Barry the Giant Sea Worm

A 4 ft. tropical polychaete worm was recently discovered in a UK aquarium to the shock of aquarium officials. The officials suspected something was amiss when the coral and other tank occupants were attacked. It even ate the bait and hook traps set out for another injured fish. The worm is armed with thousands of stinging bristles that can permanently numb a human being if that touches it. It is believed that Barry arrived in a delivery of coral but they didn't know how long he'd been in there. The worm was eventually lured into a tank of it's own.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1165930/Barry-giant-sea-worm-discovered-aquarium-staff-mysterious-attacks-coral-reef.html

More on polychaetes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polychaete

50-ft Jurassic Jaws found in the Arctic

The 147 million year-old fossil remains of a large pliosaur were discovered at the Norwegian Arctic archipelago of Svalbard by scientists from the Natural History Museum of Oslo University. The creature, named "Predator X" by scientists, had a roughly 10-foot-long skull with 1-foot teeth and a bite strength of 33,000 lbs (15 tonnes) per square inch. It is estimated to have weighed 45 tonnes. The remains included a partial skull and 20,000 fragments of skeleton.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090316/sc_nm/us_fossil_seamonster

Deep-water fish with see-through head

First discovered in 1939, the barreleye (Macropinna microstoma) has tubular eyes inside his transparent head. He can look forward or directly up by rotating the ultra-light-sensitive eyes to search for prey. The spots on the front of his head that look like eyes are actually nostrils

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29354875/

See funny Stephen Colbert's great spot on the barreleye here

"Immortal" jellyfish clone themselves when threatened

A June 2008 reports claims that the species Turritopsis dohrnii is silently invading the world's oceans with the help of a unique reproduction mechanism. Under normal circumstances, it breeds the old-fashioned way via sperm/egg union. When threatened by starvation or injury, however, it reverts to a younger stage of development, completely transforming itself in the process, and allowing it to spawn hundreds of identical copies of itself. Though the "immortal" jellyfish was first discovered in the Mediterranean in 1883, it's unique reproductive ability was not discovered until the 1990's. A fully-grown adult is roughly the size of a human's pinky fingernail.


http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/01/090130-immortal-jellyfish-swarm.html

Frilled Shark

Meet the frilled shark, a rare prehistoric beastie which has survived to this day largely by avoiding contact with humans and staying thousands of feet below the surface.

The specimen in this photo was capture in shallow waters by a fisherman and transferred to Japan's Awashima Marine Park, where it died hours later.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/01/070124-sharks-photo.html

More info:

Inaugural post

Welcome to Weird Sh*t in the Ocean, my attempt to chronicle my fascination with the denizens of the deep dark abyss. As I have a short attention span, I'll avoid a lot of fanfare and get right to it.

I'll begin by bringing to you attention the carnivorous sea squirt.

Using an car-sized robotic probe, a joint US-Australian team explored a rift in the earth's crust known as the Tasman Fracture Zone, approximately 13,200 feet below the ocean's surface.

Included among their discoveries is the carnivorous sea squirt, also known as an ascidian, pictured here.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/4284189/Dozens-of-new-species-discovered-in-previously-unexplored-waters.html