Teen's deep-sea discovery stuns scientists

[Hum]

Kirill Dudko, a 14-year-old from Ukraine, has provided scientists in Canada with remarkable footage from their own remote deep-sea cameras: the first-known photo documentation of an elephant seal slurping a hagfish from the sea floor--at an astonishing depth of 2,933 feet.

Dudko, who is obsessed with deep-sea biology, spends lots of time monitoring video feeds from sea-floor cameras and collecting clips for his YouTube channel. He singled out the elephant seal clip after spotting the quick event, which occurred in Barkley Canyon off Canada's Pacific coast.

The boy, who could not identify the critter because only part of its face is visible in the footage, wrote to Neptune Canada, stating: "Suddenly, a huge creature grabbed the hagfish. You know, it was like a horror film! This creature wasn't a fish, and I realized it was a mammal because of its nose and mustache."

Scientists identified the mammal as an elephant seal, a species that has been recoded diving to depths of nearly 5,000 feet. Elephant seals can remain underwater for up to two hours.

Hagfish are slender, eel-like critters that favor soft-mud habitat. They're blind foragers that rely heavily on olfactory senses and feed chiefly on fish and worm-like creatures. Because they produce considerable amounts of slime, they're also called slime eels.

source & video

[HawkMan]

Scientists identified the mammal as an elephant seal, a species that has been recoded diving to depths of nearly 5,000 feet. Elephant seals can remain underwater for up to two hours.

So they knew they ate them and they knew they could go to nearly wide hat depth... So why are they stunned...

[Nick H. Supervisor]

So they knew they ate them and they knew they could go to nearly wide hat depth... So why are they stunned...

Just hazarding a guess, but I would say that they are more stunned that a 14 year old has the equipment to go to those depths.

[_aLfa_]

Intrinsica, the boy doesn't have the equipment. Read again. (:

[osm0sis]

Nah it was also the scientists cameras. The second video linked in the article explains it best:

Basically they knew it COULD go down that far, but they thought those were more like outliers or the full extent of magnitudes so they were pleased to get more data supporting a female elephant seal diving that deeply and "what it's doing down there."

[Richteralan]

I failed to find the "stuns" part.

[osm0sis]

Yeah that is a bit of an exaggeration. He "pleased" scientists. ;)

[M_Lyons10]

So they knew they ate them and they knew they could go to nearly wide hat depth... So why are they stunned...

My thoughts exactly. I mean, it's cool and all, but I'm not sure why this should surprise anyone.

[Nick H. Supervisor]

Whoops, my mistake. Well then I'm confused (or "stunned" perhaps?) as to what the big deal is?

[PNWDweller]

Scientists identified the mammal as an elephant seal, a species that has been recoded diving to depths of nearly 5,000 feet. Elephant seals can remain underwater for up to two hours.

Perhaps they were stunned that he found a recodedspecies from the Matrix. :)

[moloko]

I find it hard to see where they were STUNNED. He was looking on their feeds and found something they missed or were not looking for. Anyway good for him.

[Tuishimi]

I am stunned they could eat something so slimy.

[_neutrino Veteran]

amazing that the light does not disturb anything down there being that there is no light down there normally.

[torrentthief]

Just hazarding a guess, but I would say that they are more stunned that a 14 year old has the equipment to go to those depths.

he doesn't, he was monitoring webcams that are on the internet.

[Nick H. Supervisor]

he doesn't, he was monitoring webcams that are on the internet.

Yep, I realised that. ;)

[Hum]

I am stunned that anyone found this interesting. :p

[Growled Member]

The boy did good regardless.