Here’s why thousands of octopuses gather at the ‘Octopus Garden’
Underwater cameras and other tools delved into this pearl octopus mystery
Thousands of pearl octopus gather at the Octopus Garden to lay their eggs. Mama octopuses like these sit upside-down on the seafloor with their arms wrapped around themselves and their eggs to guard their offspring.
© 2019 MBARI
The world’s largest known group of octopuses can be found in a place called the Octopus Garden. It’s tucked against a seafloor hill off the coast of California. Here, thousands of pearl octopuses (Muusoctopus robustus) gather to breed. Scientists have wondered for years what drew so many pearl octopuses to this spot. Now, underwater cameras and other tools have revealed the answer. Researchers shared the work August 23 in Science Advances.
![Text (above first image): “You can drive [the robot] right up to them,” Barry says. “We hold cameras literally eight inches away. … They just don’t seem to care.” First image: A camera hovers inches away from a pearl octopus sitting on the seafloor with its arms folded up around its body. Text (above second image): The robot stuck probes in and around octopus nests to measure temperature and other water conditions. Mama octopuses didn’t like that, Barry says. “They just are tenaciously holding on and covering those eggs.” Second image: a gray, cylindrical probe pokes into the cluster of eggs tucked against a mother octopus’s side on the seafloor.](https://www.snexplores.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/1030_WT_Octopus_Garden_Panel_4.png)
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