Searching for a Cause T e sea circles puzzled people. Some people came up with theories about how they formed. Some said UFOs landed on the seafloor. T e spaceship leſt a mark in the sand, they said. Others thought ocean currents sculpted the


sand. Moving water could push the sand into ridges. Yet the circles seem too perfectly round to be formed by shiſt ing water currents. To solve the mystery, Ookato teamed with


scientists and filmmakers. T ey oſt en returned to the dive site where he first saw a sand circle. T e team watched and waited to see how the circles formed. Time aſt er time, they saw nothing and swam away with no clues.


a pufferfish


Seeing Is Believing Finally, the team caught the artist in the act. It wasn’t an alien, and it wasn’t an ocean current. It was a male puff erfish small enough to fit in a person’s cupped hands. T e fish swam back and forth. His motion


made waves in the water. T ese waves moved the sand, forming a circle. T en the fish used his fins to dig into the sand. He dug dips and built ridges around the edge. Finally, he collected bits of shells and corals in his mouth and carefully placed them on the ridges. T e puff erfish worked on his project for


more than a week. Bit by bit, he built a sand sculpture hundreds of times bigger than him. Ookato’s team also learned why the


puff erfish builds a sea circle. As they watched, a female puff erfish swam by. T e male zipped back and forth inside circle. He stirred up the fine sand. He tried to get the female fish’s attention. It worked. She decided to lay her eggs in the center of the circle. It took patience and a lot of observation.


Yet years aſt er his discovery, Ookato finally solved the mystery of the sea circles.


MAY 2014 15


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