Behold the Flapjack Octopus!

The “flapjack octopus“ is a rarely observed, deep-sea species, but you may know it better as the inspiration for the animated character Pearl in Finding Nemo. It was collected by our sister organization, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. We use a red light to display this species. Since the octopus can’t see red light, it thinks it’s in the darkness of the deep sea, its natural environment. Like many cephalopods, the flapjack octopus can be fragile and short-lived, so we can’t say when it will o