Earlier this month , a three - crew submarinedove to Cook seamount , a 13,000 - animal foot - magniloquent extinct volcano off the coast of Hawaii that had never been call in by human being . They discovered dazzling geologic features and a rich raiment of maritime animation — including a rare and adorably dopey devilfish , and some beautiful empurpled coral that may be young species .
seamount , tower volcanoes submerged thousands of feet of below the aerofoil , are considered undersea jungles , their alimentary - rich waters supporting a panoply of Pisces the Fishes and maritime invertebrate . They ’re also some of the most badly - explore home ground on the planet — of the estimated 10,000 peppering our oceans , human being have only travel to a few dozen . That ’s why , on September 6th , Conservation International led an expedition to Cook , whose height lie 3,000 feet down in full darkness .
The stumble did not disappoint .
Among the odd creatures found cooling their cad on the slope of Cook ’s dead caldera were two Dumbo octopus , rare color - alter creatures that depend like a second like those iconicspace whalesof hipster lore . In the TV above , one of these friendly unknown look to be shedding its pelt . The squad also make out the Pacific sleeper shark , a reclusive underwater goliath that can originate up to 20 foot in distance , and the empurpled Chimera , a “ living fogey ” that ’s been obsess the deep sea for hundreds of millions of long time .
Finally , the crew managed to hustle a sample distribution of a vibrant , deep ocean coral that might be a new metal money .
Expeditions like this are a monitor that just because the inscrutable sea is far removed from our everyday experience , does n’t intend it ’s a lifeless barren . In fact , the more we con about the strange biology of the abyssal earth , the clearer it becomes that this is a unique part of our biosphere , as deserving of aegis as any other .
[ Associated Press ]
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