Do fish feel pain?

Whether fish feel pain is a point of controversy among scientists, but the consensus is that fish may respond to pain but not in the conscious way that humans respond to pain. Fish lack the neurological sensors that humans have to be receptive to pain, making it likely that fish do not consciously process pain.

Studies done on fish do show some form of reaction when a fish receives an injury, but the question still remains if the reaction is one of pain or simply a reaction to something abnormal happening to the fish. The research community must rely on studying the physiological makeup of fish to determine if they possess pain receptors that cause them to feel pain in the same way humans do.