Fish feeling pain

[gnlabonte]

       This past weekend, thedirtyandro and I were fishing one of our favorite spots for smallies. I had a smallie on and it was running into a difficult spot and I had 4 pound test. I flipped my bail and the fish stopped fighting and I walked over to it and it started to fight again and I successfully landed it. This sparked and interesting conversation on whether or not fish feel "pain". They obviously feel something and I have read papers on the topic, but I'd like some other input from other fisherman. So do you think fish feel "pain" if so, to what degree?

[bailey63]

I believe they feel as much pain as any other animal does myself when you remove a hook and they curl their bodies or if you fillet one alive you get that quiver. I try to either fillet frozen or iced fish to spare them myself. The nice thing is if you do things right and release them they will fight again another day. I let a lot go and selectively keep some but always respect the fish.

[pegasus]

I can't clean fish in front of my fish tank. My Beta goes into shock and won't speak to me for weeks.

[CLAMFARMER]

       I flipped my bail and the fish stopped fighting and I walked over to it and it started to fight again and I successfully landed it.

Where’d ya learn that trick? It’s almost like cheating, isn’t it? It does come in handy at times!

always respect the fish.

X2

I can't clean fish in front of my fish tank. My Beta goes into shock and won't speak to me for weeks.

Maybe the beta is jealous. I know it doesn’t work well to kill and butcher a sheep in front of the rest of the flock. Seems to make the rest a little nervous :blink:

[Nor Easter]

Or Stream Kittens... 

We are supposed to treat game fish and perch with hyped up respect, yet we step on our bait to make it give off more scent? Think about that a little. A fish is a fish, right? 

It all boils down to the brain and nervous system and we as humans tend to emotionally place our complex life form "in the eyes of", if you will, into other animals complex or simple. Also pain is a chemical signal and the needed chemicals or ability to make them need to be present. Does an Amoeba feel pain? How could it if it lacks a complex nervous system or the chemical composition to transmit it? Then to what? A simple brain? Therefore, it is assumed they don't. So we need to know the difference between humans and the fishes or other animals.

Several active clickable quotes below:

Link on how humans feel pain through sensory nerves.

Link #2

The 2003 Edinburgh study confirmed that trout have polymodal nociceptors around their face and head—i.e., they have the ability to detect painful stimuli with their nervous system. But, according to some definitions of pain, the detection of painful stimuli is not enough. The animal must have the ability to understand it is in pain to really feel pain. Putting a hook in the mouth of a trout stimulates it to race around the water, to not go where the line wants to force it. But this doesn't mean that the fish is thinking "$h!t. $h!t. $h!t. This sucks. This sucks. Ow. Ow. Ow." What seems like a desperate escape might be a reflexive reaction, similar to your leg moving when the doctor taps your knee.

#3

Your organs register sensations through nerve receptors, some of which are geared specifically to transmit sensations of pain, such as visceral pain. These are called nociceptors. These nerves transmit the pain message through the spinal cord to the brain, where they arrive first in the thalamus. The thalamus relays the fact of pain to several other parts of the brain: the somatosensory cortex, which governs movement and feeling; the limbic system, which produces emotional responses; and the frontal cortex, which is associated with conscious thinking.

#4

However, one area of great importance for pain perception in humans is the cortex and its relative size decreases as we descend the evolutionary tree. For instance, in relative terms, the cortex gets smaller going from humans, through primates, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibia and finally to fish, which possess only a rudimentary cortex.

So do fish have, and if so, a sufficient list of the required parts of the brain and nervous system? This would mean having a (large) enough nociceptors, thalamus, somatosensory cortex, limbic system and frontal cortex which would actually process it AS pain instead of a knee-jerk reaction.

I know all this because I stayed at a Holiday Inn last night...     

[Gary L]

WOW Nor Easter! How much time did you spend in the Pub at that Holiday Inn? 

I think fish feel pain but I also think the fish have a serious will to live which is why they fight so hard to get away. I have caught fish that seemed to put up little or no fight and suspect the way they got hooked paralyzed them to some degree like I got them right in a nerve much the same as when a doctor does a nerve block. As soon as I removed the hook the fish came back to full fight mode but had no fight when the hook was in.

[jacksmelt]

ever notice that a foul hooked or lightly mouth hooked fish fights alot harder than one thats swallowed it to its stomach? which one would hurt more if it was you? they definitly feel pain but wether its the same pain like we feel or just a survival instinct, ill leave that to the scientist to figure out. its like deer hunting when you have a terminally wounded animal . you respect the animal and dispatch it as quickly as possible. i give fish the same respect.

[buddah]

I've caught the same shark 4 times in an hour if that says anything.

[fishalot]

I've caught the same shark 4 times in an hour if that says anything.

So what are you saying, sharks like pain?

[fishingsurveyor]

I've caught the same shark 4 times in an hour if that says anything.

thats funny but it aint

[buddah]

So what are you saying, sharks like pain?

Maybe they just have real bad memories.

[Gary L]

Could also be the desire to survive and the need to eat takes precedence over some degree of pain!

[bigredfishing]

I treat fish, like all animals and humans, with respect (gently handling, release those I'm not eating, etc)...

Whether they feel pain or not, I don't care.

[SpaceFish]

I treat fish, like all animals and humans, with respect (gently handling, release those I'm not eating, etc)...

Whether they feel pain or not, I don't care.

Well said!

[switchbreed]

Well said bigredfishing.

I don't care if they feel pain either. I try to be as careful as I can with the fish so that they'll live to fight another day. A tiny wound can quickly turn bad in a water world.