Catastrophic Oil Spill From Abandoned Ship in The Red Sea Could Happen Any Second

If the coral refuge of the Red Sea can survive local pollution, scientists think these reefs may be the last ones standing on a rapidly warming planet. But that's a giant 'if'.

Right now, life during this region is moored to the fate of a 45-year-old tanker, gradually rusting away off the western coast of Yemen, with 1,000,000 barrels of oil in its hold.

Neglected by its owners for over five years, this massive old ship – the FSO Safer – represents serious danger, ironically enough.

Ever since war broke out on the mainland between Iran-allied Houthi rebels and Saudi-led forces, the state-owned Yemeni company has lost access to its ship, even for repairs, and rebel forces have to this point refused the international organisation an opportunity to intervene.

Under the established order, environmental experts warn it's just a matter of your time before all 34 of the Safer's storage tanks sink into the ocean, causing an oil spill fourfold the scale of the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989.

"A 1-million-barrel leak guarantees a regional environmental and humanitarian disaster," a replacement study warns.

"Devastation to the health and livelihoods of immeasurable people living in half a dozen countries along the sea coast would be assured. The air they breathe, the food they harvest bewildered, and their water desalination are all at immediate risk."

According to the study, local currents will make sure the distribution of oil to coral reefs that cover nearly all 4,000 kilometres of the sea coastline.

The Gulf of Aqaba, which is tucked within the northernmost corner of the sea, is home to at least one of the foremost pristine reef ecosystems within the world, and its corals have proved remarkably proof against rising temperatures and ocean acidification. A spill of this magnitude might be its undoing.

Currents of the Red Sea. (Viviane Menezes/WHOI)

Having modelled the distribution of a 30-day Red Sea oil spill in both winter and summer conditions, researchers now warn that we are squandering precious time. The Safer is in its final stages of decay, they say, and that we are approaching the worst season for an oil spill. 

In May of this year, a breach of seawater within the hull of the Safer was temporarily patched. Shortly after, in September, officials in the Asian nation claimed to own found an "oil spot" near the vessel, which sits right within the Red Sea's shipping lane.

While these reports haven't been verified, if the ship continues to decay at such a rate into winter, it can be catastrophic.

"It is obvious from the analysis that in winter oil dispersion will extend further north and into the centre of the Red Sea as compared to a spill dispersing during summer," the authors write.

"Therefore, action should be taken before winter, as a winter spill ensures that the oil will spread further north and can [remain] trapped for extended within the Red Sea."

Corals in the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea. (Maoz Fine)

The good news is that rebel forces have ultimately agreed to let the UN inspect and repair the tanker, in line with The big apple Times. The bad news is that this servicing has been delayed until January - if it occurs in the least.

The last time rebel forces agreed to let the UN service the tanker within the summer of 2019, they changed their minds the night before.

"The time is now to stop a possible devastation to the region's waters and therefore the livelihoods and health of countless people living in half a dozen countries along the Red Sea's coast," says coral researcher Karine Kleinhaus from Stony Brook University in the big apple.

"If a spill from the Safer is allowed to occur, the oil would spread via ocean currents to devastate a worldwide ocean resource, because the coral reefs of the northern Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba are projected to be among the last reef ecosystems within the world to survive the approaching decades."

Most of the time, oil spills come as a surprise - a minimum of to the extent that we do not know after they are visiting occur. But researchers say this is often the foremost advanced warning of a significant spill we've ever had, yet we're squandering the chance to prevent it.

Despite several reports of corroding pipes and leaks, the UN International Maritime Organization (IMO) still has no decisively assured route to repairing the ship or removing the oil, although the vessel is increasingly in danger of sinking.

Besides, repairs are probably not visiting cut it at now, although they might buy us precious time to dump the oil.

"Our last chance to pump off the oil within the vessel and stockpile oil booms regionally to contain an imminent spill is quickly disappearing," the authors warn.

Environmental experts have long described the Safer as a 'floating bomb', and as long as the oil itself has been left to rot, some diplomats think the rebels agree and are using it as a deterrent, "like having a nuclear weapon".

Rebel forces may also see it as leverage. With the correct price, UN officials may well be able to remedy matters, but who to pay and the way much continues to be under intense negotiation.

Some losses, after all, are priceless.

