Fish feel PAIN just like humans, scientists say - as they call for common slaughter method to be halted immediately
From fish and chips to fish pie, many British staples focus on seafood.
But a new study might make you think twice before ordering one of these popular dishes.
Scientists have revealed the hidden pain that fish go through during a common slaughter method known as 'air asphyxia'.
This method involves allowing fish to suffocate in air or on ice - and can often take well over an hour.
In their study, researchers from the Welfare Footprint Institute found that the average rainbow trout endures 10 minutes of 'intense pain' during air asphyxia.
Based on the findings, the researchers are calling for air asphyxia to be banned, and for 'stunning' methods to be used instead.
'Pain and distress from asphyxia in fish can be potentially mitigated by stunning methods that induce rapid loss of consciousness,' they wrote in their study.
'For stunning to be considered humane and effective, pre-slaughter handling must be minimised and the animal must become unconscious immediately after stunning, a state that must persist until death.'
Every year, up to 2.2 trillion wild and 171 billion farmed fish are killed, according to the researchers.
However, several traditional methods of killing these fish are inhumane.
'Farmed fish are still commonly killed by asphyxiation (suffocation by taking them out of water), exposure to carbon dioxide, exposure to very low temperatures or bleeding without stunning,' the RSPCA explains.
'These procedures take several minutes to induce insensibility and cannot be regarded as humane.'
In their study, the team set out to understand exactly how fish react to air asphyxia.
Focusing on rainbow trout, the team found that during air asphyxia, fish experience anything between two and 22 minutes of 'intense pain', depending on factors like fish size and water temperature.
This translates to around 24 minutes of pain per kilogram of fish, according to the experts.
In contrast, 'stunning' methods are immediate, meaning the fish don't suffer.
'Electrical and percussive stunning methods for fish are now becoming more common,' the RSPCA explained.
'These include water-bath stunning systems where fish pass through electrified water to stun them, and percussive stunning of fish using automated flow-through systems where fish remain in water until the point of stunning.
'These systems remove the need for pre-slaughter handling of fish and allow fish to be effectively stunned prior to being bled out.'
While you might think that these methods would be more expensive, the researchers say that this isn't the case.
'If implemented properly, electrical stunning could avert 60 to 1,200 minutes of moderate to extreme pain for every U.S. dollar of capital cost,' they explained.
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