If 1,500 captive mammals suffocated to death in a zoo, their suffering would spark an outcry. So when a Berlin hotel aquarium exploded at the end of 2022, why did so few people comment on the welfare of the fish? Aquatic species don’t seem to induce the same emotional response. And this disparity is clouding our understanding of their lives in captivity.
After decades of studying sentience in fish (that is, their capacity to experience feelings and sensations), the consensus among scientists is that fish can feel pain. Pain in humans has an important emotional component, and the same appears to be true in fish, which are also capable of anxiety and fear. This, along with converging evidence that fish can carry out complex tasks involving tools and problem solving, puts them on par with other vertebrates.