In July, a Yemeni environmental group estimated it'd take 30 years for the environment to recover if the Safer sank, and over 126,000 people during this nation alone could potentially lose their livelihoods from the following pollution.

If pollution clogs up the region's myriad desalination plants, it could deprive countless people of water. Many of these in Yemen are already facing starvation and poverty from the continued war.

"The UN, the IMO, and global oil extraction, refinement and shipping companies must act to protect the Red Sea and its critical marine resources by acting to stop this potentially massive and devastating spill," the authors conclude.

We know what we have to do, now we have to make it happen.

We Just Had The Only Total Solar Eclipse of 2020, And The Photos Are Amazing

Thousands of individuals turned their heads to the sky to look at an eclipse that lasted around two minutes on Monday as southern Chile and Argentina were plunged into darkness.

Heavy rain had threatened to stop star gazers in Chile from seeing the eclipse but at the last moment, the clouds parted merely enough for the phenomenon to be partially visible.

"It was beautiful, unique. the reality is that no-one held much hope of seeing it because of the weather and clouds, but it had been unique because it cleared up just in time. it had been a miracle," an emotional Matias Tordecilla, 18, told AFP within the town of Pucon on the shores of Lake Villarrica.

"It's something that you simply don't just see together {with your|along with your} eyes but also feel with your heart," added Tordecilla, who traveled 10 hours along with his family to work out the eclipse.

The eclipse seen in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 14 Dec 2020. (Muhammed Emin Canik/Anadolu Agency via AFP)

It was the second occultation for Chile within the last 18 months.

This one struck at 1:00 pm (1600 GMT) as thousands of tourists and residents gathered, hoping the clouds would disappear in time.

"It gave me goosebumps everywhere," said Pucon resident Cinthia Vega.

In Argentine Patagonia, several families and foreigners had founded camp between the towns of Villa El Chacon and Piedra del Aguila hoping to determine the eclipse.

The arm of a statue is seen as solar eclipse occurs in Santiago, Chile on 14 Dec 2020. (Cristobal Saavedra Vogel /Anadolu Agency via AFP)

While there was no rain there, strong winds had threatened to impact visibility.

Despite COVID-19 restrictions on movement, almost 300,000 tourists had arrived within the Araucania region around 800-kilometers (500 miles) south of the capital Santiago.

Dozens of amateur and professional scientists founded telescopes on the slopes of the Villarrica volcano - one among the foremost active in Chile - to look at the phenomenon when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth.

The total solar eclipse as seen from from Pucon, southern Chile, on 14 Dec 2020. (Martin Bernetti/AFP)

The eclipse was thanks to being visible along a 90-kilometer wide corridor from the coast in Chile across the Andes geological formation and into Argentina.

In July 2019, some 300,000 people clothed within the Atacama Desert in Chile's north, home to many observatories, to determine the previous eclipse.

Battle with evil force

Chilean authorities had been worried that the eclipse would attract large gatherings of individuals.

There are over 570,000 coronavirus cases amongst the 18 million population with almost 16,000 confirmed deaths.

Strict controls were announced for the areas where the full eclipse would be visible, with free movement banned both the day before and after.

This event was eagerly anticipated amongst Chile's Mapuche indigenous community, the most important such group within the country's south.

A Mapuche indigenous family watch the eclipse in Carahue in southern Chile. (Mario Quilodran/AFP)

"Today we were all hoping for a sunny day but nature gave us rain and at the identical time it's giving us something we want," Estela Nahuelpan, a frontrunner within the Mateo Nahuelpan community within the southern city of Carahue, told AFP.

"In Mapuche culture, the eclipse has different meanings: they discuss 'Lan Antu', just like the death of the Sun and also the conflict between the Moon and therefore the Sun," she said.

"It refers to the required balance that has got to exist in nature."

In another tradition, an eclipse signifies the temporary death of the Sun during a battle between the star and an evil force referred to as "Wekufu".

Indigenous people want to worship the Sun "like a God", astronomer Jose Maza told AFP last week.

According to indigenous expert Juan Nanculef, the people would light bonfires and launch "stones and arrows into the air" to assist the Sun in its battle against the Wekufu.

Nanculef actually performed a ritual because the eclipse began to ask nature to bring an end to the rains and make it visible.

"Previously it had been 100% effective," he said.

This time it seems to possess worked just to a tolerable degree to grant people a glimpse of the eclipse.

