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reaction in a fish's eye to a camera flash

Neil Partridge

Neil Partridge

Senior Member
i got to thinking the other night about how a fish's eye reacts to a camera flash or a head torch etc, it is well known how a human eye reacts but what about a fish, are we doing it any good when we lean over it on a dark night unhooking it with a beam of light that even your mate will ask you to lower whilst looking at us, we can also look away, a fish can't
something to think about you know
 
When I used to photograph my night-caught barbs and sea-trout, I would always quickly play a torch beam at not-too close a distance on the fish's eyes before blazing away with a flashgun. Then I would rest the fish for a few minutes - to allow its sight to re-adjust - before returning it.

What made me stop taking night-time pics? An 18.25-pound, fly-caught sea-trout, taken at last knockings, on Tierra del Fuego. Needing to be somewhere to eat some very late dinner, I didn't do the torch routine: a mate of mine found the great fish dead in the shallow run below the pool from which I had caught it the following morning. We ate the fish at the house the same evening; it didn't taste too good to me.
 
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dave........thanks for that................ it don't bug me, i was just wondering about it after all we all (well after reading your reply..most of us anyway) care about the fish we catch.
 
Dave, you've got to get into the spirit of the board mate. Either be constructive, if not then bloody funny, or why post something like that?

Richie
 
Neil, there's a bit written about the effect camera flash has on fish's eyes in Fred Crouch's Understanding Barbel. For now, all I can remember is that he urges caution when taking flash pictures at night because of the damage it can cause to the light rods in the fish's eye. I'm not too sure if fish have the same eye system as humans, whereby we have two sets of light receptors in our eyes, cones for bright light and rods for dark. I'll try and find out more later, when I get home and have a flick through the book but in the meantime, just googling, I found this - http://www.earthlife.net/fish/sight.html.
I have not read through it myself yet but it may give an insight, if you'll pardon the pun.
 
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If using flashlight photography was going to blind fish, there would be a lot of blind barbel around by now.
 
I don't think for one minute that one or two flash pictures will blind a fish but several pictures could cause some short term, possibly longer, damage. Something akin to what welders get perhaps, arc-eye I think they call it, which can lead to blind spots, headaches (Not too sure if fish suffer from these - I'm sure some expert will have an opinion) and a whole host of other maladies.
 
Not blind an already probably tired fish, but temporarily unsight it and make it more likely to prang itself on a rock or concrete block, or go headlong into some mud, or to stray into fast water that could very well be a danger to it in its weakened state...

I employed a belt and braces approach to fish that I had caught and that I of course wanted to give every chance of surviving their trip bank-side.
 
A very interesting point Neil.
I've never even though about it when flashing bright LED's into fishes eyes, it certainly doesn't do our eye's any good when bright lights are shone into them.
 
I'm just about to bring out a pair of special sunglasses for fish that can be adjusted to fit various species of all sizes. These are designed to effectively prevent any problems possibly caused when using headlights and camera flashlights. Just don't forget to take them off before releasing your catch or they really will start swimming into things.

Next year I'll also be bringing out a special auto-pilot instrument to fit onto flying fish to prevent them crashing into boats.
 
The Chairman on Monday


I had a corking idea the other year - blinkers for sun-blinded anglers - only to discover that a great many piscators already wore them, at all times.


As ever,

B.B.
 
Dave Wingfield said:
After 8 years on BFW, I have found that trying to be funny is a complete waste of time to many on here but thanks for the advice
Click to expand...

It took you 8 years to realise:eek:, its never been famed for the humour displayed (infamous for sniping, bickering and now, just for being sterile).
 
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