As ROPOS, the deep-sea Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), navigates the seafloor, its powerful LED lights illuminate a 30-foot swath in front of it. Situated 1,550 metres beneath the ocean’s surface, this area, only 65 km west of Vancouver Island, in Nuu-Chah-Nulth First Nation Territory, is shrouded in complete darkness. Massive slabs of ice slowly come into view, revealing an unexpected sight. A live feed transmits the ROV’s camera footage to screens in the control room onboard a research vessel, the CCGS John P. Tully, as it charts the Northeast Pacific Ocean with a team of scientists from the Northeast Pacific Deep-sea Exploration Project (NEPDEP). The ROV pilots, Keith Tamburri and Luke Girard, maneuver the submersible over carbonate rocks while the lead scientist on the expedition, Dr. Cherisse Du Preez, examines the structures. “Looks like we’ve got some more ice under there. Oh wait, not ice… octopus,” she exclaimed.

As the ROV moves closer, more forms come into focus. “Are those eggs?” asks Heidi Garner, a biologist in the Deep Sea Ecology Program, surprised, over the headset. Sure enough, the camera reveals dozens of small, sack-like formations as the octopus adjusts a tentacle. Tiny, newly formed eyes from within the eggs stare back at us. Sensing a pattern, Du Preez prompts the pilots to inspect the area further: “Let’s do a fly-around.”

“Are you guys seeing this?” Du Preez asks moments after the submersible moves toward another rock. The camera pans across three more brooding octopuses. These ones are paler than the first. “There are about four to five under the ledge we just passed. There’s another to the left. Oh my goodness. This is an octopus nursery ground,” says Du Preez. “We’ve seen a dozen octopuses all brooding their eggs.”

The ROV control room erupts in a chorus of cheers and gasps, expressing disbelief at the global significance of what has just been discovered. Only three other deep-sea octopus nurseries are known worldwide. Simultaneously as the scene plays out, some members of the science team, watching from a lab in another part of the ship, narrate the scene to a livestream viewership of thousands of people around the world. Twitter notifications and Slack channels light up with scientists tuning in, leaving comments and making requests for data during the shared viewing experience. Downstairs, more team members assemble gimbals and ring lights, readying their equipment to host a virtual Ship-to-Shore live stream event to classrooms across North America.