For the Saturday Morning Awesome this week, I present the first known footage of an Oarfish in its native environs (very deep sea) off the Gulf of Mexico. [BBC doesn't have embeddable video, just click over and it's right there].
From the BBC Earth News Article:
Oarfish (Regalecus glesne) are one of the world's longest fish reaching 17m.
Their strange appearance may have provided the basis for the sea serpent myths told by early ocean travellers.
Not only are they elongated, they also have a prominent dorsal fin which gives it an unusual "serpent" appearance.
Recalling the event Professor Benfield explained how at first, they thought the fish was simply a drilling pipe called a riser being lowered into the water.
"We saw this bright vertical shiny thing, I said 'are they lowering more riser?' as it looked like they were lowering a huge pipe."
"We zoomed in a little bit and we said 'that's not a riser that's a fish!'"
The article has other deep water video provided by the remotely operated submarine they were using in the Gulf of Mexico.
I've mentioned this sublimely bitching creature before, but just to be clear, this blog is a huge fan of these animals.
Enjoy 'monsters' being filmed live and healthy,
Bp
[via my faithful Canukistani operative, Yuri; photo credit at Weird Sea Monsters]
2 comments:
Fantastic! I had never heard of these creatures before -- or if I had, I had totally forgotten.
Thanks for pointing this out. Very, very cool.
Until I saw that footage, I didn't realize that back fin rippled like that. Too awesome.
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