why don't all the fish die when the lightning hit the ocean?
89618
Because the ocean is really big.  And a charge that carries enough juice to zap all the creatures would need to be a lot bigger than a typical lightning bolt charge..  When it hits a person with a direct hit has a very low likelyhood of actually killing that person.  Think about it like electricity.  One lightnning strike is like sticking your wet finger into an outlet....ok now if everyone in a city where to stick their finger into a wet socket that's like 500,000 lightnining bolts.  You'd have to drop a nuclear power plant into the water to kill all the fish.
1104792
When the bird perches on a live wire, her body becomes charged--for the moment, it's at the same voltage as the wire. But no current flows into her body. A body is a poor conductor compared to copper wire, so there's no reason for electrons to take a detour through the bird. More importantly, electrons current flow from a region of high voltage to one of low voltage. The drifting current, in effect, ignores the bird. \n\nBut if a bird (or a power line worker) accidentally touches an electrical "ground" while in contact with the high-voltage wire, she completes an electrical circuit. A ground is a region of approximately zero voltage. The earth, and anything touching it that can conduct current, is the ground. \n\nLike water flowing over a dam into a river, current surges through the bird (or person's) body on its way into the ground. Severe injury or death by electrocution is the result. \n\nThat's why a squirrel can run across an electrical line, but sadly die when its foot makes contact with the (grounded) transformer on the pole at wire's end. \n\nIt's also why drivers and passengers are warned to stay inside the car if it runs into a downed power line. Touching the ground with your foot would complete the circuit: Electrons would flow from the wire, into the car, and through you on their way into the earth. (Inside the car you are usually protected by the car's four rubber tires, which act as insulators between car and ground.) \n\nLikewise, birds can get in trouble with power lines if wing or wrist bones--or wet feathers--connect bare wires and grounds. \n\nRaptors (birds of prey) are especially likely to be killed by power lines, particularly in the western U.S. In wide-open plains and deserts, power poles are often the only high perches available for hunters like Bald and Golden eagles and Great Horned owls, who survey the landscape for prey and take off into rising wind currents. \n\nSuch large birds can easily contact two wires or a wire and a transformer with their great wingspread. And raptors can easily brush against a live wire while settling onto a (grounded) pole-top. Thousands are killed by power lines each year. \n\nHow to protect big birds? Power lines can be made less dangerous by widening the gap between conducting and ground wires, insulating wires and metal parts, and moving wires farther away from pole tops. And guards can be built around favorite raptor perches.
367010
Actually 50% of all lightning fatalities occur inside the house when people talk on the telephone, take a shower or are in contact with any other conductors while lightning strikes their home.  I personally would not count on the surge protector to save my life, I would just shut down the computer, stay away from all electrical and just read a book until the storm has passed.  Remember, lightning is the number 2 weather killer in the US each year (73 deaths) just surpassed by flash floods.
497622
It doesn't just happen all of a sudden, as OBIWAUGH pointed out, the movement of air caused by the storm causes the clouds to acquire a polarized electrical charge that by nature has to release its energy.\nThat energy is the lightning bolt reaching out to an oppositely charged object to balance the energy.
339834
It's because they are also collecting coral.  They break of large chunks of coral to sell to tropical fish tanks.  The loss of this coral can destroy the coral reefs.  The tropical fish live off of the coral, so with less coral around, the environment supports less fish.  With constant collection eventually all of the coral and fish will be gone.  AND THEN.... after the coral reefs are destroyed there will be nothing really protecting the beaches around that area.  The coral reefs put up a kind of barrier that deadends the ocean's power.  With that gone, the ocean water will be able to "attack" everything after the reef closer to the beach.  That beach area also had its ecosystem setup around the deadened ocean, so when the reef is gone, the ocean will come in at full force and then destroy that area too.
345043
I don't think it's really possible to know that without testing it. But I would guess that your idea is right, because there would not be enough venom to kill an animal that large. It would probably make it sick. But then again, a whale, or any other really large animal, would react differently to the venom. It might kill it despite the size.
