This stunningly beautiful jellyfish was seen during Dive 4 of the 2016 Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas expedition on April 24, 2016, while exploring the informally named “Enigma Seamount” at a depth of ~3,700 meters. Since April 20, a team of scientists set out on NOAA’s Okeanos Explorer ship to explore the Marianas trench.
The Mariana Trench is the deepest part of the world’s oceans. It is located in the western Pacific Ocean, to the east of the Mariana Islands. The trench is about 2,550 kilometres (1,580 mi) long but has an average width of only 69 kilometres (43 mi).
The scientists been searching through some of the deepest and least understood parts of the trench, where the ocean goes down more than two miles deep. (Source atlasobscura.com)
Those bright yellow and red features? The yellow, the scientists write, “look like the gonads” and the red are radial canals, which are part of its digestive system. It’s gross and magical all at once.
In those deep areas, living creatures have been relatively sparse. But on April 24, while exploring the Enigma Seamount (so-called “because we don’t know much about it,” the scientists explain), they came across the mesmerizing jellyfish. Scientists identified this hydromedusa as belonging to the genus Crossota, note the two sets of tentacles, short and long.
– Watch The Stunning Video Here (0:42)
courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2016 Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas.
For more oceanexplorergov youtube video’s go here
Learn more about the expedition HERE
Photo credit: NOAA