See the mysterious beauty of strawberry squid with strange eyes

During a recent deep dive in the "twilight zone" of the ocean, a ship captured images of a red strawberry squid with strange eyes.

'We see them often, but not in large numbers,' Bruce Robison, senior scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), told Live Science.

Researchers piloting a remotely operated vehicle, the Doc Ricketts, spotted the strawberry squid (also known as Histioteuthis heteropsis) in the Monterey Canyon off the coast of California. According to MBARI, this canyon is home to a wide variety of marine life, one of the deepest underground canyons on the West Coast of the United States.

'During a recent deep-sea dive, our team came across one of the ocean's most remarkable inhabitants of the twilight zone, the strawberry squid. We discovered it at a depth of 725m in the Monterey Canyon,' MBARI shared on Twitter.

'Strawberry squid has one big eye and one small eye. These eyes help the squid hunt for food in the twilight zone of the ocean,' adds MBARI.

Strawberry squid are born with eyes of the same size. But as they grow, the left eye increases in size, and as they mature, the left eye can be twice as large as the right eye.

For terrestrial animals, vibrant colors help them stand out. But for strawberry squid, the bright red really helps them hide on the ocean floor. 'At the bottom of the ocean, the crimson color is really like black and helps the squid escape the stalking of predators such as dolphins, sharks, swordfish, etc.,' MBARI said.

Strawberry squid when mature has 2 unequal eyes.

Strawberry squid are so named not only because they are red, but because they have black spots on their red bodies, which look like strawberries. These spots are essentially photophores, organs that produce light through a chemical reaction or through symbiotic glowing bacteria.

Strawberry squid use these spots to reflect their own light, meaning they use this light to blend into their surroundings as a form of camouflage. This keeps the strawberry squid away from predators who can see them in the dark.