
Filename:
WAM1092
Headline:
Tethered fish for sale at a fish market in Taiwan. Taipei, Taiwan, 2019. Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals
Description:
This fish market in Taipei is at its busiest in the middle of the night, when truckloads of fish—dead and alive—are constantly arriving to be unloaded and sold. Some species are stunned or killed upon arrival, clubbed with long metal rods. Others are preserved and kept alive as long as possible. Among these preservation practices is ‘fish binding’, which involves breaking the fish’s bones, bending their body into an unnatural position, and tying it in place with a piece of twine from the mouth to the tail. This forces the gills open, keeping the fish alive and breathing on land for hours longer than it would survive if lying flat.
This investigation was facilitated through a partnership with the local animal advocacy group EAST (Environment & Animal Society of Taiwan), who documented animals regularly being harvested and sold at much smaller sizes than Taiwan permits for sustainability. Since then, EAST has continued to use these images in campaigns to pressure better enforcement of fishing regulation and to call for a ban on the practice of fish binding.
Area of Focus:
Food Systems,Aquatic Life,Fish & Crustaceans
Supplemental categories:
Animal Markets, Food Systems
City:
Taipei
Country:
Taiwan
Photographer/Filmmaker:
Jo-Anne McArthur
Credit:
Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals
Year:
2019
License Type(s):
Non-Commercial Use, Commercial Use
WA Keywords:
- animal
- animal market
- aquatic life
- Asia
- asphyxiation
- box
- close-up
- container
- death
- directly above
- display
- dying
- East Asia
- Eurasia
- filling the frame
- fish
- fish binding
- fish market
- group of animals
- high angle view
- indoors
- industry
- marine life
- market
- metal
- New Taipei City
- red
- restrained
- seafood
- selling
- showing
- Southeast Asia
- string
- Taipei
- Taiwan
- tied
- tied up
- trade
- water
- wet
- wet market
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