THIS week – at a time when people are increasingly embracing cruelty-free, vegan foods – Scotland's fish-farming industry has been meeting at Aquaculture UK's 2018 conference to discuss ways to wring more profits from the fish they raise to kill.

Nearly half of all the fish consumed in Britain are raised in confinement and denied the opportunity to swim freely or exercise their natural instincts, such as salmon's powerful urge to migrate upstream each year. Like all factory-farmed animals, fish raised for their flesh are forced to live in filthy conditions and often sustain injuries to their faces and fins as a result of severe crowding – which leads to outbreaks of disease and parasites, including sea lice.

With the growing popularity and availability of vegan "fish", we can enjoy the taste of the sea without killing the animals who live there.

Jennifer White,

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Society Building, 8 All Saints Street, London.