Rare deep sea creature with ‘truly alien form’ spotted right after eating, video shows
Contentedly full from its last meal, a mysterious sea creature swam through the royal blue depths off the coast of Costa Rica. Twirling and spiraling, the misshapen animal moved in a mesmerizing way.
Perhaps the sea creature noticed the metallic submersible that stopped nearby, or perhaps not.
The scientists on the other side of the submersibles’ cameras definitely noticed — and dropped everything to watch the “extremely rare” moment.
Researchers with the Schmidt Ocean Institute piloted a remotely operated vehicle to explore octopuses along the Dorado Outcrop near Costa Rica, the institute said in a news release.
While surfacing from their last dive, they spotted an unexpected animal: a gulper eel, the institute said June 20 on Twitter.
Gulper eels, also known as pelican eels, are known for their “large, scoop-like jaw” which they can expand to swallow prey, according to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
This particular gulper eel “had very recently eaten,” the institute said. Its “balloon-like” stomach was still inflated with undigested prey, potentially a “squid or swarm of shrimp.”
Surreal video footage shows the gulper eel swimming. Its meal hangs in a triangular bulge near its head, the rest of its long, skinny body extending behind. The eel almost looks like a cross between a ribbon and a torpedo as it moves and turns.
Eventually, the shape-shifting eel vanishes into the shadowy distance, the video shows.
“We all stopped our conversation to gather around the monitor together to watch this amazing animal,” Beth Orcutt, the vice president of research at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, an organization involved in the research project, told McClatchy News on July 4.
Gulper eels are a rare sight. “They have been seen ‘inflating’ their mouths,” the institute said on Facebook, “but this is the first time we believe anyone has had an encounter so soon after a meal.”
Diva Amon, the first scientist to identify the animal, “expressed that this was one of the most remarkable events of her career,” Orcutt said.
Amon told LiveScience that “in all our combined years of exploring the deep ocean, this was the first gulper eel for all of us … And to see it with a remarkably full tummy was the icing on the cake.”
“The way it’s formed … truly alien form,” one Twitter user commented.
“Pending indigestion,” another user joked.
“Getting to glimpse this extremely rare animal behavior in the final moments of our last dive was an affirmation of the amazing deep-sea biodiversity in Costa Rica’s waters,” Orcutt said.
While exploring the Dorado Outcrop, The Schmidt Ocean Institute also discovered an octopus nursery where a new species was emerging from its eggs.
CORRECTION: Orcutt’s organization was in an earlier version of this story. She is affiliated with the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences.
This story was originally published July 5, 2023 at 11:38 AM with the headline "Rare deep sea creature with ‘truly alien form’ spotted right after eating, video shows."
