Floating more than two kilometres below the surface, this alien-like creature seems more like a monster straight out of 1950s science fiction than a rare inhabitant of the sea.
An email with 25 seconds of jerky FOOTAGE of the creature under the subject title "What is it?" spent a year circulating the globe before landing in the inbox of an Australian marine biologist last week.
The University of Sydney researcher, Adele Pile, and her student Dan Jones were able to help solve the mystery by identifying it as a rare Magnapinna, or "big fin", squid.
This rare glimpse of the "elbowed" Magnapinna squid was captured by a remote control submersible camera at one of the world's deepest drilling sites in the Gulf of Mexico, more than 300 kilometres off the coast of Houston, Texas.
A report in National Geographic News this week said it was filmed by the Shell oil company in November 2007.
The eerie deep sea footage shows the squid's huge fins rippling whiles its curious tentacles hang down from elbow-like appendages.
Despite remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) having filmed the Magnapinna squid more than a dozen times in the Gulf and the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans, the species remains largely a mystery to science.
Dr Pile, from the University of Sydney's Institute of Marine Science, was sent the video because of her involvement in an international project called SERPENT - Scientific and Environmental ROV Partnership using Existing iNdustrial Technology.
"We identified it as a big finned squid and as the adult forms have never been collected, we recommended that the ROV pilots try and capture one if they see them again," Dr Pile told The Age.
She was confident that improved collaboration between the oil and gas industries and scientists would improve knowledge about the sea depths, despite the concerns of some stakeholders.
Valuable footage of deep-sea animals is being captured as industry sends ROVs deeper and for longer periods to explore the seabed.
"The petroleum industry routinely uses robotic technology to work at deep depths and wherever they are working there is the potential for scientists to use this equipment to explore and research Australia's deep sea," Dr Pile said.
"If it were not for the voluntary collaboration of our industry partners Australia could not meet it's moral and legal obligation to understand the deep sea environment, which comprises two times the area of dry land."
However Andrew Shepard, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Undersea Research Centre in the United States, said that while he was excited about the potential of this global project he also had concerns.
"These discoveries may, in fact, have a negative impact on very expensive and valuable lease tracts if someone decides a rare species needs to be protected," Mr Shepard told National Geographic News.
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mrmoshe
Sydney scientists crack sea monster mystery
Jessica Batty
December 1, 2008 - 8:08AM
Floating more than two kilometres below the surface, this alien-like creature seems more like a monster straight out of 1950s science fiction than a rare inhabitant of the sea.
An email with 25 seconds of jerky FOOTAGE of the creature under the subject title "What is it?" spent a year circulating the globe before landing in the inbox of an Australian marine biologist last week.
The University of Sydney researcher, Adele Pile, and her student Dan Jones were able to help solve the mystery by identifying it as a rare Magnapinna, or "big fin", squid.
This rare glimpse of the "elbowed" Magnapinna squid was captured by a remote control submersible camera at one of the world's deepest drilling sites in the Gulf of Mexico, more than 300 kilometres off the coast of Houston, Texas.
A report in National Geographic News this week said it was filmed by the Shell oil company in November 2007.
The eerie deep sea footage shows the squid's huge fins rippling whiles its curious tentacles hang down from elbow-like appendages.
Despite remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) having filmed the Magnapinna squid more than a dozen times in the Gulf and the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans, the species remains largely a mystery to science.
Dr Pile, from the University of Sydney's Institute of Marine Science, was sent the video because of her involvement in an international project called SERPENT - Scientific and Environmental ROV Partnership using Existing iNdustrial Technology.
"We identified it as a big finned squid and as the adult forms have never been collected, we recommended that the ROV pilots try and capture one if they see them again," Dr Pile told The Age.
She was confident that improved collaboration between the oil and gas industries and scientists would improve knowledge about the sea depths, despite the concerns of some stakeholders.
Valuable footage of deep-sea animals is being captured as industry sends ROVs deeper and for longer periods to explore the seabed.
"The petroleum industry routinely uses robotic technology to work at deep depths and wherever they are working there is the potential for scientists to use this equipment to explore and research Australia's deep sea," Dr Pile said.
"If it were not for the voluntary collaboration of our industry partners Australia could not meet it's moral and legal obligation to understand the deep sea environment, which comprises two times the area of dry land."
However Andrew Shepard, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Undersea Research Centre in the United States, said that while he was excited about the potential of this global project he also had concerns.
"These discoveries may, in fact, have a negative impact on very expensive and valuable lease tracts if someone decides a rare species needs to be protected," Mr Shepard told National Geographic News.
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