There are indeed creatures in the oceans which could be called “sea monsters.” At the end of last month we posted about two very real “sea serpents” – oar fish that washed up on the coast of Southern California. Here is an account of another very real, if rarely seen, “sea monster,” the scyphomedusa Deepstaria. Recently a video from April 2012 has washed up onto the surface of cyberspace with the headline, “Massive Unidentified Sea Monster caught on Oil-Rig Cam.”
It is a fascinating video showing an undulating creature that almost looks like free-flowing fabric. The video itself is approaching two years old, so in internet time, it is is not particularity new, even if recent posts have given it a second life. The video was taken by an ROV inspecting a drill rig off Britain. The creature on the video is also not “unidentified.” It is apparently a jellyfish, a scyphomedusa Deepstaria, Whether or not it is a “sea monster” is up to the viewer to decide.
Massive Unidentified Sea Monster Caught on Video Off Oil-Rig
The Deepstaria genus of jellyfish was first encountered on October 22, 1966 during Dive 159 of the research submersible Deepstar 4000. Dr Eric G. Barham, Dr George Pickwell, and Mr Ronald Church collected the scyphomedusan at a depth of about 723 m in the San Diego Trough. The new jellyfish genus was named in honor of the submersible.
Two species have been identified within the Deepstaria genus – the Deepstaria enigmatica and the Deepstaria reticulum, first sighted in 1988. There appears to be some disagreement as to which of the two species the jellyfish in the video may indeed be. The jellyfish has been widely reported to be a Deepstar enigmatica although NPR reports that “marine biologists from all over rushed in with their own guesses, and the consensus was; yes, it’s a jellyfish, but not an enigmatica. What we have here is a very similar jelly called Deepstaria reticulum…” Whether enigmatica or reticulum, here is a wonderful video on the Deepstaria genus, produced by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and narrated by marine biologist Steve Haddock.
It’s The Blob. Blobs come from Exoplanet SF209458c. I saw plenty of them there while on a vacation. I wonder how this one made it to the Old Salt Blog. It was supposed to be securely held in the Old Salt Blob quarantine station…
I think I remember seeing the first one, but I didn’t give the video time to play all the way and closed it.
Watching it again it was both interesting and a bit weird.