The researchers found that lookdown fish camouflage themselves through a complex manipulation of polarized light after it strikes the fish's skin. In laboratory studies, they showed that this kind of camouflage outperforms by up to 80 per cent the "mirror" strategy that was previously thought to be state-of-the-art in fish camouflage.

The open ocean represents a challenging environment for camouflage,There are no objects to hide behind in three-dimensional space, so organisms have to find a way to blend in to the water itself.

Behavioural innovation is thought to play an important role in enabling animals to cope with environmental change. Research on animal innovation has focused on terrestrial and freshwater vertebrates, but few animals face environmental variation as extreme as those living in littoral zones, where physical and social conditions change dramatically from moment to moment.

Last July, David Trotter, a shipwreck hunter who had spent 30 years searching for a century-old ship, and a team of divers finally located the missing vessel: a 436-foot steamship named Hydrus, which sunk during the Great Lakes Storm of 1913.

The ship, carrying a load of iron ore, was headed for the shelter of the St. Clair River off of Lake Huron when a terrible blizzard struck the region. During the storm, which struck in early November, more than 19 ships were lost and 250 sailors died, reported Garret Ellison for The Grand Rapids Press.