Another addition of the Friday Smorgasbord brings you some tasty treats from around the interwebz. To lead off, we all know the lightsaber is the weapon du jour of the Jedi, but what about sharks? Seems like a deepwater lanternshark (Etmopterus spinax) can actually glow in the dark to both hide and advertise itself using light including lighting up its spines in a way that resemble the sabers. More information on this fascinating creature was published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports.
[via BBC]
For the first time, we have pictures of life in the deepest hydrothermal vent ever discovered in the ocean. A few weeks ago, a group of cientists on a National Oceanography Centre expedition in the Caribbean stumbled across this vent 5,000 meters below the ocean’s surface. Thanks to the crew searching the Beebe Vent Field with remotely-operated submersibles, we have some amazing new pictures.
[via io9]
It’s not the Jersey Devil or Snooki with a nasty hangover, but these photos of an eel-like creature captured in New Jersey have gone viral, prompting speculations of a ‘sea monster.’ The animal appears to be a sea lamprey, a type of parasite common in northern Atlantic waters, experts say.
[via CS Monitor]
We know about the masses of plastic in our oceans and the damage it does to wildlife, but this new film called Midway highlights how the plastic is impacting on the Laysan Albatross that makes Midway Island its breeding ground.
[via The Verge]
