How ethical is it to eat fish?!

Its actually completely unethical especially enviormentally, if you were to consume any meat i'd recommend white meat first as a last option before ever recommending fish.
You're familiar with by-catch right? It can be as high as 70+% by trawler fishing, if i recall 10+ billion fish annually are killed, now fish farming isn't THAT much of a fad. So most of those fish will be from the ocean itself, logic can clearly see that fishing such a high number cannot be sustainable.
To add more to the problem shrimp/crabs etc are highly regarded foods, by trawler nets they have to get to the ocean floor where these crusaceans dwell. Thus LOTS of the coral/fauna of the ocean is also taken up, so regardless if other by-catch animals are thrown back (PS many are dolphins that drown in the nets & injured fish that die when thrown back) the eco-system & habitats of many other species is ruined.
On top of that birds & other such animals are caught by other types of fishing & if the nets are brought up too fast some fish get disorientated & don't adapt to the pressure, their floating device (cant recall if its their gall bladder) expands by instinct & well they blow up.

Now i apologise for not having any links, i'm on a library computer that is nazi-strict on web filters, you can do the resaearch yourself on the claims i make or take my word that they are true (but numbers may be off).
If you are going to eat any meat land-meat much more so than fish, its becoming fast one of the biggest concerns alongside the likes of Global warming & such

vegetarian

May I ask exactly what your health problems are?

If you have an iron deficiency: Eat iron-rich foods with vitamin-C rich foods in the same meal. Vitamin C will help your body absorb the non-heme iron that's in plants. If you depend on spinach for a great deal of iron, you'll have to cook it. Steaming is best. Broccoli is also awesome. It has vitamin C and is rich in iron.

If you're deficient in Omega-3s: flax seed is a great source of Omega-3s. It's really good sprinkled over oatmeal or cereal or toast. :3

If you're looking for more protein in your diet: Quinoa is a magnificent thing. It has all nine amino acids and it's gluten-free. It can be used to replace rice in most dishes. Another good source of gluten-free protein is soba noodles. In addition to that, there are various beans and soy products.

Fish feel as much as any sentient being with a central nervous system does. I'm not sure about the environmental impact, but like someone else said, there are bycatch issues to consider. In addition, there is a lot of overfishing in the world. :(

I hope you'll be able to solve your health issues without resorting to meat, and I'm sure you do too. Don't trust a doctor to know anything about nutrition. They don't take classes for it in med school, and if they do, they're two hour seminars. See a registered dietitian who has experience with vegetarianism. :3

Vegan <3

Contrary to belief, fish feel as much pain as lets say, a cow or other land animals.
There,s a good section on why eating fish is unethical in this documentary Earthlings.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce4DJh-L7…
The section is somewhere towards the middle (38 minutes and 15 seconds), although I would recommend watching the whole thing its amazing.

But if your starting to eat meat due to health reasons, I doubt you have to.. Ive known people, including myself, who have serious health conditions, and still eat perfectly healthy being VEGAN. So I'm sure its possible for you to keep being veggie.

@Cliff: in modern times, eating fish is actually very unhealthy, if you think about how polluted the ocean is. By eating the fish you are consuming bacteria, etc. that can kill you over time, sometimes only in a few weeks.

Vegan.

Fishes feel just as much pain as you or I.

Aquaculture is completely unsustainable because they farm the wrong species. The type of fishes farmed are predators like trout, salmonids etc. They have to be fed fish, which is caught in the ocean! SO you still have all the same bycatch issues with aquaculture and the whole thing would be less harmful to the environment if people ate the fish food rather than the farmed fish.

On top of this, there have been numerous incidents of environmental contamination from fish farms. The water becomes polluted and when you get heavy rain it flows into nearby streams. The predatory fishes also get into the environment this way, which is a serious concern about the soon to be commercially available (in America) GM fishes.

http://tinyurl.com/65dg4co
http://tinyurl.com/5tmtxm5
http://tinyurl.com/655x6py
http://www.springerlink.com/content/4jct…
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/201…

We have to ask our selves what means "ethical".
Is opposite of ethical to use a car cause it create huge damages to Mother Nature (not only for using it but also to build it, commerce it and so on) Lot lot of environment destroy.
Is not ethical to use chemical cleaners cause they KILL FISHES more than what u think.
Is ethical to follow Mother Nature. Mother Nature permit to animals to eat other animals. That thing don't destroy the environment. If all the people do like you (to don't eat fish), there will be an environmetal desaster: too many fisheswill eat too many sea vegetable, the Ocean will die

U want to be ethical ? Just follow Mother Nature

Mother Nature

Who said you have to start eating any animals again? If you're having health problems, it's probably because you're not keeping up with your vegetarian diet enough. Most people think they can just cut out meat and leave it at that. No, you have to make up for the nutrients you're not getting from meat. You can get protein, iron, and B12 from other sources. You can also take tablets along with your meals.

The fish are probably killed pretty quickly. On many boats it's common to freeze the fish as soon as they're caught. You should check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium's seafood watch program, which lists overfished species and their alternatives, to help you choose sustainable fish. It's very specific, going as far as to list what methods of fishing you should look for. This helps you to choose fish that'll have less of an environmental impact.

Have you ever watched a TV programme where a fish catch is being landed, or seen a fisherman reel in a fish that has been caught...the sight of those poor fish struggling to breath...they are actually suffocating to death...is truly heartbreaking...

The Vegetarian Society of the United Kingdom has some very useful information on whether it is ethical to eat fish or not...you can find it at this link (you do not need to be a member to view it)...
http://www.vegsoc.org/page.aspx?pid=723

My moral compass says that there's nothing ethically wrong with eating fish. But if it matters to you, fish have less-developed nervous systems than reptiles, birds, and mammals.

Fish is very healthy, and some of the healthiest cultures in the history of mankind have eaten diets rich in seafood.

for every pound of shrimp, 26 pounds of other animals get caught in the nets and die. I don't eat fish because of it's detrimental to our environment. But at least you wouldn't eat anything else, and maybe you could eat it as scarcely as possible. Good luck on your journey :)

Eating Animals by JSF

Most of the fish are raised on farms. Where they are fed hormones to grow quickly. Thy also have no swimming space. They don't have the best lives.

Whether it's right or not, is up to you. Being a vegetarian is up to you,& if you don't truly believe in it, then don't do it.

Whether it is ethical all depends on your ethics.

Here is some info on the environmental issues.
http://veg.ca/content/view/137/111/

Many people eat fish and call themselves vegetarians. Just don't eat tuna or albacore (canned or fresh, or frozen) because it is high in mercury and tuna is an endangered species.

To Cheerchica, most fish sold in the market are caught in the wild or in their natural habitat. They are not farm-raised!!

http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety/Produ…

"Ethical"? So long as you don't eat fish known to be poisonous or otherwise dangerous, I don't see any kind of problem. Fish, like all animals, were put on this Earth to be eaten by humans.