page_title: Sepia apama
section_title: In popular culture
hierarchical_section_title: Sepia apama / In popular culture
caption_attribution_description: English: Disco Cuttlefish at Adelaide Fringe Festival 2014
context_page_description: Sepia apama, also known as the giant cuttlefish and Australian giant cuttlefish, is the world's largest cuttlefish species, growing to 50 cm in mantle length and over 10.5 kg in weight. Using cells known as chromatophores, the cuttlefish can put on spectacular displays, changing color in an instant.
  S. apama is native to the southern coast of Australia, from Brisbane in Queensland to Shark Bay in Western Australia. It occurs on rocky reefs, seagrass beds, and sand and mud seafloor to a depth of 100 m.
context_section_description: In May 2009, D'Faces of Youth Arts and Snuff Puppets produced a live theatre performance for Come Out Festival. It featured several large cuttlefish puppets and appeared in Adelaide's Victoria Square, at the Adelaide Airport and at a Whyalla performance. Some controversy surrounded the performances after a participant in the project was openly critical of the plan to build a desalination plant at Point Lowly. The major sponsor of Come Out Festival in 2009 was the BHP Billiton Youth Fund, the same company which proposed to construct the desalination plant. The overarching theme of the festival that year was 'Colliding Worlds'. BHP Billiton has not sponsored the Come Out Festival since the 2009 event.
  During the Adelaide Fringe Festival in March 2012, the RiAus presented Sepia, an original work by Welsh playwright, Emily Steel. Set in Whyalla, the play told the story of the fictitious character Neil, the proprietor of a caravan park who was struggling to come to terms with the cuttlefish decline whilst trying to keep his family together. The play also featured at the Melbourne Fringe Festival. Presenting partner RiAus is sponsored by the oil and gas company Santos. Santos was responsible for hydrocarbon groundwater contamination at Port Bonython, adjacent to the cuttlefish breeding grounds, first discovered in 2008.
  In 2014, the Adelaide Fringe Festival launched Stobie the Disco Cuttlefish, a 13-m-long electrified cuttlefish puppet, equipped with strobing, coloured lighting and a sound system. Stobie the Disco Cuttlefish first appeared during the Adelaide Fringe Opening Parade, then performed with a troupe of dancers each Saturday night during the festival. The soundtrack to the performance included samples from the Bee Gees hit "Stayin' Alive" and the entire theme song from the movie Fame.
  In 2016, underwater photographer Scott Portelli's image Cuttlefish aggregation won the national first prize (Australia) in the 2015 Sony World Photography Awards—the world's biggest photography competition.
  The mass aggregation of S. apama at Point Lowly has inspired the development of a retro computer game called Cuttle Scuttle.
caption: Stobie the Disco Cuttlefish at Adelaide Fringe Festival 2014
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