‘Headless Chicken Monster’ Spotted in the Deep Sea

A sea cucumber, previously only filmed off the Gulf of Mexico, was seen floating near Antarctica.

Image

A "“headless chicken monster”" — a swimming sea cucumber — was discovered using an underwater camera system developed for commercial longline fishing by the Australian Antarctic Division.CreditCreditThe National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

By Livia Albeck-Ripka

Oct. 22, 2018

MELBOURNE, Australia — What lives a mile under the sea, has tentacles and fins and looks like a decapitated chicken ready for roasting?

The headless chicken monster, of course.

Yes, that is actually the name of a rare creature caught on film this week by researchers working in the Southern Ocean, about 4,000 kilometers, or nearly 2,5000 miles, off the southwest corner of Australia.

The “monster” — actually a sea cucumber that helps to filter organic matter on the ocean floor — has been caught on film only once before, last year in the Gulf of Mexico.

Floored by its unusual physique, the scientists christened it the headless chicken monster. (It is also known as the swimming sea cucumber, the Spanish dancer and by its scientific name — Enypniastes eximia.)

“It looks a bit like a chicken just before you put it in oven,” said Dirk Welsford, the program leader for the Australian Antarctic Division, who was among the researchers to spot the animal off the coast of Antarctica.

As part of a project to explore the impact of fishing on sensitive marine ecosystems, Dr. Welsford and his team attached specially designed cameras to fishing lines dropped to depths of three kilometers, or nearly two miles.

This particular project, Dr. Welsford said, was designed to explore the effects of commercial fishing on two species: the Antarctic toothfish and the Patagonian toothfish, better known to American consumers as Chilean sea bass.

“We had no idea what it was,” Dr. Welsford said upon seeing footage of the creature for the first time.

Unlike most sea cucumbers, the headless chicken monster has fins, which allow it so swim upward to escape predators.

“From a research point of view, it’s very interesting, because no one has seen that species that far south before,” Dr. Welsford said, adding that discovering the animal near Antarctica could help scientists understand the species’ distribution, and how it might be affected by climate change.

While sightings of the sea cucumber go back to the late 1800s, scientists have “absolutely no idea” how many there are in the world’s oceans, Dr. Welsford said. It’s “an amazing reflection of how little we know about the deep ocean.”

In addition to the monster, the researchers have captured footage of “breathtaking” species never before seen in the Southern Ocean, they said in a statement.

Understanding which parts of the seafloor are home to unique marine life is crucial to determining the best locations for sustainable fishing. Sea cucumbers, for example, play a vital role in filtering sediment, but they are threatened by overfishing.

The sighting of the sea cucumber, Dr. Welsford said, showed there was an opportunity to use cheap, compact technology to “get a better picture” of life on the seafloor. “The deep ocean habitat is enormous, and we’ve done so little research,” he said. “It’s very early days.”

Livia Albeck Ripka is a freelance journalist based in New York City and Melbourne, Australia. @livia_ar