Uploaded July 2019 | Updated September 2026, 23 minutes ago

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During the last dive of the expedition on the eastern slope of Esmeralda Bank Crater, this small octopus was spotted amongst a field of stalked crinoids at ~250 meters depth. At first it appears to try to hide, but then decides to try a different defensive approach by making itself as large as possible…which wasn’t very large at all!

Video courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2016 Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas.
oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/explorations/ex1605/dailyupdates/media/video/0509-octopus/0509-octopus.html