Deep-sea Battle: Exploring Remote Pacific MPAs

Not for the faint of heart and definitely not something you see everyday!

On March 27, 2017, during the final dive of the Discovering the Deep: Exploring Remote Pacific Marine Protected Areas expedition, scientists witnessed a fierce battle between a caridean shrimp (Heterocarpus) and a type of midwater dragonfish. During this impressive display of predatory behavior, the shrimp was observed impaling and consuming the dragonfish while the fish was still alive!

Another example of how exploration can reveal things we would otherwise never know about. Deep-sea shrimp are typically observed as being scavengers, not hunters, and scientists wondered how this shrimp was even able to capture the fish.

Video courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Discovering the Deep: Exploring Remote Pacific MPAs.

[Source: http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos...]