[Coral-List] Strobes Blind Seahorses

[yusri yusuf]

Hi,
yup there're probably millions of seahorse in the ocean and aquarium,
but there're only probably 5 pygmy seahorse in Mabul Island, Sabah....
they're quite rare in that location, i think....
and every dive master in the island will take every divers to the same
seafan to look at the same seahorse and every diver will take at least
5 macro shot of the same seahorse.... and that particular seahorse
will be subjected to the same event everyday.... there might be some
effect to that particular pygmy seahorse due to this attention and if
there're adverse effect to this seahorse (death in the extreme case),
the attention to shift to other individual.....
I dont think this is the same case as the sunscreen effect.... as some
seahorse tend to be quite rare in some places..... and some species,
like pygmy seahorse do create a lot of interest and know some
diver/photographer do travel to these locations specifically just to
take picture of this single species....
Probably some wise behaviour/physiological scientists can come up with
some experiments to look at this and probably after that we can
further argue the scientific merit behind it


my 2 sen
tq

yusri




On Sat, Apr 3, 2010 at 11:47 AM, David M. Lawrence <dave at fuzzo.com> wrote:
> C'mon Gene.  If you looked at the populations of sea horses on heavily
> used dive sites, it could certainly be a problem.  What we need are
> data, not snark.
>
> Dave
>
> On 4/2/2010 10:11 AM, Eugene Shinn wrote:
>> Somebody do the math..How many sea horses are there? How many divers
>> are using strobes? How many of those that use strobes photograph
>> seahorses? I suspect there may be .0000000000002 seahorses affected
>> give or take 10000000000. Maybe they should be listed as
>> threatened?Gene
>>
>
> --
> ------------------------------------------------------
>  David M. Lawrence        | Home:  (804) 559-9786
>  7471 Brook Way Court     | Fax:   (804) 559-9787
>  Mechanicsville, VA 23111 | Email: dave at fuzzo.com
>  USA                      | http:  http://fuzzo..com
> ------------------------------------------------------
>
> "All drains lead to the ocean."  -- Gill, Finding Nemo
>
> "We have met the enemy and he is us."  -- Pogo
>
> "No trespassing
>  4/17 of a haiku"  --  Richard Brautigan
>
> _______________________________________________
> Coral-List mailing list
> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>



-- 
Yusri Yusuf
Institute of Oceanography,
Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Mengabang Telipot,
21030 Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia.
Tel: 609-6683163
Fax: 609-6692166
http://staff.umt.edu.my/~yusriyusuf/