Environmental Writing

Fish: More than Food

By AmandaREO and capricornwriter

With three billion people relying on seafood, most of us think of fish as food, but they're so much more than that. Fish have existed for 450 million years, and there are roughly 30,000 species of discovered fish. They're complex, interesting, and breathtaking creatures. Fish are vital in our world, but this is often forgotten. It's time for us to start appreciating fish, learning about them as well as the threats they face, and doing what we can for them before it's too late.

Fish are one of the six types of animals, along with birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates. They are incredibly fascinating creatures that are found in bodies of water. Most species of fish are cold-blooded and share features with other vertebrates such as gills, a notochord, and a tail. Fish perceive their surroundings similarly to humans, through the five senses. Some fish can even use electrolocation, which is when they create an electric field to get a sense of their surroundings. Although fish never really close their eyes, that doesn't mean they don't sleep. Fish make leisure movement while they sleep, allowing them to easily escape attack in their unconscious state.

Fish play an important role in ecosystems, the economy, and more. For example, in the Mekong River Basin, 55.3 million people depend on freshwater fish for food and jobs. Globally, 6% of the world's animal protein comes from fish, and in places like Bangladesh, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam, freshwater fish provide 40-50% of animal protein! Fish are one of the best foods for you that you can eat, as they provide lots of protein and are generally cheap.

Fish are also incredibly important to their ecosystems and the food web. They eat organisms that regulate the food web, and their diet affects the health of their ecosystems. Fish also regulate the amount of carbon in a body of water, are part of multiple ecosystems (serving as a link between vastly different ecosystems), and are an easy way to see if an ecosystem is healthy because they are always in water and will often react to abnormal qualities of carbon in it.

Fish also supply jobs and an industry to developing countries and coastal communities. For example, in the Mekong River Basin, 55.3 million people depend on freshwater fish for jobs and food. Fish and other seafood are one of the most traded items in the world. The economic value of the ocean rounds to about $2.5 trillion a year! This industry provides so many opportunities; for example, in South Africa, 27,000 people have jobs in the commercial fishing industry.

Fish are also more intelligent than one would think. They are able to figure out who is trustworthy and who isn't. An associate professor of biology at Macquarie University, Culum Brown says "If a pair of fish inspects a predator, they glide back and forth as they advance towards the predator each taking it in turn to lead. If a partner should defect or cheat in any way, perhaps by hanging back, the other fish will refuse to cooperate with that individual on future encounters. This shows that the fish not only recall the identity of the defector but they also assign a social tag to them and punish them on future encounters." Fish are also able to learn to avoid nets for a year if they are able to escape one. Another example of their intelligence are cleaner fish, like sturgeons, who run a business. They groom the parasites off host fish, who present themselves at a specific place. There's so much more to learn about fish, and even as we've barely scratched the surface of their intelligence, we already see how smart they are.

The U.S. wildlife management is called the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, qualifying fish as different from wildlife. While fish are officially known as animals, the autofill suggestion when you search "are fish" is "are fish animals." Most people don't consider fish meat, either. The definition of meat is "flesh of an animal as food," so why is fish not considered meat? It seems that fish have and are thought of as plants that can swim, so let's clarify this: fish are animals. Cold-blooded vertebrates, to be exact. When fish aren't thought of as real animals, they are often excluded from animal-welfare laws, which brings us to the next topic: can fish feel pain?