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An unidentified deep-sea ‘blue goo’ creature has recently puzzled scientists after discovering a mysterious mass hanging on the bottom of the Caribbean Sea.inside live stream (opens in new tab) Halfway through the expedition, the team members debated what groupie globules were, but no researcher was able to come up with a definitive answer.
On August 30, several blue goo creatures were sighted by scientists controlling a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) near the seafloor around St. Croix, one of the U.S. Virgin Islands. The mysterious mass was found sitting motionless on the ocean floor between 1,335 and 2,005 feet (407 to 611 meters) below the surface.
The researchers deployed the ROV aboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) research vessel Okeanos Explorer, which has been exploring a section of the North Atlantic over the past four months as part of NOAA’s “Voyage to the Ridge 2022” exploration series. steered. As with all other dives during these expeditions, footage was streamed live by NOAA for deep-sea enthusiasts around the world to enjoy.
During the livestream, researchers spotted and zoomed in on one of the rare blue creatures and began discussing what it might be. pointed out that it could even be a tunicate, a jelly-like marine invertebrate sometimes called a sea squirt. The team suggested several potential nicknames, including “bumpy blue stuff,” “blue biomat,” and “blue goo.”
Related: 10 strange creatures found in the deep sea in 2021
Expedition members were only able to agree on what the mysterious creature was not.
“You could say it’s not a rock, but it’s as far as I can go,” joked one researcher.
Other notable sightings from dives include green eye fish (chlorophthalmidae), Nata (Sternoptychidae), bearded fish (polymixia), glass sponge (hexacutinellida), bamboo coral (Ishidae), according to NOAA, an orgy of fossilized coral reefs and rarely observed sea urchins.
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The team begins a long process of trying to identify the mysterious blue goo.
In a livestream, the researchers said they would send images and videos of the dives to coral and sponge experts to see if they could identify the cryptic masses. There are about 2,000 species of soft coral, so this is no easy task. World Marine Species Registry (opens in new tab)about 8,500 species of sponges, according to NOAA (opens in new tab)there are about 3,000 species of tunicate. Smithsonian Oceanographic Institute (opens in new tab).
If experts can’t identify the species, “it remains a mystery until samples are collected,” the scientist said.
The team thinks this gooey mystery is a perfect example of why these expeditions are so much fun and important to both viewers and scientists.
“There is always at least one thing that surprises you,” said one researcher.
Originally published in Live Science.
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