Kolkata, June 7 : To mark World Oceans Day on June 8, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India is erecting a spate of sky-high messages featuring a netted fish gasping for breath and an appeal to everyone to prevent sensitive aquatic animals from dying from a lack of oxygen on fishing trawlers by going vegan.

The billboards in Kolkata is located at Rashbehari Crossing, Facing Lake Market, Kalighat, here.

“Every fish who ends up on a plate was an individual who didn’t deserve to be taken from his or her beloved ocean home and painfully killed,” says PETA India Senior Campaigns Coordinator Radhika Suryavanshi.

“PETA India urges everyone to let aquatic animals live in peace this World Oceans Day – and every day – by choosing compassionate vegan foods,” Suryavanshi said.

More fish are killed for food each year than all other animals combined. Fish feel pain as acutely as mammals do, have long-term memories, and sing underwater – yet they and other marine animals are impaled, crushed, suffocated, dropped into pots of boiling water, or cut open and gutted, all while conscious.

Each year, the fishing industry also kills vast numbers of non-target animals, including 720,000 seabirds, 300,000 whales and dolphins, 345,000 seals and sea lions, and 100 million sharks and rays. PETA India notes that fishing is considered to be the biggest threat to marine wildlife.

PETA India – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” and which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview – offers a free vegan starter kit packed with tips, recipes, and more.