today we saw one of the holy grails of deep-sea cephalopod research: the vampire squid, Vampyroteuthis infernalis. this animal is a living fossil, sole occupant of its entire taxonomic order (Vampyromorpha), and has changed very little in millions of years, still possessing many of the traits that ancestral octopuses and squid would have had. it lives in the oxygen minimum zone (one of the few cephalopods to spend most of its time there with apparent success) and has recently been shown to be the only known cephalopod detritivore (eating mostly marine snow, the bits of organic stuff that rain down from shallower waters), making a small mockery of its name. it also has some very interesting defensive behaviors, which you can watch here.
the one we saw was at about 800m, and fully grown, about the size of a large grapefruit. but i should say, the first one we saw, because a half hour later we saw a second! these were the first sightings of this species in the monterey canyon in about a year and a half, and here were two of them. what’s more, the second one was a baby, which was apparent not only from its size, but its second pair of fins. baby vampires (how many people will find this post accidentally by googling that phrase, i wonder) first grow a pair of fins right at the end of the mantle, which they flap in a similar pattern to a swimmer doing elementary backstroke. then they grow a second pair of fins closer to the head, which they flap in the more standard up-and-down motion, but for a short while they have both pairs at the same time (see here for more info on the transition), and this one was in that ‘puberty’ stage. and mighty cute it was, too.
you may remember that we also encountered vampire squid on the mid-atlantic ridge in 2009. that was pretty cool, but they were small and in poor shape after being trawled from the depths. in contrast, the sighting today (a good ten minutes of beautiful, clear video footage) ranks as a lifetime highlight. thanks for showing yourselves, little vampires who aren’t really!
the (new) inkspot 
May all of Gary’s wishes have this kind of magic touch!!!! This is the coolest trip ever and I want to thank you so much for sharing to allow a vicarious adventure!
D, this has indeed been the coolest trip ever, far surpassing my wildest dreams. Glad to be able to share it with others too–wish I could have brought all of TONMO along! :)
That is one of the coolest looking things ever! How awesome to actually come across them!