Sea Angels: The Glamorous Light Makers

Icelanders are surrounded by the ocean, which is so mysterious and superabundant in flora and fauna, well beyond humanity’s imagination. Please take a closer look at our luminescent body, wing-like fins, and how gracefully we flutter our wings. We love to cluster together. Don’t we look like heavenly beings flying through the blue skies? there are two groups of sea angels. The larger subspecies, like me, inhabit icy regions and can be up to 8.5 centimeters long. The smaller subspecies live in warmer tropical waters and measure 1 to 2 centimeters in length. Once upon a time, there were snails developing skills to live in water to find a better place to survive. They ventured into an unknown world, the oceans. They were sea snails finding ways to inhabit the bottom of the sea. Some sea snails wanting to live closer to the water’s surface were courageous enough to give up their shells and evolved into a totally new species, the sea angels. Although we lost our eyes during the evolutionary process, we can use the two horns on our head to sense our surroundings. We also have greatly improved our swimming skills. We can swim horizontally and vertically. Generally, we enjoy swimming upward in a very slow and graceful rhythm, like flying angels, and this is how we acquired our beautiful name. Many studies have indicated that the life span of a sea angel is one to two years. The light we emit is called bioluminescence. Like us, over three-fourths of marine beings can produce light, mostly blue and green in color. Making light is not something mysterious or supernatural. It is created through chemical reactions or made by host bacteria. We depend on you to keep the seas clean and healthy so please minimize your purchases of single-use plastics and, of course, stick to plant-based seafood only!