Fish Have Feelings Too

“Thanks to the breakthroughs in ethology, sociobiology, neurobiology and ecology, we can now better understand what the world looks like to fish,” writes Jonathan Balcome, director of animal sentience for the Humane Society Institute for Science and Policy.

In his new book, What A Fish Knows: The Inner Lives Of Our Underwater Cousins, Balcombe presents evidence that fish are sentient; they have a conscious awareness that enables them to recognize individual humans, have memories and to experience pain. He cites the many studies by Lynne Sneddon, Director of Bioveterinary Science at the University of Liverpool who was one of the first scientists to discover nociceptors that detect pain in fish and who has since published empirical studies on the subject. In his book, Balcome argues that humans should consider the moral implications of how we catch and farm fish. “We humans kill between 150 billion and over two trillion fishes a year. And the way they die—certainly in commercial fishing—is really pretty grim,

“Balcombe says. “There's a lot of change that would be needed to reflect an improvement in our relationship with fishes.”