[fishmonger]

Hi Everyone,

This is my 1st post on this board and sorry for it being of a controversial nature but I'm seeing something that really bothers me. I started a new thread so everyone would see it and not get lost in the shuffle.

Why would anyone advocate not eating red meat, pork and poultry? Then in the same breath say they don't mind eating fish and shellfish.

Red meat, pork, and poultry are a sustainable resource. Lets face the fact that these animals were not just a result of "nature". They most likely are a result of artificial insemenation in order to produce food for us human beings. In other words they were born to feed us.

Fish and shellfish on the other hand are an entirely different story. By saying you only eat fish and shellfish is like saying you will support the demise of the worlds oceans.

How many of you eat grouper or snapper or shrimp? Well guess what, the shrimp fishery is causing serious damage to grouper and snapper stocks as well as their habitat caused by dredging. Did anyone see the episode of dirty jobs where Mike Rowe worked on a shrimp boat? If so did you see all the "cull"? Cull is another name for bycatch and they were mostly juvenile fish. If anyone knows about gill nets knows that fish that are gilled usually don't survive as there is severe damage done by the nets.

How about those of you that consume tuna and swordfish. You guessed it not good again. These fish are taken by longliners. Miles upon miles of indescriminate hooks. While they are meant to to target tuna and swordfish they also take other species like white and blue marlin. Guess what the white marlin stocks are depleted to the point that are now listed as "threatened" bordering on endangered. Not because of sportfisherman that kill less than 30 a year on the East Coast of the US but by the commercial longliners that cull them as undesireable.

Lets talk about tuna swordfish now. Up until a few years ago the swordfish stock were severly depleted in the North East and in Florida. Through conservation efforts the stock has made a comeback but hasn't fully recovered.

Giant Bluefin Tuna are nearly decimated. The money that they fetch in the Japenese market is unreal. We are talking tens of thousands of dollars for ONE fish. This makes them very attractive for commercial fisherman and intern puts a tremndous amount of pressure on the stocks. Yet organizations like ICCAT (google it) who claim they are trying to fix this problem have done nothing but contribute to it.......

Don't get me started on the oyster harvesters or crab scrapes in the Chesepeake Bay............

What is more important to you? The feelings of a cow standing in line at the slaughter house or the global ecology of the worlds oceans.

I'm not a Vegetarian. I eat meat, fish, shellfish and everything in between. But when people make statements like "I only eat fish" it drives me nuts. They try to fill the world with their smug when they are just showing their true ignorance.

Thanks for reading,

Joe

C.E.C.

[YoungGun]

Joe,

I suppose I can safely assume that your post is a derivative of my original one, Meat and Ethics. Perhaps I am wrong. Either way, the reason I have an "easier" time eating fish and seafood is because I live in British Columbia, where sea food is very abundant, and I refuse to eat anything but wild caught fish. This sort of lines up with my desire to eat game meats as opposed to, say, a cow that has been raised in a factory farming operation. Simiarly, I eat free range eggs, organic milk, etc. I try to buy local, and from farmers that I know are reputable. I'm not a saint, nor is anyone else in the world. I too find the "holier than thou" approach annyoing in any respect. But it makes it easier for me to sleep at night knowing I have not contributed to poor treatment of animals. And even if it has to die, so do I, leading to my next point...

Something very insightful that was said in my thread was that basically, no animal will show you the consideration not to kill you in the wild if it can. I believe in eating animals that are given a fair chance, ie: hunted. I eat red meat maybe twice a year. Sometimes I cave and eat a buffalo burger. More than ethics and the blah blah blah we get caught up in, I do it because I like to feel like as close to an animal as I can get, because we are animals, and because that's real to me.

[ldzpapa]

Once again I have the same response that I have to so many threads, know your suppliers, insist on sustainable practices, you are the one spending the money they will listen if you give ultimatums and if they don't, there is someone out there who will.