Hooked on a Myth

Hooked on a Myth by author Victoria Braithwaite argues that we shouldn't be so quick to believe fish do not feel any pain or emotion. Many believe its okay to treat them unfairly then other animals because of their appearance you may say and view them as "dumb, unfeeling non-human animals." Before reading Victoria's article, my view on fish would  be similar to what society believes because its not common for someone to say "Save the fish" but its common to hear "save the animals in shelters" or "Save the whales" etc. Honestly, nobody really has any sympathy towards fish. Fisherman are able to swoop up as many fish as they can from the ocean or lakes and cook them for dinner or sell them without any hesitation or sympathy for the fish.  Most people fish out on lakes for fun or as a hobby. Not that there is anything wrong with it, but it just shows the true affect fishes have on society. Victoria Braithwaites purpose is to not have people change the way they treat fish of course because that would be nearly impossible, but to have a different perspective amongst them. She experiments on fish to prove that they do feel the same pain as we do by discovering that they have similar nociceptors as humans. Nociceptors are nerves that alerts us to detect pain and they have the two types of nociceptors which are A-Delta and C-Fibers. Her experiment was well proven and supports her argument well, from this response I can say myself that fish are treated a bit unfairly and not many care to acknowledge it. The next question Victoria has is because they feel pain, do they feel emotion or the same consciousness as humans? She is unsure about this also, but does find that they are quite clever for the capability to learn geometrical relationships and landmarks. They are able to use these and generate a mental map to plan their escape routes if a predator arrives. This was interesting to me because you would never think fish may have the same characteristics and capabilities as humans do. I'm sure they don't have exactly all emotion we have but to know that they do feel pain and are actually clever minded makes me change their perspective towards them and i feel bad that they might know what situation they are about to be put in when they are taken especially because so many of them are easily killed, but also i have another side of myself that doesn't feel all that bad because of how many we have in the oceans, seas, lakes, etc. that its almost impossible for them to go extinct anyway.