What do you do when you see something cool? In the diving industry it's not uncommon for divers to use flash photography to capture the unique marine fishes swimming around them.
Up until recently the impacts of fash photography were unknown. A study just released by Maarten De Brauwer and his colleagues, found that seahorses, in particular, were more impacted by the manipulation surrounding the photo then the flash itself.
Despite the 4,600 exposures to full power flash guns over 34 days there were no observable impacts on sea horse feeding behavior or foraging success.
While the flashes don't impact them we should still be respectful of these animals' environments and avoid harassment.
If you would like to read the whole article it is available to the public here:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-37356-2
De Brauwer, Maarten, et al. "Behavioural and pathomorphological impacts of flash photography on benthic fishes." Scientific Reports 9.1 (2019): 748.