Experts weigh in on whether or not Fish feel the same pain as mammals do.

How do fish feel pain, and why do humans turn a blind eye?

Dubbed the 'Nemo effect', the irony that a film about conservation resulted in a depletion of clown fish in the wild was not lost on conservationists. If fishes do feel pain, there are huge ethical implications and issues with the current welfare standards of the commercial fishing industry, including wild and farmed fishes, and their unregulated slaughter practices.Īfter the release of the Pixar film Finding Nemo in 2003, whose plot centered around a clown fish captured from the wild to be sold in the tropical fish market, sales of clown fish went through the roof. Recent research strongly suggests that fishes feel pain in a similar way to humans, even self-medicating to reduce their suffering. Despite social acceptance of the pescatarian diet-which includes vegetables, grains and sea food-new evidence suggests that eating fish could be one of the most unethical and unsustainable things humans can do.Īquaculture is the largest form of intensive farming in the world, with roughly 160 billion fishes killed globally every year, compared to 60 billion chickens, but with far fewer regulations protecting fish from suffering in life and slaughter.

Tropical fish tanks