It looks like a toy some child let fall overboard while on a ship in the ocean, but the Rossia pacifica (known as the stubby squid) is entirely real and the video is here to prove it. Spotted by E/V Nautilus off the coast of California at a depth of nearly 3,000 feet, the strange creature looks surreal, like some manufactured object or painted anime character.

“This species spends life on the seafloor,” say the spotting researchers, “activating a sticky mucus jacket and burrowing into the sediment to camouflage, leaving their eyes poking out to spot prey like shrimp and small fish.” It may not be a Pokemon, but it does stir a certain urge to want to start collecting these exotic critters … or at least start capturing them in close-up, high-resolution, and well-lit videos like the one above.

The post Found at Sea: Googly-Eyed Cuttlefish Looks Like a Pokemon first appeared on Gajitz.

Pakistan dazzled the world when a state-sanctioned effort planted close to a million trees in one day, but India aims to blow that record away by a multiple of over 50. More than 800,000 volunteers are being given sapling to plant along roads, rails and in existing forests, all to be done within 24 hours in order to set a difficult record to beat.

Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav of Uttar Pradesh says it is an environmental effort: “the world has realized that serious efforts are needed to reduce carbon emissions to mitigate the effects of global climate change. Uttar Pradesh has made a beginning in this regard.” Aside from the direct planting effort, the government hopes this will raise awareness locally and worldwide.

At the Paris climate talks last December, the Indian government pledged to increase forest cover to 95 million hectares (235 million acres) by 2030. Aerial photography will monitor the trees after they are planted. The government’s goal is to increase forest cover to 33 percent, sequestering 2.5 billion tons of carbon.

The post Growth Spurt: India to Plant Record 50 Million Trees in 1 Day first appeared on Gajitz.

Sounding more like a science fictional creature than a real-life animal, these amazing critters imitate the stars in the sky in order to catch meals.

Disorienting through astronomical imitation, these predators have evolved to use nighttime navigational strategies of other species to their advantage. Many animals, like moths, use starlight and moonlight to find their way and fly straight.

“That works fine when the moon and stars are real,” said Dave Merritt, a biologist at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, “but when the source is close they end up spiraling into it.'” Many of these worms are found in caves where other species would only go by accident.

Decoys are common among deep-sea fish, where any light might indicate direction, but less common on the surface where so many competing sources of illumination are present.

In this case, “with their glowing lures in place, the worms drop threadlike snares, thin filaments of silk secreted from their mouths and dotted with balls of mucous, to trap confused flyers. Besides being extra-sticky, those mucous balls lend the strands the appearance of mardi gras beads, which magnify the worms’ spectral light like chandeliers.

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Famous Italian pianist and composer Ludovico Einaudi performed a unique concert in front of a glacier in Svalbard, Norway, to raise awareness about climate change and its impacts in lesser-seen regions of the world.

His ‘Elegy for the Arctic’ was played from an artificial iceberg, on which the composer sat with his grand piano, sponsored by Greenpeace. It was timed to coincide with a week-long meeting of the OSPAR commission in Spain

“Through his performance, Einaudi adds his voice to those of eight million people from across the world demanding protection for the Arctic, from threats like oil drilling and destructive fishing,” Greenpeace said in a public release.

“I could see the purity and fragility of this area with my own eyes and interpret a song I wrote to be played upon the best stage in the world,” Einaudi said from onboard the Arctic Sunrise. “it is important that we understand the importance of the arctic, stop the process of destruction and protect it.”

The piece is understandably melancholic, but has hopeful notes as well, already reaching an audience of millions thanks to a viral campaign.

The post Arctic Pianists Plays Against Backdrop of Breaking Icebergs first appeared on Gajitz.

Looking like something straight out of an animator’s workshop, this new species discovered by the Okeanos Explorer near the Mariana Trench lives miles underwater and emits light from its bulbous body.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was exploring the Enigma Seamount when the ROV Deep Discoverer came across this yet-undiscovered jellyfish.

Jennifer Frazer of Scientific American explains that “scientists believe this animal belongs to the genus Crossota, a group of jellies that does not have a sessile polyp stage; all phases of their lives are ocean drifters.”

Extended tentacles are, it is assumed, used to capture unwary prey attracted to the light of the species’ body. The mission that found this fresh creatures is no yet over, either, so more uncanny discoveries may be yet to come. Meanwhile, this dazzling creature is making waves all over the internet, and reminding people there are many things yet to find in the underwater frontier.

The post Mesmerizing Jellyfish Discovered in Deep Sea Looks Unreal first appeared on Gajitz.