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Vampire Squid

With its dark, cloak-like webbing, the vampire squid may look like something out of a Halloween story, but it actually spends most of its time quietly surviving in one of the ocean’s most extreme environments.

 

The vampire squid is a small, deep-sea cephalopod that grows to about 21 centimeters (8.3 inches) long. Its name comes from its dark coloration and the webbing that stretches between its arms, which resembles a vampire’s cloak when spread. Despite its name, it is actually not a squid at all, although its closest relatives are squids and octopuses.  

Typically found at depths between 600 and 3,300 meters (1,969.5 – 10,826.8  feet), vampire squids thrive in low oxygen zones where almost no light is present, and the water is just above freezing. It has the largest eyes relative to body size of any animal in the world — perfect for gathering light in these pitch-black ocean depths. However, it finds its meals — plankton, marine snow, crustaceans, fish, and squid — mostly by drifting along until one of its sensory filaments makes contact with its prey. For defense, it is predicted that the vampire squid can illuminate parts of its arms and fins, and then release a cloud of luminous mucous that lets it slip away and disappear into the dark waters.

 

 

Because they live in the deep sea, vampire squids are difficult to study and not much is known about the threats they may face. However, as with other deep-sea species, disturbances such as deep-sea mining could disrupt their fragile environment in the future.

 

 

Deep-sea mining is a highly disruptive industrial activity in a remote, fragile, and little-studied zone of the ocean, and it comes with risks that are still poorly understood. Any attempt to accelerate deep-sea mining without proper safeguards will only speed up the destruction of our oceans. Oceana supports complete bans on deep-sea mining in small and biodiverse habits where damage is essentially unmitigable, as well as a moratorium on mining in other areas until comprehensive regulations based on the best available science are in place. Learn more about why it is so important to protect the deep sea here.

 

 

  • Animal Diversity Web 
  • Golikov, A. V., Ceia, F. R., Sabirov, R. M., Ablett, J. D., Gleadall, I. G., Gudmundsson, G., Hoving, H. J., Judkins, H., Pálsson, J., Reid, A. L., Rosas-Luis, R., Shea, E. K., Schwarz, R., & Xavier, J. C. (2019). The first global deep-sea stable isotope assessment reveals the unique trophic ecology of Vampire Squid Vampyroteuthis infernalis (Cephalopoda). Scientific reports, 9(1), 19099. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-55719-1 
  • NOAA: What are the vampire squid and the vampire fish? 
  • Robison, B. H., Reisenbichler, K.R. Hunt, J. C., & Haddock, S. H. (2003). Light Production by the Arm Tips of the Deep-Sea Cephalopod Vampyroteuthis infernalis. The Biological Bulletin 205(2). https://doi.org/10.2307/1543231 

 

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