Question Strobes vs video lights - effects on marine life

[Leobendive]

I like taking my Canon G7X II compact camera with me on my dives. So far I have only used ambient light. I take really nice pictures on shallow dives but of course on deeper dives the pics are lacking color and light.
So I think about investing in a strobe and/or video light. Many resources can be found on advantages and disadvantages concerning the quality of lighting. Nearly none of these ressources mention the effects on marine life.

Back in 2016 I travelled to Khao Lak/Thailand doing day Trips to the Similan Islands, Koh Bon, Koh Tachai,... on our first day our guide told us, that he can no longer allow taking strobes. Only constant lighting. A few days before, he had a diver with a strobe taking a picture of a turtle. When being "strobed" the turtle turned upside down, sinking to the bottom, lying on the reef like paralysed. It recovered after a few minutes.

If this really happended as described I can't know for sure. The guide did not have any reason to lie to us and actually seemed quite shocked because of the incident.

Searching on scubaboard I could only find a few posts that suggested the opposite i.e. a strobe is more similar to sunlight therefore effects marine life less, while a Video light can effect the eyes of marine life, chases them away more common and so on.

Does anyone here have more information on the effects on marine life of strobes vs. video lights? Have you ever seen anything similar to the turtle-incident described above? What would you recommend? Buying a strobe, Video light or both? Do you have any favorite lights or strobes that effect marine life less because of special specifications,...?

 

[tursiops]

There is a lot of documentation and anecdotal evidence that some marine life is greatly disturbed by video lights, but the only evidence I know of about strobes being negative is regarding sea horses (who have no eyelids)and baby sea turtles that are hatching on the beach in the dark and trying to get to the sea using moonlight...they get disoriented by any other lights...flashes or constant.

Does Flash Photography Harm Small Marine Creatures?

Does flash photography harm small ocean creatures? Pygmy seahorse expert Dr. Richard Smith offers guidelines for photographing these fragile creatures.

www.scubadiving.com

https://morefundiving.com/how-not-to-kill-the-pygmy-seahorse/

Sea Turtle Nesting Beaches — SEE Turtles

Learn how to keep sea turtles safe when you visit turtle nesting beaches. SEE Turtles is a nonprofit conservation organization that helps protect sea turtles around the world.

www.seeturtles.org

 

[bvanant]

This is a complex topic but if you look around here or other places, you will see literally thousands of turtle photos taken with strobes and I am sure that the vast majority (>99.9999%) didn't go into spasms and sink to the bottom. Observationally, many fish/creatures move away from bright video/focus lights, others don't seem to care and a few like lion fish at night use your light to hunt. Many bony fish can actually regenerate retinal neurons (Retina regeneration in zebrafish) a good trick that is being looked at for ways to help reverse human retinal damage. We no longer shoot pygmies; every time you look at them they clearly turn away and look unhappy.

Cheers
Bill

 

[Nemrod]

Strobes and turtles going into death spasms . No, did not happen. Sometimes I am tempted to just call BS!



I have seen taken and myself taken hundreds of turtle photos. Sometimes the turtles even hang out oblivious to the strobes. They do not like being crowded or touched, of course not. But strobes do not bother them. I guess if you had 50 divers firing strobes at you perhaps get annoyed, I would.

Now a video light, I can see some shy critters being bothered by a continuous and hot beam of light or a laser pointer. A strobe is there and gone in thousandths of a second, no way.

 

[sy-]

I seem to recall some turtles being diagnosed with epilepsy many many moons ago!

 

[Nemrod]

I seem to recall there were a bunch of children hospitalized after watching some sort of animated television comic program.

CNN - Japanese cartoon triggers seizures in hundreds of children - December 17, 1997

Maybe this photographer had an antique electrical sync cable failure and electrocuted the poor thing .

 

[scubadada]

Personally, I hate diving with divers who have their f.....g video lights on all the time. I don't know what the turtles think.