During a dive over the winter holidays<\/a>, the team explored the wall of a submarine canyon and encountered the creature\u2014also called the giant phantom jelly. It is a very rare find, with only about 118 sightings over 110 years<\/a>. It is believed to be widespread throughout the world\u2019s oceans, except in the Arctic Ocean. Giant phantom jellyfish have four long oral arms<\/a> that do not sting the way the tentacles<\/a> on other jellyfish do. Instead, they use these appendages to grab their prey and guide it towards their mouths<\/p>\n According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) in California, they can reach lengths of 3.3 feet across and 33 feet long. MBARI\u2019s ROV Tiburon previously spotted a fish swimming alongside of the giant phantom jelly<\/a> during an expedition to the Gulf of California. The team watched the fish hover above the jellyfish\u2019s bulbous body and swim in and out of its arms. Since the waters of the ocean\u2019s Midnight Zone<\/a> (about 3,300 to 13,100 feet) offer little shelter, many creatures find shelter in the gelatinous animals like jellyfish that live here. <\/p>\n \t\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t 2025 PopSci Outdoor Gift Guide<\/p>\n 20+ editor-approved presents for the hikers on your list<\/p>\n \t\u00a0<\/p>\n Laura is Popular Science\u2019s news editor, overseeing coverage of a wide variety of subjects. Laura is particularly fascinated by all things aquatic, paleontology, nanotechnology, and exploring how science influences daily life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Get the Popular Science daily newsletter\ud83d\udca1 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Like a scene out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[111,43,139,69,147,406],"class_list":{"0":"post-220447","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Outdoor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/HH-Cascade-HELLY-TECH-Waterproof-Mid-Cut-Hiking-Boots-outdoor-deals-header-with-badge.webp.jpeg\"){kind=icon}
\t\t\t<\/p>\n