Abyssal Plain Animals of the Squishy Variety

While exploring the abyssal plain in the far northeastern corner of US waters in the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas with ROVs Little Hercules and Atalanta, our team observed a plethora of the habitat's squishy and gelatinous deep-sea critters. Spending their lives over the heavily sedimented deep-sea habitat, many of these creatures travel with the currents that connect the region. Each of these animals, living over 5,000 meters beneath the waves, has evolved various adaptations to thrive in the darkness, crushing pressure, and surface-productivity-fueled ecosystem. 

For the always awe-inspiring headless chicken monster Enypniastes, currents can help carry the swimming sea cucumber to new, tastier patches of sediment, where this detritivore eats organic particles between sediment grains. For the beautiful purple hydromedusa and sparkly, see-through ctenophore (aka comb jelly), the current pulls these predators along the near-seafloor, where they catch zooplankton prey in their dangling stinging or sticky feeding cells.

Ocean Exploration Trust's Deep-Sea Habitats in the Mariana Islands I & II (NA179 & NA180) expeditions are primarily supported by NOAA Ocean Exploration via the Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute, with additional support from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for AUV Sentry’s participation.