Rare photo captures extraordinary moment in the sea: 'Beautiful'
This surreal sight, recently captured by rangers from the National Park of American Samoa, is believed to be a floating egg mass laid by a diamondback squid (Thysanoteuthis rhombus) — a large, deep-sea species rarely seen in the act of reproduction.
"Each tiny pink dot is a developing embryo," the National Park wrote in its post. "A rare and beautiful reminder of the ocean's wonders." The remarkable images caught the attention of marine experts in Australia, who confirmed the species and shed light on just how unique these sightings are, even in tropical waters.
While these photos were taken in Polynesian waters, diamondback squid are also found in Australia.
"This large-sized oceanic squid — over 20 kilograms when mature — is distributed globally in tropical and subtropical zones," Dr Wen-Sung Chung, a marine scientist at the University of Queensland, told Yahoo News Australia. "It attracts fisheries interest in several East Asian countries due to its high market price."
Dr Chung confirmed the gelatinous ribbon was the egg mass of the diamondback squid, adding that several oceanic squid species produce similar floating structures. "These large, jelly-like egg masses can contain hundreds of thousands of eggs," he said.
Incredible photos capture rare moment off Aussie coast
Veteran diver devastated over grim Great Barrier Reef report
Incredible event 'triggered by full moon' off famous coast
"Most hatchlings are only one to two millimetres long and are known as paralarvae, which drift with the current. I haven't seen its egg mass on the Oz coast yet," he added, "but I have indeed seen them repeatedly in Taiwan."
Dr Mandy Beasley, from the National Marine Science Centre at Southern Cross University, said the sighting is consistent with the known behaviour of the species. "This oceanic species does occur in Australian waters and is known to have floating egg masses that have been observed also in the Philippines," she told Yahoo.
Dr John Healy, curator of malacology at the Queensland Museum, said the egg mass pictured in Samoa is "well over a metre in length" and likely attracted the nearby fish shown in the images. "They may be trying to eat some of the eggs or simply be curious about the mass," he told Yahoo.
"The species occurs circumglobally, mainly in tropical and subtropical waters, and certainly in Australian waters — but mostly in pairs or as individuals," he said. "The Queensland Museum has a specimen on display that was fished off the beach at the northern end of Moreton Island in 2010 and donated to our collection."
Though the diamondback squid is commercially fished in Japan and parts of Southeast Asia, it's not targeted in Australia. Still, experts say sightings like this — even overseas — help shed light on the mysterious deep-sea lives of oceanic squid and the fragile, fleeting structures they leave behind.
Love Australia's weird and wonderful environment? 🐊🦘😳 Get our new newsletter showcasing the week's best stories.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Yahoo
A Scientist Says He's Solved the Bermuda Triangle, Just Like That
Here's what you'll learn when you read this story: An Australian scientist says probabilities are the leading cause of the Bermuda Triangle disappearances. And he's not the only one. Add in suspect weather, and iffy plane and boat piloting, and Karl Kruszelnicki believes there's no reason to believe in the Bermuda Triangle phenomenon. While the conspiracy of the Bermuda Triangle has existed for decades, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association and Lloyd's of London has long championed the same ideas. Pick any one of the more than 50 ships or 20 planes that have disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle in the last century. Each one has a story without an ending, leading to a litany of conspiracy theories about the disappearances in the area, marked roughly by Florida, Bermuda, and the Greater Antilles. Australian scientist Karl Kruszelnicki doesn't subscribe to the Bermuda Triangle's supernatural reputation. Neither does the United States' own National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA). Both have been saying for years that there's really no Bermuda Triangle mystery. In fact, the loss and disappearance of ships and planes is a mere fact of probabilities. 'There is no evidence that mysterious disappearances occur with any greater frequency in the Bermuda Triangle than in any other large, well-traveled area of the ocean,' NOAA wrote in 2010. And since 2017, Kruszelnicki has been saying the same thing. He told The Independent that the transparent volume of traffic—in a tricky area to navigate, no less—shows 'the number [of ships and planes] that go missing in the Bermuda Triangle is the same as anywhere in the world on a percentage basis.' He says that both Lloyd's of London and the U.S. Coast Guard support that idea. In fact, as The Independent notes, Lloyd's of London has had this same theory since the 1970s. NOAA says environmental considerations can explain away most of the Bermuda Triangle disappearances, highlighting the Gulf Stream's tendency towards violent changes in weather, the number of islands in the Caribbean Sea offering a complicated navigation adventure, and evidence that suggests the Bermuda Triangle may cause a magnetic compass to point to true north instead of magnetic north, causing for confusion in wayfinding. 'The U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard contend that there are no supernatural explanations for disasters at sea,' NOAA says. 'Their experience suggests that the combined forces of nature and human fallibility outdo even the most incredulous science fiction.' Kruszelnicki has routinely garnered public attention for espousing these very thoughts on the Bermuda Triangle, first in 2017 and then again in 2022 before resurfacing once more in 2023. Throughout it all, he's stuck to the same idea: the numbers don't lie. Even with some high-profile disappearances—such as Flight 19, a group of five U.S. Navy TBM Avenger torpedo bombers lost in 1945—pushing the theory into popular culture, Kruszelnicki points out that every instance contains a degree of poor weather or likely human error (or both, as in the case of Flight 19) as the true culprit. But culture clings to Bermuda Triangle conspiracy theories. The concepts of sea monsters, aliens, and even the entirety of Atlantis dropping to the ocean floor—those are fodder for books, television, and movies. It sure does sound more exciting than poor weather and mathematical probabilities, anyway, even if the 'boring' story holds more water. Get the Issue Get the Issue Get the Issue Get the Issue Get the Issue Get the Issue Get the IssueGet the Issue Get the Issue You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Yahoo
