Deep-Sea Octopus Nursery Found Beneath The Waves Off Costa Rica

Marine scientists found a previously unknown octopus nursery in a discovery that could help lead to greater protection for the surrounding area off the Costa Rican coast.

“The discovery of a new active octopus nursery over 2,800 metres beneath the sea surface in Costa Rican waters proves there is still so much to learn about our Ocean,” Dr. Jyotika Virmani, an executive director at the Schmidt Ocean Institute, said in a statement from the nonprofit published on Wednesday. The international team of scientists made their ocean expedition on the institute’s research vessel, the Falkor (too).

On the voyage, scientists explored the Dorado Outcrop, a rock formation where in 2013, octopus mothers were spotted gathering together to brood their eggs ― the first time scientists had ever seen that happen. But at the time, researchers weren’t sure if the nursery was viable. Deep-sea octopuses prefer cold temperatures, but the outcrop is next to a hydrothermal vent that causes warmer waters than the surrounding area, Gizmodo reported.

On the newest mission, scientists confirmed that the Dorado Outcrop was an “active nursery” and witnessed baby octopuses hatch. On top of that, they discovered another totally new nursery in the same general area. Those two nurseries, plus another one off the coast of Monterey, California, brings the total number of known octopus nurseries up to three.

“I was bouncing off the walls,” Dr. Rachel Lauer, a geoscience professor at Canada’s University of Calgary, said in a video about the expedition’s discoveries.

The octopuses found in the nurseries near Costa Rica belong to the genus Muusoctopus ― small to medium deep-sea octopuses that don’t have ink sacs. The scientists suspect the octopuses they saw are “potentially a new species” of Muusoctopus, the Schmidt Ocean Institute news release said, though this has not been confirmed.

The research could be used to determine whether the seamounts in the area of the nurseries should be granted protection from human activities. Currently, there are no protections in place. 

“For the majority of people, the ocean is just another body of water,” Dr. Jorge Cortés Núñez, a biology professor at the Universidad de Costa Rica, said in the video, translated from Spanish by Schmidt Ocean Institute. “They can’t imagine what’s there. The seafloor is three kilometres below us, and what we are seeing is a whole other world down there.”