Fish
Nearly 100 million tons of wild fish are caught per year. Wild populations have been decimated and the factory trawling vessels which capture these fish cause an extensive environmental impact.
The life of a farm raised fish begins in a temperature-controlled hatching tank. Once hatched, they are transferred to rearing areas where they grow to maturity. Fish are so crowded into these tanks that they are susceptible to suffocation and disease. To combat these diseases, it is necessary for farmers to use agrichemicals. This includes chemicals used to kill the bacteria in the excrement-laden water, herbicides to prevent overgrowth of aquatic vegetation, vaccines to prevent disease, and drugs (usually combined in the feed) to treat diseases and parasites.
When they reach market weight, they are loaded onto oxygenated tanker trucks, a process that is very stressful for the fish. Upon arrival at the processing plant, the tanks are drained into large, metal, mesh cages. The water pours through these cages and the fish die of suffocation.
