How come all the fish in the sea don’t die when a lightning bolt hits the sea

Question: How come all the fish in the sea don't die when a lightning bolt hits the sea
- Keywords:
  death,
  lightning,
  marine
Asked by humfree1 to Angus, Christian, Hannah, Laura, Simon on 18 Jun 2013.
- Simon Holyoake answered on 18 Jun 2013:
  
  Fish very close to the vicinity of a lightning strike may be affected, however electricity likes to take the ‘path of least resistance’ and therefore flows strongest closest to the lightning strike and much more weakly the further away you get, also due to this, the saltwater in the sea will tend to conduct the electricity around the fish, in the same way as wearing a metallic suit will conduct electricity around the body of someone wearing it, rather than through them.
- Hannah Bentham answered on 18 Jun 2013:
  
  Sea water is a great conductor so most of the electricity should travel through the water and not the fish (kind of like a Faraday cage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage). Also, electricity should dissipate quite quickly once it hits the water surface, as this equivalent to ground potential.
- Christian Maerz answered on 19 Jun 2013:
  
  Wow, good question, and good answers, I learned something today 🙂
- Laura Roberts Artal answered on 19 Jun 2013:
  
  Great question! I’d never thought of that!

Question: How come all the fish in the sea don't die when a lightning bolt hits the sea