The practice of eating live seafood, such as fish, crab, oysters, baby shrimp, or baby octopus, is widespread. Oysters are typically eaten live. [1] The view that oysters are acceptable to eat, even by strict ethical criteria, has notably been propounded in the seminal 1975 text Animal Liberation, by philosopher Peter Singer. However, subsequent editions have reversed this position (advocating against eating oysters). Singer has stated that he has "gone back and forth on this over the years", and as of 2010 states that "while you could give them the benefit of the doubt, you could also say that unless some new evidence of a capacity for pain emerges, the doubt is so slight that there is no good reason for avoiding eating sustainably produced oysters". [2]
Location | Name | Image | Description | Video |
---|---|---|---|---|
China | Drunken shrimp | ![]() | Drunken shrimp is a popular dish in parts of China. It is based on fresh-water shrimp that are placed in a strong liquor, baijiu, and then eaten, often while they are alive. Modified recipes are used in different parts of China. For example, the drunken shrimp can be cooked in boiling water instead of serving them while they are still live. In other recipes, the shrimp are boiled first and then marinated in alcohol. [3] | Drunken Shrimp on YouTube |
Japan | Ikizukuri | ![]() | Ikizukuri, lit. "prepared alive", also called Ikezukuri is the preparation of sashimi made from live seafood. Fish such as tuna, mackerel, bream and salmon is usually used, but sometimes inkfish like octopus or shellfish like shrimp and lobster are used instead. [4] The practice is controversial, and ikizukuri is outlawed in Australia and Germany. [4] | |
Odori ebi | ![]() | Odori ebi, lit. "dancing shrimp", is a sashimi delicacy in Japan. It includes live baby pink shrimp, usually dunked in Japanese rice wine, wriggling their legs and waving their antenna as they are eaten. The meal is prepared rapidly and quickly served to ensure the shrimp are still alive. Dancing shrimp are also eaten in Thailand, where they are known as Goong Ten, กุ้งเต้น. | Eating live "dancing shrimp" in Thailand on YouTube | |
Korea | San-nakji | ![]() | Sannakji is a type of hoe , or raw dish, in Korea. It consists of usually dead but seemingly alive Octopus minor (nakji, sometimes translated as "baby octopus" due to the species' small size), cut into small pieces and immediately served, with a light sesame oil seasoning. The dish is eaten while the pieces are still squirming on the plate. [5] | Eating Live Octopus in Korea – Sannakji on YouTube |
Taiwan | Yin Yang fish | Yin Yang fish, or dead-and-alive fish, originated in Taiwan. It is a dish which consists of a deep-fried whole fish (usually carp) that remains alive after cooking. The fish's body is cooked while its head is wrapped in a wet cloth to keep it breathing. The fish is then covered in sauce and served live on a plate. [6] Some chefs say they prepare the fish this way to demonstrate its freshness to the customer. [7] [8] [9] Preparation of this dish is now banned in Taiwan, Australia and Germany. | Eating A Deep Fried Fish That's Still Alive – Huffington Post | |
Widespread | Live oyster | ![]() | Oysters are often eaten live. [10] | |
Live lobster | ![]() | Restaurants in New York City serve live lobster, advertising that they allow customers the opportunity to "pick belly sashimi out of its still moving body". [11] | I eat a live lobster in Japan on YouTube |
Octopuses are eaten alive in several countries around the world, including the United States. [12] [13] Animal welfare groups have objected to this practice on the basis that octopuses can experience pain. [14] In support of this, since September 2010, octopuses being used for scientific purposes in the European Union are protected by EU Directive 2010/63/EU "as there is scientific evidence of their ability to experience pain, suffering, distress and lasting harm." [15] In the United Kingdom, this means that octopuses used for scientific purposes must be killed humanely, according to prescribed methods (known as "Schedule 1 methods of euthanasia"). [16]
London resident Louis Cole ran a YouTube channel in which he ate live seafood. [17] The Guardian commented on the ethical issues raised by the behaviour of Coles that: "It seems objectively less cruel to kill a scorpion instantly than to rear chickens in battery cages or pigs in the most miserable pork farms". [17]
In India, the government provides support for an annual fish medicine festival in Hyderabad, where asthma patients are given a live sardine to eat which is supposed to cure their asthma. [18]
Improperly handled food, uncooked food, raw fish consumption and water contamination can transmit parasitic infections. Parasitic infections are common worldwide, although they are major health concerns in tropical countries. [19]
Infection by the fish tapeworm Diphyllobothrium latum is seen in countries where people eat raw or undercooked fish. [20]
Seafood is any form of sea life regarded as food by humans, prominently including fish and shellfish. Shellfish include various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Historically, marine mammals such as cetaceans as well as seals have been eaten as food, though that happens to a lesser extent in modern times. Edible sea plants such as some seaweeds and microalgae are widely eaten as sea vegetables around the world, especially in Asia.
Sashimi is a Japanese delicacy consisting of fresh raw fish or meat sliced into thin pieces and often eaten with soy sauce.
Shellfish, in colloquial and fisheries usage, are exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater environments, some are found in freshwater. In addition, a few species of land crabs are eaten, for example Cardisoma guanhumi in the Caribbean. Shellfish are among the most common food allergens.
Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve mollusc. The word is often applied only to those that are edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the sea floor or riverbeds. Clams have two shells of equal size connected by two adductor muscles and have a powerful burrowing foot. They live in both freshwater and marine environments; in salt water they prefer to burrow down into the mud and the turbidity of the water required varies with species and location; the greatest diversity of these is in North America.
An intestinal parasite infection is a condition in which a parasite infects the gastro-intestinal tract of humans and other animals. Such parasites can live anywhere in the body, but most prefer the intestinal wall.
Vibrio vulnificus is a species of Gram-negative, motile, curved rod-shaped (vibrio), pathogenic bacteria of the genus Vibrio. Present in marine environments such as estuaries, brackish ponds, or coastal areas, V. vulnificus is related to V. cholerae, the causative agent of cholera. At least one strain of V. vulnificus is bioluminescent. Increasing seasonal ocean temperatures and low-salt marine environments like estuaries favor a greater concentration of Vibrio within filter-feeding shellfish; V. vulnificus infections in the Eastern United States have increased eightfold from 1988–2018.
Diphyllobothrium is a genus of tapeworms which can cause diphyllobothriasis in humans through consumption of raw or undercooked fish. The principal species causing diphyllobothriasis is D. latum, known as the broad or fish tapeworm, or broad fish tapeworm. D. latum is a pseudophyllid cestode that infects fish and mammals. D. latum is native to Scandinavia, western Russia, and the Baltics, though it is now also present in North America, especially the Pacific Northwest. In Far East Russia, D. klebanovskii, having Pacific salmon as its second intermediate host, was identified.
Anisakis is a genus of parasitic nematodes that have life cycles involving fish and marine mammals. They are infective to humans and cause anisakiasis. People who produce immunoglobulin E in response to this parasite may subsequently have an allergic reaction, including anaphylaxis, after eating fish infected with Anisakis species.
Many species of fish are caught by humans and consumed as food in virtually all regions around the world. Fish has been an important dietary source of protein and other nutrients.
Ikizukuri (生き作り), also known as ikezukuri (活け造り), is the preparing of sashimi from live seafood. In this Japanese culinary technique, the most popular sea animal used is fish, but octopus, shrimp, and lobster may also be used. The practice is controversial owing to concerns about the animal's suffering, as it is seemingly alive when served.
San-nakji (Korean: 산낙지) is a variety of hoe made with long arm octopus, a small octopus species called nakji in Korean and is sometimes translated into "baby octopus" due to its relatively small size compared to the giant octopus. The octopus is most commonly killed before being cut into small pieces and served, with the nerve activity in the octopus's tentacles making the pieces move posthumously on the plate while served. The octopus's highly complex nervous system, with two-thirds of its neurons localised in the nerve cords of its arms, lets the octopus show a variety of reflex actions that persist even when they have no input from the brain. Less commonly, a live octopus is eaten whole. The dish is sprinkled with sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds.
The Feast of the Seven Fishes is an Italian American celebration of Christmas Eve with dishes of fish and other seafood. Christmas Eve is a vigil or fasting day, and the abundance of seafood reflects the observance of abstinence from meat until the feast of Christmas Day itself.
Diphyllobothriasis is the infection caused by tapeworms of the genus Diphyllobothrium.
Cestoda is a class of parasitic worms in the flatworm phylum (Platyhelminthes). Most of the species—and the best-known—are those in the subclass Eucestoda; they are ribbon-like worms as adults, known as tapeworms. Their bodies consist of many similar units known as proglottids—essentially packages of eggs which are regularly shed into the environment to infect other organisms. Species of the other subclass, Cestodaria, are mainly fish infecting parasites.
Like humans and other animals, fish suffer from diseases and parasites. Fish defences against disease are specific and non-specific. Non-specific defences include skin and scales, as well as the mucus layer secreted by the epidermis that traps microorganisms and inhibits their growth. If pathogens breach these defences, fish can develop inflammatory responses that increase the flow of blood to infected areas and deliver white blood cells that attempt to destroy the pathogens.
A sucker in zoology is a specialised attachment organ of an animal. It acts as an adhesion device in parasitic worms, several flatworms, cephalopods, certain fishes, amphibians, and bats. It is a muscular structure for suction on a host or substrate. In parasitic annelids, flatworms and roundworms, suckers are the organs of attachment to the host tissues. In tapeworms and flukes, they are a parasitic adaptation for attachment on the internal tissues of the host, such as intestines and blood vessels. In roundworms and flatworms they serve as attachment between individuals particularly during mating. In annelids, a sucker can be both a functional mouth and a locomotory organ. The structure and number of suckers are often used as basic taxonomic diagnosis between different species, since they are unique in each species. In tapeworms there are two distinct classes of suckers, namely "bothridia" for true suckers, and "bothria" for false suckers. In digeneal flukes there are usually an oral sucker at the mouth and a ventral sucker posterior to the mouth. Roundworms have their sucker just in front of the anus; hence it is often called a pre-anal sucker.
Eating live animals is the practice of humans eating animals that are still alive. It is a traditional practice in many East Asian food cultures. Animals may also be eaten alive for shock value. Eating live animals, or parts of live animals, may be unlawful in certain jurisdictions under animal cruelty laws. Religious prohibitions on the eating of live animals by humans are also present in various world religions.
People of some cultures eat octopus. The arms and sometimes other body parts are prepared in various ways, often varying by species and/or geography.