Thanks to one of the largest and most ambitious expeditions ever undertaken in the Pacific Ocean, a strange octopus has been discovered floating and bouncing on the ocean floor at the incredible depth of about 4,800 meters: its bizarre way of moving resembles that of a small abyssal "ghost" and the times in which it has been observed before can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
The Trans Pacific Transit expedition, led by the University of Western Australia, took place in multiple stages between June 2023 and January 2024, covering more than 38,000 kilometers and mapping nearly 374,000 square kilometers of ocean floor, roughly the size of Japan.
Researchers led by Alan Jamieson managed to film, among other incredible creatures encountered, an octopus belonging to the species Cirrothauma magna , also known as the "big-eyed jelly head", moving in an environment characterized by freezing temperatures, crushing pressure and permanent darkness.
Its very strange system of locomotion makes it bounce on the bottom: at the top of each bounce, the octopus widens its tentacles, inflating the membrane that separates them, and lands a little further ahead, before starting again.
The Trans Pacific Transit’s goal was to study the diversity of life that inhabits the deep sea. In addition to the floating octopus, researchers also encountered transparent sea cucumbers found at even greater depths of about 5,200 meters, ethereal comb jellyfish, which look like plastic bags floating in the water, and a peculiar high-finned lizardfish, captured as it detaches itself from the seabed and ascends from a depth of 5,000 meters.
(Online Union)
