‘Wonders of the ocean’: Mysterious sea creature spotted in B.C. coastal waters

A unique sea creature has been spotted in the waters off Victoria’s Clover Point.

Steph Brulot and his brother made the discovery while snorkeling in the Salish Sea last weekend.

“I pretty quickly realized that it was something I had never seen before,” he said. “Yeah. It was pretty amazing.

“It had this like this dome-looking head that was looked like a jellyfish, probably about four or five or six inches long. And then it was probably about two feet long. (It had) this kind of chain-looking tail and I thought it was a jellyfish of some kind, but I’ve been proven wrong. They’re not jellyfish.”

Brulot posted photos of the sighting on a Facebook page called Field Naturalists of Vancouver Island and he got some help identifying what it was.

It turns out the mysterious creature was a siphonophore, a marine organism that falls under the class of hydrozoa.

It can grow to a length exceeding the blue whale and is rarely seen so close to the shore.

Dr. Anna Hall, a marine zoologist, said the sighting was an exciting one.

“It just never ceases to amaze me, the wonders of the ocean,” she said.

“And here we go again. You know, another amazing creature.”

Hall said siphonophores are very complex creatures.

“Here we’re able to … have a glimpse into the life of one of these colonial animals that is usually outside the realm of where people get to see.”

Hall said this animal is gelatinous but it’s not a jellyfish.

“It is related to corals and anemones, which are … much more familiar to many people. But it’s also a predator.”

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Siphonophores are made up of individuals called zooids that make up a colony, Hall explained. A zooid has its own specialized function but it could not survive without the others in the colony and while they have the same genetic structure they each have a specialization.

Hall said they are rarely seen in coastal waters and often reside in the open ocean or in very deep water.

It is not known why the siphonophore was spotted off Clover Point.

Brulot said he feels lucky to have seen it in person.

“Normally you see things that everyone else has seen, and I still find that stuff cool,” he said.

“So when you find something that not a lot of people get to see it was a really special opportunity, and I’m very grateful for it.”

Hall said this chance encounter shows the diversity of life in the ocean.

“You know, I’ve heard it said before that we know more about the surface of the moon than we do our own oceans.”