NO BREACH: Environmentalists said the practice of puncturing the mouth and a gill to tie fish is a painful process that prolongs suffering for up to 12 hours
Taipei Times
Date: Oct 05, 2019
By: Wu Hsin-tien and Dennis Xie / Staff reporter, with staff writer
Fish tethering — live fish being bound in a “U” shape to keep them fresh — causes unnecessary pain
An Asian sea bass is tethered at a market in an undated photograph.
Photo courtesy of the Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan
Asian sea bass, also known as barramundi, make up 70 percent of farmed sea bass in Taiwan, with information from the Fisheries Agency showing that about 10.35 million of them were sold last year.
The Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan estimated that 3.45 million tethered Asian sea bass were sold last year.
Vendors tether the fish by puncturing the mouth and a gill and tying red string in the holes that loops around the tail, a painful process that prolongs the time they can survive out of water by eight to 12 hours before they die in terror, the group said. [FULL STORY]