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| Dr Jonathan Balcombe. Image by Amie Chou. |
Dr
Jonathan Balcombe is an ethologist, academic, editor of the journal Animal Sentience and author of a number
of books including What a Fish Knows.
I came across his work when studying fish welfare, an area of research that has
become huge over the past decade. Those who cohabit with fish, and spend a
decent amount of time observing them, appear to need no convincing that fish
are thinking, feeling creatures. This seems to be the exception rather than the
rule. Dr Balcombe took some time out to chat to us about “the most exploited
group of vertebrates on Earth.”
For those who don't know, what does an
ethologist do?
An
ethologist specializes in the study of animal behavior, which is called
ethology.
How did you come to devote the last
four years exploring the science on the inner lives of fishes?
Two
main factors drove my decision to focus on fishes. First, I wanted to enlighten
people to the remarkably rich lives fishes have. Scientific studies of fish
behavior have advanced a great deal in recent years, showing that fishes are
consciously aware, they have thoughts and emotions, personalities and
preferences, social lives and sex lives. But only occasionally does any of this
information emerge from scholarly journals and reach the public eye. I wrote What a Fish Knows to make what we know
of the lives of fishes widely available to humanity.
Second,
fishes are collectively the most exploited group of vertebrates on Earth, and
their habitats are beleaguered by human activities. We kill between 150 billion
and two trillion fishes each year. Most die in horribly inhumane ways such as
suffocation, crushing, or bleeding. I hope that by coming to understand fishes
better, many people will change their relationship to fishes from one of
complicity in their exploitation to one of respect and protection.
One of the common misconceptions about
fish is that they have a three second memory (at least goldfish). How do we
know fish are sentient creatures that have memories and can learn?
Careful
studies on fishes of various types have shown that they feel pain and distress,
and that they will actively seek to relieve it. The myth of the 3-second fish
memory has been repeatedly debunked. Fishes recognize other individuals over
the course of their lives, and some live a century or more. They learn to
navigate through familiar habitats, including migration routes that may span
continents. They watch others and adjust their behavior according to their
awareness of their own social standing relative to another. They also learn by
observation, including evidence that they can take the perspective of another—an
advanced cognitive skill known only from a few animals.
There are others who argue that despite
a huge increase in studies claiming to prove or support fish sentience that
fish cannot feel pain. For example, some authors argue that fish have fewer
nociceptors than humans who are born with a congenital inability to experience
pain. What is your view on this?
In
light of existing evidence, I consider arguments against fish sentience to be
not just scientifically dubious, but selfish and mean-spirited. As full members
of the vertebrate clan, fishes are anatomically and physiologically equipped to
feel pain, and they respond to presumptively painful stimuli as we may expect
from a pain-feeling organism: they may stop eating, hide, flee, avoid hooks,
seek out pain relief, or become distracted enough to behave maladaptively. In a
study of zebrafishes, individuals who had been subjected to an injection of acid
began to swim in a barren chamber of their tank that they normally avoided—but
only when that chamber contained a painkiller solution. Other zebrafishes
injected with a less painful saline solution ignored the painkiller, choosing
instead to remain in an enriched/preferred area of the tank with vegetation and
objects.
You've said that you no longer consume
fish. What are the implications of this scientific knowledge about fish
feelings?
We
can choose not to eat fishes because most of us (exceptions might be coastal
communities whose lives depend directly on catching fish sustainably) can lead perfectly
healthy and happy lives without contributing to the misery and suffering
inflicted by catching and killing them. With the sorry state of affairs
concerning fishes and their habitats—cruel capture methods; wasteful bycatch; dramatic
population declines; chemical, plastic and noise pollution; ocean
acidification; and coral bleaching—I hope more people will make the decision to
cease or at least reduce their consumption of fishes.
Thank you Dr Balcombe. What a Fish Knows is available through MacMillan.
