system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
When we take footage of the ocean floor that isn't reached by sunlight, are the lights used for filming harmful to the ocean life?
gpt
Generally not. 

You might be drawing an analogy to 'if i sit in the dark for a while, a bright light is really bright - imagine if i lived in the dark!', but it isn't really like that.

Most of the visible spectrum doesn't penetrate too far, with only the blue end of the visible spectrum penetrating to the depths. As a result many animals that far down are insensitive to light, and those that are tend to be sensitive to only blue light - It's why so many deep sea creatures appear to be red or pink when we film them with white light (since red light doesn't penetrate that far down, a red coloured object is functionally black).

The only minor impact i can think of is in regards to a handful of species that have developed the ability to broadcast and sense red light. They are predators, and essentially have red 'headlights' under their eyes that cause the red/pink animals to light up like a christmas tree. Broadcasting white light down there would illuminate the subject to these predators...but it's a pretty niche thing, and not something to be concerned about.