On a recent deep dive into the California coast's twilight zone, submersible diving hundreds of feet underwater filmed an unusual strawberry-colored squid with weird eyes. One of the bizarre creature's eyes was small and black, while the other was large and yellow.
Bizarre Green-Eyed Strawberry Squid
Oblivious to the submersible's camera, the strawberry-colored squid cruised by its dark ocean home, occasionally curling and twisting its eight arms and two tentacles while its white fins rippled.
Although last month's recent sighting wasn't completely unexpected, it was a pleasant surprise for experts. Bruce Robinson, the senior scientist at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, but wasn't part of the recent expedition, told LiveScience that the bizarre creature is often seen despite its small population.
Researchers remotely controlled an ROV vehicle known as Doc Ricketts - an unmanned submersible fully equipped with ultra-high-definition 4K resolution video spotted the strawberry squid in Monterey Canyon off California's coast. The canyon is home to a vastly diverse sea marine population. It runs nearly as deep as the Grand Canyon, making it one of the deepest submarine canyons on the US West Coast.
The squid's mantle, excluding its eyes, body, and appendages, reaches five inches long. According to the MBARI team's tweet regarding the encounter on March 23rd, during the recent deep dive, the team encountered one of the most remarkable marine species in the ocean's twilight zone; the Histiotheuthis heteropsis or strawberry-colored squid was spotted 725 meters from the Monterey Canyon.
The strawberry squid has one big eye and one small eye. Together, this unlikely pair helps the squid hunt for food in the ocean’s twilight zone. The big left eye looks upward to spot shadows cast by prey in the dimly lit waters above. pic.twitter.com/QMPgU5rhp0
— MBARI (@MBARI_News) March 23, 2022
In a second tweet, the team wrote that the strawberry squid was spotted with one big eye and a smaller eye. Which together would help the squid hunt for its prey in the ocean's twilight zone. The bigger left eye looks upward, spotting shadows cast by prey in the dimly lit waters above it.
On the other hand, the bizarre squid's smaller eye looks downward, searching for bioluminescent flashes produced by either predator or prey that lurk in the darker waters below. Due to the squid's bizarre eye pairing, it is sometimes referred to as the cockeyed squid.
Strawberry Squid; A Bizzare Marine Resident of the Ocean's Twilight Zone
Despite the squid's bizarreness, it wasn't born cockeyed. Rather, the strawberry squid's hatchlings are born with identically-sized eyes. As the cephalopod develops into juveniles, its left eye surges in size, and by the time it reaches maturity, its left eye can reach double its size compared to the right eye.
On land, vibrant colors often make animals stand out, used either to signal prospective mates or broadcast warnings about toxic defenses. However, the bright crimson color of the strawberry-colored squid helps keep it hidden in the deep ocean darkness. MBARI explains that the red light doesn't reach the deep sea, wherein the crimson coloration appears black and helps the squid hide from the predatory gaze of sperm whales, tunas, dolphins, sharks, and swordfish.
The eerie squid doesn't get its name from its crimson color; in fact, the cephalopod has dark spots around its body that look like minuscule strawberry seeds. These spots are photophores - organs producing light via symbiotic glowing bacteria's chemical reaction.
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