Description

When cuttlefish are extremely small, only a 10 – 15cm across they have a habit of coming to the reef or sandy area, making small holes in the ground in which they sit, then camouflaging themselves to the surrounding environment not only by color, but also by texture. The most amazing part of this behavior is that they color themselves to match what we see as humans, not what the colors of the things surrounding them actually are.

That may sound confusing but in fact it’s extremely smart behavior by cuttlefish, water filters colors very quickly as you descend in depth, for us humans that means everything starts to look blue, green, grey and that is why we use strobes and lights for photography, adding the color back in. When I see these juvenile cuttlefish they are always perfectly camouflaged to their surrounding environment, so spotting them is not easy, when I spotted this little guy it looked remarkable boring, grey and just like the sand in the fore-front of the image. But when the light hits him, he is actually vibrant purples & magenta.

Still confused? What it means, is that the cuttlefish is not camouflaging himself to what he see’s, he is camouflaging himself to what you see, now that, is pretty dam cool!