Operating at a depth of approximately eleven thousand feet (2.3 miles), an ROV (remote operated vehicle) controlled by NOAA’s ship the Okeanos Explorer was able to document a previously undiscovered jellyfish species.
The Okeanos Explorer is a 224 foot exploratory research vessel with a crew of 46, including mission support, holding multiple ROV’s. The Okeanos Explorer’s latest mission takes place in the Western Pacific; a four month exploration in and around the Marianas Trench, the deepest known point in the world’s oceans (over thirty-six thousand feet or 6.8 miles).
With around 95 percent of the world’s oceans unexplored, expect many other cool discoveries in the next few months.
This stunningly beautiful jellyfish was seen during Dive 4 on April 24, 2016, while exploring Enigma Seamount at a depth of ~3,700 meters.
Scientists identified this hydromedusa as belonging to the genus Crossota. Note the two sets of tentacles — short and long. At the beginning of the video, you’ll see that the long tentacles are even and extended outward and the bell is motionless. This suggests an ambush predation mode. Within the bell, the radial canals in red are connecting points for what looks like the gonads in bright yellow.
Video courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2016 Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas.
