Newly discovered 'Casper' octopod at risk from deep-sea mining
Monday, December 19, 2016 - 13:01
in Earth & Climate
Last spring, researchers made headlines with the discovery of what was surely a new species of octopod, crawling along the seafloor at a record-breaking ocean depth of more than 4,000 meters (about 2.5 miles) off Necker Island near Hawaii. The octopod's colorless and squishy appearance immediately inspired the nickname "Casper." Now, a report published in Current Biology on December 19 reveals that these ghost-like, deep-sea octopods lay their eggs on the dead stalks of sponges attached to seafloor nodules rich in the increasingly valuable metals used in cell phones and computers.