Are fish sentient beings? And update on Bubba the lobster

Before moving on to the Independent's superb article on fish, I share a sad update about Bubba, not a fish, but another sea animal -- the 23lb lobster estimated somewhere between 30-100 years old, who PETA was pushing to have released back into the ocean but who was instead transferred to Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium. He died shortly after reaching the aquarium. It seems the stress of being caught, having his claws bound, and being moved repeatedly, proved too much for him. Of course Bubba's tale is no sadder than that of millions of other lobsters caught every year (and at least he wasn't boiled alive) but it was personalized for us, and touched people. It presents a great opportunity for pro-veggie letters to the editor.

I am a little late on this, but did not want to miss the opportunity to share a superb article in the Wednesday March 3, 2005, Telegraph (UK) headed "Does she have feelings, too? A fierce debate is raging about whether fish are sentient beings that feel pain."

It opens:
"The goldfish might have a reputation for having a three-second memory, but scientists are realising that fish are much smarter than most of us give them credit for." It then links to an article, from March 10 last year, which tells us that "Tests on fish in aquaria at Oxford University have shown that despite their tiny brains, they possess cognitive abilities outstripping those of some small mammals," and that "they can store memories for many months, confounding the belief that they forget everything after a few seconds." For example, "Australian crimson spotted rainbowfish, which learnt to escape from a net in their tank, remembered how they did it 11 months later. This is equivalent to a human recalling a lesson learnt 40 years ago." (You can read that whole article at: http://tinyurl.com/6og2r

The recent 2005 article continues, "Now, at a forthcoming conference on sentience in domesticated animals, an expert is to argue that what really matters is not IQ but emotions, and that fish can suffer as much as birds and many mammals."

We read:
"Although scientists have spent years examining cognition in other animals, fish have been neglected. Now, according to Dr Keven Laland of the University of St Andrews, fish are thought to have long-term memories and some can even be compared to non-human primates in terms of their social skills."

As to whether or not fish feel pain, the article refers to studies done by Dr Lynne Sneddon of the University of Liverpool:

"She injected rainbow trout either with a salt solution, which was unlikely to cause them any discomfort after the initial injection, or with bee venom. The ones injected with the saline solution continued to feed and behave as normal. The others stopped feeding for almost three hours, rocked from side to side and rubbed their lips against the gravel and sides of their tank. The breathing rate of the venom-injected fish also doubled, like a person in pain might hyperventilate....The second part of Dr Sneddon's study consisted of giving the trout morphine. Almost immediately, the trout that first had the venom started to feed."

The second part of the study was added to refute skeptics who had suggested nociceptors triggering reflex actions, rather than pain, accounted for the reaction.

Some scientists are still skeptical because fish don't have brains like ours. There is a nice quote from John Webster, an emeritus professor at the University of Bristol, whose book Animal Welfare: Limping towards Eden has just been published. He says: "A powerful portfolio of physiological and behavioural evidence now exists to support the case that fish feel pain and that this feeling matters. In the face of such evidence, any argument to the contrary based on the claim that fish 'do not have the right sort of brain' can no longer be called scientific. It is just obstinate."

The article goes on to note the "80 per cent mortality rate for fish such as mackerel and sole caught by trawlers and thrown back into the sea" and tells us that between five and twenty percent (depending on the type of hook used) of fish caught then released by anglers bleed to death.

It ends with a quote from Sneddon:
"People should think more clearly about how they handle fish and what they subject them to. It's up to individuals whether they eat fish, but it's an important food so the government should invest money in equipment to make the experience of being caught less invasive for fish. As for fishermen, they should know that what they do causes fish pain and it's up to them to decide whether they want to continue angling."

Finally, it offers a link to information on the upcoming conference:
"The Compassion in World Farming conference on animal sentience is in London from March 17-18; http://www.animalsentience.com"

You can read the whole article on line at:
http://tinyurl.com/62juz

You can send appreciative letters to the editor at: dtletters [at] telegraph.co.uk. Or, please, use this information for letters to your local paper, next time you see a story on fishing.

A great resource on this issue is http://www.FishingHurts.com

Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn

(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. If you forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts, please do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)