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This is how a Rossia Pacifica looks like, the kind of googly-eyed squid that the researchers found
A team of researchers from Nautilus got off to explore the depths of the seas, expecting to see some of the natural world’s wonders. Has their mission succeeded? Regardless of their expectations, what they encountered is an almost unearthly creature: a googly-eyed squid. They caught it on camera too.
The little sea creature looks like a cartoon character: it is brightly colored (purple), it has large eyes, as if drawn by a talented illustrator devoting his work to entertaining children. It was only a baby, and the team of researchers didn’t know at first if they were dealing with an octopus or a cuttlefish. It actually turned out to be a squid, a googly-eyed squid, which behaved very much surprised at the strange encounter, just like the scientists.
The googly-eyed squid looked scared too and didn’t react much when realizing the presence of the vessel. It didn’t move, although the researchers would have loved to see it swim. It just waited for the crew to leave, and watched them with its big, suspicious eyes.
The members of the team were both amused and fascinated by the cute sea creature. One of them said that the googly-eyed squid “looks fake” and looked very much like a toy:
“It’s like some little kid dropped their toy!”
The scientific name of the googly-eyed squid is Rossia Pacifica, commonly known as the stubby squid, and it is a small species, reaching at most 11 centimeters. It lives in the Pacific Ocean, and it is a nocturnal species. Generally, it is to be found on the seabed, and, when disturbed, it can disappear, by leaving behind a black ink jet. It feeds on fish and other small sea creatures.
The submarine crew engaged in the expedition last week and spotted the googly-eyed squid near the Southern Californian coast. The video making it famous was released on Friday on the Nautilus YouTube channel. They posted a description, for the viewers to have more information on the lead character in the two-minute long footage:
“This species spends life on the seafloor, activating a sticky mucus jacket and burrowing into the sediment to camouflage, leaving their eyes poking out to spot prey like shrimp and small fish.”
What do you think of the googly-eyed squid? What does it look like to you?
Image source: Wikipedia
