00:00What happens to fish when lightning strikes the water they live in?
00:06Ever been swimming when a thunderstorm rolls in?
00:10Dangerous place to be.
00:12Get to shore as fast as possible and away from the water's edge.
00:18The same goes if you're in a boat.
00:21That's because they're usually the tallest things out on a body of water's surface,
00:26making them more likely to get hit by lightning.
00:31And as everyone knows, that can have deadly consequences.
00:39But what about all the fish?
00:42Why aren't they electrocuted when lightning hits the water they're in?
00:46Well, some might be, but most aren't affected.
00:50Here's what happens.
00:52Before a thunderstorm, clouds develop areas of positive and negative charge,
00:57with a negative charge building up in its lower regions.
01:01That induces a positive charge on the surface of the ground or water below.
01:06When the difference between the charge in the cloud and water grows too great,
01:10a discharge happens suddenly and violently, lightning.
01:15But the energy from this discharge flows mostly along the water's surface,
01:19because ions in the water make it a good conductor,
01:22the current disperses easily by spreading out.
01:25It doesn't penetrate very far below the surface.
01:28Anything swimming more than a meter or two down won't feel it.
01:36So when lightning strikes a body of water,
01:38any fish really close to the surface, directly beneath,
01:42might be injured or killed.
01:44But most aren't in any danger, even from the worst of thunderstorms.
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