Here is a wonderful video of a 26′ long pyrosome, a translucent worm-like creature, videoed off the coast of New Zealand. Pyrosomes, which can grow up to 30′ long are, of course, are not actually worms. They are not even single animals but a colony of hundreds or thousands of individual organisms called zooids. Each zooid is a few millimeters in size but is embedded in a common gelatinous tunic that joins all of the individuals.
Pyrosomes are bioluminescent, capable of creating rippling light shows of flashing pale blue-green light. Their bioluminescence gives them their name, pyrosoma, from the Greek (pyro = “fire”, soma = “body”).
Not all pyrosomes are as large or as lovely as the one in the video. As we posted in 2017, a bloom of pyrosomes, averaging about 2′ long, nicknamed sea pickles, raised havoc in the Pacific Northwest, filling fishing nets, clogging hooks and washing up on beaches.