When you catch a marlin, or any other heavy game fish, you use a huge metal hook (wolfram alpha disappointingly couldn't tell me the name of it) to lift the fish into the boat. How is it attached? You swing it hard into the fish's head, under their neck, through its eye. This is after reeling it in for a couple of hours till it has nearly died of exhaustion.
I've never caught a big fish, and i now realise I never can.
When you catch a little fish, you do something pretty similar. You stick a sharp metal spike in the fish's mouth, down it's throat, or sometimes on its body somewhere. You then do battle with it for 10s-10min+. It must be terrified. Surely this could be called torture? Once you've brought it in you should kill it straight away. If you put it alive in a net or a cool-box, it will slowly drown.
I've caught many little fish (probably 5-10 for every one I've kept and eaten, by the way, if part of your counter-argument includes 'we've gotta eat'). I'm not sure that I can do this any more either.
Safran emphasises the 'otherness' of fish. We don't care if fish suffer, because they live in a whole different world to us. They're very difficult to relate to. However, fish are intelligent, social animals, who most certainly feel pain.
I'll get to commercial fishing another day, but for now, I need to work out whether I can ever go fishing again. I think probably not.
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My understanding is that the question of whether fish feel pain is still open to debate. I don't know where the consensus of opinion is at the moment, but to suggest that they most certainly feel pain may be misleading.
ReplyDeleteSome zoologists/biologists are of the opinion that a fish's brain lacks the structures necessary to feel pain.
'Fish are intelligent and social animals'!!!! Now Tony I know you are a physicist but surely you know enough biology to recognise some differences between brains of different animals! Seriously check out some basic fish brain info (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish) they have a smelling lobe and a lobe where they 'think' about what they smell and a seeing lobe and a balancing and swimming section. The vast majority of fish would not quailfy as either intelligent or social!!!
ReplyDeleteAnd the studies on whether or not they feel pain tend to indicate NO!
Now fish farming, aquaculture and some commercial practices I could definatley campaign against.
I am not a fierce carnivore that could kill a piglet or shoot a lion! But I am thoroughly convinced (through personal experience and reading scientific research) that a healthy diet that protects against cancer, acne, dementia, autoimmune diseases, diabetes etc etc includes good quality animal protein.
Good site: http://www.staffanlindeberg.com/
This is an interesting post. I'll have to think about what I think about it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe they don't feel pain. Jenny I agree they are different to us, and that their brains in particular are different to ours. That's the point, they are so different that we have a lot of trouble understanding them. Further, their responses are so different to ours, that we have trouble figuring out what's going on with them. In short, their evolutionary track is so vastly different from ours that we have a lot of trouble knowing what to think.
However, what I know, and I don't need a biologist or zoologist to tell me, is that pain is an extremely useful tool, that (every?) land animal with 'flesh' feel.
My understanding is that it's open to debate too. And while it annoys me when people who know nothing about physics tell me how physics works, I'm going to do that here. I'm certain that fish feel pain! How about that?
A great many fish are monogamous, remember many other fish personally, remember whether they 'like them' or not, etc. This is what I mean by social.
I agree, fish are way different to us. So if you want to say that the way we do society defines social, then fish are not very social. However this is not what I think our comparison should comprise.
Anyway, I could be wrong.
I embrace a bit of nature loving Tony. Not sure that you have it right about fish.
ReplyDeleteI'm currently really concerned about nasty chemicals in the human food supply (artificial sweetners, residues of pesticides, hormones, genetically modified proteins etc).
If I could I'd grow all my food myself (I grow some)!