Amazing octopus nursery with hundreds of brooding creatures Is largest ever discovered.

World’s Largest "Octopus Garden" Discovered 

Recently, scientists discovered a massive nursery of deep sea octopus in Monterey, California.

Approximately two miles below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, scientists saw something incredible in the deep.

They've discovered octopuses and hundreds of them.

Octopus mom

Octopus is a soft-bodied, eight-limbed mollusk which inhabits various regions of the ocean, including coral reefs, pelagic waters, and the seabed.

“We went down the eastern flank of this small hill, and that’s when—boom—we just started seeing pockets of dozens here, dozens there, dozens everywhere,” says Chad King, chief scientist on the Exploration Vessel Nautilus, a 210-foot research vessel owned by the Ocean Exploration Trust. 

E/V Nautilus

King estimates that more than 1,000 octopuses known as Muusoctopus robustus were documented during the expedition.  These sea creatures nestled among the rocks, most of which appeared to be inverted, or turned inside out believed to be females.

What’s more, the scientists noticed that the water appeared to shimmer in multiple places where the octopuses were concentrated—“ kind of like an oasis or a heat wave off the pavement,” King added.

Octopus garden

This could mean that the octopuses are seeking out such warmth to help incubate their eggs.

Amazingly, the discovery came just about six months after scientists reported that the only other deep-sea octopus nursery on record around 100 octopuses where found along the Dorado Outcrop off Costa Rica.

Huge cluster of octopuses observed Southwest of Monterey, California.

King, however, says they didn’t see any of the bacterial mats, clams and other species you’d expect to see with a methane seep. Furthermore, it may not even be the heat the octopuses are attracted to. “Maybe it’s just because that’s the best rock available,” says King.

This only proves that scientists need to do many more expeditions to discover more in the deep. 

“Octopus can fish for prey while deciding what color and pattern to turn, what shape to make their bodies, be on alert for predators and aware how far away their dens are.”

- Sy Montgomery