Deep Sea Jellyfish

The deep sea holds many secrets, there are creatures down in the depths that we have never seen or even imagined. As technology advances we are discovering more of these elusive and breathtaking creatures that dwell far into the depths of the ocean.

In 2003 a new species of jellyfish was discovered lurking in the depths. This new species was named "Granrojo" which is the Spanish word for "big red". This jellyfish was about 60-90cm across, blood red in color and silently floats through the murky waters of the deep sea devouring its prey as it goes.

One very peculiar feature of this jellyfish is that it lacks any tentacles. The jellyfish has a giant red bell-shaped body which has anywhere from four and seven short length thick arms instead of tentacles as you would find on the majority of jellyfish. The sheer size of this monster jellyfish lead researchers to believe that it was certainly a predator and that it played an important role in the life of the deep sea.

This monster isn't a rarity either with many sightings reported off of the coast of places such as California, Hawaii, Washington and even Oregon. Another intriguing feature of Big Red is that it has a collection of short stumps which protrude from its surface. These stumps are said to be oral arms which are used for feeding. One odd fact is that some of these jellyfish have four arms and others may have up to seven. The Atolla are another species of deep sea jellyfish.

It is very hard to research these majestic and mysterious creatures because they shy away from activity with humans and with the apparatus which we send deep down into the depths to inspect them. Usually when a piece of equipment gets close enough to begin viewing the creature the jellyfish will instantly disappear sensing a possible threat. There is no doubt that there are still many more species of jellyfish, each with their very own little quirks, lurking in the depths of the ocean just waiting to be discovered by man.

These creatures could teach us alot about life near the ocean floor as well as teaching us more about the jellyfish we commonly interact with on a more regular basis. There is no telling just what we will learn from studying their dietary habits and their breeding and other general behaviours.

Some of these deep sea dwelling jellyfish have some really spectacular quirks. There are some deep sea jellyfish which actually glow, some of them glow because they have evolved that way and others glow because they are transparent or only tinted in color and their prey that they have been eating actually glows so essentially this glowing that we are witnessing is not the jellyfish itself glowing but is in fact the contents of the digestive system.

There is much more to be learnt about these gelatinous sea creatures and the best place to start your quest for knowledge of the different jellyfish species is our Jellyfish Species list section.