Fish Consumption and By-Catch

Our consumption of fish has many consequences – not only for the fish we eat but also for other fish/crustaceans, for cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises), for marine mammals, for birds, and for ecosystems. In addition to the 17 billion aquatic animals we kill in the U.S. for human consumption, countless animals are killed as “by-catch” or “incidental catch.” These are the unintended but inevitable victims of the commercial fishing industry. Though we may see one fish on our plate or five shrimp in our seafood salad, countless numbers of animals were dredged up and killed for the individuals we consume.