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An Unexpected Guest

August 30, 2018

This young octopus was photographed in a tank aboard the NOAA research vessel Henry B. Bigelow during WHOI’s first ocean twilight zone expedition earlier this month. “Boo,” as the Atlantic longarm octopus was nicknamed, was caught using a Multiple Opening/Closing Net and Environmental Sensing System (MOCNESS) developed by WHOI biologist Peter Wiebe. “[Boo] was in very good condition and stayed in our live aquarium for 36 hours until we released him in the ocean,” said Andone Lavery, an acoustic oceanographer and the lead scientist on the cruise. Although the cruise was focused on life in the twilight zone, this cephalopod spends its early life near the surface then transitions to the ocean bottom as an adult. (Photo Paul Caiger, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)