A Long Tendrilled Translucent Jellyfish Reflects Back the ROV Hercules Lights in a Bright Burst of Color

While exploring off the Revillagigedo Archipelago off the coast of Baja California, Mexico, the ROV Hercules, launched from the E/V Nautilus captured the sight of a beautiful Halitrephes maasi jellyfish whose illuminated tendrils and translucent body reflected the lights of the ROV in a beautiful burst of vivid color.

The frilled tentacles of the Halitrephes maasi jelly came into view at 1225m in the Revillagigedo Archipelago off Baja California, Mexico. Radial canals that move nutrients through the jelly’s bell form a starburst pattern that reflects the lights of ROV Hercules with bright splashes of yellow and pink–but without our lights this gelatinous beauty drifts unseen in the dark.