The discovery was made during a spring 2020 expedition in the depths of the Indian Ocean. The creature, which features a rare spiral shape, is believed by scientists to be a colony of thousands of tiny individuals rather than a single organism.
Deep-sea exploration in Ningaloo Canyons
The footage was recorded by the remotely operated robot SuBastian aboard the research vessel R/V Falkor, operated by the Schmidt Ocean Institute. The expedition focused on exploring the Ningaloo Canyons, including the Cape Range and Clouthes canyons, off the coast of Western Australia.
On April 6, 2020, the Schmidt Ocean Institute released video of the giant siphonophore, a member of the genus Apolemia. The animal appeared as a massive, flat spiral, which researchers noted resembled a spiral-shaped UFO.
Context
The expedition was led by Nerida Wilson from the Western Australian Museum, with participation from Curtin University, the Geological Survey of Western Australia, and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The vessel departed from Fremantle on March 8, 2020, and spent one month conducting research in the region.
