In Strange & Mysterious Beasts (aka: Mysterious & Strange Beasts) I dealt with stranded unidentified (and very dead) sea creatures as well as globsters. Now you will have to buy the book to read what I wrote but 2016/2017 had a few sea discoveries and mysteries worth taking a quick look at.
If I have missed any please let me know.
BBC NEWS (US and Canada) published this little item
on 13th September, 2017-http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41256922
Fanged creature found on Texas beach after Hurricane Harvey
A mysterious fanged sea creature that washed up on a beach
in Texas
following Hurricane Harvey has been identified.
Preeti Desai found the decaying fish on a beach in Texas City, and asked
Twitter for help.
She posted several photos with the caption: "Okay,
biology twitter, what the heck is this?"
Her request was passed to biologist and eel specialist Dr
Kenneth Tighe, who believes it is a fangtooth snake-eel.
He said it may also be a garden or conger eel, because
"all three of these species occur off Texas and have large fang-like teeth".
Preeti Desai found the creature on a Texas beach and asked Twitter for help
identifying it
Okay, biology twitter, what the heck is this?? Found on a
beach in Texas City, TX.
It is thought that Hurricane Harvey, which brought strong
winds and flooding to Texas,
could explain why the creature was washed up.
The fangtooth snake-eel, also known as a "tusky"
eel, is usually found in waters between 30 and 90 metres deep in the western Atlantic ocean.
Ms Desai, who was at the beach assessing the damage from the
hurricane, told the BBC: "It was completely unexpected, it's not something
that you'd typically see on a beach. I thought it could be something from the
deep sea that might have washed on to shore."
"My main reaction was curiosity, to figure out what the
heck it was," she added.
Ms Desai said she posted the images on Twitter because she
knows a lot of scientists use it, and a friend soon responded and contacted Dr
Tighe.
"I follow a lot of scientists and researchers. There's
such a great community of these folks that are very helpful, especially when it
comes to answering questions about the world or identifying animals and
plants," she said.
She said she left the eel on the beach "to let nature
take its course".
The eel is pictured on the beachImage
copyrightTWITTER/@PREETALINA
Image copyrightOCEAN EXPLORATION TRUSTImage captionA stubby "googly-eyed" purple animal looking like a cross between an octopus and a squid
Scores of spectacular and rare under sea species have been found by expeditions this year to some of the deepest trenches in the Pacific Ocean.
They include strange purple orbs, "mud monsters" and a bizarre swimming sea cucumber reminiscent of a flying Mary Poppins.
Another voyage found around 500 new undersea methane vents off the US west coast.
This doubles the number of known seeps, bubbling up a powerful greenhouse gas.
The gas vents were found by an expedition mounted by Dr Robert Ballard, the man who first located the wreck of the Titanic.
Image copyrightNOAAImage captionAn acorn worm that's described as a bizarre purple 'mud monster'
In his ship, the Nautilus, the Ballard team found new vents which were discovered off Washington, Oregon and California.
Little is known about the amount of methane that is coming out from these vents and how much is entering the atmosphere. But researchers say the new discoveries may better inform global estimates of these emissions.
"Methane seeps were basically unknown 20 years ago," said Prof Jesse Ausubel, from the Rockefeller University, part of the Nautilus team.
Image copyrightNOAAImage captionA strange floating sea cucumber, said to be reminiscent of Mary Poppins
"At first people thought they were incredibly rare and now, thanks to these expeditions, these seeps may be very widespread, so the (methane) budgets may have to be recalculated, that's why the exploration is important."
As well as discovering three new "black smoker" hydrothermal vents stretching up to 30 metres in height, the voyage also revealed some rarely seen, mysterious creatures.
Image copyrightOCEAN EXPLORATION TRUSTImage captionRare and mysterious creatures have been discovered on this year's deep voyages include this purple orb
"I think it's always surprising what we find," said Dr Nicole Raineault, director of science operations at the Ocean Exploration Trust, which organised the expedition.
"We've looked in the Mediterranean, the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean and now the eastern Pacific Ocean with these remotely operated vehicles to get images of the sea floor, and we are continually surprised with the variety of life that we find."
"It just underscores how little we know about the ocean and how much more there is to discover our there."
"The carcass is about six metres long, but that's obviously not the whole carcass - there's no tail so it would have been bigger than that.
"That would suggest that it was probably a whale."
Image captionBlue whales are the largest creatures on Earth
'But it could be a manatee'
"They have numerous whale species in the Philippines such as the blue whale, fin whales and humpback whales as well as smaller whales such as minke whales.
"But they also have manatees out there, so it could be a manatee.
"Unfortunately with this animal it is far too decomposed to be able to get a confident identification on what animal it was."
Image captionManatees are also known as sea cows
Whales and manatees aren't hairy though
She explains that the "hair" you can see in the image is actually more likely to be muscle fibres, where the body has gone quite far along the decomposition process.
"Other creatures could have sped up the decomposition process, but it looks like a normally decomposing carcass," she says.
So what was it doing there?
Lucy says that only 10% of whales and dolphins that die out at sea actually end up on the shore.
"There's an awful lot that die and stay out at sea," she says.
"They can come to the shore for a variety of reasons, but in this case, because it's an animal that died quite a while ago, it could have washed up because of storm surges."
"That could have caused pressure on the seabed, which could have got the animal up nearer to the surface and onto the shoreline," says Lucy.
"It could have shifted the carcass, it could have caused differences in the tides and the strengths of the waves which would have washed it up on the shore."
Risk to human health
"There is obviously a risk of contamination," says Lucy.
"Any decomposing animal will carry diseases, so now they will need to safely dispose of it.
"In this country [the UK] we would put them in a landfill site, but they may move the carcass far out to sea."
Image captionA sperm whale carcass in Norfolk
Things like this don't wash up in the UK
"The animals we have wash up are pretty fresh. We get lots of whales, dolphins and sharks," explains Lucy.
Image copyrightIWALKCORNWALLImage captionMoon jellies washed up on Perranporth beachImage copyrightREG BUTLERImage captionThe sperm whale was discovered on its side at Perranporth beach on Sunday
Matt Slater, from the Cornwall Wildlife Trust, said: "It's shocking the amount of jellyfish which are turning up.
"There are millions of jellyfish in our waters at this time of year. When I'm out surfing, I keep hitting them with my board."
He added moon jellies were rare in Cornish waters five years ago, but they now seem to be abundant at this time of year.
There could soon be sightings of leatherback turtles - the largest turtles in the world - as these feed on jellyfish, he said.
Christian McConville, from the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, said: "Jellyfish do not have a tremendous amount of control over movement.
"It's likely the prevailing wind drew them to the coast and the tide left them on the beach."
He said this is the first major stranding event that he has seen this year.
OCEAN EXPLORATION TRUST
NOAA
NOAA
OCEAN EXPLORATION TRUST
MEGAN WALTON
IWALKCORNWALL
IWALKCORNWALL
REG BUTLER
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