Marks Vacations: Do Fish Feel Pain

Do Fish Feel Pain? Drama about Trout Trauma...

The controversy about whether fish feel pain.

I almost hate to bring this up, but I think I need to take a stand on this issue. Some people are concerned that catching fish hurts the fish. I've read that animal rights activists believe that fish feel pain. Personally, this has never been a concern for me (since I tend to reserve my compassion for warm-blooded animals and people!). So, my trout fishing secret on this subject is - until we know more, I will keep fishing!

My way of thinking is that the nervous systems of cold-blooded creatures are not that highly-developed. The unofficial theory is that invertebrates (they have no spine) and cold-blooded vertebrates, such as fish, don't really have enough brain power to have complex sensations. Really, you could go nuts wondering when using live bait that the worm or bait feels pain, too! I can see it now - t-shirts with this on them: "Save the bait, use an artificial lure!"

There are extensive debates for and against this idea about whether or not fish can feel pain. When you look this subject up on the Internet, the term that is associated with my simplistic theory is called neuroanatomy. Then, on the side of the "fish can feel pain" camp, is the concept that the evolutionary process must have some kind of pain-avoidance built in for species to survive. But this argument is mostly supported using comparisons to the human brain. To me, the human brain just can't be compared to fish brains (well, in most cases, anyway).