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Uncommon marine creatures, marine scientists this week filmed a rare Dumbo octopus far below the ocean waters of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
The animal, which was swimming under the surface of a dormant underwater volcano known as Davidson Seamount, takes its name from the wide ear-like endings it has been reminiscent of the young elephant in the 1941 animated Disney classic Dumbo.
The animal was spotted Hercules as part of an expedition from the Nautilus marine research ship. Working with scientists from NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the 209-foot ship is operated by the Ocean Exploration Trust, a non-profit group founded in 2008 by Robert Ballard, who is best known for his discovery of the Titanic in the 1980s.
Researchers began to learn about ROV, towards the octopus.
"He big fella," said one. "He's so cute."
"The world loves to Dumbo," said another.
"You're gonna be famous," added another.
Dumbo octopuses, also known as octopuses, live on octopus on Earth.
They live in cold waters between 10,000 and 13,000 feet deep, with some going as deep as 23,000 feet.
They eat crabs, lobsters, krill, worms and other deep sea creatures, which they pounce on and swallow whole.
California, Australia, New Zealand, Oregon, the Philippines and New England.
Most are about 1-2 feet long, but the biggest ever has been nearly 6 feet long. The octopus spotted on Tuesday was 2 feet long.
To swim, they flap their ear-like ends, and can easily move in any direction. They also can crawl along the sea floor with their eight tentacles or hover over it.
In recent months, the Nautilus has explored ocean areas off British Columbia, Washington and Hawaii, along with Monterey Bay this week. It heads out to the Channel Islands off Southern California.
Although the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary was established in 1992 by President George W. Bush, it originally did not include Davidson Seamount.
The underwater mountain, more than 7,000 feet tall, has its peak about 4,000 feet below the ocean surface. It is located 80 miles southwest of Monterey.
In 2008, after scientists with high-tech underwater explored Davidson Seamount and found it to be a nationally significant underwater feature, thick with 10-foot tall coral forests, fields of colorful sponges, crabs and anemones that close like Venus flytraps, President George W. Bush expanded the sanctuary to include it.
Davidson Seamount was put on a list last year, however, by President Trump, to be considered for possible removal from sanctuary protection, which prohibits oil drilling and underwater mining. No final decision has been made.
Also this week, scientists on the Nautilus expedition made another remarkable discovery in the sea – a massive field of more than 1,000 deep-sea octopuses, clustered along the ocean floor.
Those creatures, known as Muusoctopus robustusare a small deep-water octopus species that lacks an ink bag. The animals were near shimmering fluid seeps, a type of warm water and methane release from the rocky bottom to Davidson Seamount. Costa Rica, they said.
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