PETA’s Sexy ‘Mermaid’ to Descend on Pike Place to Protest Cruel Fishing Industry

Group Will Ask Residents, Tourists to Try to Relate to Who’s on Their Plate

For Immediate Release:
November 19, 2013

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Wearing little more that a mermaid tail and a sign reading, “Try to Relate to Who’s on Your Plate” covering her bare chest, a PETA beauty will lead a protest against fishing—and eating fish—outside the Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle on Wednesday. The sexy siren’s point? That numerous studies have shown that fish not only feel pain but also learn tasks, have long-term memories, use tools, and show affection. They suffer enormously when they’re dragged from the sea in nets or impaled on hooks.

When:             Wednesday, November 20, 12 noon

Where:           86 Pike Pl. (near the intersection of Pike Street and First Avenue), Seattle

“People should realize that when they eat fish, they’re biting into the corpse of animals who valued their lives just as we value ours,” says PETA Associate Director of Campaigns Lindsay Rajt. “Fish deserve respect, not to be suffocated to death or cut open alive on fishing boats.”

When fish are pulled up from the ocean depths, they undergo the excruciating pain of decompression. The intense pressure often ruptures their swim bladders and damages other internal organs. Eating fish is also harmful. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that fish can accumulate thousands of times the level of cancer-causing PCBs found in the water in which they live, and fish are also a source of highly toxic methyl mercury. Also, “seafood” is the number one cause of food poisoning in the U.S.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.