The Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (NELHA), which operates the Hawaii Ocean Science and Technology Park, sits at Keahole Point on Hawaii's Big Island, beside one of the steepest offshore slopes in the state. The Lab runs pipelines three thousand feet down into the sea to pump up cold water, presumably for some sort of natural energy experiments. And what they got one day in July was surprisingly energetic and apparently natural.

To the layman, the octosquid may appear unremarkable. It just looks like any old octopus or squid. But that's the problem: octopodes and squid are very different creatures, and this thing is a little of each.

"When we first saw it, I was really delighted because it was new and alive," Jan War, operations manager at NELHA, told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. "I've never seen anything like that."

What War saw was a ruby-red beast about a foot long, with eight suction-cupped tentacles and an octopus head with a squiddy mantle. Squid normally have eight arms and two tentacles, for a total of ten; octopuses have eight arms and no tentacles, and soft little heads. (The difference between arms and tentacles is a little hazy, but apparently tentacles are generally longer and have suckers only at the tip.) The squid's mantle is comprised of two swimming fins; octopuses have no mantle.

Mommy, Daddy, what am I?
(Photo Credit: Jan War, National Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority)

Richard Young, an oceanography prof at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, said that the octosquid probably belongs to the genus Mastigoteuthis but may have a species all its own.

Christopher Kelley, program biologist for the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory, picked up the octosquid (which had died after three days at NELHA) and brought it to UH Manoa. Said Kelley, "We really enjoy these little mysteries that come up." Accordingly, while at NELHA, Kelley and War talked about the possibility of a sampling program to formally watch NELHA's deep-sea pipes for strange new life. Said War of the world where the pipes open up, "When you get below 700 feet, it's a totally different world. Lots of fish have heads like a fish and a body like an eel. There are fish floating in a vertical position, with the head up, and don't move unless they're disturbed."

As for the all important question of naming rights, War said, "If it's a new species, [NELHA] would like to name it. But that is sort of the honor of whoever classifies it." We think it's only fair that NELHA gets to do it, but the most important thing is that it gets a cool name.