A global information system with all you ever wanted to know about fishes. FishBase is a relational database with information to cater to different professionals such as research scientists, fisheries managers, zoologists and many more. FishBase includes 33200 Species, 306300 Common names, 56500 Pictures, 52400 References, and 2220 Collaborators.
Fish Feel: Fact Sheets
Rare glimpse of an unharmed Sailfish
Choose a fact sheet category below.
About Fish
"These wonders actually possess attributes that would make us superpowers — they can change color, sex, produce light and electricity, regenerate injured fins, prevent themselves from sinking, and some can even walk on land." —Rutgers University Press {1}
Variety
Earth is home to an estimated 33,000 known species of fishes{2}, which is ... Read More
Aquaria
The decision to have a companion animal is a serious responsibility, which requires planning and a commitment to their long-term care. It should not be based on how well you can toss a ping pong ball into a bowl. Goldfish are living, feeling creatures, just like any other animal. Goldfish won ... Read More
You must have heard people despair the proverbial living life in a goldfish bowl. Do you think it is more fun for an actual fish than it would be for you? Fish are delicate creatures. Capturing and transplanting them from their natural environs to small sterile tanks, to indulge the passing ... Read More
The aquarium was once the best way to encounter the wonders of sea life. It has become a mere travesty, tacky and cruel. It's time to put an end to the cult of the aquarium.
What are the consequences of captivity? Beyond the size of the tank, number of fish, and water quality and temperature, there are ethical and environmental costs inherent to the ornamental fish trade. Sadly, most captive fish live short lives and are easily replaced with new “stock”— creating a constant demand ... Read More
Environmental
Diminishing SpeciesLife on Earth is largely possible thanks to the oceans. They produce most of the world’s oxygen, for example, and they remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. However, we are making life increasingly difficult for aquatic animals. Marine species populations are half of what they were in 1970, largely ... Read More
Fish Pain and Sentience
Recognition by the Scientific Community
For centuries, a common belief has been the Cartesian claim that nonhuman animal species were incapable of suffering pain. Thankfully, that fallacy is now rejected nearly universally in regard to mammalian and avian species. Tragically, the ignorance largely continues in regard to fish. While many people ... Read More
Do fish feel pain? Do fish have feelings? Do fish suffer? This site presents the scientific facts.
Sentience is about the inner life of an animal, and a sentient animal has capacity to suffer fear, pain or distress as well as a sense of well-being. Evidence that fish are sentient has been sufficient to achieve international recognition that their welfare matters.
Science has repeatedly shown us what common sense already tells us: Fish feel pain and can suffer. The evidence is so clear that world leaders are taking notice. The Standing Committee of the European Convention for the Protection of Animals Kept for Farming Purposes explains, "The skin of the fish ... Read More
Fish Rescue and Care
https://opensanctuary.org/an-introduction-to-the-care-of-fishes-for-your-animal-sanctuary
https://cafishvet.com/ask-fish-vet
https://cafishvet.com/fish-care-101
https://cafishvet.com/category/fish-care
https://cafishvet.com/fish-health-disease/how-to-find-a-fish-veterinarian/
https://cafishvet.com/2017/10/17/how-to-help-a-sick-fish/
Fishing and Fish Farming
Youth fishing campaigns are desensitizing children to animal suffering and promoting animal abuse. They are a gateway to lifelong, cruel animal exploitation.
A vegetarian spares the lives of a certain number of animals each time he or she chooses to forgo meat for vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes and nuts.
The majority of the fish we eat are not ones caught in the wild. They are farmed—confined and raised in overcrowded indoor tanks or sea cages—under the more decorous name of aquaculture. Yet, we kill billions of wild fish. Some of them end up on our dinner plates. But, most ... Read More
We waste a lot of food in the United States. We grow food at the farm that the farmers sometimes cannot sell. We lose food during processing and transportation. We overstock food at retail stores and throw away whatever goes unsold. We leave food on our plates in restaurants and ... Read More
Suffering is caused to fish throughout the process of capture until death, which may be considered as 3 parts: capture, landing and the time between landing and death. The suffering caused to fish during capture and landing in the major methods of fishing is discussed.
Animal welfare matters. Commercially-caught wild fish suffer slow and distressing deaths in huge numbers, estimated at 1-3 trillion each year. Commercial fishing is therefore a major animal welfare issue.
Fishermen use a wide range of gear to land their catch. Every type has its own effects on the ocean.
