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May your Monday be as serene as the Monterey Bay at dawn this morning ☁️⛅️☁️ 🌫 💙 🌫 #montereybay #mondaymotivation #mondaymood #glassysea #fog

A day at sea on the R/V Western Flyer. The Bioinspiration lab, led by Kakani Katija is at sea using state-of-the-art instruments and robotics to study animals in this mostly unexplored area in our oceans for borrowed design. Be sure to swipe ⬅️ to see more scenes from a day at sea 🌊⚓️🦑🦐💦💙 #lifeatsea #rvwesternflyer #mbari #expedition #bioinspiration #rov #ROVDocRicketts #MiniROV #marinebiology #engineering #womeninscience #womeninengineering #INWED18 #RaisingtheBar

Making a rare appearance, this ghostly-looking orange cirrate octopus was captured on film by MBARI's ROV Doc Ricketts as it swam over Taney Seamount. It gave us a perfect view of the cirri-lined arms as it pulled its arms up over its eyes, probably to shade their eyes from the bright lights of the ROV. The cirri are finger-like appendages that it uses to sift through sediment to find prey like small crustaceans and worms. ⠀ ⠀ #CephalopodWeek #octopus #cirrateoctpus #finnedoctopus #deepsealife #deepseaoctopus #deepsea #seamount #lifeonearth #ocean #oceanlife #oceanlover #MBARI #Underwatervideo #ROV #naturalwonders #octopusfriday

Gracefully gliding through the week. ⠀ ⠀ An octopus (Benthoctopus sp.) coasts above the pillows of an old lava flow at Axial Seamount. ⠀ ⠀ #CephalopodWeek #octopus #deepsea #lifeonearth #ocean #expedition⠀ #seamount #volcano #underwatervolcano #octopus #deepseaoctopus #deepsealife #oceanlife #lava #cephalopod #AxialSeamount #WesternFlyer #wildlifephotography #underwaterphotography

For decades, marine biologists assumed that all squids laid their eggs in clusters on the sea floor, where the eggs developed and hatched without any help from their parents. However, MBARI scientists discovered that some female deep-sea squid, like this Gonatus onyx, brood their eggs by carrying them between their arms until the young hatch and swim away. Because they cannot swim very quickly, brooding squid may be easy prey for deep diving marine mammals. How's that for the ultimate sacrifice!?!⠀ ⠀ #CephalopodWeek #gonatus #deepseasquid #squid #broodingsquid #deepsealife #lifeonearth #squidmama #midwater #ocean #oceanlife #eggs #squideggs #motherslove

Isn't this octopus Adorabilis? ⠀ ⠀ In 2014, former MBARI postdoc, Stephanie Bush discovered that this adorable little flapjack octopus, which researchers had assumed was Grimpoteuthis (aka, the dumbo octopus) was not actually a Grimpoteuthis, but in fact, a new species in the genus Opisthoteuthis. Though scientists had been collecting specimens since 1990, no one had gone through the work of properly naming it. This species of octopus has relatively large eyes, with ear-like fins that add to their adorable appearance, hence the possible name of Opisthoteuthis adorabilis. ⠀ ⠀ #cephalopodweek #adorabilis #Octopus #cephalopod #MontereyBay #MBARI #lifeofearth #ocean #oceanlife #OctopusAdorabilis #marinebiology #taxonomy #cephalomania #MontereyCanyon #invertebratzoology #deepsealife #deepseaoctopus