Light on weird creature of the deep
THIS tubular sea creature, several metres long, is so strange that even marine scientists who see many weird animals refer to it as the unicorn of the sea.
This example, photographed recently by Port Douglas dive operator Jay Wink, was the first one he had ever seen in many years of diving.
It is in fact a pyrosome and they’re quite rare.
Mr Wink, aboard his ABC Scuba Diving vessel, said the boat’s skipper was the first to spot the creature, which is actually a combination of many, many small creatures (zooids).
“He was saying, ‘look at that, look at that’, so we got into the water to check it out,” Mr Wink said.
“It was one of the strangest things I’ve seen in the ocean.”
Their name derives from “pyro” (“fire) and “soma” (“body”).
They emit a lot of sustained light – some of these tubular towers can be seen from 30 metres away.
The surface of the column has been described as feeling “fluffy,” resembling a giant grid with individual creatures linked firmly together.
They are usually only found in tropical waters.
This year scientists have been amazed to hear reports of blooms of these creatures.
It follows a cooling down of ocean temperatures along the Californian coast.