Fish, sentience and aquaculture

Questions this hub answers

Do fish feel pain?

The scientific consensus supports it: fish possess nociceptors, show trade-off behaviours after noxious stimuli, respond to analgesics, and demonstrate learning and avoidance consistent with the experience of pain.

Is farmed fish better for the ocean than wild-caught?

Not straightforwardly. Carnivorous farmed species such as salmon are fed wild-caught forage fish, so farming can increase rather than relieve pressure on wild stocks.