NOAA ROV Deep Discoverer Discovers Ghostly Deep Sea Hawaiian Octopod

Summary: On Saturday, Feb. 27, the NOAA ROV Deep Discoverer discovers a ghostly deep sea Hawaiian octopod during 2016's first operational dive.

"This ghostlike octopod is almost certainly an undescribed species and may not belong to any described genus.": image courtesy of NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Hohonu Moana 2016

On Saturday, Feb. 27, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Deep Discoverer discovers an unknown species of ghostly deep sea Hawaiian octopod during 2016’s first operational dive for oceanic exploratory vessel Okeanos Explorer, according to NOAA’s March 2 mission log.

Deep Discoverer’s season-opening dive aims for collecting geological samples and surveying the area’s biological communities. Encountering the ghostly deep sea Hawaiian octopod is an unexpected discovery.

The remotely operated vehicle discovers the ghostly deep sea Hawaiian octopod during a seafloor survey of a flat area of sediment-interspersed rock in the northwestern Hawaiian Archipelago. The discovery occurs at a depth of 4,290 meters (14,074.8 feet), northeast of Necker Island, known in Hawaiian as Mokumanamana.

“As the ROV was traversing a flat area of rock interspersed with sediment at 4,290 meters, it came across a remarkable little octopod sitting on a flat rock dusted with a light coat of sediment. The appearance of this animal was unlike any unpublished records and was the deepest observation ever for this type of cephalopod,” Michael “Mike” Vecchione, director of NOAA’s Washington, D.C.-based Fisheries National Systematics Laboratory, notes in the 2016 Hohonu Moana mission log.

The ghostly deep sea Hawaiian octopod has a non-muscular appearance. Also, the unusual octopus displays two unusual physical features. Suckers line its arms singly, rather than in pairs. The biological order of Octopoda is a member of Cephalopoda, a class typically endowed with pigment cells, called chromatophores. Lack of pigment cells accounts for the solitary octopod’s unusual ghostliness.

Dr. Vecchione shares that the octopod’s ghostliness has prompted “a comment on social media that it should be called Casper, like the friendly cartoon ghost.”

Deep Discoverer’s dive kicks off Okeanos Explorer’s 2016 Hohonu Moana expedition, scheduled to run from Feb. 25 to March 18. As a continuation of the 2015 Hohonu Moana mission, the expedition explores the mostly uncharted deep-sea ecosystems and seafloor in and around Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.

Deep Discoverer’s dive objective is to obtain baseline information for a possible connection between Necker Island and Necker Ridge. Spanning over 400 miles (643.7 kilometers), narrow Necker Ridge extends beyond the United States’ current exclusive economic zone (EEZ), the 200-nautical-mile zone of special exploration and marine resource rights established by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea as of Nov. 16, 1994.

Deep-sea octopods belong to two distinctive groups. Cirrate, or finned, octopods have a noticeable pair of swimming fins on their head and a pair of fingerlike strands, known as cirri, on all arm suckers. Cirrates are known popularly as dumbo octopods because their head fins are reminiscent of Disney character Dumbo the elephant’s big floppy ears. Sightings of cirrate octopods report a habitable range down to more than 5,000 meters (16,404 feet).

The ghostly deep sea Hawaiian octopod discovered by Deep Discoverer belongs to the second, more commonly found octopus grouping. Incirrate octopods have the familiar appearance of common shallow-water octopuses. Reported depths for incirrate octopods reach to less than 4,000 meters (13,123 feet).

“It is most certainly an undescribed species and may not belong to any described genus,” Dr. Vecchione assesses.

Consultation with fellow cephalopodologists  Louise Allcock, lecturer at the National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway, and Uwe Piatkowski, scientist at northern Germany’s GEOMAR - Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, yields agreement on the unusualness of the ghostly deep sea Hawaiian octopod. The trio also finds that the discovery sets a depth record for incirrate octopods.

Dr. Vecchione closes the day’s log with considerations for further understanding of the ghostly deep sea Hawaiian octopod: “We are now considering combining this observation with some other very deep incirrate observations by a German cruise in the eastern Pacific into a manuscript for publication in the scientific literature.”

"ROV Deep Discoverer approaches the unknown octopod at 4,290 meters depth": image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Hohonu Moana 2016

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

ghostly deep sea Hawaiian octopod in landscape + closeup of ghostly deep sea Hawaiian octopod: NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Hohonu Moana 2016 @ http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/explorations/ex1603/logs/mar2/mar2.html

For further information:

NOAA Ocean Explorer @oceanexplorer. "NEW ghostlike octopod likely undescribed species; seen on #Okeanos dive ~4300m deep: go.usa.gov/cw8vy." Twitter. March 3, 2016.
Available @ https://twitter.com/oceanexplorer/status/705438762084470784

oceanexplorergov. "NEW Octopus Species: February 27, 2016." YouTube. March 3, 2016.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rWHuwWJv3c

Vecchione, Michael. "Deep Discoverer Discovers a Very Deep, Ghostlike Octopod." NOAA Ocean Explorer > Okeanos > Explorations > EX1603 > Logs > March 2. March 2, 2016.
Available @ http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/explorations/ex1603/logs/mar2/mar2.html