World Oceans Day Plea: PETA India’s Sky-High Message Highlights How Eating Fish Kills Turtles
To mark World Oceans Day (8 June), PETA India has erected billboards in Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatnam, Puducherry, Thiruvananthapuram, and Mangaluru that show a turtle ensnared in plastic netting as a reminder that killing fish also costs turtles their lives. Up to 1 million tonnes of fishing gear – which can take 600 years to degrade – enters the oceans every year, killing over 250,000 turtles who get caught in it.
The billboard in Thiruvananthapuram is located at University of Kerala Senate House Campus, opposite Connemara Market (Palayam Market), Palayam, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala 695034.
The billboard in Mangaluru is located at Deepa Arcade, Bejai Kavoor Road, Kapikad, Mangaluru, Karnataka 575003.
The billboard in Puducherry is located at 247, Mahatma Gandhi Road, Heritage Town, Puducherry 605001.
The billboard in Bhubaneswar is located on Kalpana Road, Kalpana Square, Ashok Nagar, Bhubaneswar, Odisha 751006.
The billboard in Visakhapatnam is located at Jagadamba Commercial Complex, 28-9-37, Chitralaya Road, Suryabagh, Jagadamba Junction, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh 530020.
Non-target animals killed by fishing gear, referred to as “bycatch” by the fishing industry, include 720,000 seabirds, 300,000 whales and dolphins, 345,000 seals and sea lions, and 100 million sharks and rays. PETA India notes that fishing is considered the biggest threat to marine wildlife.
More fish are killed for food each year than all other animals combined. Fish feel pain as acutely as mammals do, have long-term memories, and sing underwater – yet they and other marine animals are impaled, crushed, suffocated, dropped into pots of boiling water, or cut open and gutted, all while they’re still conscious.
