KEY ASPECTS OF THE STORY
23- A WORLD OF CAVES In a cave, we see glittering lights, phosphorescent twinkling, an eye opens and closes, then nothing. Then again, more glittering lights, and something moves in the darkness. Sabre squirrelfish and lanterneye fishes have reflectors on their fins. 24- LILIES FLOWER ON THE REEF A sea lily swims in the night, looking for a block of coral on which to settle, where it can stir the water, and its little protégé, the delicate squat lobster with long claws, more decorative than dangerous, appears among its branches, it too awaiting the nightly feast. Crinoids explore the gorgonians. It is impossible to see what is fixed and what is mobile. The gold and silver of the sea lilies sparkle against the purple umbrellas of the gorgonians. 25- THE GIANT CLAM The sumptuous mantle of the giant clam, a luminous glow undulating amid the rocks. It seems as if this volute is about to fly away, but instead the glow vanishes, swallowed up by the biggest of the shellfish. 26- MYSTERIOUS SHELLFISH
its habit of colorful sponges, the mollusk is not easy to pick out. It has chosen to vanish under a highly visible layer of protection, like a spongey top hat. The cockscomb oyster’s blue smile disappears when it closes, leaving only a carmine-colored sponge. The mollusk has a pronounced taste for geometric shapes. The sea cowries. The patella protects its shell by deploying its mantle. Like most gastropods, it the only way for the creature to avoid being devoured by a starfish. Cowries with their richly decorated shells apply the same protective layer of protuberances with changing colors. These marvels, the home of cowries, are formidable on the reef. We track them, and it is impossible to miss the remains of their feasts on the sponges. 27- TRANSLUCENT VESSELS The crab’s offspring takes a journey in a jellyfish. A floating world that carries this vulnerable larva far from the reef where it was born. One day, its voyage will come to an end in the shallows, where it will leave its host. By then, it will be an adult with a shell, ready to take on the challenge of life on the reef. Some of these vessels, protecting the next generation in the tentacles, have adopted fluorescent colors, like floating spotlights. The jellyfish have caught their meal. Planktonic crustaceans or tiny fish harpooned by their tentacles will now head to the predator’s mouth. On the pallets of the poisoner’s corollae, the paralyzed crustacean seems to be drawn by some invisible force towards the mouth. The jellyfish has a kind of elevator system to bring food towards it.
A tracking shot reveals the 10,000 eyes of the Spondulus. Beneath
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