The palgrave international handbook of a 315

Fish used in Aquariums: Nemo’s Plight
Jordan E. Mazurek

Introduction
‘The sea is everything! . . . On the surface, they can still exercise their iniquitous
laws, fight, devour each other, and indulge in all their earthly horrors. But thirty
feet below its surface their power ceases, their influence fades, and their dominion vanishes! Ah, monsieur, to live in the bosom of the sea! Only there can
independence be found! There I recognize no master! There I am free!’ (Captain
Nemo in Verne 1962, pp. 73–74). A century-and-a-half of anthropocentric
capitalist expansion later, one can only wonder with what horror the avowed
anti-imperialist, expert marine biologist, and intrepid Captain of the Nautilus
might look upon the state of his beloved ocean. Evidence of human domination
of the surface and depths of Earth’s oceans is pronounced and profound: from
rising ocean acidification and temperature due to anthropogenic global warming
to rampant overfishing and species collapse to the spreading of oxygen-deprived
‘dead zones’ to the accumulation of hundreds of millions of tons of plastic and
other debris in vast gyres to the rapidly increasing destruction of coral reefs and
corresponding decline of ocean biodiversity. While Captain Nemo would no
doubt be troubled by the state of the world’s oceans, he might find little solace in
J.E. Mazurek (*)
School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research (SSPSSR),
University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom
Institute for Criminological Research (IKS), University of Hamburg,
Hamburg, Germany
e-mail:
© The Author(s) 2017
J. Maher et al. (eds.), The Palgrave International Handbook of Animal
Abuse Studies, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-43183-7_15

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