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Comment by azalemeth | Hacker News Reader

I know this is always an unpopular opinion but I just think we as a species should eat far fewer animals. Fish species have been really substantially negatively affected all over the planet by human activity, activities such as bottom trawling and line fishing are hugely destructive (the lines can be tens of km long!) and the whole marine ecosystem is under unique threats from climate change. We don't really know what we are killing and eating, and I am sure we will regret it later on scientifically.

I'm a lifelong plant eater and you can survive very happily, healthily, with lower carbon footprints at all stages of life with it. And if anyone says "protein" or DHA I'll talk all about the pentose phosphate pathway whilst munching linseeds.

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Seems like you think people catch lake sturgeon to eat them. This is a very rare thing these days. Sturgeon fishing is almost always catch and release. This doesn't mean there aren't any fish killed. Any catch and release is quite stressful and might kill one. But people aren't just eating them and sturgeon are quite robust. And there's certainly no commercial fishing for them like the issues with ocean/marine ecosystems you're describing.

At least in Wisconsin rivers/lakes you cannot legally keep any sturgeon with the normal fishing license. You have to pay an extra fee to keep 1 (per season). And according to the statewide Wisconsin statistics only 5 sturgeon were harvested from the St. Croix River in 2025, and a total of 58 were harvested across the entire state.

Years again I was gifted a sturgeon fishing trip on the Fraser and I still feel bad thinking about it. In hindsight knowing how much we stressed and probably harmed that animal. What a cruel way to entertain ourselves.

I personally only fish to eat these days. And I still sometimes feel bad about hurting them and ending the lives. I comfort myself knowing that most fish I catch are not very intelligent and that it is certainly less torture and a better life than, say, a factory farm pig with very high intelligence. And since I am doing the killing myself I do it quickly and minimize suffering. I know whataboutism isn't a strong argument and in no way refutes your point about catch-and-release fishing enjoyment coming from the fishes' struggle and suffering (in what capacity it has for this).

I accidentally caught 1 smaller (~meter length) sturgeon while fishing for the very tasty walleye (fish). I certainly enjoyed the "fight" in which the fish was suffering and it didn't really occur to me at the time. But I did return it to the water quickly.

Many fish can be farmed easily.

If we continued as hunters-gatherers we'd do the same with many other animals, but we instead decided to farm them so the other species can survive.

On the other hand, there are wild boars roaming my country in numbers that should be reduced, but somehow very few people want to eat them and they're causing a problems. Bear meat is a bit more popular, but killing off excess bears is a hot topic every year. Meanwhile horse meat is more easily available over here.

It's perhaps not intuitive but it turns out organized anglers have been a big part of rescuing various fish populations. For instance, as a member of the "Backcountry Hunters & Anglers" group me and about 20 other members hiked up the West Fork of Oak Creek in Oak Creek Canyon AZ with heavy backpack tanks filled with (formerly) endangered Apache Trout fingerlings. It was absolutely wonderful to watch the little ones swim away. Trout Unlimited has a ton of conservation efforts including habitat, which helps viability of a whole bunch of other species.

Similarly, you can read the book "People of the Sturgeon: Wisconsin's Love Affair with an Ancient Fish" to learn about how the people around Lake Winnebago came together to restore the health of its native Sturgeon population.

This idea of "othering" human beings apart from the animal world might sound like the most effective way to "help" animals but humans, being complicated, don't work that way.

I couldn't care less what you eat, if it makes you happy, awesome. But there's a whole lot more going on culturally with conservation that is entwined with the evolved nature of human beings.

In the sturgeon case, part of their trouble is habitat loss for their breeding grounds. The wiki linked in another comment says that the cause there is agricultural runoff, although it's not specific if that is plant or animal farming. Being vegetarian might not help the fish much if the farming is still causing the destruction of their breeding grounds.

People are going to have to learn to eat algae, prawns, and insect proteins.

As the eutrophication events in a warming ocean will suffocate just about everything else. Have a nice day. =3

Spirulina is yummy. I thought it was blue green algae but apparently it's not, but it is easily confused for one.

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