Huge cuttlefish mural for National Marine Week
Image: Alex-Mustard-2020VISION
The UK’s extraordinary marine life is being celebrated with a colossal mural of a cuttlefish to mark the start of National Marine Week which runs from 29 July to 13 August.
The outdoor painting will create a landmark in the historic seaside city of Portsmouth.
Artist ATM aims to highlight the exotic and unusual creatures found close to our coasts. He says: “Cuttlefish are masters of disguise, changing colour and skin patterns. As an artist I find them fascinating, they’re like living palettes of colour, and show that the waters around our coast are teeming with life as extraordinary as any found in tropical seas.”
With eight arms around their face, two tentacles, and W-shaped eyes, cuttlefish resemble magical, mysterious creatures from an alien world. Their bodies shimmer and pulse with beautifully-coloured striking patterns. They can see backwards, as well as forwards, have three hearts, and blue-green blood
Joan Edwards, Head of Living Seas at The Wildlife Trusts said: “Cuttlefish remind us that diversity of marine life is precious; although some of our waters are protected, we need a network of ecologically coherent sites creating a ‘blue belt’ around the entire UK to support nationally important habitats and species.”
During National Marine Week people across the UK are being asked to consider their relationship with the sea. The Wildlife Trusts’ The Sea and Me challenge asks everyone to make a pledge for the sea, for example, to say no to single use plastics like cups, bags and straws which can end up in the oceans.
Artist ATM is well known for his striking wildlife street art, particularly birds. This is his first marine portrait, which will show a characterful cuttlefish; an arm wrapped around a drainpipe on a wall, which was donated for the artwork by Portsmouth City Council. The picture will take three days to paint, freehand, from a tall tower scaffold.
Cuttlefish are intelligent, deploying secret ‘weapons’ with the cunning of James Bond; squirting enemies in a cloud of black ink, before making their escape; and trapping prey with lightning fast tentacles, crunching the shells of crabs and shrimp in a parrot-like beak.
During the summer cuttlefish swim to shallower waters, particularly off the South of England to breed, often in fragile underwater meadows of sea grass, where they lay black eggs, known as sea grapes. These important sea grass beds are also home to seahorses and many species of juvenile fish.
Common Cuttlefish can mimic the texture of sand, rock or seaweed, and pulses patterns and colours throughout their body. During mating, males display zebra-like stripes to warn off rivals. Cuttlefish provide a vital link in the food chain for many of our rarer species
National Marine Week: 29/07/2017 – 13/08/2017 National Marine Week, celebrating the UK’s seas and marine wildlife. This year’s theme is The Sea & Me, exploring individual relationships with the sea, whether you live inland or on the coast. Spread across two weeks in order to take advantage of the tides Wildlife Trusts are running a host of marine events
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