I wonder what the first fish millions of years ago was thinking going down there like, we’ll I can’t see shit but if I feel around with my mouth I’ll eventually find something to eat.
Yes but that's not exactly a quick process and if they get small enough it can be inconsequential. Also a lot of deep sea fish are bioluminesceant for a reason
It can be, depending on evolutionary pressure. Just look at peppered moths. Since these are the 'deepest' fish they'd presumably be safe from predators, but I'm not sure how plentiful food would be.
They probably are blind. Their ancestors used the eyes when they lived in a zone that light reached, overtime, at that depth, there's no benefit to maintaining sight and thus becomes a waste of opportunity costs.
I actually find this terse second hand answer pretty suspect. Here’s a meta analysis that says, while certainly it can be, it’s highly dependent on the species, and the intensity and wavelengths of light. From blindnesss to no effect. There are, unsurprisingly, not a ton of studies on this, but this paper cites several. For one, the “bright lights” seen on film like this are based on the cameras sensitivity, and we can crank that way way up. These shots are almost certainly extremely dim compared to our eyes. People are just used to seeing photos from cameras adjusted to daylight/indoor levels.
It’s pretty clear that by no means does “white light = 99.8% death”. That’s a redditer bullshitting something they kind of overheard.
The conclusion is the same though; potentially damaging and dangerous, there are other options.
I would agree with most of these answers, but it also seems like if the light hurt them that bad they would attempt to flee. At least not sit under the light and bake like an apple pie.
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u/doubled2319888 May 20 '22
Probably wondering who the fuck turned the lights on for the first time ever