Views on playing with or harrasing marine life

[Kim]

Sure to throw the glass house stone throwing hyprocrites into a quandry...

Excellent post, Archman.

As you have failed to take me up on starting a new thread if neccessairy - I have started one about strobes in the underwater photography forum. Meanwhile I'd suggest that you refrain from the sort of name calling rudeness that you yourself seemed to be against in your earlier post.

 

[RebreatherBoy]

It is not "name calling", it is a proper descriptive. Perhaps so correct it causes consternation to those whom fits its definition.

 

[kelpmermaid]

On the topic of blinding marine life, this is a tough call. Although a great deal is known about fish eye anatomy, and a moderate amount for the larger invertebrate groups, very little is understood about light tolerances.
What I DO know from deep sea work...

1. Lights from Alvin have been shown to permanently blind shrimps around hydrothermal vents. The operators are now aware of this and try to minimalize this.
2. The deepwater crab Eumunida picta has been permanently blinded by normal room lights. The ommatidia were likely fried by long term exposure by being in a laboratory aquarium... mine.

Deep sea critters of course have extremely sensitive eyes cued in to infrared or organic light. Shallow water animals are generally more tolerant. Underwater photographers have reported stunning or dazing animals with strobes or high powered lamps like HID's. "Stunning" from high light bursts seems to be a common behavioral characteristic across the board, be it insects, deer, or even people. This is a less obvious form of harassment, but it IS harassment nevertheless.

If you keep up with the underwater photography forums you'll occasionally read how many folks are sensitive to blinding animals and minimalize it if they can. This seems to be an increasing trend that I hope spreads... I will certainly practice it with my science students this summer.

as restraining animals, or killing them for entertainment. Surely, you are not asserting that, RB.

 

[JMD123]

It plain and simple look don;t touch. I dove with a couple of MORONS in Los Angeles. Suprise suprise. They would crack open sea erchants hold them in their open hand and when a girabalde would swim over and eat they would grab onto it. IDIOTS. They were so busy being jack asses they missed the horn shark the electric ray and a couple of other cool things.

 

[archman]

They were so busy being jack asses they missed the horn shark the electric ray and a couple of other cool things.

Maybe it's for the better. If they spotted the "cool things" they may have either gotten themselves either impaled or electrocuted as they grabbed for these critters!

 

[kelpmermaid]

Kelpermaid, I asked you previously if you employ mercenary animal death squads to kill animals for you so that you may rip their flesh and sinew from their dead carcasses and crush it with your mandibles, and your reponse is the above?!

But I do have other things in my life, other than this board. The reference to killing for entertainment was not directly related to the video, but from subsequent discussion in this thread. I think you know that if you followed the rest of it. The video had to do with harassment of an animal, but it (from what we saw on film) survived.

If you want to hunt things to kill them for food, that's one thing. To just mess with things (and event film it!) or to kill things just for entertainment is, IMHO, wrong. Yes, I eat chicken. Do I go to cockfights? No. Do I run around chicken farms, pull tail feathers, film it, and put in on the internet? No, I do not.

Jonas, you should have just contacted me.