Climate Literacy in Education

“Moonfish” from Tales from The Inner City and the Problem of Pain in Fish

Jan Dudek

Keywords: fish pain, climate education, children’s literature, ecocriticism

Abstract

“Moonfish” by Shaun Tan is a story about children who, living in a modern, polluted city, practice skyward angling from the rooftops of the skyscrapers and end up catching an immensely rare fish. This article’s purpose is to suggest a pedagogical application of Tan’s story for a lesson promoting fish welfare along with a reading of the story that could be used for such a lesson. As a framework, the article also introduces the debate concerning pain in fish. Education on the subject becomes all the more important in recent times, as this discussion remains quite heated and many anglers raise objections to the very notion that fish feel pain. A lesson utilizing the story is to challenge these views and encourage an empathetic approach to fish.