Discovered in the deep: an octopus’s garden in the shade

Two miles under the dark ocean off California, 20,000 pearl octopuses use the gentle heat of nearby volcanic springs to help their babies hatch faster

Scientists have solved the mystery of why tens of thousands of octopuses cluster on the foothills of a giant underwater mountain, two miles down off the coast of California. The pearl octopuses, so named because from a distance they look like scattered gems, seek out warm water seeping through the seabed and use it to speed up the hatching of their eggs.

This was the initial hunch scientists had when they discovered the octopus garden" near Davidson Seamount in 2018, the second of four known deep-sea octopus aggregations.

Returning more than a dozen times with a remotely operated deep-diving robot, a team led by researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) gathered evidence that backs up this theory and provides astonishing new insights into life in the deep.