Do fish feel pain?

[Allan]

Allen, It's easier to condemn 'catch and release' than it is to defend it. If you look at it from a simply logical viewpoint, what we are doing is sticking a sharp hook into an animals mouth area. The hook is attached to a line that allows us to pull on the fish, causing it to struggle to survive. It can't 'know' it's going to be released. Whether or not the fish 'feels' pain or not, we are certainly placing it under duress and some kind of stress. Since some fish do not survive the experience, you can't say its a practice that is 'harmless' to the fish. Some could call it torture'. It is certainly a cruel thing to do. We don't even have the 'excuse' of food gathering to fall back on. We are doing this ONLY for our own enjoyment. If you did this to a cat or dog, or even a squirrel, you would be arrested. That being said, if it is a cruelty to this, in the grand scheme of life, if this is cruelest thing we do, then I'm okay with it. Humans do so many awful things that this is pretty minor in comparison.

Gee, where did I "condemn 'catch and release'" much less even mention it because I didn't! Said it before and (over the years this is an old topic. Most everyone has concurred) I'll say it again: Fishing is a 'Blood Sport' and fish will die. Do they feel the pain of a needle sharp hook? Not sure and don't care. Neither do probably 99% of the fly fishers here and the same percentage of fishermen world over, whether we fish for sport, sustenance, or a commercial livelihood. If we did, we wouldn't fish.

Allan