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: jem63@kent.ac.uk © 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_15 313