If Nickels' Speech Isn't in Your Lunch Plans, Perhaps You'd Enjoy the Naked PETA Protest

Today's lunch hour is an embarrassment of riches. Not only will Greg Nickels be delivering his State of the City speech at the Rainier Vista Boys & Girls Club, but PETA members will be protesting fish farms outside the Aquaculture America conference at the Convention Center--"wearing nothing but fishtails and shimmery body paint."

Press release after the jump:

NAKED PETA MEMBERS TO GIVE FISHY WELCOME TO AQUACULTURE CONFEREES

'Save Our Schools: Go Vegetarian!' Says Group

What: Wearing nothing but fishtails and shimmery body paint and lying beneath a banner that reads, "Save Our Schools: Go Vegetarian!" PETA members will protest outside the Aquaculture America 2009 conference in Seattle on Tuesday. Other PETA members will hand out leaflets explaining the cruelty of fish farms and the serious health risks associated with eating fish flesh.

What's PETA's beef with fish farms? Scores of scientific studies prove that fish feel pain, are smart, can use tools, and have impressive long-term memories and sophisticated social structures, yet farmed fish spend their entire lives in cramped, filthy pens. Many suffer from parasitic infections, diseases, and debilitating injuries. They are crushed, suffocated, or cut open and gutted, all while they are still conscious. Humans who eat fish suffer too. Fish flesh is contaminated with toxic chemicals--including mercury and PCBs--that are known to cause cancer and brain degeneration, and it is also the most likely of all foods to make you sick from bacterial contamination.

"Farm-raised fish suffer horrendously, and people who eat them are playing Russian roulette with their health," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "The message that consumers should take from the Aquaculture conference is that there's never been a better time to go vegetarian."

Where: Washington State Convention Center, 701 Pike St., Seattle

When: Tuesday, February 17, 12 noon