Something Fishy: PETA brings its anti-fishing roadshow to the heart of angler‘s paradise

Feb. 16, 2005

As a kid growing up in northern Indiana, Karin Robertson used to love fishing. In fact, her father was a fisheries biologist, and fishing for sport seemed the most natural thing in the world.
But today, Robertson, 24, is the chief of PETA’s “Fish Empathy Project,” which brought its anti-fishing campaign to Northern Michigan last weekend, the heart of angler’s paradise. It’s the kind of hot topic gener-
ated by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals that gets sportsmen trembling with rage.
Rage over comments like this:
“I used to fish as a little kid but I never thought of the pain and suffering they must go through when they’re impaled with a hook through the mouth and the terror they must feel when they’re pulled from the water and can’t breathe,” Robertson says.
“People would never impale a cat or dog through the mouth and drag it behind their car,” she adds, “but they do pretty much the same thing with fish even though they’re complex, intelligent creatures.”

FASCINATING FISH
In fact, Robertson and PETA’s FishingHurts.com website make the claim, “Fish are smart, interesting animals with their own unique personalities -- just like dogs and cats we share our homes with.”
And PETA has a body of new research to back up its claims.
“Most people dismiss fish as dimwitted pea-brains... Yet this is a great fallacy,” wrote University of Edinburgh biologist Culum Brown in last June’s edition of New Scientist magazine. “In many areas, such as memory, their cognitive powers match or exceed those of ‘higher’ vertebrates, including non-human primates.”
Robertson notes that one study conducted at the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences in Massachusetts found that schools of North Sea haddock are smart enough to figure out how to avoid trawler fishing nets. They can also recognize individual “shoal mates” and learn complex tasks as a result of changes in their environment.
PETA also cites a study by Dr. Theresa Burt de Perera, an Oxford University scientist who claims that fish learn faster than dogs. And it seems clear from PETA’s literature that they’d like to get people equating fish with cats and dogs and all of the touchie-feelie emotions that arise from such a connection.

HEALTH CONNECTION
Robertson’s Fish Empathy Project hopes to get more diners swimming in the direction of faux fish products such as Tuno, which is made from soybeans; or, check out tofu chowder or vegetarian sushi. In Traverse City, PETA representatives handed out free vegetarian starter kits while hoisting signs stating that “Fish Are Friends, Not Food.”
PETA also claims that fish aren’t safe to eat, owing to the toxic brew of mercury, bacteria, contaminants, heavy metals and PCBs found in the lakes and oceans.
“Even small amounts of fish, such as one serving per month, produce high amounts of PCBs in your blood,” Robertson says. “There’s so much pollution in our waterways and fish concentrate those chemicals as much as nine million times that of the water they live in.
“Not many people would think of drinking a cup of water from Lake Michigan,” she adds, “but those are the kinds of concentrated pollutants you get when you eat fish.”

EAT MORE FISH
On the other hand, the American Heart Association and the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are urging people to eat more fish as a way of preventing heart disease. And there are skeptics of PETA’s claims along with conflicting studies.
“Fish are very complex organisms that do all sorts of fascinating things,” said University of Wyoming neuroscientist James Rose in an Associated Press story. “But to suggest they know what’s happening to them and worry about it, that’s just not the case.”
On its website, the National Fisheries Institute (NFI) has studies of its own, promoting what it claims is a wholesome, healthful diet of fish. One study states that according to the FDA, pregnant women should eat more -- not less -- fish, including shrimp, canned light tuna, salmon, pollock and catfish.
“It’s irresponsible to discourage people from eating fish at a time when doctors and dietitians advise eating it twice a week,” said NFI President John Connelly in a published report. “If anything, we should be eating more fish.”

WHO TO BELIEVE?
Compare PETA’s claim that over 600,000 infants are born in the U.S. each year with a lower I.Q. because their mothers ate fish containing toxic chemicals and you can see there is a substantial difference of opinion over health issues.
For what it’s worth, the Michigan Department of Community Health seems to side more with PETA’s claims than those of the FDA or National Fisheries Institute. The state health department “advises women of childbearing age and children under 15 to use caution when eating certain kinds and sizes of fish from the Great Lakes and from some inland lakes and streams. Fish in these waters contain levels of toxic chemicals that may be harmful if those fish are eaten too often.”

BUTT OF JOKES
Fishing is big business in Michigan, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in sales of equipment, fishing vacations, licenses, clothing and boats. And although PETA is frequently the butt of jokes and scorn on talk radio or in conservation magazines, perhaps that’s simply evidence that the anti-cruelty organization is taken very seriously by sportsmen.
In 1994, Michigan anglers got so shook up over a PETA campaign to stop sportfishing on grounds of cruelty that the State Legislature enacted the Angler Harassment Act. At the time, PETA activists were depicted in the press almost on par with terrorists plotting to spook fish away from anglers out on the waterways. As a result, it’s now a misdemeanor violation in Michigan to obstruct or interfere with an angler’s fishing fun.
But Robertson says she hasn’t been harassed by fishermen while on the road with her Fish Empathy Project.
In fact, she says her project has had a thoughtful, positive response from anglers who are interested in hearing what PETA has to say.
“We’ve been all over the country to big fishing spots. Last month we were in the Pacific Northwest and to Boise and Missoula. We’re going to every big city that we can,” she says.
“I think the most exciting thing about this campaign is peoples’ responses,” she adds. “People don’t think about fish very often, but we’ve found time and again that when people learn that fish are intelligent and have feelings and complex lives, they do stop eating and hooking fish.”
What about all of those jokes characterizing PETA members as wackos on radio and TV?
“We don’t mind being the butt of jokes as long as people listen to what we have to say,” Robertson says.