Help With Id ...

[FátimaB]

Seen in Portugal, about 12 meters deep.

Thank you

 

[tursiops]

How big was it? Diameter, length...
What color did it appear to be (can't tell from the photo)?
Was it moving? Was the unseen left end attached to something?

 

[chillyinCanada]

There's something on the "thing". Perhaps that's the mystery creature?

 

[tursiops]

The "thing" is a segmented worm, and looks nothing like the OP's photo.

 

[FátimaB]

How big was it? Diameter, length...
What color did it appear to be (can't tell from the photo)?
Was it moving? Was the unseen left end attached to something?

I am sorry ! I was not on this dive (the picture was taken by my husband, so I didn't know it was so unclear).

I have pictures taken by another diver, and they are much better. The creature was very big, about 1,50 meters (one and a half meters), and the diameter larger than a man's upper arm. It was not moving, just floating, and it was not attached to anything.

 

[Skeptic14]

sea cucumber?

 

[tursiops]

i don't think a sea cucumber would be neutrally buoyant....
Maybe a colonial salp.

 

[FátimaB]

Another picture. There are reports of another one, bright red, seen the same day.

 

[tursiops]

I'm going with colonial salp. It even looks like a small Pyrostremma spinosum but I think they are found only in the South Atlantic, not off Portugal.

 

[FátimaB]

I'm going with colonial salp. It even looks like a small Pyrostremma spinosum but I think they are found only in the South Atlantic, not off Portugal.

Very interesting. I may add that something like this was never seen in the area (it's a favourite place for divers, and is a protected marine area since 1998 - when much of the life was gone. now coming back in numbers and diversity), not even by the "oldest" divers.

Thank you !