Soft and Shiny Jellies Comb the Abyssal Plain
Are you a fan of the squishy creatures that live in the deep sea? During our exploration of the abyssal plain, we captured a few of these cuties on camera. This dive carried Little Hercules more than 5,800 meters (19,000 feet) deep, exploring the seafloor in international waters northwest of the Marshall Islands EEZ and southwest of the Wake Island EEZ. First up is a ctenophore (aka comb jelly) situated right above the seafloor. These fragile, gelatinous marine invertebrates produce shimmering light by moving their comb-like cilia. The team spots its long feeding tentacles draped along the ancient seafloor's sediment. We also saw a purple hydromedusa with extra-long tentacles combing the seabed for snacks as it pulses along with the current. Keep watching as the camera pans around both sides of this cnidarian, giving us a great view inside the bell from the underside (also called the subumbrella).
Ocean Exploration Trust's Exploration of Wake Island's Deep-Sea expedition (NA181) is supported by NOAA Ocean Exploration via the Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute.
Exploration of Wake Island's Deep Sea
Located roughly midway between the Hawaiian and Mariana Islands, Wake Island is one of the most isolated land masses on Earth. While there have been some recent expeditions to this remote region, the vast majority of the 407,241 square kilometers of seafloor surrounding Wake remains unmapped and uncharacterized, thereby representing one of the most poorly surveyed areas under US jurisdiction.
