Octopuses May Go Blind As Climate Change Sucks Oxygen Out of the Ocean

[Judi Lynn]

By Brandon Specktor, Senior Writer | May 16, 2019 12:31pm ET

Editor's Note: This story was updated at 11:20 a.m. E.D.T. on Friday, May 17

Turning light particles into visual information is hard work, and your body relies on oxygen to get the job done. This is true whether you walk the land on two limbs or swim through the sea with eight.

In fact, according to a recent study in the Journal of Experimental Biology, the amount of oxygen available to marine invertebrates like squids, crabs and octopuses may be far more important to their vision than previously thought. In the study, published online April 24, researchers saw a significant drop in retinal activity in four species of marine larvae (two crabs, an octopus and a squid) when the animals were exposed to reduced-oxygen environments for as little as 30 minutes. [8 Crazy Facts About Octopuses]

For some species, even a minuscule drop in oxygen levels resulted in almost immediate vision loss, eventually causing near-total blindness before the oxygen was cranked back up again.

According to lead study author Lillian McCormick, a doctoral candidate at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, some form of vision impairment may be a daily reality for these species, which migrate between the ocean's highly oxygen-saturated surface and its hypoxic (low-oxygen) depths during their daily feeding routines. And as ocean oxygen levels continue to drop around the globe, in part due to climate change, the risks to these creatures could intensify.

More:
https://www.livescience.com/65495-low-oxygen-blinds-octopuses.html

[marble falls]

1. Sad. What might have been an element in a cheesy sci/fi film - blind octopi - is a headline now.