Bizarre Asexual, Glow-In-The-Dark Sea Creatures Invade Pacific (VIDEOS, PHOTOS)

A party of pyrosomes invading the Pacific is causing great concern that the non-native creature could damage the area’s food chain. Millions of the translucent, cucumber-shaped species have been spotted much further north than their usual haunts.

#ONCabyss Upper water column is full of Pyrosomes pic.twitter.com/2924OnMRko

— Paul Macoun (@PaulMacoun) June 17, 2017

Years of managing fisheries in Washington and had never heard of #pyrosomes. From what I’m hearing out of Oregon we’re all going to become very familiar with them soon! Found this beauty off Ilwaco in May. #fishwashington #ilwaco #longfin #albacore #halibut

A post shared by Fishnwashington (@fishnwashington) on Jun 15, 2017 at 5:28pm PDT

Typically found in the Tropics, pyrosomes – meaning ‘fire bodies’ due to their bioluminescence – have been spotted in the waters off Alaska and British Columbia. One fisherman told National Geographic that when he dragged up 50 fishing hooks they were on almost every one.

“It got to the point where they couldn’t effectively fish,” Leon Shaul of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game said.

Bizarre, rarely seen pyrosomes – bioluminescent, cone-shaped, oozing goo when handled, some 2 ft long – appear by the millions along West Coast. And no one can explain it. Photo by @minustide (posted w/permission). Scientists are stumped about why these strange salp-like animals (each actually a colony of #zooids ) are showing up between Oregon and Alaska. About 60,000 landed in one net during a five-minute tow. So many appeared on fishing hooks during chinook season in Alaska that salmon fishermen simply gave up. Normally these creatures are so rare that scientists who’ve spent 30 years studying these waters have never seen them. Now they dominate the water column. “It’s really weird,” one says, “I’ve never seen anything like it.” See link in bio for my @natgeo story. #pyrosome #marinelife #pacificocean #marinelife #fishing #salmon #alaska #pacificnorthwest

A post shared by Craig Welch (@craigwelch) on Jun 13, 2017 at 1:40pm PDT

In Oregon a research team managed to gather 60,000 of the creatures in just five minutes during a trawl, reported CBC.

Typically found in the tropics, we’re seeing huge numbers of #pyrosomes in the eastern Pacific. Read more https://t.co/pZ8aQHhc2A #ONCabyss pic.twitter.com/18RnlIJWmW

— Ocean Networks (@Ocean_Networks) June 14, 2017

In British Columbia they’ve been measured between 8 and 60cm in length, much smaller than their potential growth length of 10 meters in warmer waters.

“Right now, these are only visitors, not an invasive species, yet,” Moira Galbraith from the Institute of Ocean Sciences told CBC. “They are here for now, until the currents take them elsewhere.”

Galbraith believes unusually warm currents brought the creatures to the area between 2014 and 2016, along with warm-water sharks and sea snakes that bizarrely appeared along the coast of California. Unlike the sharks and snakes though, the pyrosomes stuck around and multiplied when the waters cooled down.

This week, we’ve been dazzled by flurries of pyrosomes (gelatinous colonial tunicates) as ROV Hercules ascends to the surface! #ONCAbyss pic.twitter.com/N4UQMBEcdH

— E/V Nautilus (@EVNautilus) June 14, 2017

Leaky pyrosomes mean lots of cleaning up to do in the lab. #trinidadmarinelab #oceanography #pyrosomes

A post shared by Rowan Collins (@rowandemboats) on Mar 26, 2017 at 6:49pm PDT

Each pyrosome consists of thousands of smaller individual pyrosomes embedded in a gelatinous tunic with the ability to reproduce asexually and sexually, allowing them to rapidly create giant swarms.

What is a pyrosome & why are they blooming off Pacific NW coast? https://t.co/83ekZDjmr3 @NatGeo @CraigAWelch @NOAAFish_NWFSC pic.twitter.com/73EsD5I99N

— NOAA Fish media team (@NOAAFishMedia) June 14, 2017

Although not poisonous, the creature poses a problem for fishermen who are faced with a season of plucking thousands of them from their nets. Scientists are unsure what effect they may have on fish stocks, which could potentially become starved of plankton from the huge swarms of pyrosomes.

Another worry is that the vast size of the swarms could deplete the water of huge amounts of oxygen when they finally die and decompose.

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