575951
But it does! Surfers foolish enough to go out during storms are struck by lightning every year! (see links)\n\n1 in 17,400 people died by lightning strike, ! Much better odds than the lottery!\n\n2,000 people were struck on the coast of Florida last year.
766856
THERE'S A LOT OFspace in the ocean \nthe water deeper inthe ocean is slightly  hot coz of high pressure \nthus fish survive compensating the dverse conditions
351457
Well hypothetically, if something were to happen...say aliens came down & sucked up the oceans... (LOL)\n\n1.)Weather...the weather is greatly affected by the oceans. Most of the moisture that precipatates as rain evaporated from the oceans. So you are looking at LITTLE to NO RAIN! That should tell you what would happen to life. We would be in major trouble! Also the ocean currents help control climates in places in the higher latitudes such as England & the rest of northern Europe. Warm water currents help make these latitudes warm enough to be habitable. No ocean means no current.\n\n2.) No more flounder, crabs, oysters, scallops, or any other yummy seafood! The only benefit I see from this is that jellyfish would become extinct. But since we would too I guess it wouldn't really matter anyways. LOL.
194730
I think it has something to do with the fact that the fish are not grounded to the earth so the current just travels around them not through them.
665153
The exact reason is not proven, but suspected that it is because precipitation falls to the ground carrying electrons, and the lightning occurs when the difference in charges between the clouds and the ground even out, and the electrons jump back to the clouds.  That is why lightning is said to go from ground to the clouds.
785117
an Electrical storm involves lightning.\nAnd lightning can travel at the speed of light.\nBecause it mostly is light.\n\nThunder is slower and goes at the speed of sound so we hear the thunder later.
1122204
Of course, something creating tons of sunspots on the Sun and boy doesn't it look so much brighter these days?  Something's going that's pulling a ton of energized particles off the Earth through these hurricanes.  I mean God, why don't people realize what the hell hurricanes are?  They're not just warm water creations, there's a LOT more going on than that.\n\nYou got to think about the storm surge under a storm like Hurricane Wilma of last year.  This thing was a pile of water about 30 feet high, covering an ellipse 200 by 500 or more miles wide.  That weighs a LOT.  These hurricanes are essentially boiling off hundreds of thousands of tons of water into the atmosphere and quick freezing it.\n\nSomething we saw last hurricane season in all of our extraordinary hurricanes was lots of lightning in the eye wall.  All of the massive storms were trying to make incredibly small eyes for themselves, and had some of the lowest eye pressures ever recorded in a storm.  They also had some of the strongest electric fields above them.  Look at this picture of Katrina on the left and Rita on the right.\n\nhttp://s43.photobucket.com/albums/e397/Bigpappadiaz/?action=view&current=GulfMonsters_graphic.jpg\n\nDuring a time which is normally quiet for the solar cycle, the Sun was setting off some amazing flares.  While the mechanisms are supposedly not fully understood (someone knows, but it's too important for the public to know) those solar flares are what were definitely causing the storms.  Look at those perfectly circular eye walls.  They are massive electron discharges to the ionosphere.\n\nPeople who have been under an eye when it has passed over land have reported seeing a red glow in it.  This can only be a discharge to the ionosphere, one of the outerboundaries of our electric field.  It is precisely at the same altitude that our ionosphere exists where Elves occur, glowing rings that ripple outwards above powerful storms.  This shows us where the energy for lightning really comes from:\n\nhttp://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e397/Bigpappadiaz/discharge.gif\n\nTo understand the mechanisms behind these energy transfers going on that create hurricanes, you need a crash course on how the Sun REALLY works:\n\nhttp://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AnNbwjgJYTHVBjL665c5dlzsy6IX?qid=20060617151816AAs0bXO\n\nSo what happens is that the massive current energizes all the elements that are in the Sun so much so that they actually lose some of their electrons, and these electrons fly out towards Earth and all the other planets on the solar "wind" (or current like it really is).  ASStronomers think the solar wind is electrically neutral, since it has protons AND electrons in it, but the difference in electrons per cubic foot is way too small a difference for our satellites to detect.  