The expedition was led by Dr. Beth Orcutt of the U.S.-based Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences and Dr. Jorge Cortes of the University of Costa Rica aboard Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research vessel Falkor and the team included 18 international scientists.
The scientists believe the octopus is potentially a new species of Muusoctopus, a genus of small to medium sized octopus without an ink sac. The scientists also witnessed the Muusoctopus species hatch. It was the very first observation of female octopus gathering together to brood their eggs.
“The Dorado Outcrop nursery was originally discovered in 2013 and astonished scientists, as it was the very first observation of female octopus gathering together to brood their eggs. No developing embryos were seen when the site was first explored,” a statement said.
Schmidt Ocean Institute was established in 2009 by Wendy and Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google to support scientific research about ocean.
“The discovery of a new active octopus nursery over 2,800 meters beneath the sea surface in Costa Rican waters proves there is still so much to learn about our Ocean,” said Schmidt Ocean Institute Executive Director, Dr. Jyotika Virmani. “The deep-sea off Costa Rica rides the edge of human imagination, with spectacular footage collected by ROV SuBastian of tripod fish, octopus hatchlings, and coral gardens. We look forward to continuing to help the world witness and study the wonders of our incredible Ocean.”During the expedition, five never-before-seen seamounts in the northwestern corner of Costa Rica’s waters were also explored, as well as hundreds of animals, many of which are suspected to be new species, the Schmidt Ocean Institute said in a statement.
