With more time, the fish may learn to pay attention to more subtle human features, such as hands or hair. According to the team, observing that wild fish can quickly learn to use specific cues to recognize an individual human diver provides more evidence that other fish species can recognize certain patterns to identify us.

For years, scientific divers at a research station in the Mediterranean Sea had a problem: at some point in every field season, local fish would follow them and steal food intended as experimental rewards.

Fish in the wild can tell humans apart! A study found that seabream recognize individual divers, following those who feed them while ignoring others. For years, scientific divers at a Mediterranean re