Fish bait?

[Gidds]

I've read many articles, books, and even posts on this forum suggesting that predatory marine life is attracted to bright/neon colors. If you think about it a lot of fishing lures are also made in bright/neon colors. Now if you think some more (yeah yeah I know thinking takes energy ) scuba and snorkel gear also seems to come in a lot of neon colors. This could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how close you wish to get to the marine life

Has anybody ever been in a situation where neon thier gear attracted marine life?

 

[Charlie99]

Has anybody ever been in a situation where neon thier gear attracted marine life?

Lights at night, yes., but never saw a difference with wetsuit colors.

I dove the same spot in Maui several times, alternating between a bright yellow and black shorty and an all black wetsuit. Didn't seem to make any difference in either attracting or frightening the fish. They never had any trouble spotting that big, strange looking guy making all that noise with his bubbles.

Body posture did make a difference as to whether cleaner fish would go after my cuticles, but wetsuits didn't.

 

[marku]

Body posture did make a difference as to whether cleaner fish would go after my cuticles, but wetsuits didn't.

I've been trying to get cleaner wrasses to interact with me but have had no success so far. Any tips Charlie99?

As to how marine life react to a diver's presence, it seems like how a diver moves while in the water is a big factor. I've been able to get really close to a lot of stuff by moving as little as possible. Nesting titan triggers also seem to get more agitated the more you move around. Eye contact, believe it or not, is also a factor. Some snappers and groupers become less wary of you if you don't hold their gaze.

cheers,
marku

 

[archman]

Bright coloration has more of a deterrent than attractant role in the marine environment, in waters where visual hunting dominates. An absurd number of species utilize bright coloration as warnings for predators to stay away. Usually these prey species possess toxin or nasty-tasting tissues. A lot of predators don't see in colour however, or if they do, the wavelengths are often different from what we see. There was a neat article in National Geographic this year that gave an overview of this. I need to clip it out and put it into a lesson plan.

The color-deterrent concept was explored in the 1970's with freakish-colored wetsuits. The banded sea snake pattern was quite the rage. Didn't work. Not like many animals attack human-sized prey, though. As recent as a few years ago divers in some Japanese aquarium were wearing bumblebee-colored wetsuits. They sure looked snazzy.

 

[Firediver]

Just don't wear orange around male dophines.... they get horny

somthing I learned this past weekend from a fellow diver

 

[archman]

Just don't wear orange around male dophines.... they get horny

From direct experience I can attest that you do not need to be wearing orange... blue, black, grey, and white will also work just fine. Heck, I think any large body will suffice.

 

[RIOceanographer]

From direct experience I can attest that you do not need to be wearing orange... blue, black, grey, and white will also work just fine. Heck, I think any large body will suffice.

Back in my undergrad days in Florida I had a friend who was a diver at the Living Seas tank at Disney World. They had to be very careful of the male dolphins because of how aggressive they can be. They normally moved them into a separate holding tank before sending the divers went in the water.

 

[Gidds]

There is an interesting account in Peter Benchley's "Shark Trouble" outlining how male dolphins react to male humans invading thier space. Being female I found it quite humerous
Additional writings to back up my ascertation that neon dive gear is fish bait: Dr. Eugenie Clark wrote about her experience with a large grouper being entirely too interested in her yellow fins and in the shark dive thread ScubaSarus mentions that they discolored any neon or red gear they were using. There was also a thread mentioning a dogfish tugging on neon yellow fins and bumping a yellow tank. Last but not least there is all the interesting research regarding the color of life preservers aka "Yum Yum Yellow".
Some fish can see polarized light so it is possible that the neon looks tasty even if they can't see color, although many of them can. I can go off on a big technical rant if anybody is interested in the different colors that different kinds of fish eyes can see

 

[archman]

Some fish can see polarized light so it is possible that the neon looks tasty even if they can't see color, although many of them can. I can go off on a big technical rant if anybody is interested in the different colors that different kinds of fish eyes can see

Hmm, if you already are aware of the particulars of fish vision, then you should also be aware of the deterrent role of bright coloration in prey species. These are usually linked lectures. The bulk of evidence backing bright coloration as an attractant are anecdotal and not supported by most marine biologists.

Shiny/reflective coloration is another matter. Anything that enhances a prey's silhouette against the water column will by nature attract visual predators. It's upon closer approach that fine discrimination occurs. Visual hunting is a two and even three-stage process.

I think many of us would love a big technical rant on fish vision. Do you have a link to a site where I can get a synopsis of this? My undergrads can't get enough of this stuff.

 

[Gidds]

I shall look around for a site. The book that my favorite fish eye stuff comes from is: Jobling's Environmental Biology of Fishes. The vision thing is fresh in my mind because I did my second fish phys. course last fall and I still have one of the study sheets hanging up in the kitchen. I really think there is something else about the specific neon tones used on scuba gear and fishing lures that gets the attention of fish besides the color that we humans can see. Those goofy neon lures work don't they? Also if you know of any actual studies in journals about this sort of thing I'd love to have the citations so I can have a look at them
Another thing I think is uncool is this new phenomenon of metallic silvery rash gaurds and shorties. Everybody who knows piffle about fish knows that they bite shiny things.
Oh what sorts of poisonous/venomous marine organisms are neon yellow besides nudibranchs? The fish that people catch with neon lures or that find neon fins interesting aren't the sort of fish that commonly eat small inverts.