Our oceans are under serious attack. It has become known that plastic waste is endangering and killing many sea creatures. People respond to this dire situation with concern, and they wonder how to help. Many have decided to stop using plastic straws. This is a start. But it is only a start.

Anyone genuinely concerned about plastic pollution in the oceans needs to understand that the biggest source of trash plastic is not straws, it is fishing nets. Nets that literally extend for miles are dragged indiscriminately over the seas, raking and trapping anyone and anything in their path, including underwater forests of sea plants and coral reefs.

Over time, when the nets degrade, they are abandoned at sea as trash, left to fall apart and pollute the water with tons of tiny microplastic particles which endanger sea creatures.

To stop the use of fishing nets, we need to stop fishing. We can withdraw our support of fishing industries: stop eating fish.

Oceans are extensively depleted. It has been estimated by some scientists that there will be no viable populations of fish left in the seas within the next few decades, since trillions of animals are taken for food every year, and many are discarded as by-products of the process. If we truly want to save the seas and the creatures in them, we must stop eating the creatures.

Humans do not need to eat fish or any other sea creatures. We can easily and healthily thrive on plants.

Fish and other sea creatures experience emotions like terror. They feel physical pain from being jabbed by hooks, being caught in nets, or from being left on boat decks where they suffocate to death or are crushed to death under the sheer weight of massive hauls of animals.

Many ocean animals who are not even the intended target catch end up dying too, caught up in nets that are set out for tuna and other desired species. "By-catch" animals are thrown away as garbage. Some of the animals thrown away as so-called useless trash in the process include dolphins, whales, porpoises and sea turtles plus others.

From a human health perspective, fish is sometimes seen as being a healthier food, but fish and sea creatures are all still animals. And we are not built to eat animals. Fish contain dangerous artery-clogging cholesterol, sometimes in higher levels than meat that comes from land-based animals, depending on which species are compared. Fish and sea animals also contain environmental toxins like PCBs and mercury which make them unsuitable for human consumption.

So yes, swap out straws or eliminate them altogether. But also, to be serious about saving the fish - stop eating them.

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Captain Paul Watson wrote:

The ultimate conservationist eats locally produced, organic, vegan food.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is one of the very few, if not the only marine conservation organizations in the world that actively promotes and practices veganism. Why? Because we see the connections between animal husbandry and pollution in the ocean, diminishment of life in the seas, the destruction of the rainforests.

Veganism is real conservation in action. It goes beyond talking about diminishment of biodiversity and actually does something to address the problems. Sea Shepherd ships have been vegan vessels since 2002 and before that vegan options were always provided. The ships were vegetarian vessels beginning in 1979."

Read the entire article here.

Captain Paul Watson and many other experts are featured in the documentary Seaspiracy which discusses various aspects of the detriments inherent in commercial fishing, including seriously negative environmental impact, forced labor/slave issues in 47 countries, and more.

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Image Credit:
Gerardo Antonio Romero