When it comes to the ocean and the creatures that call it home, there is no shortage of surprises. And when researchers were conducting a dive in the Gulf of Mexico, they came across something very surprising. At first, they didn’t know what they were looking at. As it turned out, it was a squid—but it was behaving very strangely.
The researchers were part of an ocean exploratory expedition to find out more about what goes on in the Gulf of Mexico’s deep-sea habitats. Run by the NOAA, the vessel they were aboard is called the Okeanos Explorer, the only federally funded U.S. ship that explores the “parts of the unknown ocean for the purpose of discovery and the advancement of knowledge.”
The mission took place from April 11th through the 17th and involved the use of remotely operated submersibles that poked around at the bottom of the ocean. Of course, seeing odd things is relatively common, but the way this squid was acting was so odd it prompted Mike Vecchione, a research zoologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), to say it was “the most bizarre squid I’ve ever seen.”
When the submersible hit a depth of nearly 3,000 feet, the squid drifted into frame. Its body is folded almost inside out, with four of its tentacles extended out poker-straight. It’s similar to a common defensive posture often seen in squids, but in this case, it is extreme. So extreme, in fact, that researchers have no way to explain what was going on. “It’s a remarkable observation,” Vecchione said in the video. “I wish I could tell you what it was.”
