Overfishing is threatening the oceans. Here’s what Islam says about it.
Key Takeaways
Excessive fishing is depleting fish populations, pushing coastal communities into poverty, and worsening climate change by releasing millions of tons of CO₂ annually.
Fish are intelligent, social beings and part of Allah’s (SWT) creation that glorify Him. Islamic teachings emphasize mercy and ethical responsibility, forbidding cruelty and excess in how we treat all creatures.
Cruel methods like long-lining, gill nets, and bottom trawling cause immense suffering to countless marine animals. Shifting to plant-based foods aligns with Islamic ethics and helps protect both human and animal communities.
A world without enough fish to eat? It may be more possible than we think: global fish stocks are decreasing while fish consumption is increasing. According to a United Nations report, 35% of the world's fishing areas are overfished, meaning that fish are caught faster than they can reproduce. 57% of the world is almost overfished—we're catching the maximum amount of fish that we can sustainably catch.
This corruption and excessiveness are a threat to communities and the environment. Communities that depend on fishing for survival are getting hungrier and growing poorer as fish get harder to catch.
Overfishing is pushing people into poverty and harming the planet
In coastal areas of Sierra Leone, fishermen are going into debt, taking on more dangerous jobs, and going without food. A fishermen’s union member told the Guardian:
“Imagine working for weeks and not being able to catch food, they are getting debts. They go to bed without food.”
Dwindling numbers of fish are pushing people into poverty in Indonesia, where nearly 7.2 million of them depend on fishing. Overfishing is also impacting other countries, including Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Egypt, to name a few.
As greenhouse gas emissions warm the planet, we need to do everything we can to keep it cool. The ocean - helped by the fish who inhabit it - does that for us by absorbing and storing nearly one-third of all carbon dioxide emissions. Fishing reverses this carbon storage and overfishing makes it worse, releasing 5.6 million more tons of CO2 each year, according to Sentient Media.
According to Islam, fish are communities like us, and we owe them kindness and compassion like any other animal
While Allah (SWT) subjected the seas to us, we cannot do as we please with them. As His appointed Khalifah, Allah (SWT) expects us to be responsible stewards who care for His creation and are not corrupt, excessive, or cruel.
Therefore, we have a duty not just to use Earth’s resources sustainably, but to also show kindness and compassion to all of His creation, including fish.
Fish may not look like us or communicate in our language, but we still have plenty in common.
Fish are animals and the Quran is clear that all animal species are communities like us:
“There is no creature moving on the Earth, nor a bird flying on its two wings, but they are all communities like you... ”
Scientists agree that fish are smart and social animals who can communicate, recognize individuals, maintain social relationships, help others, and raise their young. For example, knifefish and elephantfish use electronic signals to communicate. Cleaner wrasse fish cooperate together in “stations” to clean parasites off of visiting fish. Female convict cichlids will care for their young while the males defend them from predators.
Fish also worship and glorify Allah (SWT), just like us:
“The seven heavens, the Earth, and all those in them glorify Him. There is not a single thing that does not glorify His praises—but you cannot comprehend their glorification.”
Islam allows us to obtain benefits from various species, but this allowance come with strict ethical boundaries
Perhaps most importantly, scientists also agree that fish feel pain, just like us. While Allah (SWT) has allowed us to obtain numerous benefits from fish and other animals, He punishes cruelty.
Causing unnecessary pain and suffering is cruel and something that we must strive to avoid. In Islam, kindness and justice does not stop at the species boundary. We have a responsibility to care about how our actions affect all of His creation.
Eating fish when we don’t need it for sustenance harms human and animal communities alike, and it’s not just the animals we’re eating.
The modern fishing industry is full of unnecessary suffering and cruelty, completely against Islamic animal ethics
40 percent of fish caught every year is considered bycatch — species that we didn’t intend to catch. Dolphins, sea turtles, and sharks are some of the most common species that are injured and killed by the fishing industry. This is because the industry commonly uses fishing methods that indiscriminately catch and kill everything in their path in the ocean:
Long line fishing: Ships deploy miles of fishing lines with hooks that catch marine animals, targeted or not, many of whom suffer slow, painful deaths before being hauled aboard and killed. Long-lining kills hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, dolphins, sharks, birds, and other animals every year.
Gill nets: Gill nets can stretch for miles and act like walls of death, catching fish along the way and leaving many to suffer painful injuries as they thrash in the net. The animals can suffer for days before they’re ripped out of the net.
Bottom trawling: The ocean equivalent of cutting down a rainforest, ships drag nets along the ocean floor, which scrape it clean and catch every rock, coral, and fish along the way.
For many of us, it is perfectly possible to live a healthy and halal life without eating fish. There are lots of affordable, plant-based foods that provide the same nutrients as fish. We can get protein from a number of things including nuts, seeds, tofu, and legumes like beans, lentils, and chickpeas. We can get omega-3s from leafy greens, walnuts, seeds like flax and hemp, and fish-free supplements.
When we choose to eat plant-based foods instead of fish, we are doing our duty as Muslims to stand against injustice and corruption and show kindness and compassion.
