Shapeshifting fish, ghostly jellies, stunning cephalopods and more.
By Harry Baker
If you're looking for bizarre creatures that defy explanation, there is no better place to look than the deep sea. Every year, researchers capture incredible footage of alien-looking animals and strange new species lurking in the deep, and this year was no different. Here is our list of the top 10 weirdest deep-sea creatures seen in 2021.
Blood-red jellyfish
This mysteries red jelly may be a new species previously unknown to science, NOAA researchers say. (Image credit: NOAA)
In August, researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced the discovery of a brand-new and unnamed species of blood-red jellyfish. The dark red jelly likely belongs to the genus Poralia, according to the researchers.
They first spotted the new jelly on July 28 using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) at a depth of around 2,300 feet (700 meters) just off the coast of Newport, Rhode Island. Other animals, including other cnidarians (jellyfish & corals), ctenophores (comb jellies), crustaceans and Actinopterygii (ray-finned fishes), were also seen on the dive.
Lots of deep-sea creatures have evolved a similar red color because red wavelengths of light do not penetrate into the deep ocean. This means that red animals appear black because there is no red light to reflect back toward potential predato
Read more: Mysterious blood-red jellyfish may be rare species unknown to science, researchers say
Elusive glass octopus
A glass octopus (Vitreledonella richardi) was spotted by researchers from the Schmidt Ocean Institute in the deep sea of the Central Pacific Ocean. (Image credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute)
Also in August, researchers from the Schmidt Ocean Institute (SOI) released footage of an elusive glass octopus (Vitreledonella richardi) off the coast of the remote Phoenix Islands, an archipelago located more than 3,200 miles (5,100 km) northeast of Sydney, Australia.
The translucent cephalopod was originally discovered during a 34-day expedition of the Central Pacific Ocean onboard the SOI's research vessel Falkor. Onboard scientists spotted the creature using the ROV SuBastian, which spent a total of 182 hours scanning the seafloor during the expedition.
Like other "glass" creatures, such as glass frogs and certain comb jellies, glass octopuses are almost completely transparent, with only their cylindrical eyes, optic nerve and digestive tract appearing opaque.
Read more: Elusive glass octopus spotted in the remote Pacific Ocean (Video)
The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) released footage in August showing a bright orange, female whalefish (of the order Cetomimiformes) around 6,600 feet (2,013 m) deep offshore of Monterey Bay, California.
Very little is known about this bizarre fish because of the three drastically different appearances of the juveniles (tapetails), males (bignoses) and females (whalefish). The three forms look so different that scientists originally thought they were three different species. The shape-shifting transformation from juvenile to mature females is believed to be one of the most extreme among any vertebrates.
"Whalefish have rarely been seen alive in the deep, so many mysteries remain regarding these remarkable fish," the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute tweeted.
Read more: Shape-shifting fish that confounded scientists for 100 years spotted off California coast
In May, researchers reported the discovery of a brand new species of Dumbo octopus (Grimpteuthis imperator), nicknamed "Emperor Dumbo" by the researchers.
Researchers discovered the adorable creature in 2016 when they accidentally dragged it to the surface in a net while aboard the German research vessel Sonne during an expedition of the Aleutian Islands in the Bering Sea. Dumbo octopus species can be identified by the umbrella-like webbing joining their tentacles and their cartoonishly ear-like fins that resemble the oversized ears on Disney's famous elephant.
"It was a really lucky find," Alexander Ziegler, a researcher at Friedrich Wilhelm University in Bonn, Germany, and chief scientist onboard the research vessel, told Live Science, "because we weren't really looking for it. Plus, the whole animal came to the surface intact."
Read more: All hail 'Emperor Dumbo,' the newest species of deep-dwelling octopus
The real-life SpongeBob and Patrick side by side on the seafloor. (Image credit: NOAA Ocean Exploration/Christopher Ma)
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The image of the square(ish) yellow sponge and five-pointed pink sea star were taken by an ROV on July 27, at a depth of 6,184 feet (1,885 m) during an expedition of the Retriever Seamount off the coast of New England.
"The sponge is [in] the genus Hertwigia and the sea star is [in] the genus Chondraster," Christopher Mah, a marine biologist at Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History who first made the comparison on Twitter, told Live Science. The exact species is unclear, and they could even be brand new to science, he added.
Read more: Real-life SpongeBob and Patrick found side by side on seafloor. But they likely don't get along.
NOAA scientists captured footage of a rare bigfin squid in the Gulf of Mexico. (Image credit: NOAA Ocean Exploration)
The ghostly squid has a very odd body plan with huge, iridescent fins and bizarre elbow-like bends in its tentacles. "All of their arms and tentacles have this long, spaghetti-like extension," Mike Vecchione, a research zoologist with the NOAA Fisheries National Systematics Laboratory, can be heard saying in the NOAA video footage. "It's really difficult to tell the arms from the tentacles, which is very unusual for a squid."
To date, there have been fewer than 20 confirmed sightings of this deep-sea cephalopod since it was first discovered in 1998.
Read more: Eerie video captures elusive, alien-like squid gliding in the Gulf of Mexico
A giant phantom jellyfish (Stygiomedusa gigantea) was caught on film by MBARI scientists in Monterey Bay. (Image credit: © 2021 MBARI. )
Not much is known about phantom jellyfish, but scientists think it uses its arms, which stream like loose scarves in its wake, to ensnare unfortunate prey and winch them up to its mouth. The creature also propels itself through the pitch-black depths with periodic pulses from its faintly glowing bell.
