The octopus nursery & # 39; Amazing & # 39; with hundreds of brooding creatures is the largest ever discovered

If the incredible images of last week's Dumbo octopus were not enough to satisfy your cephalopod fantasies, researchers exploring the depths of California's Monterey Bay have discovered a huge octopus nursery.

Some 1,000 creatures lay on the steep seabed at nearly 10,500 feet deep. The biggest discovery of its kind, many seemed to be inverted around eggs and even embryos in live streamed footage on the internet.

Rows and rows of eight legs Muusoctopus robustus lying between the rocks of the Southeast Davidson Seamount. "There are like three rivers flowing into this one here – three octopus rivers," says a crew member in the video. "You can see lines of octopus that snake in this formation of volcanic rock," she added.

"We went down the east side of this little hill, and that's when – boom – we're just starting to see dozens of dozens here, dozens, everywhere, dozens," Chad King, Chief Scientist Nautilus exploration ship told National Geographic.

Scientists have even spotted a strange shimmer in the liquid that surrounds some of the octopus – "kind of like an oasis or a heatwave on the sidewalk," King said. This indicates that the octopus may be accumulating around the hot water that flows from the rocky underwater mount.

Hundreds of octopus are lying on their eggs in what is believed to be the largest octopus nursery ever discovered. Ocean Exploration Trust / NOAA

Only one other nursery of this type is known, "said Louise Allcock, Octopus research expert at NUI Galway. Newsweek. "It was on the outcrop of Dorado: a basalt area exposed on the eastern flank of the eastern Pacific climb with a low-temperature hydrothermal system."

The researchers counted 606 creatures outcropping Dorado, also Muusoctopus Allcock said the species, mainly in similar positions "We do not know much about Muusoctopus breed, but since most octopuses like to lay their eggs on rocky outcrops and their numbers on the high seas are limited, it is not really surprising that there are "brood areas", a- she declared. "We will probably see more sites like this as we explore these habitats."

This last video, she added, was "amazing".

Three ocean-going octopus adopt a brooding position nearly 10,500 feet deep in the southeastern Davidson Seamount. Ocean Exploration Trust / NOAA

The Nautilus probes the deep waters off the coasts of the United States, British Columbia and Hawaii. The last stop in this voyage of discovery will be the submerged shores of California Borderland. Until now, he has already filmed strange creatures like eel and maybe even helped NASA find hidden space rocks under water.