The crew aboard the Ocean Exploration Trust’s E/V Nautilus spotted a cirrate octopod, Grimpoteuthis, also known as as umbrella or dumbo octopus, gliding by the deep-sea camera in the depths of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary on October 23.
In a press release, the Ocean Exploration Trust said: “At first the ghostly octopod drifted past the camera on ROV Hercules flapping its pair of wing-like fins, then it inverted its web, spreading it like an umbrella to reveal the eight arms each with a single series of suckers and two series of finger-like muscular structures called cirri (hence the name cirrate octopod).”
The creature was spotted during the first dive of the E/V Nautilus expedition to explore Davidson Seamount in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, according to the Ocean Exploration Trust. “This first dive explored a completely unexplored rocky outcropping to the southeast of the seamount, a region known as an oasis in the deep with vast coral and sponge fields.”
The commentary heard in this footage is from the research team aboard the Nautilus, comprised of scientists, ROV pilots, a navigator, a data logger, a video engineer, and a science communicator, according to the Ocean Exploration Trust. Credit: Ocean Exploration Trust/NOAA via Storyful
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