We need not worry about this, says James D. Rose, a neuroscientist, professor at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, and, yes, a fisherman. He told me he's suffered some pain of his own since the article came out last year, especially from Dawn Carr, PETA's point person against fishing. Brain structure dictates brain function, Rose said, and fish just don't have the cerebral stuff to experience pain, suffering or even fear. What fish do have is a flight response. The bait shop community says amen to Brother Rose on this point.
Fish are trying to get away is what they are.
It would be different if it was screaming as you brought it in. That never stopped deer hunting, of course, but we're not talking about deer today. It's ghastly to conceive, but put yourself in the fish's place. It's like dentistry without Novocain, drilling into exposed nerves. . . . The debate rages on, like so many debates, with no end in sight.