Mysterious creatures found in Antarctica

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Scientists investigating the icy waters of Antarctica said Tuesday they have collected mysterious creatures including giant sea spiders and huge worms in the murky depths.
Australian experts taking part in an international program to take a census of marine life in the ocean at the far south of the world collected specimens from up to 6,500 feet beneath the surface, and said many may never have been seen before.
Some of the animals far under the sea grow to unusually large sizes, a phenomenon called gigantism that scientists still do not fully understand.
Gigantic sea creatures and sea spiders the size of dinner plates, and jellyfish with 20 foot (6 meter) long tentacles have been discovered in the deep waters around Antarctica by Australian scientists trawling on an expedition which arrived back in Hobart this week.

Massive worms and enormous crustaceans have been filmed and captured during the expedition which trawled the floor of the Southern Ocean nearly a mile below the surface. Numerous animals couldn’t be identified which were sent to labs, possibly to be classed as newly discovered species.
“Some of the video footage is really stunning. Gigantism is very common in Antarctic waters — we have collected huge worms, giant crustaceans and sea spiders the size of dinner plates.” said Martin Riddle, leader on the research ship Aurora Australis.
“Many [of the animals] live in the dark and have pretty large eyes. They are strange looking fish.”
“I was staggered by the size of things to be honest.” said Riddle. Of the sea spiders, he said: “We were getting up many of these where the leg spans were larger than a dinner plate.”
“It’s amazing to be able to navigate undersea mountains and valleys and actually see what the animals look like in their undisturbed state.” Dr. Riddle said.
“In some places every inch of the sea floor is covered in life. In others we can see deep scars and gouges where icebergs scour the sea floor as they pass by.”
The journey was part of an international effort to record a census of sea life in the area and monitor the impact of global warming and other environmental changes on Antarctic waters.
The mission’s 3 ships on the expedition returned to Australia chock-full of sea life including unknown species of sea creatures collected near the eastern Antarctic land mass.
Martin Riddle said his 7-week expedition had collected “thousands and thousands” of animals and as many as 1,500 different species.
Some creatures acquired from between 650 to 4,600 feet (200 to 1400 meters) below the surface weighed up to 66 pounds (30 kilos), while some 25% of the sea life chronicled was previously unknown.
The Australian scientists spent 20 days at sea, 24 hours a day in 12-hour shifts filming and collecting marine specimens of fish, sea urchins and more unusual animals such as the glass-like tunicates which grow up from the sea bed.
Experts believe the species will help them analyze how rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels make the oceans more acidic, which scientists forecast will make it problematic for some marine organisms to grow and sustain their calcium carbonate skeletons.
Riddle said, “It is predicted that the first effects of this will be seen in the cold, deep, waters of Antarctica. What we saw down there were vast coralline gardens based on calcareous organisms and these are the ones that could really be lost in an increasingly acidic ocean.”
“We know these effects are going to be seen first in Antarctica.” he said. “We need to know about it to begin to ring the warning bells.”