Scientists Find ‘Giant’ Shrimp in Gulf of Mexico’s ‘Midnight Zone’
June 19, 2019
A shrimp larger than a human hand? Yep!
During a deep-sea expedition Sunday, a “giant” shrimp was discovered in the Gulf of Mexico, The Miami Herald reports.
Scientists found the shrimp between 3,937 and 4,921 feet down while they were conducting a mission called “Journey into Midnight: Light and Life Below the Twilight Zone.”
The expedition is supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA posted photos Monday, showing the difference between their enormous discovery and the normal size of such a shrimp — the length of a fingernail. The shrimp is of the genus acanthephyra.
The deep sea “midnight zone” — below 3,280 feet — is where “giganticism in animals is found exclusively,” wrote expedition member Tamara Frank. There’s a lack of predators that far down, she noted, but added that food was scarce.
With few predators, creatures can experience “indeterminate growth, meaning that there is no set size at which they stop growing like in humans – as long as they get enough food, and aren’t eaten, they just keep growing and growing,” Frank wrote on NOAA’s Ocean Exploration and Research site.
Suggested Recipes
Suggested Articles
ASPA Fights Back Against Indian Shrimp Imports Made with Forced Labor
Port Arthur, TX (April 16, 2024) The American Shrimp Processors Association (ASPA) is taking aggressive action to combat imports of shrimp from India that were...
Read More April 2024American Shrimp Processors Association Launches Trade Petitions Addressing Unfair Dumping and Illegal Subsidies
Read additional information about the trade petitions, including public copies of ASPA filings. Today, the American Shrimp Processors Association (ASPA) filed trade petitions seeking antidumping...
Read More October 2023Bipartisan Legislation Introduced to Ensure the Availability of Healthy and Safe American Shrimp
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Representatives Garret Graves (Louisiana) and Kathy Castor (Florida) introduced legislation to stop unsafe, illegally-produced shrimp from reaching consumers. Much of the shrimp...
Read More August 2023