Nature is amazing. Science is pretty cool too. Sometimes I still get totally WOWED by both. My @Guardian exclusive this morning is one of those moments. Let me explain....🧵 1/
So, first off....did you know that scallops have eyes?! 👀 Up to 200, in fact. Even as a biologist living by the sea, I did not know this until last week. Pretty surprising but that's not the exciting bit. 2/
Meanwhile, some clever marine scientists @FishtekMarine in #Devon design tech to reduce impact of fisheries on the marine envt.... they invented 'potlights' - small LED packs - that could replace fish bait in crab/lobster pots. 3/
When a fisher in Newlyn, #Cornwall, trialled these for the first time, he found the lights made no difference to his crab/lobster catch BUT.... 4/
Scallops LOVED them - pots with lights attracted scallops, pots without lights didn't. Because of their light-sensitive eyes. 5/
One of the scientists couldn't sleep for THREE days - this finding was the most exciting of his career. Since then, further experiments have been carried out and the tech design continues to be refined. 6/ 
This potentially opens up a WHOLE NEW sustainable fishery for high-value scallops - industrial-scale dredging is notoriously harmful to the marine envt. Now there's scope for fishers to use potlights to supplement their catch and income with scallops in a low-impact way. 7/
Who'd have thought that in 2022, a new sustainable fishing method would be discovered entirely by chance. Science and nature = WOW. Read my exclusive here: theguardian.com/environment/20…
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