MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute) | Weird and Wonderful: The balloon worm floats in the ocean’s twilight zone @MBARIvideo | Uploaded April 2022 | Updated October 2024, 7 hours ago.
The balloon worm (Poeobius meseres) hardly looks like a worm at all. It lives in the midwater—the vast expanse of open water deep below the surface and far above the seafloor. Most marine polychaete worms—the much more elaborate relatives of earthworms and leeches—have a body that is clearly segmented. Their bodies are divided into many nearly identical, repeated parts. Typically, each of those repeated parts is studded with several stiff bristles. Poeobius, however, has a bag-like body filled with fluid that, together with its thick gelatinous coat, provides buoyancy to help it stay up in the water column effortlessly.
Poeobius is a common and very abundant resident of the midwater of Monterey Bay. It drifts through the water, collecting and eating bits of sinking organic matter in a mucous net. This little worm is actually an important part of cycling nutrients like carbon from the ocean’s surface to its depths.
Learn more at MBARI’s Creature feature: mbari.co/Poeobius
Video production:
Editor: Ted Blanco
Writer: Kris Walz
Production team: Nancy Jacobsen Stout, Raúl Nava, Kyra Schlining, Susan von Thun, Kris Walz
Music: Drifting Weightless in Space by Humans Win
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The balloon worm (Poeobius meseres) hardly looks like a worm at all. It lives in the midwater—the vast expanse of open water deep below the surface and far above the seafloor. Most marine polychaete worms—the much more elaborate relatives of earthworms and leeches—have a body that is clearly segmented. Their bodies are divided into many nearly identical, repeated parts. Typically, each of those repeated parts is studded with several stiff bristles. Poeobius, however, has a bag-like body filled with fluid that, together with its thick gelatinous coat, provides buoyancy to help it stay up in the water column effortlessly.
Poeobius is a common and very abundant resident of the midwater of Monterey Bay. It drifts through the water, collecting and eating bits of sinking organic matter in a mucous net. This little worm is actually an important part of cycling nutrients like carbon from the ocean’s surface to its depths.
Learn more at MBARI’s Creature feature: mbari.co/Poeobius
Video production:
Editor: Ted Blanco
Writer: Kris Walz
Production team: Nancy Jacobsen Stout, Raúl Nava, Kyra Schlining, Susan von Thun, Kris Walz
Music: Drifting Weightless in Space by Humans Win
Subscribe to MBARI’s newsletter here: mbari.co/newsletter
Follow MBARI on social media:
Facebook: facebook.com/MBARInews/
Twitter: twitter.com/MBARI_News
Instagram: instagram.com/mbari_news
Tumblr: mbari-blog.tumblr.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/monterey-bay-aquarium-research-institute-mbari-
And now, TikTok: tiktok.com/@mbari_news
