal isn’t required for good health.
- To establish guideline for nutrition advice from Government agencies recommending that nutritional characteristics can’t be separated from environmental and suffering costs.
- To ensure fish are included in all animal welfare legislation.
- To implement better labelling of all marine animal products to include details of production methods and, where appropriate, bycatch levels and that any bycatch estimates be verified by independent observers.
- To fund research via industry levy into less painful fishing methods.