Extremely rare phantom jellyfish caught on camera

In the ethereal blue glow of the water, a huge shape swept toward them. Around 30 feet long, with four billowing arms and a domed head, the creature was larger than the tourists’ personal submersible. This startling sight occurred hundreds of feet underwater off the coast of Antarctica’s Rongé Island.
When they returned to their Viking Expeditions cruise ship and showed photos to Daniel M. Moore, a marine biologist with Exeter University in the U.K., he knew they’d seen “something incredibly rare.”
As it turns out, these lucky travelers are among only a handful of people ever to lay eyes on the giant phantom jellyfish, or Stygiomedusa gigantea. Until that point, in January 2022, there had been only 126 recorded observations since the species was first described in 1910—including individuals caught in nets and footage captured by remotely operated underwater vehicles, or ROVs. Even scientists with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, which has logged thousands of hours of submersible dives, have seen just nine.

Extremely rare phantom jellyfish caught on camera