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MARINE NATIONAL SANCTUARY OF MONTEREY BAY, California. –
Researchers aboard the Nautilus exploration ship made an astonishing discovery last week two miles deep in the ocean off the coast of Monterey, California: a considerable number of oceanic octopuses.
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The so-called "octopus garden" appears to be fertile ground for marine creatures at the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. It contained up to 1,000 octopuses for the most part "female bodies and eggs," according to scientists and officials at the Nautilus Sanctuary.
It is the largest number of octopus ever found in a region before.
The researchers made this discovery by exploring the Davidson Seamount with an underwater submarine vehicle.
"We descended the eastern flank of this small hill, and that's when – boom – we are just starting to see dozens of dozens here, dozens, everywhere," said Nautilus Chief Scientist Chad King at National Geographic.
Mount Davidson is a gigantic submarine volcanic mountain off the coast of California, 26 km long and 8 km wide. This is one of the largest seamounts known in US waters. According to the sanctuary, the underwater mountain is 7,480 feet high, but its summit is still 4,101 feet below the surface of the ocean. It is a virgin habitat for many marine creatures and therefore of interest to scientists studying the area.
>> Related: A large white shark den discovered in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, nicknamed "White Shark Café"
The crew, who live many of their adventures, also recorded a rare dumbo octopus, also known as the umbrella octopus, sailing deep, with its ear-shaped flappers flying like Dumbo.
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