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Fish Feel Pain . . . Really
05/01/09 01:43 PM
Pain is not just a mammalian experience
If you ever went fishing as a kid and expressed your concern for what all those hooks were doing to the fish you caught, only to be told "It doesn't hurt them," well, it apparently does.
The line most adults give kids about all this is akin to, "Don't worry because fish don't have pain receptors." However, a study done at Purdue University showed that fish not only react to painful stimuli, but they change their behavior afterward, demonstrating defensiveness, wariness and their version of "anxiety." The same was found to be true with crabs, so if you ever watch "Deadliest Catch" on cable and wonder if all those Alaskan King Crabs being thrown around the deck and crammed into holds are undergoing a painful experience, now you know. They are.
In fact, the researchers found that fish and crabs tend to respond to pain in similar ways to humans, at least from a behavioral standpoint. For instance, if you burn yourself by touching a hot stove plate, the next time you are around one, you're likely to both approach it warily and have some anxiety-provoking recall of what happened when you got singed the first time. In other words, you not only feel pain, you also modify your subsequent behavior in response to it. Fish do the same.
It's typical of our species to assume that other creatures (particularly those who seem very dissimilar to us) don't have feelings or are not conscious of what they are experiencing. But more often than not, we're wrong about that. Just ask your goldfish.
The line most adults give kids about all this is akin to, "Don't worry because fish don't have pain receptors." However, a study done at Purdue University showed that fish not only react to painful stimuli, but they change their behavior afterward, demonstrating defensiveness, wariness and their version of "anxiety." The same was found to be true with crabs, so if you ever watch "Deadliest Catch" on cable and wonder if all those Alaskan King Crabs being thrown around the deck and crammed into holds are undergoing a painful experience, now you know. They are.
In fact, the researchers found that fish and crabs tend to respond to pain in similar ways to humans, at least from a behavioral standpoint. For instance, if you burn yourself by touching a hot stove plate, the next time you are around one, you're likely to both approach it warily and have some anxiety-provoking recall of what happened when you got singed the first time. In other words, you not only feel pain, you also modify your subsequent behavior in response to it. Fish do the same.
It's typical of our species to assume that other creatures (particularly those who seem very dissimilar to us) don't have feelings or are not conscious of what they are experiencing. But more often than not, we're wrong about that. Just ask your goldfish.