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Update
The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) has filmed a very unusual sea cucumber, the first time that it has been sighted in the depths of the Southern Ocean.
Key points:
- The so-called "headless chicken monster" swims, unlike most sea cucumbers
- This is the second sighting of the creature – she was spotted off the Gulf of Mexico last year
- The availability of cheap smartphone type cameras helps scientists to discover the marine life of Antarctica
Eximia Enypniastes, the deep sea sea cucumber, nicknamed the "headless chicken monster" – was sighted with the help of new underwater AAD cameras deployed by fishing vessels in Antarctica.
Dirk Welsford, a researcher at AAD, said the discovery of the discovered organ floating 3 kilometers below the surface off Heard Island was a real surprise.
"We had never seen this thing before … at the time, none of us really knew what it was, so we did what many scientists do and googled, "said Dr. Welsford.
While most sea cucumbers are unable to swim, the headless chicken monster moves into the depths of the ocean and lowers to the bottom of the sea for food.
"It's one of the most spectacular specimens I have ever seen," he said.
"The way he flies over the camera is quite charismatic … and it's quite unusual to know how to swim."
This bright purple organism eating plankton, which has bat-shaped wings and is as big as a basketball, has only been filmed once before, in the Gulf of Mexico, last year.
Dr. Welsford said the organization's bizarre nickname was nothing more than the product of laughing sea scientists.
"It looks a little chicken-shaped … and it's a cool name," he said.
"It also reflects the little knowledge we have about the deep sea and the weird things we see while studying there."
Although little is known about the depths of the world's oceans, extreme weather conditions and the remoteness of the Southern Ocean mean that most of its inhabitants remain a mystery.
"There are almost certainly many, many more things we do not know there, waiting to be discovered," said Dr. Welford.
The animal is also known as the Spanish dancer, as her gracious shot that sways in the stream resembles that of a flamenco dress.
Camera technology advancing seabed science
Dr. Welsford said that inexpensive camera technology was helping the DAD to explore the depths of the Southern Ocean.
The deployed underwater cameras have a quality similar to that of smartphones, but they are the only ones to be housed in a secure housing to withstand high water pressure and negative temperatures.
The AAD can now film more deeply than ever since a fishing boat.
"Because [the technology] is now so portable and so cheap, we hope to install cameras on almost all the fishing boats going down to the south, so we can quickly get a lot of data on what's going on there, in a way that we have never been able to before, "said Dr. Welsford.
"Developing equipment capable of surviving under these conditions has been very difficult so far.
"It's the deepest video camera ever deployed on board a fishing boat."
The Southern Ocean is the only ocean to flow completely around the Earth, without any major landmass and home to the largest number of marine animals in the world.
"There are still many, many mysteries in the deep ocean that we are just beginning to scratch the surface," said Dr. Welsford.
Mr Welford hoped that the use of underwater cameras would provide a clearer picture of the diversity, number and location of organisms in the deepest parts of the ocean.
The data generated by the underwater cameras will be presented at the annual meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Fauna and Flora, in Hobart on Monday.
Topics:
Marine biology,
science and technology,
animal science,
biology,
environment,
Hobart 7000,
heap
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