A new study from the University of Liverpool has found that fish feel pain in a way that’s “strikingly similar” to humans. They can exhibit symptoms such as hyper ventilating and long-term behavioural changes after a painful experience.
Because fish have a single-layered forebrain, researchers have long questioned whether or not fish feel pain in the way that humans or other vertebrates with complex brains might.
The study showed that when subject to a potentially painful event, fish show adverse changes in behaviour such as suspension of feeding. When the fish lips receive a painful stimulus on their lips, they rub their mouth against the side of the tank much like we rub our toe when we stub it.
If we accept fish experience pain, then this has important implications for how we treat them, say researchers. Care should be taken when handling fish to avoid damaging their sensitive skin and they should be humanely caught and killed.
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