Revisting another old book: Undersea Frontiers: Exploring by Deep-Diving SubmarinesGardner Soule (Rand McNally, 1968, 253 pp.)
This book covered a lot of interesting and, in 1968, new and exciting explorations. He includes such events as the Triestedive and the ramming of the submersible Alvin by a swordfish, but also two events of interest as marine biology mysteries.
One is a photograph of a still-unclassified colonial creature, 15 feet long, wound about by ridges progressing by turning like a screw. The picture and accompanying film were taken by a ROV called Mobot, built by Hughes, next to a Shell Oil rig.
The other is the sighting, presented here in detail, of two men on the Deepstar 4000 who saw a fish 30-40 feet long they said was not a shark and did not match any known species. It still doesn’t. Soule got the story first-hand from Dr. Eugene LaFond, who said the fish swam “right up to the window.” Pilot Joe Thompson said he saw the whole fish as it swam along the port side and “I guessed its length. But we had stuck instruments into the bottom. You know how far apart your instruments are.” Interestingly, the two experst at first did not discuss it, thinking they wouldn't be belived, but their reactions were on the submersible's audio tape. They did talk, and they haven't been disbelieved, even if debate emerged over whether they could somehow have misidentifed a huge sleeper shark. They never accepted that explanation.
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