Adorable Octopus and Other Strange Creatures Discovered in Caribbean Depths

The exploration of the depths of the Caribbean Sea, off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago, yielded a number of surprises for researchers, including about twenty species potentially new to science.

A Bustling Deep Life

Led by teams from the Schmidt Ocean Institute, operating from the research vessel Falkor, this recent mission mapped more than 11,000 square kilometers of the seafloor. In total, 25 cold seeps, releasing methane and hydrocarbons consumed by chemosynthetic microorganisms at the base of the food chain of these deep ecosystems, were identified.

Among the strange creatures inhabiting these waters, a cute purple octopus belonging to the genus Graneledone, glimpsed for the first time in 2014, a ghost shark, a giant gulper, as well as several corals, carnivorous sponges and galatheids never observed before.

Another unexpected discovery: the carcass of a mobula ray, lying just over 1,000 meters deep and forming a valuable source of nutrients for crustaceans, worms and other deep-sea animals. While feasts involving the fleshy bodies of whales are well documented, such events are notoriously rare for cartilaginous fishes.

“This marks the first local deep-sea expedition in the history of Trinidad and Tobago,” notes researcher Diva Amon. “Each new discovery, whether it be an ecosystem, a species, or an animal behavior, is essential to ensuring the conservation of this biodiversity that remains largely unknown.”

Hundreds of samples collected and cryogenically preserved

In parallel, the remotely operated submersible SuBastian collected around 700 specimens, whose tissues were preserved thanks to a new cryogenic technique. They are currently housed at the University of St. Augustine, joining the Caribbean’s first “frozen zoo.”

“By cryoconserving the tissues of more than 86 species of deep-sea sponges, corals and sea cucumbers, we are preserving invaluable biological resources to understand the future changes of Caribbean ecosystems,” concluded Megan Conkling of Florida Atlantic University.

Earlier this year, SuBastian had filmed for the first time a strange ghost fish in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.