Scientists discover rare, thriving octopus nursery — and maybe a new species | 24CA News

Beth Orcutt will always remember the second she witnessed a child octopus hatch within the deepsea.

The marine scientist was co-leading a Schmidt Ocean Institute expedition to check the ocean’s depths off Costa Rica utilizing a remotely operated car, when her group noticed little mollusk emerge.

They weren’t searching for child octopuses. In reality, till that second, scientists weren’t positive if it was attainable for an octopus embryo to outlive in such a seemingly inhospitable surroundings. 

“It was very, very exciting,” Orcutt, a senior scientist on the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in Maine, advised As It Happens host Nil Köksal. “The whole control room erupted in excitement.”

The expedition has confirmed the existence of two wholesome octopus nurseries — one in an space referred to as the Dorado Outcrop, and one other about 30 nautical miles away — the place dozens of females collect collectively to brood their eggs close to hydrothermal vents. 

The findings double the variety of octopus nurseries recognized to scientists, problem earlier assumptions about how the creatures breed, and spotlight the significance of underwater vents and seeps to the event of marine life.

What’s extra, the octopuses breeding off Costa Rica might belong to a beforehand unidentified species. 

WATCH | Scientists may need found a brand new octopus species close to Costa Rica:

Not so solitary, in spite of everything

Zoologist Michael Vecchione, who was not concerned within the expedition, says discoveries of octopus nurseries have been controversial within the marine science neighborhood.

That’s as a result of octopuses, he says, are solitary creatures. They spend most of their lives by themselves, and till a couple of decade in the past, that they had solely ever been noticed brooding and hatching their eggs alone. 

But that narrative was challenged when scientists first got here throughout a bunch of greater than 100 brooding feminine octopuses on the Dorado Outcrop off Costa Rica in 2013. 

At the time, the scientists did not see any viable embryos within the octopus eggs, and one other go to a 12 months later yielded the identical outcomes.

“There was some speculation that the octopods had made a terrible mistake, leading them to believe the environment was not suitable for egg development,” Vecchione, the curator of cephalopods on the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., advised CBC.

When Orcutt and the expedition group returned to the Dorado Outcrop this 12 months, they anticipated to seek out extra eggs, however no infants. 

“We were very surprised when we saw not only embryos, but the actual babies being born,” she mentioned.

Not solely did the group affirm the Dorado Outcrop nursery is wholesome and purposeful, however additionally they found one other octopus nursery about 30 nautical miles away.

There are no less than two different such nurseries recognized to scientists — one discovered on the Davidson Seamount off California in 2018, and one other found this summer season off Canada’s west coast.

“I think it’s pretty clear now that it’s an important reproductive strategy,” Vecchione mentioned. 

The nurseries in Costa Rica and California comprise members of the genus Muusoctopus.

Orcutt says they have been capable of accumulate specimens of the creatures throughout the latest expedition, and so they now suspect those at Dorado Outcrop might belong to a beforehand unrecorded species of Muusoctopus.

If they’re proper, it is going to be considered one of dozens of recent species found on deepsea exhibitions lately. 

A supply of ocean life 

The nursery in B.C. is positioned close to a chilly seep, a fissure on the ocean flooring from which hydrogen sulfide, methane and different hydrocarbon-rich fluids and or gases escape.

The different nurseries are positioned close to hydrothermal vents, fissures on the seabed that discharge water heated by geothermal vitality.

“We think that warmer water allows the eggs to develop faster, and that’s why the octopus has adapted to live in somewhat of a stressful environment,” Orcutt mentioned. 

She famous that simply final month, a research revealed that some octopuses and squid deal with the chilly by altering their our bodies on the molecular degree, actually enhancing their very own RNA. 

“We’re really learning that octopus have a lot to teach us about how to survive and adapt.”

Octopuses aren’t the one marine life the expedition discovered close to the vents. Teams in B.C. and Costa Rica additionally discovered skate fish nurseries and different ocean critters. 

Verena Tunnicliffe, a marine biologist at University of Victoria and a Canada analysis chair in deep ocean analysis, says these findings spotlight the necessary function these underwater vents play in sustaining marine life.

“The vents and seeps sponsor high local productivity that likely makes an attractive nursery … for hatching octopus and skates to feed,” she advised CBC in an e mail.

“These animals are important top predators in the ocean maintaining a balanced food chain. Thus, consideration of the role of conservation measures in maintaining these ecosystems is important.”

The Schmidt Ocean Institute says the expedition’s Costa Rican scientists at the moment are working to find out whether or not the vents they studied must be designated as marine protected areas in an effort to hold them protected from deepsea fishing and mining. 

“You have these really unique organisms clearly having a successful nursery. And if something were to impact those places, you could really damage the ability for that species to survive,” Orcutt mentioned. 

The group is heading again to the world in December to discover additional — and Orcutt says she’s excited to see what they will uncover subsequent.

“I am sure we’re going to find some new cool things,” she mentioned.