Fish tethering — live fish being bound in a “U” shape to keep them fresh — causes unnecessary pain and poses a food safety threat, animal right groups said yesterday.
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.
Photo courtesy of the Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan
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.
Research has shown that pain causes the fish to generate additional lactic acid, which taints the meat, it said.
Fish should be “rendered unconscious or killed immediately after capture” to reduce their suffering, otherwise endocrine changes triggered by pain results in reduced meat quality, National Taiwan Ocean University associate professor of aquaculture Huang Chih-yang (黃之暘) said.
Bacteria in water sprinkled on tethered fish to help keep them alive can enter the wounds and contaminate the flesh, Huang said.
Taipei Animal Protection Office Animal Rescue Team leader Wu Ching-an (吳晉安) said that vendors who tether are not in breach of the Animal Protection Act (動物保護法), as they do not intend to torture the fish.
The authorities should extend humane slaughter rules to cover fish so that vendors would be accountable to those regulations, Wu said.
While tethered fish are a common sight at the Taipei Fish Market, the team has not received complaints, which shows that people’s awareness of animal protection needs to be enhanced, he said.
The Environment and Animal Society called on the Council of Agriculture to promulgate animal welfare regulations regarding farming, transportation, sale and slaughter of fish and to educate people on fish welfare.
Fisheries Agency Deputy Director-General Lin Kuo-ping (林國平) said tethering is traditional in Taiwan, but raising public awareness about fish welfare is a discussion worth having.
“Discussion over this issue would have to involve research and input from the government, industry and academics,” Lin said. “The Fisheries Agency will convene a meeting of experts to discuss the matter as soon as possible.”
TRAFFIC SAFETY RULES: A positive result in a drug test would result in a two-year license suspension for the driver and vehicle, and a fine of up to NT$180,000 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to authorize police to conduct roadside saliva tests by the end of the year to deter people from driving while under the influence of narcotics, it said yesterday. The ministry last month unveiled a draft of amended regulations governing traffic safety rules and penalties, which included provisions empowering police to conduct mandatory saliva tests on drivers. While currently rules authorize police to use oral fluid testing kits for signs of drug use, they do not establish penalties for noncompliance or operating procedures for officers to follow, the ministry said. The proposed changes to the regulations require
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
1.4nm WAFERS: While TSMC is gearing up to expand its overseas production, it would also continue to invest in Taiwan, company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has applied for permission to construct a new plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which it would use for the production of new high-speed wafers, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council, which supervises three major science parks in Taiwan, confirmed that the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau had received an application on Friday from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to commence work on the new A14 fab. A14 technology, a 1.4 nanometer (nm) process, is designed to drive artificial intelligence transformation by enabling faster computing and greater power
RSS