900 miles off the coast of Chile in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, a scientific expedition recently found a plethora of wonders hidden under the waves.
Clustered around several seamounts, or underwater mountains, oceanographers at the Schmidt Ocean Institute discovered what are believed to be 20 new species, including a ghostly octopus and a sea urchin.
They also captured priceless pics of a rare squid and what appears to be the flying spaghetti monster—all hovering around a seamount taller than Mount Olympus.
“Across the three expeditions, we managed to map and explore 25 seamounts, which is quite a number to explore,” Jyotika Virmani, the institute’s executive director, told CNN. “I think we’ve got some good data as a community that could be put forward to make the case that this is a really interesting region for protection.”
Located on the Nazca ridge, the seamount rises more than 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) from the seafloor, and it was there the institute research team aboard the vessel Falkor (too) caught a glimpse of a blue and white octopus which they nicknamed the ‘Casper octopus.’
“The (Casper) octopus has never been captured, so it doesn’t actually have a scientific name yet,” Virmani said.
They recorded the first footage of a live Promachoteuthis squid, known only from a few collected specimens. It’s a small, weakly muscled squid that lives in the deep ocean. They also snapped photos of a rarely seen Bathyphysa conifera, which is nicknamed the flying spaghetti monster because of its likeness to the internet creation.
The expedition was something of a contribution to an ambitious international scientific objective called the Ocean Census, which aims to discover 100,000 new species under the ocean waves in the next ten years to demonstrate the incredible biodiversity and value found in the 70% of the planet’s surface covered in seawater.
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100,000 would be just 5-10% of the species the Ocean Census claims are believed to remain undiscovered underwater.
CNN reports that in 2023, the United Nations agreed on the framework of a treaty, now undergoing ratification, that would allow the world parliament to designate marine protected areas in international waters.
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The protection that Director Virmani was referring to would be the kind established by the treaty.
WATCH some footage from their expedition…
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