About 600 metres down in an underwater canyon off the coast of Western Australia, scientists encountered a giant spiraled creature. The rope was on the horizon. Wilson from the Western Australian Museum said you couldn't miss it. It was so big.
It was a deep-sea siphonophore, a relative of the portuguese man o' war, or blue bottles, that was similar to party balloons on the sea surface. The Apolemia group looks like tangled feather boas.
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The feeding posture is known to be in the spiral arrangement. Small prey, including crustaceans and fish, are trapped in the water by numerous stinging tentacles.
It was a chance encounter that happens a lot in deep-sea research. The scientists were on their way back to the ship after studying life on the deep sea when they came across this floating Jelly.
The live footage was being transmitted from the submersible. Wilson describes how everyone was in awe when the spiral appeared. They all went into the control room. Wilson said it was a beautiful energy. Everyone was wondering what was going on.
The dive had run over schedule and so the pilot was only able to spend a few moments with the animal. Wilson took some footage and a small sample of tissue. We just had to leave.
Siphonophores are members of the same group of animals but they build their bodies in a different way. A siphonophore is a group of organisms. Wilson said it had two parents. It was a result of sexual activity.
Instead of growing in a body with organs that do different things, siphonophores consist of individual parts called zooids. Some zooids are responsible for feeding, some for reproduction, and some for moving and steering the animal through the water. They are an example of doing things differently. They're one and they're a lot.
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The spiral-shaped siphonophore is a candidate for the longest specimen ever seen. It could be the longest animal ever to be measured, at about 150 feet long.
Wilson is trying to get a more accurate estimate of the siphonophore's size by working with a specialist in photogrammetry. It is difficult to get three-dimensional information from the video because the siphonophore moved in the wake of the submersibles. Wilson says that with photogrammetry you go back and forth over a fixed object. It is a bit more difficult.
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