Do fish feel pain? / Victoria Braithwaite

Object Details

Author

Braithwaite, Victoria

Contents

The problem -- What is pain and why does it hurt? -- Bee stings and vinegar : the evidence that fish feel pain -- Suffer the little fishes? -- Drawing the line -- Why it took so long to ask the fish pain question - and why it must be asked -- Looking to the future

Summary

Fish have in the past been portrayed as slow, cold automata with a very simple brain that generates stereotyped behavior. But Braithwaite presents new scientific evidence that seriously challenges this view. Indeed, there is a growing body of science demonstrating that fish are far smarter and more cognitively competent than we have previously suspected. Several fish species are surprisingly intelligent and research has shown that they can have both accurate and long lasting memories, which in some cases, such as migrating salmon, can span years. Moreover, the author demonstrates that fish have more in common with other vertebrates than we think. Their overall physiology, for instance, shares many similarities with other vertebrates--even ourselves. The way that they respond to stressful situations, the so-called "stress response," is strikingly similar. Victoria Braithwaite is one of the key scientists working on fish pain and she is also actively involved with both the fishing industry and the angling world, helping them sort through the implications of these findings. Though far from anti-fishing, she concludes that scientific evidence suggests that we should widen to fish the protection currently given to birds and animals.

2010

Type

Books

Physical description

xi, 194 p. : ill. ; 23 cm

Smithsonian Libraries

Topic

Fishes--Sense organs

Pain in animals

Pain perception

Nociceptors

Fishing--Moral and ethical aspects

Fisheries--Moral and ethical aspects

Record ID

siris_sil_991324

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0