Well my motto is (quoting Findng Nemo here): Fish are friends, not food., but that's just because I can't stand the taste or smell of fish. I do agree they are smart though and I care enough about my fish to get really distressed when something happens to them and they all have names.
I don't think renaming a fish a sea kitten will do anything for how they are treated though. Their primary use is obviously (food), just not for me. I do disagree with catch and release fishing though. I think it's wrong to make any fish suffer just for the fun of catching a fish. I say get out there with a net, lol.
Anyway, some countries eat dogs (for all I know cats too), so in my opinion, the whole idea of calling fish sea kittens to try and pursuade people to think differently about them is a little odd.
Plus cats and kittens are treated worse than dogs in my opinion. The shelters won't even hold cats anymore if they have too many. They just euthenize them. They don't do that with dogs (in Spokane anyway). That whole thing upset me. Both cats and dogs should have a holding period of at least a week to try and reconnect them with their owner, but that's another topic...
I don't see people killing fish because there's too many of them. Duh, they're a useful animal for food, they maintain our oceans and in our case, they are our pets.