'Googly-eyed' squid found on ocean floor compared to 'dropped toy'

Ocean explorers have filmed an encounter with a comical-looking squid off the Southern California coast.

Nautilus Live, a team of US-based researchers, recorded the discovery of the pop-eyed stubby squid at a depth of 900m during a recent expedition.

The video captured by the E/V Nautilus craft, was shared to its official YouTube account on August 12. It has since been viewed hundreds of thousands of times.

The craft’s official commentary team can be heard reacting when the Nautilus’ external camera picks up the unusual creature, lurking on the sea floor.

As the camera zooms in on the squid, one team member makes the observation that its eyes “look like googly eyes… It looks so fake!”

“It’s like some little kid dropped their toy,” she says.

A description accompanying the video describes the stubby squid (Rossia pacifica) as a species that typically can be found “burrowing into the sediment (on the sea floor)”, covered in a “sticky mucus jacket… leaving their eyes poking out to spot prey like shrimp and small fish”.

The E/V Nautilus craft used in the operation is regularly used in exploratory dives geared towards the study of “biology, geology, archaeology, and more”.