# Fish can not feel pain???



## cucci67 (Aug 3, 2005)

The question of whether fishes feel pain can elicit very emotional responses from some people.

Looking at a hooked fish or a fish asphyxiating in a drying stream, one cannot help but attribute human feelings of pain and suffering to the fish.

A team of researchers led by Dr Lynne Sneddon in Scotland have concluded that fishes do feel pain.

This conclusion was based on experiments during which trout were injected in the lips with bee venom and acid. The researchers then confirmed that a nervous response was transmitted and the behaviour of the fish modified.

Dr J. Rose of the University of Wyoming on the other hand states that the perception of pain and fear in fishes is very different from that of humans.

He argues that it is important to first distinguish between pain and the reception of noxious (harmful) stimuli (nociception). Without doubt both fishes and humans respond to noxious stimuli. A fish that has been hooked is obviously responding to a stimulus. Likewise, if you burn yourself, you will very quickly respond to the stimulus, however this response occurs before you feel any pain. Nociception is controlled by the spinal cord and brainstem.

Rose states that the difference in the perception of pain and fear in fishes and humans results from differences in brain structure. The human brain has a massively developed cerebral cortex (the grey folded outer layer). Pain and fear in humans results from the stimulation of several regions of the cerebral cortex. The tiny cerebral cortex of fish brains lack these regions.

The lack of the comparable regions of the brain is one of the arguments that Rose uses to conclude that fishes do not experience pain and fear.

Most of the "everyday behaviour" of a fish is controlled by the brainstem and spinal cord. Experiments in which the cerebral hemispheres of fishes were removed have shown that even without these parts of the brain, fishes can maintain normal function and behaviour. Interestingly a human with complete destruction of the cerebral cortex will still respond to noxious stimuli, but feels no pain.

Despite the apparent lack of pain as we know it in fishes, they most definitely suffer from stress. Rose states that they "display robust nonconscious, neuroendocrine and physiological stress response to noxious stimuli".

In short, if you need to touch a fish, you should remember that the fish may not experience pain the way you do, but it does suffer from stress. Professional ichthyologists follow stringent guidelines to reduce stress when handling fishes. 

Here's the article, I accidentally found it online and thought I might want to share it with you guys.

http://www.amonline.net.au/fishes/faq/pain.htm


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## solar-ton (Aug 15, 2005)

okay i know a fish feels pain from personal experience...once my bro went to gut a trout he started to cut it and it literally screamed in pain i mean i actually heard a noise come out of its mouth that felt like a cold knife cutting through your soul...gaaah i hate to think of it but i will admit they do feel stress just as much as pain


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## cucci67 (Aug 3, 2005)

I also heard a spotted puffer "scream" when a man at the lfs dropped it on the floor. Poor puffer  . I am not sure whether to believet he article or not. I mean, it is possible that they only feel stress, but that stress can build up so much that they "scream". I just wanted to hear some opinions.


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## fishboy (Feb 26, 2005)

the scream is just a sound fish produce from alot of stress. If you cut a fish but you don't kill it quick it will give off a strange noise. When i catch good keeper trout i bash its skull in quick with a bult object to avoid any of these reactions before i cut it and prep it.
I believe that fish don't feal pain. It makes me happy to think that when my favorite fish died he died experience a pain similar to our deaths


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## DUSTIN323 (Sep 21, 2005)

Well I think they probally can feel pain if they have nerves then wouldn't they?? Now I don't think they have feelngs in their lips so I don't think a hook hurts them I dunno but is that article talking about pain in general or pain from a hook in their lips I haven't read it yet.


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## wildtiger (Jun 8, 2005)

I would say fish do in fact feel pain, now whether it's the same type of pain that we feel is up to interpretation.


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## fishboy (Feb 26, 2005)

wildtiger said:


> I would say fish do in fact feel pain, now whether it's the same type of pain that we feel is up to interpretation.


thats a good way of putting it. Fish do feal pain but their bodys just don't comprehend it the same way as ours would. We are putting our qualities onto fish mearly for the purpose of being able to relate and understand fish better while really we are creating a false reality in which we base that if a fish has a brain and nerves they must feel things and think like we do.


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## Georgia Peach (Sep 23, 2005)

I agree with Wildtiger


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## solar-ton (Aug 15, 2005)

also when my bro went to cut it its head jerked sideways and it kicked a little i think the pain they feel is different but its still pain


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## AshleytheGreat (Jul 24, 2005)

I agree with Wildtiger. We need to realize that fish dont feel "pain" the same way we do. 


Not like this has anythign to do with this..but. This is one of the many reasons why people don't believe we went to the moon. They are comparing it with the properties they know of (Earth) and not anything else.


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