Cruise ships’ submersibles play an important role in biological research in polar waters—including providing three encounters with the rare giant phantom jellyfish—according to a just-published scientific paper by Viking Expeditions scientists Daniel M. Moore, Anna Elina Fink, Eva Prendergast and Antony Gilbert.
Giant phantom jellyfish spotted three times from Viking Octantis’ yellow submarines
Since it was first described in 1910, there have been only 126 confirmed encounters with the rare giant phantom jellyfish, scyphozoan Stygiomedusa gigantea.
The 30-foot-long creature—which looks a bit like a giant ribbon attached to a three-foot wide umbrella—are not easy to spot. Though they’re thought to swim in all the world’s oceans
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