Back in 2024, a team of oceanographers went on a 28-day expedition to the Nazca Ridge, an underwater mountain chain 900 miles off the coast of Chile in the South Pacific Ocean.
The researchers, led by the Schmidt Ocean Institute, made many remarkable discoveries during the trip. With the aid of their remotely operated vehicle (ROV SuBastian), they mapped a previously unknown seamount almost two miles tall, found sponge gardens and ancient corals, and even captured the first camera footage of a live Promachoteuthis squid, a genus that is so rarely seen only a few specimens have ever been collected.
One of the most eye-catching creatures filmed by the ROV was the informally named 'Casper octopus' – a type of deep-sea octopus that had never been recorded in the South Pacific Ocean before.
The ghostly cephalopod was first discovered in 2016 off the coast of Hawai'i – when it was nicknamed Casper, after the famous cartoon ghost. Very little is known about this enigmatic animal, although Schmidt Ocean Institute experts say that it is one of two octopuses found in the ocean’s abyssal zone – the deepest part of the ocean, ranging from approximately 3,000 to 6,000 metres below the surface.
This video begins with a clip of the octopus – recorded at a depth of 4,443 metres – before revealing a host of other breathtaking discoveries from the expedition.
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