"Jelly" like critter ID

[kidspot]

Spotted this really amazing looking creature on my last Carthaginian dive - he was hanging out about 10fsw slowly curling and uncurling. At first I thought it was a piece of curved acrylic that had fallen off a boat or something because it was so uniform and straight in appearance (unlike my drawing below) Unfortunately I did not have my camera... Any ideas what it was or where I can go to figure it out?

It was transparent, except for a thin "organ" like structure cutting across the middle of the animal. 2 feet above it a small (softball sized) box jellyfish was hanging out, so it was a really interesting stop.

Aloha, Tim

 

[LeslieH]

That would be "Venus's girdle", an unusual ctenophore that's up to 5 feet long and flattened. The latin name is Cestum veneris. You'll find images of it doing a search on either name.

 

[kidspot]

Thank you ... found several pictures, though none of them showed it as uniform as this one appeared, almost manufactured.

Cestum veneris has a nice picture.

Aloha, Tim

 

[kidspot]

My dive buddy, Sean, just put up a video of this dive and the first part is of the jelly.



Aloha, Tim

 

[dawnskies]

Very interesting, Great video. I have see these at the Flower Gardens as well.