The solar wind is so big though that it adds up really fast, and we get things like aurora's on our MAGNETIC poles when it really gets going, so you just got to know it's electrified.\n\nhttp://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e397/Bigpappadiaz/050617penumbra.jpg\n\nBut we see on sunspots that the Sun is having its own massive tornadoes that are sucking excess electrons off of it.  So something has to be pulling them off of the Sun, what I don't know but this Planet X some crazy ass people talk about sounds like a strong possibility.  So electrons get pulled off the Sun, and the solar system has to catch up so we get our hurricanes and tornadoes and lightning.  What happens when more are getting pulled off the Sun than the Earth and planets can keep up with is a solar flare.  This is an eruption of hot plasma that forms an electric bridge between the Sun and anything it hits.\n\nYou think those are impact craters on the Moon? Look at these pictures:\nLightning on a gold course:\nhttp://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e397/Bigpappadiaz/060309lightning.jpg\n\nLightning on the Moon:\nhttp://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e397/Bigpap
873711
Not quite right.  It is most dense at 4 degrees C.  If it didn't, the water would freeze from the bottom up.  As it approaches 0 degrees, it becomes less dense and rises above the more dense warmer water and freezes on the surface and goes down.  Otherwise, fish would be on top of the ice and die after it froze.
1019818
Because the lightning spreads across the top of the water, not into it.
299949
If you are in a boat on a lake during a lightning storm and the lightning hits you or your boat - no matter what it's made of - you will most likely die.\n\nDo not go in a boat on a lake during a lightning storm.
318560
For this we have to check the basics of Lightning or a spark. \nLightning is caused due to the difference of static charge between two layers of energy. Our eco-system is composed of layaers of energy always in motion. Air breaks down at 10,000 volts per inch, considering the humidity in the atmosphere. When the charge on the clouds, produced due to friction, exceeds the sparking voltage, a lightning is produced. When a spark is produced, it is like a mad blind dog, searching the easiest path fast. The spark may be caused between two clouds, between the cloud and the Earth, or the cloud or any object in the space. Most of the lightnings are lost in space as the volts per inch for a spark decreases with pressure, being the minimum for free space(Vacuum). Some are also lost amongst the clouds.\nNow let us see what happens to a spark between a cloud and the earth. It is a must for a spark to terminate at the ground, the earth being neutral and a huge resource of electrons. Nothing else has the capacity to provide such magnitude of electrons. Now, in its path, the spark tries to travel the path with least resistance. It is also worth noting that a spark is also associated with production of heat.\nEven though wood is a bad conductor, live green trees with water contents, and rising high in the air were good target for the lightnings. They would burn it and split it while passing through. Now it has better baits - the towers and high rising buildings. A high rise produces a area of lightning shadow around its base. The higher the building, the bigger the area. All the lightnings for that area is absorbed by that building. It is likely that the building will have lightning catchers, which passes them directly to the Earth without letting it do much damage.\nIn cities, it is almost impossible of being thunderstruck.\n\nLet us check the case of rural areas.\nThe danger is when a lightning is produced in wide open space. It has a peculiar tendency to bend. Sometimes, it is amazingly seen to run parallel to the ground. This is caused due to a dry crust or upper coating of the Earth. It acts as an insulator. The lightning bends and tries to find the nearest path to enter the Earth. This might cause hazards. People working in fields; sometimes animals are killed. So, here is the maximum chance of being thunderstruck.\nThe damages caused by a spark varies with the amount of charge still present and the heat already produced. A spark continuously loses its charge content into the surrounding system. Also, it continuously gets warmer as it travels, depending on the system temperature. When, a spark(charge) passes through you, the electrons tend to disrupt your nervous system traffic and the heat burns your tissue. For household voltages, which is 110 volts in countries like USA and 230 volts in countries like India, we feel jolts and cramps in our muscles, which either results in instantaneous withdrawal of the contact part or inability in doing so. The later is surely serious. Now you can compare the effects of a lightning. You will be lucky if the lightning loses most of its charge.\n\nBEST OF YOUR LUCK!