The Thing

My previous post about the alien flounder-body snatchers reminded me of another strange thing I encountered recently.

During my trip to Dominica to photograph sperm whales, I came across this "thing", for lack of a better term:

unidentified thing in the water

I was actually swimming in pursuit of a bunch of pilot whales (I think that's what they were) when I nearly ran headfirst into this thing. I struggled for a second as to whether to continue after the cetaceans or stop and take a look at this.

I decided to stop because this gelatinous pink thing was so interesting (actually, I was wheezing and out-of-breath so there was no hope of keeping up with the fast-moving cetaceans, but never mind that).

I've seen other things like this in the water before, but never really bothered to take photos. I'm not sure what it is. A salp perhaps? An open-ocean tunicate? Or maybe eggs? I dunno.

Here's a close-up view of one end of the thing:

unidentified thing in the water

For scale, I took a photo of Eric with the thing. I wanted a more photogenic model for a "Beauty and The Thing" effect, but sometimes you just need to make do with what you have. Life is full of compromises.

unidentified thing in the water

If anyone knows what this is, please let me know!