Fish Pain and Human Sport in Victorian Britain

Abstract: Victorian Britons were interested in encounters between humans and fish for many reasons: fishing for sport as opposed to food gathering was expanding rapidly in popularity; fishing was practiced by many different people in many ways around the world; and fish populations were visibly suffering from pollution, overfishing, and terrain modification. This article analyzes the changing meanings of these encounters through addressing the beliefs about fish pain held by Victorian anglers. These beliefs were intertwined with ideas about race, food, civilization, and class. Elite British anglers increasingly understood their relationship with fish and their own capacity to feel pain (and to judge others' pain) as a justification of their place as the managers and stewards of all fisheries, not just those in Britain.