INCREDIBLE MOMENT A BLACK EYED SQUID DRAGGED THOUSANDS OF EGGS IN THE OCEAN CAPTURED ON VIDEO
There are many species in the ocean about which we still don't know much. Did you know, for instance, that certain squids raise their young? But they swim through the ocean holding them in their arms, not sitting on them as a hen would on land. The Schmidt Ocean Institute team documented this unusual behaviour on camera, and they subsequently released this illuminating video.
One of the few squid species known to display this behaviour is the black-eyed squid (Gonatus onyx), which is the creature seen in the video. A long trail that resembles cloth and hangs from her arms is actually a mass that holds almost 3,000 eggs.
“The large egg mass is suspended from hooks on the squid's clawed hooks, and while carrying it for several months, the cephalopod will go without feeding,” writes the Schmidt Ocean Institute team on Instagram.
The black-eyed squid can be found at depths of more than 6,200 feet off the coast of Costa Rica, where the video was taken. "Brooding squid cannot swim very quickly, and may be easy prey for deep-diving marine mammals, despite the fact that they are neutrally buoyant (need no effort to float or swim—they can conserve energy by remaining motionless)," the institute staff continued. This is quite an accomplishment considering how little squid are—their average mantle length is only 4.7 inches.
For an extended period, marine scientists believed that all squids laid their eggs on the seafloor in groups, after which the eggs would develop and hatch on their own. Before anything else was known about these squids, Brad Seibel, a postdoctoral fellow at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, used a remotely operated submersible to detect this behaviour in 2001. Scientists will now be able to learn more about these marine creatures thanks to this video.