Glass squids live in the boundless waters of the twilight zone. With no protective shell and nowhere to hide, they have to get creative.
Glass squids use an invisibility cloak to stay safe in these dark waters. Like other cephalopods, they are covered in tiny pigment sacs called chromatophores. When their chromatophores are closed, their skin is basically see-through.
When their cover is blown, they expand their chromatophores to darken their appearance. Or they might simply ink and jet away!
Glass squids also have special light organs that mask the shadow of their more opaque body parts. This helps them maintain their cloak of invisibility and hide from both predators and prey.
But the future of all midwater animals is in jeopardy. The deep seafloor contains many precious minerals critical to modern technologies—like the batteries in your phone. Mining these metals will release plumes of wastewater that will cloud the ocean’s twilight zone.
For those who were wondering WHERE is this, it’s the “Quartier Gay” at Montréal (province of Québec, in Canada)
🤎❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
It’s a really cool city and I love living there ngl
I miss the gay balls… I walked under them to get my groceries for two years. I confessed to my first girlfriend while walking under them. They made me feel at home in the Village and proud to be queer.
This whole thing was installed in summer 2011. The first few years, they were all pink, but in 2017 they got updated to the rainbow version from the picture. The installation was supposed to be temporary, but everyone loved it so much that they kept putting it back every summer for nine years . In the end, Claude Cormier (the artist) asked to have it taken down so other artists could use the space.
They sold the rows of balls to the public in 2019, and my mom actually got me one! It’s one of my favorite things I own.
