We know more about some other planets than the deep sea, but scientists at places like
the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute are sending eyes in to the darkness in the
form of remotely operated submersibles beaming back some amazingly odd images.
The green blobs inside the barreleye fish's transparent skull are actually its eyes or
two tiny spacemen!
Those tubular eyes rotate 90 degrees upward to look for the silhouettes
of prey and point forward for feeding.
Those two spots near its mouth are actually scent
receptors similar to our nostrils.
Just a handful of anglerfish have ever been captured on video.
They fish for prey using
a glowing lure filled with luminescent symbiotic bacteria.
The pale dots on their body are
pressure sensors used to sense movement in the pitch darkness.
And those teeth can probably
tell you what happens next.
Little is known about these deep-sea comb jellies.
Their iridescence is only visible
under these bright lights.
It comes from tiny pulsing hair like cilia that propel it through
the water.
These jellies are nearly invisible in the dark depths where they live though.
Since nearly all red light has been filtered out by the water.
Humboldt squid can measure up to six feet in length and a hundred pounds.
They hunt
in massive schools flashing red and white with color changing cells, capturing fish
in their barbed tentacles and shredding them with their sharp beak.
But even these speedy
predators can get startled, squirting ink as a diversion to escape.
The vampire squid is not a squid at all.
And it is also not a vampire.
They eat mostly
marine snow - a mixture of dead bodies, poop and gelatinous stuff that rains down from
the shallow ocean above.
Great now I've lost my appetite.
The viperfish's teeth are so big that they can't even fit in its mouth, which gives it
a pretty ferocious and also pretty ridiculous appearance.
But who knows.
Maybe they are
just smiling.
This next...um...this...uh...is apparently a squid.
Or I don't...let's move on.
Since longer wavelengths of light are filtered out by the water, most creatures in the deep
sea have evolved to not see red.
Except the loosejaw.
Which uses the glowing patches beneath
its eyes like their very own night vision goggles.
Earth's oceans are kind of like the internet.
The deeper you go, the weirder it gets.
Stay curious.