What Is This?

[soltari675]

Not sure if this is the right place, but thought I would try. Last April I did my first ocean dives off the east coast of Florida. I've been able to identify most of what I saw, but got a picture of something I haven't been able to figure out what it is. I saw a few of them and made sure not to touch. Would be grateful if anyone knew. Thanks!

 

[herbdb]

Looks like a Comb Jelly to me.

 

[soltari675]

Thank you! I looked comb jellies up and found some images that look a lot like this. I'd have never known where to look without your help.

 

[blackvans1234]

next time you could probably post in the Florida conch divers forum. They're amazing with ID'ing fish/ other things

 

[jdandvalerie]

FYI, here's a short clip of one if you want to see it in motion. Had to do some research myself when we saw it.

[video]http://jdandvalerie.smugmug.com/Other/Combjelly/17627636_vddFW3#1343369387_929mgTC-A-LB[/video]

Cheers

 

[PatW]

Like the others, I think it is a comb jelly.

 

[Larry C]

Hard to tell for sure with the backscatter (they're notoriously hard to take pics of because they live in Plankton layers, primarily), but it does look like some sort of comb jelly. Sea Butterflies are similar, but as they swim you'll see them open up like wings. Some of the combs have really cool strings of red and blue iridescent "X-mas lights" running through them. They light sequentially from end to end. We see everything from near microscopic ones to some combs about a foot long here. They come floating up from the Monterey Canyon during upwellings and feed on our green layer. Some of the TV specials on deep water exploration have had some really cool videos of them.

 

[soltari675]

Thanks again everyone. It never opened up and it did have iridescent colors along the edges. I saw 2 or 3 of them. The backscatter is my fault. I don't have a strobe yet. I am just now practicing my buoyancy with the basic camera first. I have looked up comb jellies based on your recommendations and I think you are right. They seem to be exactly what I saw.