Giant bizarre deep sea fish filmed in Gulf of Mexico
by
, 02-09-2010 at 04:48 PM (3862 Views)
Extraordinary footage of a rarely seen giant deep sea fish has been captured by scientists.
Using a remotely operated vehicle, they caught a rare glimpse of the huge oarfish, perhaps the first sighting of the fish in its natural setting.
The oarfish, which can reach 17m long, has previously only been seen on a few occasions dying at the sea surface, or dead washed ashore.
The scientists also filmed for the first time the behaviour of a manefish.
Mark Benfield from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, US was undertaking a survey as part of the Serpent project, a collaboration between marine scientists and energy companies such as BP, Shell, Chevron and Petrobras working in the Gulf of Mexico.
Read more and see some creepy video at the BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth...00/8501251.stm