A previously unseen creature has turned up on camera in the northeastern Pacific: the strange, long-armed bigfin squid (Magnapinna). Researchers using an uncrewed submersible to survey seamounts off the California coast recorded the animal at a depth exceeding 10,000 feet (3,000 meters).
According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), the Aug. 7 footage marks the first time a live bigfin squid has been confirmed in this part of the ocean. The find came from a joint effort between MBARI scientists and researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The ‘elbow pose’ and a lucky sighting
Olívia Soares Pereira, a deep-sea ecologist and postdoctoral fellow at MBARI, described watching the squid drift above the seafloor with its arms and tentacles folded at sharp right angles — a stance the team has dubbed the “elbow pose.”
“Based on the behavior of other deep-sea squids, we believe this pose could be a part of their feeding tactics,” Pereira told Live Science in an email. “The arms and tentacles are extended so they do not get tangled up and passively capture prey that sticks to them.”
Among cephalopods, bigfin squid hold the record for living at the greatest depths, with sightings recorded past 20,000 feet (6,000 m). Their bodies are dwarfed by their limbs — tentacles and arms that can stretch to twenty times body length. MBARI reported that the individual filmed measured roughly 4.1 feet (1.25 m) overall, arms included.
MBARI had not encountered this species since a 2001 sighting near Hawaii, though the institute notes that scientists worldwide have logged around 70 observations or specimens to date. Pereira herself spotted two bigfin squid earlier this year while on a Schmidt Ocean Institute expedition to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
“When we saw this one, I couldn’t believe my luck!” she added.
Where the squid was found
Piloting MBARI’s Doc Ricketts submersible, the team came across the squid near Davidson Seamount, roughly 80 miles (130 kilometers) southwest of Monterey, at a depth of about 10,751 feet (3,277 m). The sighting occurred during a 10-day Seamount Hotspots expedition running from Aug. 3 to Aug. 12.
The expedition’s goal was to study the rich ecosystems of Davidson Seamount and Sur Ridge, both recognized as biodiversity hotspots inside the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. A bigfin squid, however, was nowhere on the researchers’ list of expected finds.
“We were looking for thriving communities of deep-sea corals and sponges, brooding deep-sea octopus, and feeding beaked whales,” Pereira said. “Finding a rare animal that we weren’t specifically looking for highlights the incredible diversity and habitat complexity of this region.”
The sighting’s significance rests on three factors:
- It is the first confirmed live observation of a bigfin squid in the northeastern Pacific.
- The squid was filmed at a depth of more than 10,000 feet, among the deepest known squid habitats.
- The encounter happened near the Davidson Seamount, a federally protected biodiversity hotspot within the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
Source: livescience.com
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