Scientists Think They've Discovered a New Species of Beaked Whale

Scientists may have discovered a large-toothed mammal off the western coast of Mexico that they say looks and sounds unlike anything else on Earth.

Researchers collected environmental genetic samples of this strange creature that are still being analyzed, but the images and acoustic recordings have researchers "highly confident" it is a never-before-described species of toothed whale.

"We saw something new. Something that was not expected in this area, something that doesn't match, either visually or acoustically, anything that is known to exist," announced Jay Barlow, a marine mammal researcher who worked with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a non-profit, marine wildlife conservation organization, during the expedition.

"It just sends chills up and down my spine when I think that we might have accomplished what most people would say was truly impossible – finding a large mammal that exists on this earth that is totally unknown to science."

A snapshot of the possibly new species. (Simon Ager/Sea Shepherd)

It all started in 2018 when a strange sound was picked up in the waters around Mexico's San Benito Islands (and, before that, off the coast of California). Whales, dolphins, and porpoises are all known to have their own unique calls, but this sound, known as BW43, was harder to place. It didn't really fit in anywhere.

At the time, scientists suspected it might belong to an elusive species of deep-diving beaked whale – a kind that had never before been observed alive. In fact, Perrin's beaked whale (Mesoplodon perrini), as it is known, was only identified as its own species after five corpses washed up on California's beaches between 1975 and 1997. Before that, it was lumped in with Hector's beaked whale (Mesoplodon hectori), which looks similar.

This year, while searching for the source of BW42 a hundred kilometers off the coast of Mexico, an expedition from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ended up finding what they think may be a different species entirely.

Researchers say the images taken don't resemble Perrin's toothed whale or the other member of the Hyperoodontidae family. Nor do its acoustics, picked up on an underwater microphone, sound like any other known cetacean.

As such, the team of beaked whale experts thinks it must be a newly discovered species, although verification is still needed.

"The discovery of a new species of beaked whale proves how much mystery there is left to discover in the oceans that our captains, crews, and research partners fight to defend," says Peter Hammarstedt, the campaign director for Sea Shepherd.

 

Beaked whales are one of the least well-known groups of mammals in the world, largely because of their preference for the deep sea, spending the vast majority of their time thousands of meters below the waves.

For instance, just last month, Cuvier's toothed whale (Ziphius cavirostris) set a record for the longest drive ever recorded during a marine mammal, spending nearly four hours underwater without a breath.

Hundreds of years after naming the primary toothed whale, scientists are still finding new species of this massive, deep-diving mammal. At first, scientists thought there were only two species. Now, we've identified a minimum of 23, a number of which haven't been seen alive. Only a couple are studied in any detail.

Some, like True's toothed whale (Mesoplodon mirus) can weigh thousands of pounds, and yet even then, only a couple of individuals have ever seen them swimming within the wild.

In 2016, DNA analysis confirmed a replacement toothed whale species had washed abreast of the coast of Japan and Alaska with a rare black coloring. After several genetic lines of evidence, the creature was officially named Berardius minimus, or Sato's toothed whale, in 2019.

Now, a year later, it looks like we've found yet another. But this time, they were alive and singing.

Two individuals of a possible newly discovered whale species. (Simon Ager/Sea Shepherd)

Describing a new species of animal requires several lines of evidence and an independent review. The expedition was able to take photographs, record acoustic recordings, and collect environmental genetic sampling.

"We're literally taking water samples from where the whale's dove, so right where they were," Elizabeth Henderson, a bioacoustics scientist at the Naval IW Center Pacific and another research on the Sea Shepherd expedition, tells Mongabay.

"The hope is that there's some genetic material left in the water, whether that's sloughed skin, whether it's some remnants of fecal matter."

Distinguishing between species is difficult enough, but for the beaked whale, it's especially challenging. The sheer lack of data on each species makes it hard to match them without proper genetic samples.

In many cases, we will not even find out their conservation status. Without knowing their population numbers, whether or not they migrate, and what their habitats are like, it's hard to mention how beaked whales are coping during a rapidly changing world.

"Sea Shepherd strongly believes in the critical role that scientific research plays in supporting strong conservation action," says Hammarstedt.

"To properly protect something, you have to love it; and you cannot love that which you do not know."

