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scientific findings that have recently established fish as sentient beings (see Morell 2015).

This is a key ethical principle of the animal liberation movement as seen in Peter Singer’s

influential ethical approach based on sentience. Similar to the eco centred approaches

outlined in chapter one, welfare debates often focus on fishing methods and gear. However,

rather than the focus being conservation of the species, the focus becomes the welfare of the

individual fish. For example, in a sensational list of ten reasons not to eat tuna, the group

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) lists living conditions of farms ‘factory

fish bowls’ where fish ‘are fattened on pellets of concentrated fish flesh and killed when they

get big enough — if they don’t die first from the parasites and diseases that thrive in

extremely crowded condition’ (PETA 2016, para. 8). Number six on PETA’s list is ‘Death,

Sopranos-Style’:

Hit men dump smaller tuna onto ice, where they slowly freeze to death or are
crushed when thousands of their schoolmates are piled on top of them. Tuna
caught on longlines are beaten until they become unconscious before they are
thrown into the freezer – and that’s if they haven’t already bled to death while
struggling to free themselves! (PETA 2016, para. 7)

The practice of mattanza also polarises people. Some, like Richard Ellis (marine

biologist, illustrator and author) see it as a brutal spectacle. He writes:

…the sight of the sleek, graceful creatures being gaffed is heartbreaking. One
moment they are on what Cousteau called their “honeymoon”, and the next they
are thrashing in a panicked mêlée as heavy steel hooks are smashed into their
bodies and they are hauled ignominiously from the only element they have ever
known into the one where they will die. (Ellis 2003, p. 35)

Animal Equality covertly investigated the tonnara and circulated a video of the mattanza,

which was then featured in The Times. The group planned to take the video to lobby

politicians in Rome and Brussels for a complete ban on bluefin fishing (Moody 2012). In a

hyperbolic report, Oliver Moody from The Times London says this is ‘the first footage of the

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