The techniques that bring us joy are torture for fish. I overheard this idea while listening to an ecology lecture. I have covered a thousand miles casting lures into the waters of Wyoming. The Xtream Angler hat used to sit on the dash of my truck. I’ve hiked through mountain mahogany and slid between rock crevices to reach streams in pursuit of trout. I’ve ripped many a hook out of a trout’s mouth and never considered that I was actually torturing every single fish I caught. Fish experience pain. We experience pain. For this reason, we should consider fishing as we do it now, with techniques emphasizing runs and playing the fish, as acts of torture because they inflict pain for the purpose of inflicting pain. These torturous techniques also go against our own fair chase principles regarding minimizing pain and suffering in the animals we pursue. For these reasons, we should abandon the techniques we currently use to harvest fish and instead harvest them immediately to minimize the pain fish experience.
The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage.” [1] Consider this example of an ‘unpleasant sensory experience’ – hooking ourselves. Spend enough time fishing and it is bound to happen. If we bent the barb down, our unpleasant sensory experience will be lessened and our pain lessened. Otherwise, we are forced to clench our jaw, push the barb through our flesh, and remind ourself never to do that again. We have just associated ‘actual […] tissue damage’ with ‘an unpleasant sensory experience.’ We have just experienced the pain a fish feels when hooked by us and goes on a run. Making the association between a neuron firing and tissue damage is how to interpret a sensation as pain. Fish receive sensations through nociceptor neurons, the same as us. [2] When the fish we hook runs when being played, the fish is associating the neuron firing with the tissue damage from the hook. According to Stephanie Yue, a doctor with the Humane Society of America, pain is “…an evolutionary adaptation that helps individuals survive, providing a signal that gives animals the opportunity to remove themselves from damaging situations.” [3] When we play the fish, the fish is trying to create the opportunity to remove itself from the damaging situation we have created. The fish has made the association between the ‘actual […] tissue damage’ and the ‘unpleasant sensory experience.’ We display a similar behavior. Have someone hold your finger to a flame, and you will try to create an opportunity to remove yourself from a damaging situation. What’s the difference between this and the fish running? Swap the hook for the flame, the finger for the fish, and someone else for yourself and suddenly fish feeling pain does not sound as crazy as it seems.
This repeated infliction of pain through the technique of playing and letting the fish run should be considered torture. Torture is defined as “infliction of severe physical […] pain or suffering for a purpose […]”. [4] Fish feel pain; they have exhibited the ability to make the connection between ‘actual […] tissue damage’ and ‘an unpleasant sensory experience.’ A fish running is evidence of this. Hooking a fish and extending the time it is experiencing pain from running for the purpose of extending the duration of our own thrills is torture.
Because playing of a fish inflicts more pain than necessary, it naturally goes against fair chase principles we are taught and by which we conduct ourselves in the pursuit of game in the outdoors. We make great attempts to harvest other animals like deer and elk using the most humane and merciful methods possible. Our ethics manifest in aiming at the organs that when destroyed will ensure the quickest kill with the least pain and suffering to the animal. Extended fish playing is akin to deliberately gut-shotting an elk or firing at a deer beyond the range of our retrieval abilities. In these examples aiming to intentionally inflict more pain than necessary would be reprehensible. Our principles should not be biased based on species or if our ultimate goal is releasing or harvesting. We must be consistent in applying our principles. When we catch a fish and revel in the run, we extended the period of time the fish is experiencing pain, and thus we are acting opposite our principles. We must act consistent with our own ethics as sportsmen and not torture fish by playing them beyond what is necessary to land them.
[1] https://www.iasp-pain.org/PublicationsNews/NewsDetail.aspx?ItemNumber=10475
[2] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/fish-feel-pain-180967764/
[3] https://www.humanesociety.org/sites/default/files/docs/fish-and-pain-perception.pdf
[4] https://www.britannica.com/topic/torture
