Identity Of Mystery Giant Squid That Gatecrashed
Shipwreck Search Revealed
Fishing around in the ocean can turn up some
unexpected things, including shipwrecks, ginormous beasts, and mysterious
species. An expedition by OceanX back in 2020 managed to have all three, as an
unidentified giant swooshed past while they were inspecting a surprise find:
the Pella, a ferry that sank after catching fire in 2011.
The remarkable scene was stumbled across by a remote
operating vehicle (ROV) owned by the marine research organization. The year was
2020, and the OceanXplorer research ship had set out to map the seafloor of the
northern Red Sea. Using onboard technologies, they were able to establish the
lay of the land but came across a 100-meter (328-foot) long lump on the
seafloor.While the Pella’s remains were easy enough to identify, pinning down
the many-legged mystery that paid them a visit proved more difficult to solve.
Fortunately, the mysterious squid appeared to make an appearance in every
single one of the ROV’s three visits to the wreck, though it’s possible the
cameos were the work of more than one animal.Armed with their footage, the team
behind the discovery sought to settle the debate in seeking the expertise of
invertebrate zoologist Michael Vecchione of the Smithsonian's National Museum
of Natural History, Washington. To their delight, he had an answer.
"We got photobombed by the giant
purpleback," Mattie Rodrigue, science program lead at OceanX, told Live
Science. You’ve been rumbled, Sthenoteuthis oualaniensis.
Read full story and see photo here:
Once
thought a myth ,but proved to be a reality .Who knows what may be filmed deep
in our seas next?
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