Fish Sense

by Jonathan Balcombe

A quirky, intimate, and eye-opening look into the ways of thinking like a fish.

An extract from the much-loved modern classic on the subject of fish consciousness, What a Fish Knows.

Do fishes think? Do they really have three-second memories? And can they recognize the humans who peer back at them from above the surface of the water? Jonathan Balcombe dives in among our marine cousins to explore the essential questions of how fish perceive and process the world.

With his ethologist’s gift for showing us the hidden depths of questions we’ve routinely preferred to think of as simple, and his raconteur’s flair for the surprising and the curious, Balcombe takes us under the sea, through streams and estuaries, and to the other side of the aquarium glass to reveal the surprising capabilities of fishes. Balcombe upends our assumptions about fishes, portraying them not as unfeeling, dead-eyed feeding machines but as sentient, aware, social, and even Machiavellian―in other words, much like us.

Using humor and a repertoire of some of the most surprising fish facts you’ve ever heard, Balcombe shakes up what you think you know about what’s going on inside the mind of these denizens of the deep.

Fish Sense is part of the Picador Shorts series “Oceans, Rivers, and Streams” in which excerpts from beloved classics speak to our relationship with our water bodies, great and small.

Genres: Nonfiction

144 pages, Paperback

Published June 10, 2025

About the author

Jonathan Balcombe was born in England, raised in New Zealand and Canada, and has lived in the United States since 1987. He has three biology degrees, including a PhD in ethology (the study of animal behavior) from the University of Tennessee, where he studied communication in bats. He has published over 45 scientific papers on animal behavior and animal protection.

He is the author of four books. Jonathon is currently at work on a new book about the inner lives of fishes, and a novel titled After Meat.

Formerly Senior Research Scientist with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Jonathan is currently the Department Chair for Animal Studies with the Humane Society University.

Based near Washington, DC, in his spare time Jonathan enjoys biking, baking, birdwatching, piano, painting, and trying to understand his two cats.

Reviews

[Louise Ramberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very cool

[Amy Garry · Rating 4 out of 5]

so for some reason i picked this book up because i thought it would be like meta about fish and if they can feel and how humans feel emotions… anyways it was literally just research findings about how fish can see, smell, hear, etc.

that being said i absolutely adored it and it was fascinating, kind of want to learn about all animals this way. love the way the author presented all the information

[Peyton · Rating 1 out of 5]

It’s great to expand our human centric understanding of intelligence. I may have been the wrong audience for this book because I didn’t enjoy the way the author assumes everyone thinks fish are mindless ignorant beings. He also incorrectly references taxonomic groups and only gives extremely high level descriptions of studies with no synthesis, interpretations, or in text references. Hard to read after Why Fish Don’t Exist or Light Eaters.

[DANI! · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book was fascinating! i really appreciated the authors approach to these teachings, it was all very accessible, yet rich and incredibly well researched and passionate. it is also incredibly well written and relative to the audience which i really enjoyed. i love fish!!!!!!!!

[Siena Cohen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short but effective debunking of myths about fish being brainless...loved that the author used first person here really helped his plea to get readers to be compassionate towards fishiessssss!!!!

[Stephen Baum · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short and fine.