Weird, wild deep sea finds
NEW YORK — New images from recent exploration voyages show how weird and wild it is under the sea.
NEW YORK — New images from recent exploration voyages show how weird and wild it is under the sea.
Some of the pictures taken by remote cameras of never-before-seen areas, especially off the eastern Pacific, show what looks like an imaginary world.
There are delicate jellyfish, an eel with a strange head, and a purple disco ball-like critter. And just in time for Halloween, there is a rare purple Vampire Squid, nicknamed for its red eyes and vivid colour. The images are being shown as part of the National Ocean Exploration Forum this week in New York.
“We’re continually surprised by the variety of life that we find and what we’re seeing,” said Ms Nicole Raineault, science operations director at the Ocean Exploration Trust. “It just underscores what little we know about the ocean and how much more there is to discover out there.”
One notable discovery from a recent exploration was hundreds of undersea vents spewing methane — a potent heat-trapping gas — off the Pacific coast of the United States. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which carried out the survey, scientists did not know the vents existed. AP