Gruesome 'Tower of Skulls' Discovery in Mexico Unearths Over 100 Aztec Sacrifices

 Mexican archaeologists said Friday that they had found remains of 119 more people, including women and a number of other children, during a centuries-old Aztec "tower of skulls" within the heart of the capital.

The new discovery was announced after an eastern section of the Huei Tzompantli was uncovered along with the outer facade, five years after the northeastern side was found.

Archaeologists believe that a lot of the skulls belonged to captured enemy warriors which the tower was intended as a warning to rivals of the Aztec empire, which was overthrown by Spanish conquistadors in 1521.

Some of the remains might be of individuals who were killed in ritual sacrifices to appease the gods, consistent with experts quoted during a statement released by the National Anthropology and History Institute.

"Although we cannot determine how many of these individuals were warriors, perhaps some were captives set aside for sacrificial ceremonies," archaeologist Barrera Rodriguez said.

The tower, 4.7 meters (15.4 feet) in diameter, is assumed to possess been built around the end of the 15th century.

It is located within the area of the Templo Mayor, one among the most temples of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan within the historic district of modern-day Mexico City.

In total, more than 600 skulls have now been found at the site, which Mexican authorities have described as one of the country's most important archaeological discoveries in years.

"At every step, the Templo Mayor continues to surprise us," Culture Minister Alejandra Frausto said in a statement.

"The Huei Tzompantli is, without a doubt, one among the foremost impressive archaeological finds in our country in recent years."

The statement noted that in Mesoamerica human sacrifice was seen as a way of ensuring the continued existence of the universe.

For that reason, experts consider the tower to be "a building of life instead of death," it said.

Scientists Capture Incredibly Rare Footage of Deep-Sea Fish Devouring a Whole Shark

 Feasts are rare on the barren landscape of the ocean depths. So researchers couldn't believe their luck after they chanced on a feeding frenzy of deep-sea sharks chowing down on a fallen swordfish off the US coast in July 2019.

But they never imagined they might also capture footage of 1 of these sharks becoming the prey for an additional deep-sea creature.

With their rover hovering nearby, a late arrival took advantage of the submersible's shadow. Nobody might blame a wary fish for holding back while ravenous sharks feed, but this heavyweight had plans to show one amongst the diners into its dinner.

A video posted by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows the aftermath of the ambush by a hungry wreckfish. you'll watch it for yourself within the clip below, with shark lunch being served at around 1:42.

The action materialized at a depth of about 450 metres (roughly 1,480 ft) near an increase within the seafloor 130 kilometres (80 miles) off the coast of South Carolina.

While scouting for the wreck of the tanker SS Bloody Marsh, NOAA's remotely operated vehicle Deep Discoverer chanced upon the remains of a 2.5 metre (8 ft) long swordfish being chewed on by nearly a dozen deep-sea sharks.

"The reason behind the death of this majestic animal is unclear, perhaps as a result of age, disease, or another injury," says marine scientist Peter J. Auster from the University of Connecticut.

"There was no visible hook or trail of cord suggesting this was a lost catch. However, any variety of injury would are masked by the huge damage caused by many shark bites."

The sharks were two species of slow-moving, deep-sea dogfish commonly spoken as sleeper sharks. Two of the larger individuals were likely to be rough skin dogfish (Centroscymnus owstonii).

Others belonged to a comparatively newly discovered animal: Genie's dogfish (Squalus clarkae), named in honour of Mote Marine Laboratory founder Eugenie 'Shark Lady' Clark in 2018.

Both of the sleeper shark species are commonly found at these types of depths, sluggishly cruising about until some morsel happens by. Or, as during this case, happens to precipitate like manna from heaven somewhere within the area.

Sniffing out food on the currents, or perhaps detecting the vibrations of earlier arrivals, it's believed they might have journeyed from far just to stock up on the food drop.

Whatever attracted the scavengers, it wasn't long before what looks to be a solitary trouble Atlantic wreckfish (Polyprion americanus) also homed in on the scene for a simple meal.

These massive fish also are named as sea bass and bass gropers. they will exceed 2 metres (about 7 feet) long and typically hang around trouble caves and shipwrecks.

Whether it came for the daily special but stayed for the party isn't clear. But because the feast continued, the wreckfish emerged from the glare of the Deep Discover's lights to wrap its lips around one amongst the sharks.

