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"Visual capabilities in blue water fishes and sea turtles"
01/25/05
12:00 noon - 1 PM, Candle House 104/105
Special Lecture by Kerstin Fritsches, Vision Touch and Hearing Research Centre, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
ABSTRACT:
Visual capabilities in blue water fishes and sea turtles
Why do swordfishes heat their eyes? Can tuna and marlin distinguish colours? Do sea turtles see in the UV waveband? These are some of the questions I like to answer in my comparative work on the visual capabilities of tuna, billfishes and sea turtles. These inhabitants of the open ocean have highly developed eyes and visual systems, well adapted for their clear water habitat. Recent tracking studies have shown that these animals inhabit very distinct vertical niches ranging from the colourful, brightly lit water surface to the dark, cold depths of several hundred meters. Such variety in the light environment result in a rich 'natural laboratory' for visual adaptations as each species is exposed to different challenges to its visual system.
Identifying the differences in visual capabilities of blue water fishes and sea turtles, such as their ability to detect colour, motion and fine detail, has a strong applied motivation. Fishes such as tuna and billfishes as well as sea turtles interact with longline fishing gear, resulting in unnecessary bycatch harming already fragile stocks of a number of species. The ultimate aim of my team's research is to provide results that help design more species-specific catching methods adapted to the visual capabilities of animals interacting with longline gear, hence reducing bycatch.
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