Fish Feel Pain, Science Tells Us

PSYCHOLOGY TODAY– A new book titled Do fish feel pain? by the renowned scientist, Victoria Braitheaite, is a very important read for those interested in the general topic of pain in animals, especially because it has been long assumed that fish are not sentient beings and are not all that intelligent.

A few years ago I reviewed the literature about sentience in fish and other animals who live beneath the surface (see also) and it’s clear that a strong case can be made for protecting fish and other aquatic animals from harm. Professor Braithwaite’s book contains an incredible amount of recent scientific data that support this idea.

Many people will likely not take or have the time to read her book, so let me tell you what she says at the beginning of her chapter titled “Looking to the future.” She writes: “I have argued that there is as much evidence that fish feel pain and suffer as there is for birds and mammals — and more than there is for human neonates and preterm babies.” (page 153).

Professor Braithwaite then goes on to note that these data will require us to change the ways in which we interact with fish because we now know that they suffer and feel pain.

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ALTERNET– Americans love their shrimp. It’s the most popular seafood in the country, but unfortunately much of the shrimp we eat are a cocktail of chemicals, harvested at the expense of one of the world’s productive ecosystems. Worse, guidelines for finding some kind of “sustainable shrimp” are so far nonexistent.

In his book, Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood, Taras Grescoe paints a repulsive picture of how shrimp are farmed in one region of India. The shrimp pond preparation begins with urea, superphosphate, and diesel, then progresses to the use of piscicides (fish-killing chemicals like chlorine and rotenone), pesticides and antibiotics (including some that are banned in the U.S.), and ends by treating the shrimp with sodium tripolyphosphate (a suspected neurotoxicant), Borax, and occasionally caustic soda.

Upon arrival in the U.S., few if any, are inspected by the FDA, and when researchers have examined imported ready-to-eat shrimp, they found 162 separate species of bacteria with resistance to 10 different antibiotics. And yet, as of 2008, Americans are eating 4.1 pounds of shrimp apiece each year — significantly more than the 2.8 pounds per year we each ate of the second most popular seafood, canned tuna. But what are we actually eating without knowing it? And is it worth the price — both to our health and the environment?

Continue reading about Shrimp’s Dirty Secrets.

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