Small brains, no pain for fish

Washington Times/ London Sunday Telegraph ^ | February 10th, 2003 | Rajeev Syal

[Sabertooth]

LONDON

[Vicki]

I love to fish, so I hope this report is true. I would rather think I wasn't hurting them.

[Sabertooth]

I know they feel my pain, hehehe.

You didn't name it Clinton, did you?

[StriperSniper]

Is that for real?

Yup.

[KingNo155]

self preservation is the first rule on nature

[Ichneumon]

i.e., who says you need a cerebral cortex to feel pain when you're a fish?

Precisely. Just because *we* process/feel pain in a particular brain structure, doesn't mean that fish do it in the same place or the same manner.

For another example, parrots process language in an entirely different part of their brains than humans do, but there's absolutely no doubt that they can parse language, learn and remember words and simple grammars, and formulate their own utterances and sentences relevant to what they're trying to communicate.

African Grey parrots can have language skills on the level of a human toddler, using a brain the size of half a walnut. And old parrots are nearly impossible to outsmart, they've seen it all and are wise to the ways of humans -- in fact, they get pretty good at outsmarting *us* if we don't watch out. This makes me wonder just how "dumb" those (relatively) small-brained dinosaurs might have actually been.

[spodefly]

Fish fear me.

[Sungirl]

I heard Rush talk about this article but then Mr. Snerdley disagreed ....he didn't believe it I guess...

Maybe it's true...I hope so. But manatees and dolphins are mammals right? Otters?

[Paradox]

Hey, I used to have a huge Koi Pond myself! About 10 years ago, stocked with some pretty decent Koi (I bought some decent infant fish for a good price, bred from some champion fish. These were later "culls", but were still super nice!).

Anyways, I am sure that these fish had a degree of self-awareness and intelligence. This guy might have a point though, I knew a guy who would perform surgery on his koi, sometimes without knocking them out. Once you held them down, you could cut them without any further apparent discomfort, other than what was shown for being held down and all.. sounds gruesome I know. Usually though he would knock the little guy out, just to keep him from flopping.

[The FRugitive]

Really? I allways thought dogs saw in black and white.