Just clarifying.... You are not a vegetarian if you eat fish. You are a pescatarian.
I enjoyed seafood prior to going vegetarian as well. But I told myself, fish are technically animals, and going vegetarian, I wanted to cut out all animals from my diet.
Many vegetarians don't eat fish because they are sometimes polluted with lead and mercury- and obviously pose a major health risk.
Also there is a lot of cruelty involved with the seafood industry. See this website:
CONSENSUS Portal - How are farmed fish killed?
Lobster for example, or usually boiled alive. And this is about farmed fish:
Quote:
Farmed fish are killed in a number of different ways depending on the species of fish, the size of the farm, the size of the fish and the customs or traditions of the country in which they are farmed. At present, common methods include a blow to the head (percussion); sedation in carbon dioxide-enriched water followed by bleeding (CO2 stunning); anaesthesia using food grade Eugenol followed by bleeding; plunging the fish into ice and water (cold shock); and lack of oxygen either in air or in ice and water (asphyxiation). Some of these systems are humane while others are clearly not.
There is still debate in scientific circles about the extent to which fish are able to suffer and to feel pain, however the trend is to assume that fish should be given the same consideration as other farmed animals. Pressure from large food retailers, demanding higher standards of fish welfare, planned changes in national and European legislation regarding fish farming, and the development of new technology is resulting in changes in the ways farmed fish are killed. Some of the historic killing methods such as CO2 stunning and asphyxiation are being phased out, while newer methods including electric stunning and automated percussion methods are being introduced.
The principles of humane killing of fish are the same as those for other farmed animals. These are that the animals should be spared all avoidable stress and suffering before killing, that the fish should become in-sensible (unconscious) either very suddenly or gently without pain or suffering, and that it should then remain insensible until it is dead.
Assessment of how acceptable a killing method is must take into account not only what is meant to happen but also what is likely to happen or can happen when the system goes wrong. For example, in Scotland, salmon are individually stunned by a single blow on the head and then bled by cutting the gill arches. When the blow is powerful enough and correctly aimed this almost certainly fulfils the requirements of humane slaughter. Traditionally this blow was given manually, however this was stressful and tiring work and so there was much doubt about whether it is possible for the workers to maintain the required power and accuracy of the blows throughout a working shift. During recent years therefore the Scottish salmon industry has moved over to the use of a mechanically assisted system. The percussion blow is now given by a pneumatically powered club which both ensures that the position of the blow and the power of the blow is correct. This system was given an animal welfare award in 2002 by the UKs Royal Society for the prevention of cruelty to Animals (RSPCA). Further developments in this technology are being made by the Australian manufacturers to suit it to a wider range of fish species.
Another example of recent change in the aquaculture industry can be seen in the methods used to kill trout in Great Britain. Traditionally, portion-sized trout were placed in tanks of ice and water and killed by asphyxiation. The average size of these fish is less than 400 g so the low individual commercial value of these animals to the farmer and the very large numbers of fish involved meant that individual percussion was not commercially viable. Concern about the welfare of these fish however prompted the development of new systems which enable portion size trout to be killed using a humane electric stunning system. This stuns the fish instantaneously without removing them from the water and ensures that they do not regain consciousness. Portion sized trout can thus now be humanely killed without significant extra cost, although electrical stunning can sometimes cause carcass quality problems in the final product. This approach to electric stunning is now being further developed for other species of fish such as Tilapia, Sea Bass, Sea Bream, Cod, Salmon, Turbot and Halibut.
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Just remember, regardless of if you continue to eat fish or not, just cutting a little meat out of your diet makes a difference!