A new crew of deep - ocean crazy and alien - like lifeforms have been captured on tv camera by scientist explore the depths of the ocean around American Samoa .
The beautiful footage ( below ) come in from theE Mamana Ou Gataifale II expeditionby the Ocean Exploration Trust , NOAA Ocean Exploration , the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management , and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution . As ever , the television comes with alive comment by the stunned researchers as they stumble across the discovery .
As part of a 20 - day trip onboard theEV Nautilusresearch ship , the team has been using automatonlike hoagy to document a component part of the seafloor in the South Pacific around American Samoa , some 3,700 km ( 2,300 mile ) southwest of Hawaiʻi and 2,414 km ( 1,500 miles ) northeast of New Zealand .
This picky video depict footage from two diving exploring Vailulu’u Seamount , the most active Samoan sub volcano , between a profoundness of 600 and 1,500 meters ( 1,968 to 4,921 foot ) . It ’s the first meter the region has been seen by human eyes since 2005 – and it did not let down .
Much to the pleasure of the researchers , they came across aChaunacops , a bright - red sea toad draw as a “ fan - favorite ” due to its amazingly plump consistency and cutesy expression .
“ He ’s trying to look intimidating . It ’s not working , ” another jest .
At a depth of 892 m ( 2,926 foot ) , the crew then spot a “ chonky ” ( their run-in , not ours ) batfish with a attractively patterned body line with spines .
First identify in 1975 , theVailulu’u Seamountrises 4,200 meters ( 13,779 feet ) from the sea storey with a 2 - km ( 1.2 miles ) full crater , corresponding to the size of Mount Rainier in the US or Mount Fuji in Japan . seamount like this are engrossing characteristic that oftenbecome hives of biodiversityas they provide wildlife with a solid control surface to hold up upon , issue them with food and nutrient .
The reality ’s sea are litter withseamounts , but they are most abundant in the Pacific . One particularly fiery hot spot is the " Ring of Fire " , a horseshoe - shaped band of tectonic activeness and vehement volcano that runs around the Pacific Ocean .
Earlier this twelvemonth , Schmidt Ocean Institute ’s research vesselFalkor ( too)explored the seabed on the Pacific coast of South America andfound four behemoth seamountsranging in size from approximately 1,591 meters ( 5,220 feet ) to 2,681 meters ( 8,796 foot ) .
Countless more seamount are out there just waiting to be discovered , not to mention the abundance ofweird and wonderful lifeformsthey potentially host .
