How do underwater prey know a predator is hunting them?
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Through all the usual senses you’d find in creature on land. They might see the predator, hear it (water is a much better conductor of sound than air), “smell” it in the water, or feel something disturb the currents around them.
Some sea creatures even have what we would consider extra senses. They may be able to pick up on electrical activity, echolocate, or see into spectrums that we humans cannot.
Fish have a row of sensory organs along their body called a lateral line. It can detect motion and changes in pressure. Many fish will just react instinctively when they feel the water moving around them, even before they know if it’s a predator or just some random movement of water.
Same as you: they see, hear, and smell predators.
Fish, for example, have a sensitive organ called a “lateral line” that in some ways is like an ear (they have ears too) that runs the length of the fish, and it can use it to detect movement in the water. If they sense something coming towards them, they move away and sometimes look back.
Often they don’t.
I spent an amusing 20 minutes one night floating above a rock (about 2 meter cube) 25 feet down off of Kona. There was a moray, hunting a couple of Tang. Morays hunt like you’d think a snake would: sneaking up, then striking over a short distance. They also have poor aim. You frequently see fish with bites taken out of them where they were hit but not caught.
So this moray strikes at the tang, and misses. The tang, *finally* noticing what’s going on, dashes off…about 3 feet, then goes back to aimless swimming. The eel regroups, follows the fish, and tries again. Misses again. Fish does *exactly the same thing*. Rinse and repeat. By the time I ran low on air I was really pulling for the moray. The tang was clearly too dumb to live.
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