Bizarre Deep-sea Creatures Imaged Off New Zealand For The First Time

Builder's Pencil, which spans 180,000 square meters off New Zealand's eastern coast, is one of the largest seep sites in the world. Recently, a joint US/New Zealand research team studying the area photographed and videotaped - for the first time! - a variety of unusual deep-sea creatures, such as the hard-to-pronounce Vestimentiferan worm. Dwelling up to 1 kilometer below the waves, these unusual animals are capable of converting energy-rich chemicals from the nearby methane vents into living matter in the absence of sunlight...