How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures

by Sabrina Imbler

Of the cuttlefish patterns we humans can perceive, the most spectacular is called “passing cloud.” The pattern is not still but in constant motion, a dark ribbon that moves along the creature’s body like a rippling conveyor belt. It is as if the cuttlefish has become a green screen, a portal for other sea creatures to see the sky. The display can resemble the blurred Vs of geese in flight, shadows reflected in a puddle, a psychedelic zebra, as interpretable as a Rorschach test. Scientists have observed passing cloud in swimming cuttlefish, mating cuttlefish, hunting cuttlefish, and resting cuttlefish, which is to say scientists have no idea what it means. Don’t eat me/hello there/will you have sex with me/I’m poisonous/that shrimp looks tasty/don’t mind me, I’m doing fine. It all depends on the audience.