Massive Basket Star on Tulaga Seamount

No, it’s not a spaghetti monster; it’s a massive basket star! The team came across this seastar relative while diving ROV Hercules on Tulaga Seamount, an underwater mountain that had previously never been explored via ROV or submersible. It is about 35 nautical miles southeast of Tutuila Island in American Samoa. Spotted clinging to a basalt outcrop over 2,500 feet below the waves, the team identified this animal to the family Gorgonocephalidae due to the unique branching pattern of the arms radiating from the central disc. If damaged, basket stars can regenerate their arms, which is important since they use these flexible appendages to snag marine snow and other tiny bits of food from the water currents. Members of the family Gorgonocephalidae are the largest of the basket stars, with some species measuring up to 70cm in arm length. 

The NA165 E Mamana Ou Gataifale II expedition has provided insight into the biodiversity of the deep ocean around American Samoa treating the team to encounters with unique deep sea creatures that consistently left our Corps of Exploration WOWed inside the control van.