cheryl
Administrator
Staff member
Are we wrong to assume fish can't feel pain? - The Guardian
We like to think fish have no feelings. And yet the idea that they have both memory and a capacity for suffering is gaining ground among scientists.
have cast my rod into the tidal current flowing around Montauk Point in New York and my lure is chugging across the surface when a bluefish swirls and fails to grab it. There is a heavier swirl. On a third appearance, the fish grabs. The hook pierces. The fish swims one way and abruptly changes direction. It darts deep. Comes up. The fish is struggling. I have never seen a free-swimming fish leap and wriggle as if to dislodge something. But this fish suddenly bursts through the surface, shaking its head energetically. It works. My lure goes flying. The line goes slack. The fish vanishes; escaped.
Was that fish feeling pain? Fear? If a sociopath is someone who disregards the pain of others, and if someone who ignores evidence is in denial, what does that make me? Such questions plague me. I cast again.
The impression that fish are insensate, short of memory and, therefore, can be caught, killed and eaten without guilt, is being revisited. Angling, the so-called “gentle art”, derives enjoyment from the struggles of its quarry. Up to 2.7tn wild fish are caught worldwide every year; a third of which are ground into feed for chickens, pigs and other fish. The ethics of all this depend on what fish do or do not experience. It is a question dividing the science community; forced to reassess in light of new evidence.
We like to think fish have no feelings. And yet the idea that they have both memory and a capacity for suffering is gaining ground among scientists.
have cast my rod into the tidal current flowing around Montauk Point in New York and my lure is chugging across the surface when a bluefish swirls and fails to grab it. There is a heavier swirl. On a third appearance, the fish grabs. The hook pierces. The fish swims one way and abruptly changes direction. It darts deep. Comes up. The fish is struggling. I have never seen a free-swimming fish leap and wriggle as if to dislodge something. But this fish suddenly bursts through the surface, shaking its head energetically. It works. My lure goes flying. The line goes slack. The fish vanishes; escaped.
Was that fish feeling pain? Fear? If a sociopath is someone who disregards the pain of others, and if someone who ignores evidence is in denial, what does that make me? Such questions plague me. I cast again.
The impression that fish are insensate, short of memory and, therefore, can be caught, killed and eaten without guilt, is being revisited. Angling, the so-called “gentle art”, derives enjoyment from the struggles of its quarry. Up to 2.7tn wild fish are caught worldwide every year; a third of which are ground into feed for chickens, pigs and other fish. The ethics of all this depend on what fish do or do not experience. It is a question dividing the science community; forced to reassess in light of new evidence.
