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Conscious Fish?

For decades, the question of whether fish feel pain has been stalled by a deeper, largely unexamined assumption: that fish, along with other “low”, “cold” animals, are not conscious. This raises an immediate contradiction, for how can a creature experience pain without being aware of it?

Words:
Ila France Porcher
Images:
Common lionfish
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Ecology & Science

Pain, by its very nature, is a subjective experience—something felt. To argue that fish feel pain, but are not conscious, is to separate sensation from awareness in a way that collapses under scrutiny.

Conscious Fish?

For decades, the question of whether fish feel pain has been stalled by a deeper, largely unexamined assumption: that fish, along with other “low”, “cold” animals, are not conscious. This raises an immediate contradiction, for how can a creature experience pain without being aware of it? 

Ecology & Science

Pain, by its very nature, is a subjective experience—something felt. To argue that fish feel pain, but are not conscious, is to separate sensation from awareness in a way that collapses under scrutiny.

Masters of Light: From Forest Canopies to Coral Reefs

There are places on Earth where evolution seems to have lingered longer than usual, experimenting not merely with survival, but with beauty. In the high branches of tropical forests, a chameleon sways like a leaf in the wind. Far below, drifting over sandy plains, a cuttlefish ripples in living light. They are separated by vast distances—by air and water, by reptile and mollusc, by ancient evolutionary divergence. And yet, they share a remarkable gift: mastery over light itself.

Cuttlefish
Ecology & Science

The art of becoming

The chameleon bends light through structure. Beneath its skin lie layers of cells that manipulate reflection, shifting crystal lattices to alter the wavelengths that reach our eyes. A mood, a rival, a shift in temperature, and forest-green suddenly blooms across its flanks.

Dolphin Intelligence: Do They Talk?

Dolphins have long fascinated humans with their intelligence, complex behaviours, and remarkable social structures. Now, with advanced techniques for analysing intelligent actions, communication researchers are finding that dolphins are not only one of the most intelligent animals, but that they may actually talk to each other!

Dolphin portrait
Ecology & Science

Dolphin intelligence is evident in a variety of ways. They demonstrate problem-solving abilities, self-awareness and complex social interactions. Studies have shown that dolphins can recognise themselves in mirrors, which so far has only been achieved by the most intelligent of animals. Furthermore, they can understand symbolic language and have been observed using tools. For example, they use marine sponges to protect their rostrums while foraging on the ocean floor.

Fish Recognises Itself in Photographs

Cleaner fish (Labroides dimidiatus) likely recognise their own mirror image using a mental image of the self-face, comparable to humans.

Ecology & Science

A new study demonstrates how animals recognise self-images.

Some animals have the remarkable capacity for mirror self-recognition (MSR), yet any implications for self-awareness remain uncertain.

In a test of MSR ability in cleaner fish, mirror-naive fish initially attacked photograph models of both themselves and unfamiliar strangers. In contrast, after all fish had passed the mirror mark test, they did not attack their own (motionless) images, but still frequently attacked those of unfamiliar individuals.

X-RAY MAGAZINE FEATURE

Seeking Eye Contact: Fish Gaze Reveals Self-Awareness

For many years, I held a weekly feeding session for the resident reef sharks and their visitors in the study area where I observed their behaviour. If I had enough shark food, I would scatter crumbs into the water for the fish after the sharks had left. The fish knew this, so they had to wait, and while they were waiting, they were excited.

Words:
Ila France Porcher
Images:
Peter Symes
Squirrelfish
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Ecology & Science

As the session wore on and darkness fell, they gathered. They would creep ever closer as the moment I would feed them approached. The surface glimmered with the continually circling needlefish, who looked at me gravely with their big eyes. Hundreds flashed through the silvery surface lights while some circled solemnly upcurrent. Below them, wrasses, goatfish, butterflyfish, angelfish, pennantfish and many others flitted in an effervescent cloud.

Do fish really possess higher cognitive powers?

In this magazine, we have frequently pondered the intelligence, sentience and self-awareness of the creatures we encounter on our ventures into the aquatic environment and reported on various scientific findings and philosophical discussion held in that regard (see references at the end).

Ecology & Science

Mirror self-recognition test

The standard method for testing whether an animal is self-aware is placing a mark on its body that cannot be viewed directly and then letting it have a look in a mirror. If the animal responds to its reflection and attempts to remove the mark it is considered evidence that the animal is self-aware.

 

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Cognition and Self Awareness in Manta Rays

Although born in the landlocked country of Hungary in Budapest, Dr Csilla Ari fell in love with the sea as a child and has never looked back. Today, she is a research associate at the University of South Florida, where she strives to better understand the biology and behavior of manta rays. She has also set up the Manta Memories project, which aims to help end illegal manta ray fishing.

Words:
Edited by Ila France Porcher
Images:
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Ecology & Science

X-RAY MAG: How did you become interested in studying the behavior of manta rays?

What Are Sharks Aware Of?

With the return of summer, more and more divers are meeting sharks for the first time, and wondering, “What do they see when they pass, so slowly, gazing at us gazing at them?”

Sharks can see very well
Ecology & Science

Sharks have a very different set of senses than we do, yet the eyesight of the free swimming species is good, so when they look at you, they are seeing you. But you may have the impression that they are using senses other than their eyes most often, and indeed, apart from our shared good eyesight, it is impossible for us to imagine how sharks experience their liquid realm.

Does this whale talk?

Researchers in the US have been shocked to discover a beluga whale whose vocalisations were remarkably close to human speech. After seven years in the care of humans a white whale called NOC began, spontaneously, to make unusual sounds. The researchers interpreted the whale’s vocalizations as an attempt to mimic humans.

Ecology & Science

Excerpts from Current Biology, Volume 22, Issue 20, R860-R861, 23 October 2012

The whale lived among a group of dolphins and socialized with two female white whales. The whale was exposed to speech not only from humans at the surface -- it was present at times when divers used surface-to-diver communication equipment.

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