What are these bag-like jellies?

[Merry]

Besides the vampire squid cloak, we saw a couple dozen of these jellies at the surface. Netting one proved that they were indeed gelatinous. They ranged from ~8 to 16". Help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[drbill]

Got me stumped (not hard to do though).

 

[dumpsterDiver]

colonial salp? especially that one little one with color? meh.. that was a guess.

 

[Hank49]

The nearest thing I could guess is salps also. Where is that? I've seen them in the Philppines....not exactly like your pics though.

 

[archman]

Looks like them lobate ctenophore things. The ones where the lobes look like giant wings. If you examine the pics you can make out the pattern pretty well for all the specimens. Some of them look a bit er... jacked up. Ha.

 

[Merry]

Thank you, archman! Found this 2007 paper, Feeding behavior of the ctenophore Thalassocalyce inconstans: revision of anatomy of the order Thalassocalycida. Holly F. Swift · William M. Hamner · Bruce H. Robison · Laurence P. Madin

The article may give us more insight - I regret not gearing up to get UW photos of these guys. Would have cleared things up a bit.

 

[drbill]

Did you see any ctenes on them?

 

[Merry]

Sure didn't, Dr. Bill, but then, we were looking down at them. What was remarkable was their size, and one of them was pretty darn hefty in the net. Didn't have the tank set up, and my rig was set up with a macro lens, or I would have jumped in the water. Excuses, excuses...

 

[drbill]

You and Phil have certainly had a few interesting discoveries lately, Merry!