Defining denial and sentient seafood — a response to Sneddon et al.

Hooked Follow Up III: Gone Monster Fishing
NGCUS - Ep Code: 3867 Sneddon et al. address the scientists who reject the empirical evidence on fish sentience, calling them “sceptics” and their work “denial”. This is the first article to frame the question of fish sentience in these terms, and it provides an obvious opening for social science and humanities research in the science of fish sentience. It is also worth asking what practical changes in the lives of fish might arise from the mounting evidence of their sentience. I suggest that the relationship between sentience and our sense of moral obligation is not as clear as we often assume. Read the full response here.

JENNIFER JACQUET is an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Studies and Director of XE: Experimental Humanities and Social Engagement at NYU. She is also deputy director of NYU's Center for Environmental and Animal Protection. Her research focuses on animals and the environment, Agnotology, and attribution and responsibility in the Anthropocene. She is author of THE PLAYBOOK: HOW TO DENY SCIENCE, SELL LIES, AND MAKE A KILLING IN THE CORPORATE WORLD (Pantheon/Penguin) due out in June of 2022 -- a work of 'epistolary non-fiction' that makes the business case for scientific denial. She also wrote IS SHAME NECESSARY? (Pantheon/Penguin, 2015) about the evolution, function, and future of the use of social disapproval in a globalized, digitized world. She is the recipient of a 2015 Alfred P. Sloan research fellowship and a 2016 Pew fellowship in marine conservation.

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