Giant sea worm awes Kiwi divers
‘Fantastic’ encounter in waters off White Island leaves pair incredulous and elated
Two divers have found themselves dwarfed by a deep-sea worm about 8m long, made up of hundreds of thousands of organisms. Steve Hathaway, 56, and Andrew Buttle, 48, were diving off the coast of Whakaari, the stratovolcano on White Island, last month when they discovered the gelatinous worm.
The pair were diving to record footage of the island that Buttle inherited from his grandfather when they came across the hollow, windsock-like creature. The worm moved delicately through the water, occasionally shuddering and pulsating while the divers swam gently around it so as not to disturb it.
At a depth of 9.75m, the organism slowly travelled about 200m, taking on different shapes and sizes.
Buttle said: “Having never seen one in person or even footage or photos of one before, I was quite incredulous and elated that such a creature existed. It was very puzzling but also fantastic to be able to view it right up close and spend so much time with it.
“The island is 48km from the mainland, and there is a vast amount of fish life and nutrients in the water that may have had the right circumstances to become so large.
“I believe it is possibly a pyrosome — occasionally they are caught in nets but not many intact large specimens have been caught to my knowledge,” Buttle said. “At times there can be blooms of thousands of small versions of these creatures in many parts of the world, but not something I had ever seen before.”
Hathaway, who founded Young Ocean Explorers, an educational entertainment platform encouraging children to explore oceans, said: “Without a doubt the highlight of the trip was to find the pyrosome — I’ve wanted to see one for many years.
“The ocean is such a fascinating place and much more fascinating to explore when you actually understand some of what you see, such as the different behaviours.”— Caters