Anglerfish Lure: Bioluminescent Signal Range

Symbiont Colony

Bacterial density 62%

Water Column

Turbidity (clear → murky) 0.30

Photophore Shutter

Flash rate 1.4 Hz

Live Readouts

Esca intensity I₀

0.00

Detection range R

0.0 m

Prey lured in

0 / 0

How it works

The esca (lure) is not the fish's own tissue glowing — it is a pouch packed with symbiotic luminous bacteria (Photobacterium-type). Their light output is switched on collectively once their population density crosses a quorum-sensing threshold:

I₀ = I_max · dⁿ / (dⁿ + Kⁿ)     (Hill function, n = 4)
d = bacterial density (0–1), K = half-activation density

Below K almost no light is produced; above it, luminescence switches on sharply — a real quorum-sensing autoinducer response, not a dial.

Once emitted, the photon flux falls off through seawater by the Beer–Lambert law, and a prey eye can only resolve the lure while intensity stays above its contrast threshold I_th:

I(r) = I₀ · e^(−k·r)
R = ln(I₀ / I_th) / k      (k = water attenuation coefficient, m⁻¹)

Clear open ocean has k ≈ 0.05 m⁻¹; turbid coastal water can exceed k ≈ 0.4 m⁻¹ — the same lure is visible for tens of metres in one and barely a body-length in the other.

Bacterial density — moves the colony across the quorum-sensing threshold, switching I₀ on/off nonlinearly.
Turbidity — sets k and shrinks or extends the detection radius R for the same I₀.
Flashing lure mode — the fish's own muscular shutter pulses the light on/off to mimic a bioluminescent copepod's flicker, which is a stronger prey-attraction cue than a steady glow.

Prey particles inside the glowing sphere only start homing in during the "on" phase and once I(r) at their position exceeds I_th — the count of lured prey tracks R³ roughly, since it is a volume, not a distance, that the lure controls.

Esca (bioluminescent lure) Detection boundary R Prey (lured / free)

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