Is it true that fish/worms don't feel pain and a swallowed hook will harmlessly disintegrate?

Question

Is there any proof? University studies etc.?

Answer 1

Sure fish feel pain and so do live bait worms.
Steel hooks do rust away quickly unless they are of the zinc coated variety used in sea fishing. They are harmlessly disintegrated if they are not penetrating the pericardium or periocardium of the fish.

This is the best research info I could find. I feel sure there are other more comprehensive studies to be found with more diligent search effort.
http://www.publish.csiro.au/nid/126/paper/MF96108.htm

More info is available at this site.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_and_Release

Answer 2

Fish DO NOT feel pain. A fishes brain is very primitive compared to a mammals. They don't have pain center like you do. They have thalamus and lower brain functions that allow them basic instinctual behavior. The can't feel pain.

As far as the hook dissolving, I've caught many fish with hooks sticking out of their gullets (again if they could feel pain I'm sure they wouldn't feed with a knife stuck in their throat), but always these hooks looked pretty new. The theory is that the stomach and digestive enzimes in a fishes gut will dissolve the hook, probably would over time. Guthooked fish, released by simply cutting the line, seem to survive quite well.

Answer 3

I'm sure some pain is registered but in comprehensible to them (try to put a worm on a hook one day ). Yes swallowed hooks do disintegrate but a gut hook is almost always fatal.To prevent this try Circle Hooks Most fish are caught in the corner of the mouth doing little harm.I've personally caught Carp, Catfish,even Small mouth Bass;within hours of catching them once.Therefore I don't feel pain is involved.As for the worms their reaction may only be a flight reflex that causes them to squirm because after they are on the hook the squirming stops.So pain may not be a factor there either.

Answer 4

Years ago I was bottom fishing off southern California. Someone near me hooked a small rockfish, and as sometimes happens, a larger lingcod sensed a free meal and grabbed the rockfish and held on. The angler wound the two fish to the surface, where a waiting deckhand tried to gaff the lingcod. The gaff tore a chunk out of the lingcod's underside, so it (never actually hooked) let go of the rockfish and started to swim away, blood and intestines trailing behind it.

The angler put his reel in freespool and sent the rockfish back down in front of the lingcod's nose, maybe ten feet from the surface. The lingcod obligingly grabbed it again, and the angler wound them both back to the surface, where this time the deckhand gaffed the lingcod properly and put it on board.

After seeing this I am convinced that fish don't feel pain, at least not in the same way we do.

(Then how about those tanks of bass they take to fishing shows, where the same few fish eat the same lures day after day? If hooks hurt so much, why don't those fish learn?)

Answer 5

No, it's not true. Both have nervous systems and their behavior indicates that they respond to pain. (Although most dads tell their kids the fish don't feel pain... it's probably easier than explaining why we hook fish through the lip!)

Fish have nervous systems and there's no valid reason to think they don't experience pain. As someone who has kept a variety of fish in aquariums and ponds for over 25 years I've observed behavior in fish that certainly looks like they're experiencing pain. Their neurological systems respond to shock and other things in laboratory experiments. Worms have nervous systems, too, and these nervous systems to cause them retract from shock or extreme heat, so this is a good indicator that they feel pain.

Here's an article about fish and pain: http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/4-30-2003-39769.asp

Note to the respondent above me: Fish have pretty darned good memories. I have trained fish and those that are tame one summer always "remember" faster after the water warms up the next spring. http://www.fish-school.com/

Answer 6

If a fish get a hook caught where it is not vulnerable so that the fish can still swallow bait yes the Hook will rust out.

I have caught many big Cat fish with rusted Hooks still coming loose.

Now if a Bass get a large Hook in the throat and hit a vunerbale area...it is unfortunate that some die.

Answer 7

Fish and worms DO feel pain TRY THIS...hold a worm in your hands notice its reaction (slowly tries to escape) Now notice the convulsions it does when you stab a hook into it! Fish look what they do if you acidentally snag one!!! as for a hook rusting away..YES it will in a few weeks time.A fishs moth is very acidic and so is the stomach if it makes it that far.Stainless steel ,galvinized and gold plated hooks take alot longer to "rust" away in stomach acid and stainless hooks may not rust in the mouth much at all.

Answer 8

That is absolutely untrue. Any organism with nerve endings and a brain can feel pain, as pain is one of the main drives to avoid danger.

As far as the swallowed hook goes, it would be highly unlikely for a fish to actually swallow the hook.. fish don't have throats set up like we have. If the hook were to become dislodged from the lining of the throat, the fish would simply spit it out. Many fish live the rest of their lives with a hook in them and function perfectly well... in my personal experience, I've caught lunkers with stuck hooks that seemed to be doing just fine.

Answer 9

I used to have an eyebrow ring that grew itself out, the same can happen with hooks if they don't dissolve. Fish do feel pain, but only where they have nerve endings.

Answer 10

Worms feel pain. Sprinkle one with salt.

Fish feel pain, but have a very short memory, so don't remember much of being caught. Thats why you can catch the same fish over again shortly after releasing him, as long as the previous catch was not traumatic enough to scare him off of feeding or to trigger a memory of the previous catch.

I have no scientific data to support my theory, but I have been fishing a very long time.