Heim, SteveNara, MikiDawes, LivJones, NadaleeSteffensen, JohnJohansen, JacobDomenici, Paolo2025-10-162025-10-162025https://hdl.handle.net/1773/54164When startled, fish perform an escape response to flee from predators. Looming, a technique to visually stimulate a fish, has been extensively studied; however, studies have focused on a simplified loom that approximates the silhouette of an approaching predator as an expanding disk. We hypothesize that more detailed silhouettes of species-specific predators may have different effects on fish of different ecology. To this end, we look at the effect of adding flapping fins to the loom, simulating a seal attack, which adds both spatial and temporal detail to the loom. We use this to startle two different species of fish: staghorn sculpin (Leptocottus armatus), a benthic and cryptic species, and shiner perch (Cymatogaster aggregata), a benthopelagic species active in the water column, both of which are commonly preyed upon by local harbor seals. Four loom treatments were used: a black disk with flapping fins (additional spatio-temporal detail), a black disk with stationary fins (additional spatial detail), a black disk without fins (control), and a pair of flapping fins with no disk (control).en-USLeptocottus armatusPacific staghorn sculpinCymatogaster aggregatashiner perch