WOODS HOLE, Mass., April 12 (UPI) -- While surveying the ocean floor in a manned submersible just off the coast of Panama, a team of researchers spotted thousands of red crabs swarming in the deep, low-oxygen waters. The scientists were able to capture the phenomenon on video.
"When we dove down in the submarine, we noticed the water became murkier as we got closer to the bottom," Jesus Pineda, a biologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and lead scientist on the recent expedition, explained in a press release. "There was this turbid layer, and you couldn't see a thing beyond it. We just saw this cloud but had no idea what was causing it."