how do ocean animals navigate in their 360° environment?

796 views

I know dolphins and whales have sonar. But how about fish, jellyfish, giant squid, sea turtles etc? They have no visual points of reference like us land animals, they can literally travel in any direction (vs. our fairly linear plane of movement; although I’m assuming at least that they can sense gravity and therefore know up from down), and yet can navigate so confidently that, for example, animals like sea turtles can return without fail to the same location year after year to lay eggs.

In: Biology

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Have you ever seen a fish swim upside down? (Probably rarely). Most fish have buoyancy that favors their upright position that defines the orientation of how they perceive space. Under water is not a zero g environment (as you said). And they do have visual points of reference, they just aren’t grounded to a certain vertical plane.

You are viewing 1 out of 2 answers, click here to view all answers.