Record-Breaking Deep-Sea ‘Ocean Monster’ the Size of a Car Stuns Scientists off Hawaii (Video)

Although the discovery happened a handful of years ago, it was recently brought back into the limelight thanks to the folks at BBC Wildlife. They explained:

“When deep-sea researchers sent their underwater robot more than one mile deep in waters off Hawaiʻi, they were surprised to encounter a record-breaking creature that might be thousands of years old.

“During a 2015 expedition in the Pacific Ocean, they found an enormous glass sponge, which turned out to be a record breaker: the biggest sea sponge on the planet.”

The crew discovered the gigantic sea sponge via a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), and it was located in the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument off the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean at a depth of 2,117 meters.

Per the crew at NOAA, who captured the footage of the mammoth sponge, they wrote:

“The sponge was identified as belonging to the hexactinellid family Rossellidae and subfamily Lanuginellinae and scientists determined to be over 3.5 m in length, 2.0 m in width and 1.5 m in width, thus exceeding the dimensions of the largest sponge previously known.”

Although the exact age of the sea sponge is difficult to determine, it’s estimated that this particular sponge has been growing on the seafloor for thousands of years. And during that time, through filter-feeding bacteria and plankton, the sponge has grown.

Like, a lot.

Narrating in the video, one of the researchers marvels:

“This is the largest thing I’ve ever seen underwater.”