"This rare and startling event leaves us with more questions than answers, but such is that the nature of scientific exploration," says Auster.

New Evidence Supports Controversial Claim of Humans in The Americas 130,000 Years Ago

 Three years ago, a team of archaeologists within u.  s. proposed a rare idea: the primary human settlers within the Americas received least 100,000 years previous we thought.

The evidence came from a set of mastodon bones and ancient stones dating back to around 130,000 years ago, which perceived to are hammered and scraped by early humans. 

The remains were found within the suburbs of the point of entry within the 1990s, and therefore the researchers think that the nearby stones may are used as hammers and anvils to figure on the bones. But outside of that, no other traces of human action were found.

Today, the Cerutti Mastodon (CM) site remains one of the foremost controversial archaeological digs within the world. For years, scientists are going back and forth over the results and whether or not they indicate the presence of humans in North America 130,000 years ago, but the first authors aren't let go. 

The team has now published a follow-up paper that claims to possess found traces of ancient mastodon bones on the upward-facing sides of two cobblestones collected from the location. 

According to the paper, mastodon bones were indeed placed on top of those rocky 'anvils' and struck with some variety of hammers - presumably by humans.

If the bones were merely in passive contact with the rocks, you'd expect to determine their influence everywhere they were touching, not just the highest part. 

There also doesn't appear to be any modern contamination, the authors add. the traditional artifacts were found near a road work site, so some critics think the bones were broken and scraped by the activity of trucks and other similar disturbances.

While this can be much possible, researchers say it doesn't explain the residue on the stones.

When collecting bones and stones from the positioning, the team in the urban center claims to own taken care. they are saying there was no opportunity for bone material to disintegrate or "float" into the air and onto a stone at the initial site or within the lab afterward.

Even within the soil, bone residues from these mastodons were discovered at much lower concentrations than what was measured on some parts of the cobblestones.

"Fossil bone residues documented with the Raman microscope were only found in residue extractions sampled from the doubtless used surfaces and are therefore considered to be more likely use-related," the authors write.

"As our investigations have indicated that the bone residues are less likely to originate from sediments or contact with bones within the bone bed as discussed above, the foremost parsimonious explanation is that the residues (and wear) derive from deliberate contact with bone. We consider this scenario to be the foremost likely." 

Still, there's one key missing ingredient: collagen. this can be a very important part of mammal bones, and if stones were wont to break apart the mastodon skeleton, you'd expect to search out some traces of collagen.

It's very possible that the collagen during this case had already disintegrated from the passing of your time. Or it might be that measurements simply didn't acquire its presence.

But archaeologist Gary Haynes, who wasn't involved in the study, told Science News he thinks the more likely scenario is that road work vehicles buried these stones next to the mastodon bones, long after their collagen had disappeared.

He's not the sole one who's skeptical. Today, most evidence suggests human settlers arrived within the Americas roughly 14,000 to 20,000 years ago. A date of 130,000 years is kind of the claim, and it requires extraordinary evidence, which some scientists argue is lacking.

A rebuttal to the initial 2017 paper argued that other processes outside of human hammering produced the bone damage, especially from heavy construction equipment.

Even before humans came along there was probably disturbance within the area. Over time, as fluvial deposits slowly covered the remains, these mastodon bones would have remained somewhat flexible, and this implies they might are trampled, displaced, fractured, abraded, and reoriented by other mammals that used the traditional muddy watercourse.

"The extraordinary claim by Holen et al. of prehistoric hominin involvement at the CM site shouldn't be dependant on evidence that's receptive multiple, contrasting interpretations," the authors of the rebuttal argue.

"Until unambiguous evidence of hominin activities is presented, like formal stone tools or an abundance of percussion pits, caution requires us to line aside from the claims of Holen et al. of prehistoric hominin activities at the CM site."

Shortly afterward, the first authors wrote a rebuttal to the rebuttal. In it, they argued that there's no evidence of fluvial deposits in which the bones were broken before they were buried and not trampled afterward.

"Healthy skepticism is that the foundation of excellent science, and also the publication of this discovery is that the beginning of a scientific debate, which I welcome and encourage,"  Tom Deméré, a paleontologist at the port of entry explanation Museum and one in all the initial authors, argued some years ago.

"What I didn't expect was the reluctance of scientists to have interaction in a very two-way conversation to objectively evaluate our hypothesis." 

