The case for polarized communication Some cephalopods can change the polarization of the skin and may use it for stealthy signaling The underwater world is polarized and many of its inhabitants are aware of it. Indeed, if you have eight or ten arms and a big head you've probably got P-vision. They live in coastal waters throughout the Mediterranean Sea and eastern Atlantic from England to North Africa.
Cuttlefish have special markings that change colors depending on the circumstances.
A kind of ten-armed chameleon. As other cephalopods, they have chromatophores and iridescent cells forming special patterns . The cuttlefish can change the iridescence by changes in the iridophore platelet ultrastructure. As other examples of coloring that originate in structural features rather than pigmentation, unpolarized light can be reflected with a preferential polarization. So it is not very surprising that these visible patterns correlate with polarization patterns.