"The giant phantom jelly was first collected in 1899. Since then, scientists have only encountered this animal about 100 times," MBARI said in a statement. Although it is rarely spotted, the jelly has been found in the depths of every major ocean in the world, except for the Arctic Ocean.
Read more: Giant 'phantom jellyfish' that eats with mouth-arms spotted off California coast
Photobombing squid
The purpleback flying squid (Sthenoteuthis oualaniensis) that swam past the ROV investigating the shipwreck in the Gulf of Aqaba. (Image credit: OceanX)
The shipwreck and squid were found at a depth of around 2,788 feet (850 m). The scientists from OceanX think it was a solitary squid, but it may have been more than one as it was hard to identify the cephalopod as it zoomed across the screen. The researchers also said the squid had a total body length of about 6 feet (2 m), which would be near the maximum size for the species.
"It was just so spectacular for me," Mattie Rodrigue, science program lead at OceanX, told Live Science. "We had absolutely no idea that we were going to encounter such a magnificent and large animal."
Read more: Giant purpleblack flying squid photobombs crew investigating shipwreck
An example of the strange trails left by sponges as they crawl across the seafloor in the Arctic. (Image credit: AWI OFOBS team, PS101)
In April, a new study revealed the first evidence of deep-sea sponges crawling around on the seafloor, after researchers snapped photos of bizarre brown tracks left behind by the surprisingly mobile creatures in the Arctic.
The sponge trails were first photographed in 2016 by towed cameras behind a research vessel at Langseth Ridge — a poorly studied region of the Arctic Ocean that's permanently covered in sea ice — at a depth of between 2,300 and 3,300 feet (700 to 1,000 meters).
"The trails are made up of the spicules, or spines, which the sponge can grow," study co-author Autun Purser, a deep-sea ecologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute at the Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research in Germany, told Live Science. "The sponge seems to expand along these spines, then contract to the new, moved position. During this process, some spines break off, forming the trails."
Read more: Arctic sponges crawl around the seafloor and leave bizarre brown trails to prove it
Footage of a barreleye fish (Macropinna microstoma) taken by MBARI scientists in the Monterey Submarine Canyon (Image credit: © 2021 MBARI)
An ROV filmed the strange creature while cruising at a depth of about 2,132 feet (650 m) in the Monterey Submarine Canyon, one of the deepest submarine canyons on the Pacific coast. Extraordinarily, MBARI scientists have only ever spotted the species nine times previously, despite having completed more than 5,600 dives in the fish's habitat.
"The barreleye first appeared very small out in the blue distance, but I immediately knew what I was looking at. It couldn't be mistaken for anything else," Thomas Knowles, a senior aquarist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, told Live Science.
Read more: New footage shows bizarre deep-sea fish that sees through its forehead
Originally published on Live Science.
Seven most strange things
that washed ashore in 2021
Across the globe, beaches have seen their fair share of weird blobs washing ashore. Small and weird debris has been found many times, including tar balls that dotted Israel's Mediterranean coastline in February or a tangled rope coral that found its way onto a beach in Texas.
Other times, organisms numbered in the millions, such as the by-the-wind sailor jellyfish whose corpses were stranded across shores.
Here is a list of wild and strange things that ended up on beaches in the year 2021, as compiled by Live Science.
Millions of 'sailor' jellyfish
Beaches around the world face millions of dead 'sailors' by wind jellyfish as they wash up and die on the shores. They get floated near the top of the sea and the little sails on their backs catch the wind and push them from one feeding ground to the next.
When the seasons change wind patterns, huge colonies of the jellies can end up stranded on the shore.
Young killer whale strands on Scottish beach
A juvenile killer whale was heroically rescued in January after getting stranded on a Scottish beach. A group of trained medics carried a rescue on an island off the coast of Scotland.
The animal was healthy and old enough to survive on its own, so it was brought to the deep water and sent off.
A truck-size basking shark
In January, local fishermen got stunned by witnessing a male basking shark measuring 26 feet (8 meters) long. It was the size of a pickup truck and it washed on the coast of Bremen. Marine researchers still aren't sure about the cause of his death.
Twisted 'rope pile' on a Texas beach
The creature looks like a tangled snarl of yellow rope, but it is actually a type of coral known as a colorful sea whip.
Many commenters have said that they had seen colourful sea whips on the beach before, but had always assumed that the creatures were trash, such as discarded cords or part of a fishing net.
40 refloated whales in New Zealand
On a February morning on a remote beach in New Zealand, hundreds of people gathered when 49 long-finned pilot whales beached themselves.
Nine of them died during the stranding while the rescue group looked after the surviving whales throughout the day, keeping their skin cool and moist and preventing their fins from being crushed beneath their beached bodies. Later on, they were herded back by volunteers into the deep water.
Toxic tarballs wash up on Israel's coastline
The Israel oil spill turned into tar balls — small concentrated blobs of congealed oil were formed for several days because rough sea conditions from a storm broke up the slick and mixed it into the seawater.
It was described by officials as "one of the most serious ecological disasters" the country had ever seen.
Amazon 'river monster' turns up dead in Florida
A dead body of an Amazon "river monster" was found rotting by Florida locals near the Gulf of Mexico, and it became a worrisome issue as several people got disturbed with the thought that this beast might become the state's latest invasive species. But this so-called monster, the arapaima (Arapaima gigas), faces many hurdles before it can call Florida home.
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