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Originally Posted by sophistacavy  Wow, I didn't know that fish feel pain in their lips more severely than humans do. How was that discovered? I mean, how do people know/prove that kind of stuff? |
They injected a pain-inducing substance into their lips. While I abhor animal testing, if this knowledge changes fishing practices or turns people to vegetarianism, I would be extremely grateful.
"What they found was that the fish had 58 such [pain] receptors around the mouth and actually reacted at
lower levels of pain stimulation then humans, perhaps because their skin is more easily damaged." (Stuart Brown, Sept 2003)
"Administration of noxious substances to the lips of the trout affected both the physiology and the behaviour of the animal and resulted in a significant increase in opercular beat rate and the time taken to resume feeding, as well as anomalous behaviours. The results of the present study demonstrate nociception and suggest that noxious stimulation in the rainbow trout has adverse behavioural and physiological effects. This fulfils the criteria for animal pain." (Royal Society, April 2003)
Another study studied the reaction of fish who were hooked and then released. It found that not only did the fish feel pain, they exhibited a fear reaction (darting, spitting, shaking their heads) long after the pain had gone away, and abstained from feeding for a considerable amount of time afterwards.