Are fish vegetarian or non-vegetarian?

If they are non-vegetarian, why do many people consider them to be vegetarian?

And to share it at the level of love. Hare Krishna.
Question. Are fish vegetarian or non-vegetarian? Why do many people consider them to be vegetarian? Answer. By scientific definition as well as by common sense fish are non-vegetarian.
The word vegetarian literally refers to that which is based on those who eat vegetables or those food which are coming from vegetables. So now fish are not definitely vegetarians. They are animals.
So because they are animals so definitely eating them is not vegetarian. In fact now people who eat, who don’t eat other non-vegetarian food but eat fish are called as a pescetarian. It’s a different category of people.
So they sometimes self-identify as vegetarian but they eat fish. Now peculiarly some of these people they actually don’t eat fish. They actually eat fish but they don’t eat eggs because they consider eggs to be non-vegetarian.
So in that sense this division between vegetarian and non-vegetarian gets fuzzed sometimes in people’s minds. So now if, now from the common sense point of view also some people may call fish as jal ki sabji or whatever as if it is just like a vegetable. But it’s clear vegetables belong to the plant kingdom.
They don’t move. They don’t have that level of consciousness which animals have. And fish definitely move about.
They have consciousness and they clearly biologically, morphologically, anatomically they belong to the animal kingdom. So eating fish is non-vegetarian. Now specifically why do some people consider fish to be vegetarian? Well, many times the conceptions of people are shaped not just by a tradition that comes from scripture but tradition that may also come from circumstance.
So for example, people who live near the coast may because of availability or necessity start choosing to eat fish and as they get habituated to eating fish then they start rationalizing and justifying it. And one justification is just like a water vegetable. It’s by no means a water vegetable at all.
Now at the same time if we see scripture does not refer to fishermen as negatively as it refers to say hunters. So for example, the hunter, if you look at Chaitanya Charitamruta itself, the hunter who say for example, in Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s story of Lugari. So the hunter is typically talked of as a very cruel animal.
But there is also a description in Chaitanya Charitamruta of a fisherman who was fishing and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had just jumped into the ocean at that time because of ecstasy and then when he came out, when the fisherman was trying to draw out his net, he caught Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in it. And then what happened is, it is said that this fisherman is chanting Krishna, Krishna, Krishna’s names and further they, then when the other devotees came and met him, he said that actually when I do fishing I chant Narasimha Mantra. So and normally whatever ghosts are there go away.
But when I chant the Narasimha Mantra whatever ghost is possessing me that is becoming worse. I don’t know what to do. That means this fisherman was chanting Narasimha Mantra.
So that means there was some kind of devotion within that fisherman also and it’s possible that the fisherman was eating, was fishing and normally if somebody fishes, normally they eat fish also. That was just primarily because of the tradition that had come up in the past. So actually many of these people, when they are presented things systematically, those who are eating fish and those who have not been properly told that it is wrong, that actually fish eating is non-vegetarian and it is not according to the scripture.
Many of them they have piety and they give it up. So we should not treat fish eating with the actually as devotees we should not treat anyone with disdain, even people who eat meat. But certainly there are different levels in meat eating also.
So for example, beef eating, because cows are very dear to Krishna, beef eating is extremely reprehensible, regrettable. Now as compared to that, say fish eating, if it is a stratum, then it is not, the scripture doesn’t seem to refer to it in the same strictly prohibitive or condemnatory terms as it refers to beef eating or as the fisherman also refer to in general milder terms than hunters. So in general, it is, first of all, there is no confusion that fish is non-vegetarian.
But because of circumstance and because of a misinformed tradition that has been formed from circumstance and that which is later on may be justified also by some scripture misinterpretation. But basically because of misinformation, many pious people tend to eat fish. So rather than scoffing at them, we should try to systematically explain to them and it is quite likely that they will become vegetarian.
But whether they become vegetarian or not, we should not, in terms of logical and scriptural, logical and scientific scriptural understanding, we should not be confused. Fish are non-vegetarian. Thank you.
So forms of Narasimha,