Archaeologist David Meltzer from Southern Methodist University is skeptical but receptive the controversy. He says he can be convinced that humans arrived within the Americas a 100,000 years previous we thought, but that he hasn't seen enough evidence yet. 

"Given everything we all know, it makes no sense," he told Nature in 2018. "You're not visiting flip people's opinion 180 degrees unless you have absolutely unimpeachable evidence, and this ain't it."

Perhaps this new bout of evidence will help clear up a number of that doubt. More likely than not, however, it'll merely trigger a series of latest rebuttals.

Scientists Confirm Entirely New Species of Gelatinous Blob From The Deep, Dark Sea

 

For the primary time, scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have formally identified a replacement species of undersea creature-based solely on high-definition video footage captured at the underside of the ocean.

And what an undersea creature it's. Meet Duobrachium sparks are – a weird, gelatinous species of ctenophore, encountered by the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Deep Discoverer during a dive off the coast of Puerto Rico.

That encounter befell back in 2015, but when you're acquisition to discovering an entirely new species – based solely on video evidence, for that matter, with no physical specimens to assist make your case – it helps to try and do your due diligence.

Luckily, Deep Discoverer's cameras – the footage of which you'll be able to see here – were up to the work, capable of reading subtle details on D. spark she's body but a millimetre long.

Duobrachium sparksae. (NOAA)

Subsequent analysis of the organism – now detailed in an exceedingly new paper – indicates it's easily distinguishable from all other known ctenophore species, the researchers say.

"It's unique because we were able to describe a replacement species based entirely on high-definition video," explains NOAA marine biologist Allen Collins.

"We haven't got the identical microscopes as we might in a very lab, but the video can give us enough information to grasp the morphology intimately, like the situation of their reproductive parts and other aspects."

Those aspects are manifold. From a distance, D. spark she's most notable feature is its bulbous, balloon-like body, but it also features two prominent tentacle arms.

In total, three different individuals were filmed by the ROV at depths of around 3,900 metres (almost 2.5 miles down), with one amongst the animals appearing to perhaps be using its tentacles to anchor itself to the seabed.

"It was a fine-looking and unique organism," says oceanographer Mike Ford.

"It moved sort of a hot air balloon attached to the seafloor on two lines, maintaining a particular altitude above the seafloor. Whether it's attached to the seabed, we're unsure. We failed to observe direct attachment during the dive, but it looks like the organism touches the seafloor."

The other specimens may not are touching the seabed, but all three of the animals were spotted within two metres of it, in a very feature called the Arecibo Amphitheater, which lies within an underwater trench referred to as the Guajataca Canyon.

It's in these very deep parts of the ocean where ctenophores are found, but the acute depth of their natural habitat means we do not encounter these mysterious animals – in addition to new species – fairly often.

Ctenophores elapse variety of common names, many of which seem almost comical: comb jellies (named after their 'combs' of fine cilia) is that the most well-liked, but they need also been stated as sea gooseberries, sea walnuts, and Venus's girdles.

Digital illustrations of Duobrachium sparksae. (Nicholas Bezio).

While the animals can superficially resemble jellyfish, they're not closely related. Ctenophores, which are carnivorous, subsist on small arthropods and various forms of larvae.

Up to about 200 species are described so far, with about one new species being found annually on the average, and most discoveries depend upon video capture methods for the premise of physical descriptions, given the difficulties of collecting specimens.

"This presents somewhat of a conundrum because taxonomy relies heavily upon physical type specimens preserved in museums to function references to which other material will be compared," the researchers explain in their paper.

"Indeed, the thought of using photographic evidence to ascertain new species has been highly contentious in recent decades."

Luckily, given the high-definition footage the team got off those three fine specimens of D. sparks are, the researchers say they didn't get "any pushback" about their species discovery.

While the team hopes to gather specimens on future dives for physical analysis, they are saying it would be decades before they need the prospect to run into the invertebrate again.

For D. spark she's sake, that may be for the best: bringing a gelatinous blob up to water level, when it normally resides about 4 kilometres under the ocean's surface, maybe a messy affair.

"Even if we had the equipment, there would are little or no time to process the animal because gelatinous animals don't preserve all right," Collins says.

"Ctenophores are even worse than jellyfish during this regard."