Rarely-seen deep sea jellyfish recorded in Gulf of Mexico

A giant, rare deep sea jellyfish has been filmed by a remote-control exploration probe in the Gulf of Mexico, marking just the 115th time the creature has been spotted. The footage, uploaded to YouTube on Tuesday, features the reddish-purple jelly fluttering in the Gulf of Mexico at a depth of 3,300 feet. This is not something you want to encounter while swimming but thankfully it seems you have to go pretty deep into the sea to encounter one, as a new video of the creature shows. In 2010, Professor Mark Benfield from Louisiana State University spotted the bizarre-looking creatures as part of a collaborative project between marine scientists and energy companies.

The species, called stygiomedusa gigantea, can grow as wide as one meter in diameter and each of its long, thick tentacles can reach lengths of up to six meters.

Unlike the arms of many jellyfish, S. gigantea’s appendages lack stinging tentacles, according to the BBC. Researchers aren’t sure of their function, but have suggested that the jelly uses its arms to trap its prey.