In 1995 divers off the coast of Japan’s Amami Ōshima Island noticed intricately designed six-and-a-half-foot (two-meter) circular patterns on the seafloor. They had no idea who or what created these designs, and some compared the designs to “crop circles,” the mysterious art-work in wheat fields (that are typically done in the dead of night by creative hoaxers).
Finally, in 2011, a creature was caught in the act of making one of these designs. It was hailed as a new species within the Torquigener genus, Torquigener albomaculos, or “white spotted pufferfish.” Researchers released a study describing how this relatively small fish (5 inches, or 13 centimeters) constructs a two-meter wide intricately-designed circle.
The male Puffer Fish spends two weeks, working 24 hours a day, on this artistic project. This is done, researchers tell us, to attract a mate. (So its basically the same thing that motivates human male artistry.)
But why would the female puffer fish be attracted to this type of design? Wherein lies its advantage for mating, fertilization, and reproduction?
I rather think that puffer fish designs are one of God’s little “Easter eggs,” inserted in His creation for us to find, and marvel at the God who created the Puffer Fish:
“But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.” Job 12:7-10
“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” Rom. 1:20