Gillnetting is a common fishing method used by commercial and artisanal fishermen of all the oceans and in some freshwater and estuary areas. “Gill nets are vertical panels of netting normally set in a straight line. Fish may be caught by gill nets in 3 ways: wedged – held by ... Read More
Fish farming or pisciculture is the principal form of aquaculture, while other methods may fall under mariculture. Fish farming involves raising fish commercially in tanks or enclosures, usually for food. A facility that releases juvenile fish into the wild for recreational fishing or to supplement a species' natural numbers is ... Read More
In the United States, approximately 1.3 billion fish are raised in off-shore and land-based aquaculture systems each year for food, making them the second-most commonly farmed animal domestically, following broiler chickens. The majority of farmed fish are subject to overcrowded and restrictive conditions, which, if unchecked, can quickly deteriorate water ... Read More
The traditional method for killing farmed fish is to allow them to asphyxiate in air or on ice, which is slow and distressing...
Human Health Hazards
“CSPI says that its analysis of outbreaks over the past decade showed that seafood is by far the most hazardous food to eat, in terms of the number of illnesses-per-pound of food consumed.” ~ Disease Detectives are Solving Fewer Foodborne Illness Cases, National Public Radio, April 7, 2014
“Fish is one ... Read More
Human Slavery
The Fishing Industry is not only exploiting and murdering aquatic animals but also people: human trafficking victims who have been sold as slaves and thrown into forced labor. By now, such cases of slavery have been documented and reported by many media agents, not only in Thailand and Indonesia but ... Read More
Over the course of 18 months, Associated Press journalists located men held in cages, tracked ships and stalked refrigerated trucks to expose the abusive practices of the fishing industry in Southeast Asia. The reporters’ dogged effort led to the release of more than 2,000 slaves and traced the seafood they ... Read More
Tackling human rights abuses and slavery at sea. Video showing human trafficking, slavery, and murder in Kantang, Thailand's seafood industry.
Illegal “manning agencies” trick villagers in the Philippines with false promises of high wages and send them to ships notorious for poor safety and labor records. Men who have fled servitude on fishing boats recount beatings and worse as nets are cast for the catch that will become pet ... Read More
Lobsters, Crabs, and Other Sea Creatures
Animal protection legislation has tended to include only vertebrates (such as mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish) and exclude cephalopods and decapod crustaceans on the grounds that they are nonsentient and, therefore, incapable of suffering. However, the belief that these animals are non-sentient is very questionable. In view of current ... Read More
There is now good evidence that crustaceans can experience pain, argues Professor Robert Elwood of Queens University, Belfast. Pain in crustaceans is an important area of animal welfare research.
Lobsters belong to the Crustacea class of inverterbrate animals. Crustacea shed their hard skeletons at intervals in order to grow (known as moulting). Lobsters have a 'head' (carapace) containing the heart, digestive and sex organs — and a 'tail' (abdomen) containing the intestine and anus. The eye, mouth parts and ... Read More
Declawing of crabs is the process whereby one or both claws of a live crab (including king crabs) are manually pulled off and the animal is then returned to the water. It occurs in several fisheries worldwide, such as in the Florida stone crab (Menippe mercenaria) fishery, the northeast Atlantic ... Read More
Miscellaneous Facts
Animals who have been killed for food this year in the United States.
More than 100 countries around the world rely on healthy coral reefs for income, food, storm protection, and more. Protection of coral reefs has become an important issue for policy makers and governments, especially ministries of tourism, environment, and fisheries.
Sharks and Shark Finning
Despite their image, sharks are among the most valuable, vulnerable, and neglected creatures in the ocean. Over hundreds of millions of years, sharks have evolved to serve as important ocean predators and, as such, are not well equipped to withstand heavy predation themselves. In fact, most sharks are exceptionally susceptible ... Read More
Every year tens of millions of sharks die a slow death because of finning. Finning is the inhumane practice of hacking off the shark’s fins and throwing its still living body back into the sea. The sharks either starve to death, are eaten alive by other fish, or drown (if ... Read More
Shark finning refers to the removal and retention of shark fins while the remainder of the living shark is discarded in the ocean. Sharks returned to the ocean without their fins are often still alive; unable to move effectively, they sink to the bottom of the ocean and die of ... Read More
Vegan Seafood
Delicious, healthful vegan seafood is increasingly popular and available. Convenient and affordable, it is also better for our health, for the animals, and for the planet. Here are some resources to help you find and enjoy this wonderful food.