Scientists monitored the 'octopus garden' for three years before spotting 'clear advantages' to sitting at the site off the California coast.
Scientists monitored the"octopus garden" for three years before spotting"clear advantages" to sitting at the site off the California coast.WASHINGTON — Most octopuses lead solitary lives. So scientists were startled to find thousands of octopus huddled together, protecting their eggs at the bottom of the ocean off the central California coast.
The nesting site, which the scientists dubbed an “octopus garden,” was first discovered in 2018 by researchers from the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and other institutions. The team used an underwater remote vehicle to film the throng of nearly 6,000 octopus nesting 2 miles deep. This 2022 image from video provided by MBARI shows a female pearl octopus brooding her eggs at the"octopus garden," near the Davidson Seamount off the California coast at a depth of approximately 3,200 meters . Research published on Wednesday in Science Advance shows heat seeping up from the base of an extinct underwater volcano helps their eggs hatch faster.
The researchers found that eggs at this site hatch after about 21 months — far shorter than the four years or more it takes for other known deep-sea octopus eggs.
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