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Commercial Fishing: How Fish Get From the High Seas to
Your Supermarket
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The thin mesh of the net slices
into the flesh of many fish, causing blood loss and
strangling them in the water or in the net as it is
dragged aboard. |
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Gill Nets
Gill nets hang like massive curtains in the oceans, drifting
with the currents. Ranging from 200 feet to more than a mile
in length, gill nets are weighted at the bottom and held upright
by floats at the top, creating what some have deemed “walls
of death.” Fish are unable to see the netting, and unless
the mesh size is larger than the fish, they get stuck. When
they try to back out, the netting catches them by their gills
or fins, and many suffocate. Others struggle so desperately
in the sharp mesh that they bleed to death.
Because gill nets are set and then left unmonitored, trapped
fish may suffer for days. Many bleed to death before the ship
returns to take them out of the ocean. Those who make it to
the deck alive are ripped out of the net by hand. Fish who
were caught deep in the ocean suffer from decompression, and
the extreme change in pressure can cause their stomachs to
be forced out of their mouths. Some boats cut the gills of
fish so that the animals will bleed to death before being
thrown onto piles of chopped ice; others toss live fish directly
into the freezer compartment, where they slowly freeze to
death—a horribly cruel and painful death for cold-blooded
animals, who can take a very long time to freeze or suffocate
to death.
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