98 ALBACORA 



"Then," Rivas said, "it was so hard for the man to 

 get the eye off the hook that he decided simply to use 

 the eye as bait. As soon as his line hit the water, a 

 perch went for the bait. It was the same fish he had just 

 freed." 



"That doesn't prove anything about pain," John 

 Manning said quickly. "It just proves that fish don't 

 necessarily learn by experience." 



"Well, actually," Rivas said, "the real basis for the 

 belief that fish hardly feel the hook is that their nervous 

 systems are poorly developed. A big hook lodged in a 

 human's throat would cause terrible agony, but a fish, 

 with a smaller brain and less sensitive nervous system, 

 cannot possibly feel anything so acute." 



I was not and am not entirely convinced. Fish do 

 possess some nerves and sense organs and I think they 

 must feel at least a disagreeable sensation when they are 

 hooked. All animals, it seems to me, must be equipped 

 with organs of pleasure and pain simply to preserve 

 the species. For all creatures, reproduction and mat- 

 ters of well-being must be connected with pleasure or 

 else reproduction would cease. Similarly, pain, or some- 

 thing akin to pain, must accompany dying and condi- 

 tions harmful to life. I have heard scientists insist that 

 there is a sort of automatic nervous reaction in lower 

 animals which we misinterpret to indicate real pleasure 

 and pain, but I do not think an automatic reaction need 

 be considered any less valid than a conscious one. 



