During a dive near Cape Brett on New Zealand’s North Island, 21-year-old Ben Laurie was confronted with a peculiar underwater creature resembling a ‘sea serpent’ measuring 30 feet in length. Despite his extensive diving experience, he was unable to identify the creature and had never seen one before. The creature was filmed floating underwater, surrounded by smaller marine life, in a moment that was both terrifying and awe-inspiring.
“We were diving there for kingfish and we had plugged a couple, and then we were coming up from one of the dives when my friend saw this thing,” Ben said. “It was 33 feet long and almost 1.6 feet wide, and it was just flowing with the tide.”
Despite being an experienced diver and serving as an ambassador for the WildBlue dive shop, Ben Laurie expressed confusion upon encountering the sea serpent-like creature. He admitted to having no prior knowledge of such a creature, saying, “I didn’t know what it was at the time, so it was quite a confusing thing.” Initially, he assumed it was a larger version of the small, eight-inch-long stringy plankton build-ups that he had previously encountered in the water.
The creature in question is believed to be a pyrosome, which is a floating colony composed of thousands of sea squirts that filter microscopic plant cells from the sea for feeding purposes. Each squirt within the colony draws water from the outside and releases filtered water inside. According to Ben Laurie, the creature’s appearance in the shallows is quite rare, as pyrosomes typically inhabit depths of 2,000 meters. The diver suggested that the creature may have been sick or injured, as it would normally stay at greater depths to avoid being eaten by fish due to its softer texture. A scientist characterized the sighting as a once-in-a-lifetime rarity.
See the bizarre creature here: