Recreational diving reveals argonaut octopus behaviour and its adaptation to polluted oceans

by Institut de Ciències del Mar
October 16, 2024

A recent study by the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC) has unveiled new data on the behaviour of argonauts, an enigmatic group of pelagic octopuses that inhabit the ocean’s surface layers. The research was made possible thanks to images captured by recreational divers and shared on social media, highlighting the growing impact of citizen science on oceanographic research. The work, recently published in Ecology, details how digital platforms and collaboration between citizens and scientists transform our understanding of marine ecosystems.

Based on more than 50,000 images shared on platforms like Instagram, the study focuses on the interaction of argonauts with their environment, primarily in Indo-Pacific and tropical Atlantic areas. Among the analysed images, 1% show argonauts interacting with other planktonic organisms, such as jellyfish, salps, and molluscs, as well as with plastic waste and plant debris—images captured by a total of 171 divers.

“This study shows the great potential of images obtained by recreational divers to generate new information on the behaviour of argonauts and other pelagic organisms in their natural habitat,” says Roger Villanueva, ICM-CSIC researcher and lead author of the study. “Additionally, it strengthens the role of citizen science as a key tool in discovering species relationships and even identifying new ones.”

Keep reading: https://www.icm.csic.es/en/news/recreational-diving-reveals-argonaut-octopus-behaviour-and-its-adaptation-polluted-oceans

Read the Ecology paper: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecy.4410