Day of the Dancing Cucumbers
Video courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2016 Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas. Download (mp4, 159.8 MB)

During Dive 21, several different species of holothurians, or sea cucumbers, were documented dancing in the water column from every angle to enable accurate classification. One species, Enypniastes sp., is known to be bioluminescent, shedding their skin when attacked and rubbing that bioluminescence off on the attacker!

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