Is fish considered to be meat?

by Yaki
(Japan)

Question: I have friends that call themselves vegetarians but they do eat fish and sea food sometimes. Is fish considered to be meat?

Answer from Ina at Belsandia.com:

Yes fish is considered meat. It is the flesh of sea animals, and for a while now it is proven that fish also feel pain and suffer when being caught and slaughtered, even if they don't scream.

What is worse, so-called aqua-farms are rapidly becoming the factory farms of the seas, where almost 90% of our salmon and other popular fish is now "harvested" from. Every farmed fish consumes up to 5 wild fish as feed, so it contributes greatly to overfishing and extinction of wild species.

Again worse, no food is as contaminated with pollutants as fish nowadays - it has incredibly high amounts of mercury and chemicals, dethroning all other animal products as highest polluted food. Any recommendation to consume more seafood and fish is entirely irresponsible and misguided.

Fish is neither needed for omega 3 nor for protein or other nutrients in a well balanced vegetarian diet.

And if you are not sure if fish actually do feel pain or are badly abused in the food production, take a look at how fish are farmed in aquafarms nowadays.