Posted by John H. Moore on June 11, 2005 at 19:18:05:
In Reply to: Giant Balls of 'Snot' Explain Ocean Mystery posted by on June 10, 2005 at 21:35:55:
Sometimes when the water is clear but there's a lot of distinct little bits of "snow" drifting around, the "snow" is actually larvaceans. Not big ones like in that article, but little tiny ones that you go nearly cross-eyed seeing. But once you see them (or the more visible parts), you'll see them everywhere.
A dive buddy and I spotted them two years running a while back and he did his best to photograph the tiny little things. We had NO IDEA what they were, but eventually found a worldwide group of researchers very interested in the pictures and any specimen we could gather. This particular species had been described a long time ago, but not collected since...
They're pretty cool looking. Don't miss the photo with body parts labelled on the Close-up page.
John