Strange Underwater Blob from Oil RigExplained

Like all strange deep sea creatures that are given light, this strange animal was seen in a video taken at an oil rig somewhere in the Mexican gulf. We’ve only explored about 5% of the world’s oceans, so strange creatures are always being spotted by underwater cameras, especially when they go down to very deep depths. However, the creature seen at the oil rig is actually not that new of a discovery.

What looked like a moving whale placenta was actually a rare deep-sea jellyfish that was noted in 1967 by F.S. Russell, a marine biologist. The jellyfish is called the Deepstaria Enigmatica and resembles a blob that floats along the water. Not a lot is known about these jellyfishes, mostly because they stay in very deep parts of the ocean and they’re very difficult to study in the wild.

The Deepstaria Enigmatica actually looks like a helpless sheet of fabric that depends on the water’s movement. However, later in the video, it showed that the jellyfish had large gonads or sex organs, which is strange for jellyfishes. Another thing that we can notice on the video is what looks like a net. This is said to be the Deepstaria’s nerve network that’s connected to its digestive system. As it floats along the water, prey ends up getting tangled inside their large, fabric-like bell. It then wraps its bell around it and stings it to death.

So this deep-sea monster isn’t really that much of a monster after all.