"Headless chicken monster" filmed in East Antarctica

In the deep and dark Antarctic Ocean that surrounds Antarctica is a creature so disconcerting and elusive that it has not been filmed for a year.

Here's the "headless chicken monster" that was filmed swimming casually near East Antarctica, the first time that it was filmed in the area.

Except that it is not without head, neither chicken nor monster. It's a sea cucumber.

Resident on the high seas Enypniastes eximia, also known as "headless chicken monster" attributed to undeniably hilarious scientists, was filmed in the Southern Ocean.

The researchers discovered an unusual species of sea cucumber with a new underwater camera system developed by the Australian Antarctic Division, which is part of the Australian Department of Environment and Energy. , to monitor the commercial longline fishery.

This is the first time that the bright pink creature is filmed in the Southern Ocean, since it has only been filmed in the Gulf of Mexico, according to AAD.

According to a published in Smithsonian Contributions to the sciences of the sea, sea cucumber has a length of 6 to 25 cm (2.3 to 9.8 inches) and "swims almost continuously, settling briefly on the sea floor to absorb surface sediment".

It uses tiny tentacles to quickly grab this sediment from the seabed and propels its bulbous, translucent body forward with the help of a veiled veil.

If you're really puzzled, here's another look at the creature, filmed by Okeanos Explorer for the 2017 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the Gulf of Mexico – the last time the sea ​​cucumber was filmed.

Some of these sequences appear in the new AAD video for the context, if some sequences seem familiar to you (these are the images that read "file view" in the video above).

So, how did they film it this time?

The high-seas cameras that have happily caught this perplexed creature are recording important data for commercial fishing and marine conservation, all of which are sent to the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR ), the international body responsible for managing the Southern Ocean.

They are thrown to the water attached to fishing gear and can reach depths of up to three kilometers. So, you would be right to assume that they would need to be fairly durable.

Image: Jessica Fitzpatrick / AAD

"We needed something that could be projected on the side of a boat and would continue to run reliably under extreme pressure in absolute dark for long periods of time," said Dirk Welsford, program manager for the United States. Australian Antarctic Division, in a statement.

"Some of the images we receive from cameras are breathtaking, including species that we have never seen in this part of the world."

According to Welsford, other countries such as Chile, France and the UK are now also using sustainable cameras to study and monitor the impact of commercial fishing on marine environments.

"More importantly, the cameras provide important information about the seabed areas that can withstand this type of fishing and the sensitive areas to avoid," he said. "It's a very simple and practical solution that directly contributes to improving sustainable fishing practices."

Why are these images important?

The data collected by the cameras will be presented at the CCAMLR annual meeting, which will be held every 10 days in Hobart, Tasmania, starting 22 October.

With these data and examples of a unique marine life like sea cucumber, Australian Commissioner to CCAMLR, Gillian Slocum, said her country would seek support for the creation of a new area of ​​marine life. Eastern Antarctic marine protection at the meeting, as well as for two other new marine protected areas in the Southern Ocean.

"The Southern Ocean is home to an incredible abundance and variety of marine life, including commercially valuable species, whose exploitation must be carefully managed for future generations," added M Slocum.

At least some humans have found your bright pink back, small sea cucumbers.