Photo: The depths of the Arctic Ocean

This might look like a flower, but it’s actually called a crinoid: an ocean animal found at the depths of the Arctic Ocean, which uses its long, feathery arms and sticky tube feet to pick up food. Scientists from the Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment and Climate (CAGE) in Norway recently took advantage of the 24 hour of sunlight to capture this and other images from the ocean floor of the Greenland Sea, snapping tube worms, sponges and skate fish. The abundance of this wildlife indicates methane seeps, or the release of methane gas from the sediments — one of the seven areas of known methane release in the Arctic Ocean. “This is the first time that we have seen these methane seeps in the deep Arctic Ocean areas,” said CAGE researcher Dr. Guiliana Panieri. (IMAGE COURTESY OF CAGE)