ABSTRACT
The ethics of eating has been a preoccupation of humans for millennia— there can be no ethical issue more fundamental than who gets to eat the best meals and who goes hungry. People who fish have known for many years that fish can be remarkably smart, but when it comes to ethics, many people feel that fish and sea life have such tiny brains they are really no more sentient than worms or insects. In every culture religion and law provide guidelines for how ethical principles should be applied to the practice of daily life including preparing and eating food. Even the name of a fish reflects its status as a game fish or seafood fish. The rules may be different between cultures, but there is always a relationship between the ethical rules for treating other people, and those for treating animals. This is why marine life always has ethical significance above and beyond its value as food or entertainment.
