Do fish feel pain?

[Shloim]

Ok so my wife is saying that fish feel slot more pain than we think or care to admit. Thoughts ?

[Terry]

they have done studies

P3ta even paid for a study, then tried to bury it because fish do not feel pain like mammals do..and that is what the studies showed

their nervous system is not developed enough to transmit pain

 

they also do not experience fear,

[Rod Caster]

They probably feel 'something', but it's normal for them as a survival mechanism. Imagine a walleye laying into a perch or several perch with those big sharp dorsal fins. That's gotta hurt more than a jig head. The walleye doesn't care or was designed to deal with that pain, move on and catch another meal. Their nervous system is completely different than ours so to compare a fish to human is not coherent.

 

Also, my dog certainly feels pain, but I've seen him smash into so many things day in day out (he's not very smart, or hard or seeing) and he walks away like nothing happened. Nature is made to withstand a lot of stress, humans by comparison are soft and weak, which is why our bodies have a low threshold for pain, which is also why we have the brain to create external protections.

[kickingfrog]

Imagine if fish were like soccer players?

[chris.brock]

my wife is the best, she loves to fish but is having moral issues with the whole thing, she's not a vegan or vegetarian or anything,

 

we don't even talk about hunting stuff

 

if you spend some time with small brained animals, it's amazing how smart and social they are

 

is catch and release fishing just torturing/ harassing wildlife?

 

good question Shloim, should be some interesting responses

 

I would say catching and releasing a fish causes more stress than pain

Edited June 19, 2014 by chris.brock

[Gnote]

I have struggled with this idea in the past, i dont believe they feel pain like we do but definitely feel something. I generally oversize my equiptment for the job at hand so that im not exhausting the fish to death as well. I like to make the experiance as painless and as efficient as possible for the fish.

As fishing is far and above my favourite hobby/passion/obsession, i wont be quitting any time soon so i do the best i can.

[glen]

Think of how happy a fish is when it's set free instead of eaten.

[spincast]

ever play rugby? Hurts but never stopped me. Sure they feel something - every nervous system responds to stimuli. Does it hurt? Not enough to cause harm

Edited June 19, 2014 by spincast

[bushart]

Only when I insult their puny appearance------Ced-Art and Sleeman's did a study and found little fish have low self esteem

[Joey]

I think this topic has come up more times than I can count since this forum started.

 

Honestly, I don't believe they do feel pain. They never say Ow when I catch them.

 

They eat Crayfish. Those are pretty hard and spiky!.

[Ralph Field]

I agree with those that believe that fish don't experience the same sort of pain that humans do. They do however build up lactic acid in their system as they are fought which can lead to their death after a prolonged fight with a fisherman using too light a line for the targeted species. Land fish as quickly as possible if you practise catch and release.

[Gnote]

ever play rugby? Hurts but never stopped me. Sure they feel something - every nervous system responds to stimuli. Does it hurt? Not enough to cause harm

I did, loosehead prop all through high school

[Pikeslayer]

I used to be a Pike in a previous life. Don't ever remember feeling any pain. But I did see the bright light once.

[cheaptackle]

Not after I whack them over the head with a club on the cleaning table.... no study done to confirm this, P3ta volunteer ran like hell when they determined how I proposed the experiment should go

 

 

Michael

[captpierre]

If you think of it, there is no dying of old age for all but perhaps the top predators

 

Everybody gets eaten. Mice, rabbits deer, most fish.

 

Getting eaten alive ain't easy. Especially being grabbed by an osprey, taken to a tree top, and get ripped apart alive.

 

So when I keep a fish for the table and bonk it when it comes out of the live well. I don't feel too bad.

 

Have to admit I don't like using minnows. Casting those little guys thru the air with a hook in their mouths.

[Gnote]

[quote name="captpierre" post="859522" timestamp="

Have to admit I don't like using minnows. Casting those little guys thru the air with a hook in their mouths.

 

Thats why i cant/dont use frogs and havent since i was a kid.

[Joeytier]

I don't think fish would eat many crayfish if it were painful for them to do so.

[bushart]

it's not painful to eat the crayfish...it's the mornin after

[moxie]

They sure fight like they do.

[John Bacon]

Imagine if fish were like soccer players?

 

 

From what I understand, the portion of the brain that is used to transmit pain in mammals does not exist in fish. Based on that, I don't think that fish feel pain.

[chris.brock]

I think it's cool to hear that some of us knuckle draggers respect lesser creatures

 

like Gallie, I used frogs as a kid, then later when I could think for myself, didn't feel right doing that

 

I harvest fish and game, but I'll still try to help an injured chickadee, or take a turtle off the road and throw it in the bed of my truck and drive it to the lake

[NAW]

Imagine being a minnow eatin alive by a bigger fish, and slowly dying inside the stomach, with your best friend (s) all packed in there with you!

 

I've seen whitefish bellies stacked with minnows... As I'm sure you all have. It's a mass grave .

 

Scary stuff for minnows to be thinking about.!

Edited June 20, 2014 by N.A.W

[Dave Bailey]

There is something they definitely do not experience: the mental anguish and emotional torment that we would feel when we are in pain. We have not only the intelligence, but the learned knowledge, that pain might lead to death, but no other animal, in my opinion, understands death. Unless they have the ability to communicate complex and abstract concepts, the idea of death would be alien to them. The average fish that we catch has a brain the size of a few grains of rice, and no ability to teach each succeeding generation that there is a finality to life. I am not saying that causing suffering should rest merely on their understanding of death: a dog doesn't have the ability either, but I wouldn't condone causing one to suffer, they still have emotions. But a fish? I doubt they have any ability to feel emotions.

 

Now, where's my bag of Swammers? And the Chug Bug, don't forget the Chug Bug.

[Sinker]

Meh...I dont worry about it.

 

Sometimes when I catch a small fissh and skip it across the water as I reel it in I wonder if I just scared the crap out of it, or if it just experienced the ride of its life. Kinda like us riding a roller coaster. Lol

 

S.

[cram]

There is something they definitely do not experience: the mental anguish and emotional torment that we would feel when we are in pain. We have not only the intelligence, but the learned knowledge, that pain might lead to death, but no other animal, in my opinion, understands death. Unless they have the ability to communicate complex and abstract concepts, the idea of death would be alien to them. The average fish that we catch has a brain the size of a few grains of rice, and no ability to teach each succeeding generation that there is a finality to life. I am not saying that causing suffering should rest merely on their understanding of death: a dog doesn't have the ability either, but I wouldn't condone causing one to suffer, they still have emotions. But a fish? I doubt they have any ability to feel emotions.

 

Now, where's my bag of Swammers? And the Chug Bug, don't forget the Chug Bug.

 

I think you're right about fish (no conscience at all, more "instinctual" than thinking), but elephants, dolphins, whales, primates, and even pigs are a lot more sentient than you're giving them credit for.