While diving in the Ørstafjorden in Norway, Ronald Raasch and Nils Baadness of the REV (Research Expedition Vessel) Ocean research group happened upon a massive, transparent egg sac, presumably filled with thousands of baby squid. Caters reports that “on October 5, the team of divers was swimming back to shore after visiting a WWII shipwreck about 200 meters from the coast, when they had a once-in-a-lifetime encounter with a mysterious object.”

The egg mass was found floating around 15 meters (49.2 feet) above the ocean floor. From National Geographic in 2015:

…it’s extremely rare for people to observe these huge egg masses in the wild for several reasons. First, they’re usually too far offshore and too deep for divers to encounter them.

Once a squid lays its egg mass in the water—and it’s not a species that attaches its eggs to the seafloor—the gelatinous ball starts to sink very slowly, [NOAA squid expert Michael] Vecchione says. It usually ends up around 500 feet (150 meters) deep when the babies are ready to hatch.

Previously on this site: A “car-sized ball of squid eggs” found off the coast of Turkey and Born Like Stars: An egg-brooding squid and its hatchlings.

via Laughing Squid.