Scientists studying an extinct underwater volcano off the California coast were left stunned after they unexpectedly spotted a rare deep-sea bigfin squid. Researchers from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) were surveying the abyssal seafloor near Davidson Seamount, an underwater volcano, when they encountered the rare creature, according to People.
Davidson Seamount is inside the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, about 80 miles southwest of Monterey, a city in California. MBARI postdoctoral fellow Ollvia Soares Pereira said she was sitting next to the screens in the control room when she noticed what looked like tentacles entering the top corner of the video.
She initially thought it could be a jellyfish, but she quickly recognised the squid when its small elbows appeared.
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The squid was seen moving with two large fins and eight trailing arms and two tentacles.
The cameras on MBARI’s remotely operated vehicle, Doc Ricketts, spotted the squid more than two miles underwater, at a depth of about 10,751 feet. Scientists estimated that it was around 4.1 feet long, from the tip of its arms to the top of its arms.
At the time, MBARI scientists from its Benthic Biology and Ecology Team and researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) were on an expedition aboard the research vessel David Packard. They were studying whether beaked whales feeding in the area created furrows on the muddy seafloor.
Andrew DeVogelaere, a research ecologist with NOAA’s Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, said he was focused on the seafloor when the squid suddenly appeared on the screen. He described it as an elegant creature with moving, angel-like wings.
DeVogelaere said he was surprised because it was the first time a bigfin squid had been spotted in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
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