Incredible and 'rare' phenomenon on quiet Aussie beach vanishes within 24 hours
A dog walker strolling along a rugged Australian beach was 'amazed' to stumble across a sprawling natural phenomenon few people are lucky enough to witness. While Sybil Jethro thought the formation resembled ancient stalactites, which grow slowly at 10cm every thousand years, experts believe the strange sand flow she photographed likely materialised in milliseconds. Sybil spotted the gnarled shapes in the sand on Sunday morning at Ocean Beach, a wild 37km stretch of sand on Tasmania's west coast. They were just two metres from the water's edge, and directly below a bank of mud or peat. 'I'd say it was as big as a couple of tables, big eight-seater dining room-sized,' she told Yahoo News Australia. 'I couldn't quite work them out. They were close to the water line, so I'm pretty sure the next high tide will just wash them away.' Related: 🦀 Incredible sand formations created by sand bubbler crabs How were the sand formations created? The formations in her pictures have been described as resembling seaweed, tongues, and even caterpillars. But Professor Patrick Hesp, an expert in coastal geomorphology at Flinders University, has settled on the description of 'tongues'. He explained it's 'rare' to see formations as large as these. They form quickly during a sudden inundation of water onto the sand and are quickly destroyed by the tides or more rain. When a bed of sand is suddenly soaked with water, it can form dozens of these long, flowing 'tongues' which then move down the hillside. Professor Hesp compares them to debris flows that occur after heavy water flows turn loose soil, rock and organic matter into a slurry, but in this case, they're much smaller. Their lifespan is short because as they move over sand that's less wet, the moisture sinks below, drying out the tongue above. 'People don't think sand dunes have much water influence, but at times, you get quite significant sheet wash. This means the water is flowing across the surface and washing a fan of sand down,' Professor Hesp explained. 'But on occasions it's more localised, and it produces these saturated flows that just lose all their water suddenly and stop in place.' Replacements form after 'tongues' vanish After returning to Ocean Beach on Monday morning, the original sand tongue Sybil photographed was gone. Signs of million-year-old ancient humans found on Australia's doorstep Solution to Great Barrier Reef problem as new report released Toxic chemicals in simple household items pose worrying 'threat' But already there were new ones forming along the coastline. Although they aren't as intricate as her weekend find, her images help illustrate how these incredible structures form. With her dog sitting on the sand for scale, you can see large globs of sand rolling down the bank. Incredibly, the sand tongues were just 1.5km from where Sybil photographed a rare oarfish in June, also known as a "doomsday fish". While its discovery created national media attention, she was likely the only person to witness the intact fish before it was torn apart by scavenging birds. Love Australia's weird and wonderful environment? 🐊🦘😳 Get our new newsletter showcasing the week's best stories.
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Yahoo
Exercise Can Help Fight Breast Cancer, Experiments Show
A single bout of physical activity could fill the bloodstream with cancer-busting allies. In an experiment involving 32 breast cancer survivors, a 45-minute session of either resistance training or high-intensity interval training resulted in a surge of messenger proteins in the blood. When these players, called myokines, were introduced to breast cancer samples in the lab, they suppressed the growth of tumors by up to 30 percent. Related: "The results from the study show that both types of exercise really work to produce these anti-cancer myokines in breast cancer survivors," says lead author and exercise researcher Francesco Bettariga from Edith Cowan University in Australia. "The results from this study are excellent motivators to add exercise as standard care in the treatment of cancer." The current experiments tested the blood of participants for myokines before exercise, immediately following, and 30 minutes after. Those allocated to the resistance training group performed chest presses, seated rows, shoulder presses, lat pulldowns, leg presses, leg extensions, leg curls, and lunges. Those allocated to the high-intensity interval training, meanwhile, performed sets on the stationary cycle, treadmill, rower, and cross-trainer. Ultimately, these exercises drove a short-term uptick in three types of myokine: decorin, IL-6, and SPARC. Skeletal muscle secretes myokines into the bloodstream in response to exercise to stimulate growth or burn fat, though the proteins are known to also have anti-inflammatory effects. Preclinical and experimental studies have shown these effects suppress growth in different tumors, including breast cancer. Until now, it was not known if the same phenomenon occurred among cancer survivors. Triple negative cancer cells which form certain kinds of breast cancer lack hormone receptors, so they were not expected to respond to hormonal fluctuations linked to exercise. Nevertheless, Bettariga and colleagues found that the cancer cells were impacted by exercise-associated myokines in the lab. The findings join a growing number of studies that suggest myokines may have the potential to fight cancer. "Our findings demonstrate that both resistance training and high-intensity interval training elicit acute changes in circulating myokines and reduced cancer cell growth, which may contribute to proposed biological pathways involved in cancer control," conclude the authors; "however, further research is needed to determine the long-term relevance of these responses for disease recurrence in breast cancer survivors." The study was published in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment. Related News Microplastics Are Infiltrating Your Brain. What Are The Effects? Washing Your Hands Is Even More Important in Summer. Here's Why. Concerns Emerge Over Potential Cancer Links to Drugs Like Ozempic Solve the daily Crossword
