Unidentified "Octosquid" Found

What appears to be a half-squid, half-octopus specimen found off the Big Island of Hawaii remains unidentified and could possibly be a new species. The specimen was found caught in the filter of a deep-sea water pipeline. The pipeline, which runs 3,000 feet deep, sucks up cold, deep-sea water for the tenants of the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii.

The specimen tentatively belongs to the genus Mastigoteuthis, but the species is undetermined. Biologists termed the specimen "octosquid" for the way it looked. It is about a foot long, with white suction cups, eight tentacles and an octopus head with a squidlike mantle. The octosquid was pulled to the surface, along with three rattail fish and half a dozen satellite jellyfish, and stayed alive for three days.

The pitch-black conditions at 3,000 feet below sea level are unfamiliar to most but riveting to scientists who have had the opportunity to submerge. The sea floor is full of loose sediment, big boulders and rocks, and a lot of mucuslike things floating in the water, which are usually specimens that died at the surface and drifted to the bottom. Lots of fish have heads like a fish and a body like an eel. There are fish floating in a vertical position, with the head up, and don't move unless they're disturbed.