It’s A Jellyfish!: ‘Sea Monster’ Video Mystery Solved

A jellyfish has been revealed as the mysterious ‘sea monster’ shot by a remote underwater camera at an underwater drilling site last month.

Video footage (scroll down to watch it) of the huge, bag-like creature went viral at the end of April, racking up over 4 million views on YouTube. Nicknamed the ‘Cascade Creature,’ the sea organism’s appeal lay in its dashing good looks the fact that nobody could identify what it was. At six meters long, some suggested the mysterious structure was a new type of sea monster, while others argued it was a whale placenta, a parachute or a plastic bag. A few wags even claimed it was an alien visitor.

But now the truth has been revealed: the jellyfish-like creature was … a jellyfish. Specifically, marine biologists have said it’s a type of jellyfish known as a Deepstaria enigmatica.

Experts such as Steven Haddock at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and Craig McClain at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center were amongst those who got to the bottom of the sighting, with Haddock writing on the JellyWatch Facebook page:

“This bag-like jelly is not that rare, but is large, so rarely seen intact. In the video, the swirling from the sub makes the medusa appear to undulate, and it even turns inside-out.”

Meanwhile, McClain wrote on Deep Sea News about previous confirmed sightings of the beastie, and even offered an explanation for the jellyfish’s weirdly collapsed shape, saying the creature was inside out for much of the footage.

You can watch the video footage of the ‘Cascade Creature’ below – ain’t nature something, eh?