Yes, scientific evidence strongly suggests fish feel pain and suffer when hooked, possessing nerve receptors (nociceptors) in their mouths and bodies that detect harmful stimuli, similar to mammals, leading to behavioral changes like rubbing, loss of appetite, and distress, even if they don't vocalize it like humans. While debate exists over whether fish experience the same conscious pain as humans due to different brain structures, they clearly detect and react to noxious stimuli, indicating suffering, making catch-and-release and fishing practices ethically questionable.
Only if they suffer damage when being unhooked. A single hook in the jaw, carefully pulled out, will do the fish no harm. Treble hooks, or single hooks swallowed, are another matter. Extracting those hooks is almost always fatal.
a recent study shows that fish can suffer for up to an hour after being pulled from the water, experiencing pain and fear much like humans do 🤕 they have pain receptors, produce natural painkillers, and show clear signs of distress fish don't scream, but their suffering is real please leave fish off your forks 🐟
The research, conducted by a team of seven scientists and published in the journal Fish and Fisheries*, concluded that the fish's reaction to being hooked is in fact just an unconscious reaction, rather than a response to pain.
Controlled studies have shown that most fish released after hook-and-line capture, survive. Researchers working in Boca Grande Pass tagged 27 tarpon with sonic transmitters and found that 26 of these hook-and-line-caught fish survived. The one fish that died had been lifted from the water for a prerelease photograph.
While many released fish survive to be caught again, it's generally accepted that some percentage of them succumb to the stress of being caught, handled and released.
No Hurt Fishhook is a type of fishhook designed for leisure anglers who only fish to experience the joy of the catch. However, once a fish hook impales the body of the fish, the damage caused to its body is likely to lead to bacterial infection and even death.
Each year, a trillion or so fish are pulled from the water, typically destined for our plates. While it's hardly a pleasurable outcome for the animal, a new study has just put a sobering number on their suffering.
Moreover, some vertebrates, such as fish, may lack the neural machinery or architecture to consciously experience (i.e., to feel) noxious stimuli as painful (Key, 2015a).
So to answer the question if fish love and can show their love to their keepers, the answer is yes! Just like other pets, fish show their love and appreciation when they are happy. Unhealthy and poor water condition can make them feel sick and very unhappy.
The British Farm Animal Welfare Committee 2014's report, Opinion on the Welfare of Farmed Fish, said that the scientific consensus is that fish can detect and respond to noxious stimuli, and experience pain.
Don't forget—catch & release fishing causes suffering too 🚫🎣 Fish feel pain when hooked, struggle to breathe on land, and experience such intense stress & fear that they often die when tossed back into the water 💔 Every animal deserves respect.
Overcrowded fish are stressed, not happy. When there's not enough space to swim freely, fish can get irritated and stressed because they don't have enough resources. Aim for one inch of adult fish per net gallon of aquarium capacity, but try to give territorial fish more space than that.
Fish feel pain because, like all animals, they have nerves. Fish caught on hooks struggle out of fear and physical pain, desperate to breathe. Once they're hauled out of their environment and into ours, they begin to suffocate, and their gills often collapse.
Trout, in particular, look scared as Eff when you pull em out too. I think the consensus is that fish understand pain, but not like we do. They feel pain, and avoid it, but their memory doesn't work the same as ours.
It does heal. I've seen though with experience that larger holes caused by large barbs or a hook in a particularly thin tissue (think mouth of a crappie), that it may take some time for those.
Scientific findings like these suggest that fish indeed have thoughts. Their brains interact with the world around them and informing their memories and present mental state, while also helping them make plans for the future.
Contrary to claims made by seafood sellers, lobsters do feel pain, and they suffer immensely when they are cut, broiled, or boiled alive. Most scientists agree that a lobster's nervous system is quite sophisticated.
During experimentation, only a fraction of a carp population was hooked, but bystander carp could see and learn from the hooked fish and learned how to avoid certain baits and hooks. Plus, there is even evidence that carp can remember these experiences for up to a year.
From Norway's fjords to China's Qiandao Lake, fish are “getting smarter with each catch,” dodging hooks like they're apex predators—some even developing conditioned responses to metallic glints and fishing-line vibrations.
Fish may not scream, but science is making it loud and clear: they suffer. A study published in Scientific Reports reveals just how intense—and long-lasting—that suffering can be. In the case of rainbow trout, one of the most commonly farmed fish in the world, slaughter can bring 2 to 22 minutes of excruciating pain.
While mammals and birds possess the prerequisite neural architecture for phenomenal consciousness, it is concluded that fish lack these essential characteristics and hence do not feel pain.
Millions of sharks impacted by hook-and-line fisheries
Embedded hooks can restrict eating abilities and may cause internal damage to organs, poisoning or infection. According to the study, many tiger sharks are accidentally hooked by long line fisheries targeting tuna and swordfish.
Recent research has shown that most fish survive using current catch and release techniques with the main factors found to reduce survival being deep hooking and poor handling.