Hidden lives of fish

From: Masako Miyaji,

Dr. Sylvia Earle, one of the world's leading marine biologists, said, "I never eat anyone I know personally. I wouldn't deliberately eat a grouper any more than I'd eat a cocker spaniel. They're so good-natured, so curious. You know, fish are sensitive, they have personalities, they hurt when they're wounded."




Culum Brown, a University of Edinburgh biologist who is studying the evolution of cognition in fish, says, "Fish are more intelligent than they appear. In many areas, such as memory, their cognitive powers match or exceed those of 'higher' vertebrates, including non-human primates." Their long-term memories help fish keep track of complex social relationships. Their spatial memory-"equal in all respects to any other vertebrate"-allows them to create cognitive maps that guide them through their watery homes, using cues such as polarized light, sounds, smells, and visual landmarks.





* Some fish tend well-kept gardens, encouraging the growth of tasty algae and weeding out the types they don't like.


* Some fish woo potential partners by singing to them, but male sand gobies, tiny fish who live along the European coast, play "Mr. Mom," building and guarding nests and fanning the eggs with their fins to create a current of fresh, oxygenated water.

Being Hooked Hurts!

A two-year study conducted by scientists at Edinburgh University and the Roslin Institute in the United Kingdom proved what many marine biologists have been saying for years: Fish feel pain, just as all animals do. Anglers may not like to think about it, but fish suffer when they are impaled in the mouth and pulled into an environment in which they cannot breathe. Said Dr. Lynne Sneddon, who headed the recent study, "Really, it's kind of a moral question. Is your angling more important than the pain to the fish?" If you fish or know someone who does, click here to learn more.

Faux Fish or No Fish

Fish suffer horribly on the journey from sea to supermarket. Commercial fishing boats use huge nets, some stretching for miles, which swallow up everything-and everyone-in their paths. Fish come out of the nets with their skin scraped completely raw from being forced to rub up against rocks, debris-and other fish-trapped with them.

Fish flesh is frequently contaminated with mercury (which can cause brain damage) and toxic chemicals like DDT, PCBs and dioxin (which have been linked to cancer, nervous system disorders, and fetal damage), as well as disease-causing bacteria. Why not try faux fish instead? Vegetarian products like Worthington's Tuno (available in health food stores) and mock lobster, shrimp, and crab (available online) have all the taste of the "real "thing" - but none of the cruelty or contaminants.


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"A man who has in mind an apparent advantage and promptly proceeds to dissociate this from the question of what is right shows himself to be mistaken and immoral. Such a standpoint is the parent of assassinations, poisonings, forged wills, thefts, malversations of public money, and the ruinous exploitation of provincials and Roman citizens alike. Another result is passionate desire - desire for excessive wealth, for unendurable tyranny, and ultimately for the despotic seizure of free states. These desires are the most horrible and repulsive things imaginable. The perverted intelligences of men who are animated by such feelings are competent to understand the material rewards, but not the penalties. I do not mean penalties established by law, for these they often escape. I mean the most terrible of all punishments: their own degradation."Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.)