A light as dim as a streetlamp is enough to trick fish into ignoring their survival instincts and getting eaten.
April 3, 2026
Original Paper
Beyond the curfew: Diurnal coral reef fish experience higher nocturnal predation risk in the wild when exposed to artificial light at night
SSRN · 6510431
The Takeaway
Artificial light at night causes reef fish to stay out in the open instead of hiding, leading to an 11-fold increase in predator encounters. Even when a predator is right in front of them, the dim glow seems to 'jam' their ability to seek shelter.
From the abstract
Artificial light at night (ALAN) is a global pollutant that affects terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Coastal marine environments experience increasing artificial lighting but our understanding of how it influences community ecology, especially species interactions, remains limited. To investigate if ALAN affects coral reef fish predator-prey interactions in the wild, we exposed diurnal humbug damselfish and their surrounding wild mesopredator assemblages to ecologically relevant levels of art