THE PAIN BARRIER
copyright ©DAVID JOHN LOVELL
I have been asked a number of times 'do fish feel pain'? Scientist ponder this question and results vary depending on the quality of the grey matter between any scientists ears. First of all, a good understanding of fish behaviour is required. Fish are, after all, dumb. They have only needs to fulfil, be it the need to eat, spawn, etc.
I will never listen to arguments that place human into fish, fish have very different biological being. Fish do not comprehend, fish have no knowledge other than what they want. If a fish felt pain, was then released, felt pain, was then released, it simply would not keep getting caught. Some fish get their picture taken more times than some models (better looking in some cases) and seem to relish having a free meal. When spawning they sometimes inflict upon themselves horrific injuries, and many a fish have been captured with half its body removed by a predator attack, for example, a pike does not always get to eat the whole fish if the victim wriggles free from the turned in teeth. I believe that fish just don't understand when they are hooked, and when they can't go where they want to as usual, they try harder to go where we don't want them to. This then increases the desire in both fish and angler.
Look at the human, warm blooded, masses of sensors, intelligent (scientist not included, check for madness, cross reference with appearance) and yet even we can cut ourselves by accident and not even feel it!
Fish are fish, they swim, extract oxygen from h20, eat, extract nutrients, and make fish. They have sensors that are in tune with their surroundings but they do not understand pain, have no concept of pain, and therefore cannot feel pain.
It is reason that defines us from animals, and fish are not animals. If a fish leaves your rig alone it is because they are not interested in the bait, or the rig is so obvious, and the fish has learned by association. It knows that some baits prevent it from going where it wants and that it will experience a flash of light and then be returned to its surroundings. Fish do not like inconvenience, but they live well from it.
