CRUSTACEANS from the gloomy depths are blinded by daylight when caught in
fishing nets and thrown back. British marine biologists have resolved an earlier
debate about how well the blinded animals survive
(Â鶹´«Ã½, 13 March 1999, p 22).
Colin Chapman of the Fisheries Research Service in Aberdeen and his
colleagues caught Norway lobsters (Nephrops norvegicus) at night and
tagged them. They blinded some of the animals, which are also known as Dublin
Bay Prawns, with a car headlamp—just a few seconds of light irreversibly
damages their eyes. Even so, after release they survived just as well as…
