Vegetarianism vs pescatarianism

[Dingdong99]

I stopped eating meat a while ago but still eat fish

It feels good from an ethical point of view not to eat meat, but I'm recently struggling with how eating fish is any better than eating meat

Does anyone have any points as to why it's better to eat fish than meat? IYSWIM

this reddit thread might help, OP.
www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/2ep6uh/why_would_someone_be_a_pescetarian_rather_than_a/

If you don't eat meat for ethical reasons, and you are still eating fish, you may as well go and eat a burger...

www.sciencefocus.com/news/fish-do-feel-pain-study-confirms

If you're not eating fish instead of other meat you're still eating less meat which is good. If you've just replaced the meat habit with fish you're not doing anything more ethical

I think I read clams and muscles don't feel pain and they're basically not much higher up than plants...

I'm the same, I gave up meat around 7 years ago but still eat fish once a week, really struggled to give it up. I gave up meat after working on a farm, the animals were treated very well, it was an organic farm but after seeing how each animal had such a personality, including the chickens, one who would come over by name I could no longer eat meat.

Surely meat eating has a bigger carbon footprint than fish eating? Ethically, it’s where your line is- there is no absolute, but you may well feel more empathetic to mammals-I know I do. People who feel there is an absolute line are welcome to their own ethical position-it just might not be the same as yours ( I doubt it’ll stop them telling you all about it though..)

By the way I know I sound like a fairy twat in my last post, in a nutshell I couldn’t eat something I’m not prepared to kill and I’d be ok with fish, I buy mine fresh from a local fishmonger straight from the boat.

Fishing has massive environmental impacts regardless of whether you buy fish straight off the boat or not. Ditto shellfish farming which causes mass pollution in countries like Vietnam.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/09/seas-stop-eating-fish-fishing-industry-government

From an animal welfare perspective the evidence is that fish and crustaceans feel pain, so not really any different to eating meat.

Every little bit someone does to reduce consumption is better than not doing anything at all. Think of this argument:-

Is it pointless to not reduce your impact on the environment at all because you still use plastic in say your daily contact lens packaging or you choose to drive to work rather than take the bus on route. Would you stop all other environmentally friendly activities because you choose to do those?

It isnt all or nothing otherwise everyone would choose nothing.

Perhaps many people can distance themselves from the suffering of a fish or shellfish in a way they can’t from a mammal or domestic bird? Certainly, I can look at a fish and not really think of it as particularly sentient and I can watch a fish die (or kill one) and not care for it.

But I don’t eat crabs, lobsters or octopus because I feel something towards them.

The fishing industry in British waters is heavily regulated to maintain stock levels and to assist to protect the environmental issues, at one point a few years ago the fishing industry was nearly killed off due to the regulations.

We shouldn’t be importing fish from overseas but you’re right it does happen and is usually cheaper to buy.