Living-Firehose
Location: Gulf of Mexico, nearby to offshore oil rigs.
Time: Sighted in circa 1970’s, first reported in 2000.
As much of a cop-out as it seems, some sightings are so odd, and so isolated, that under some circumstances we can assume that it may have been a hallucination. This notion is particularly likely in the case of scuba divers.
An odd sighting was posted on an internet message board around the year 2000, which described an acquaintance who worked for Gulf Oil as a diver mending oil rigs in the 1970’s. Supposedly he quit because he had seen very odd things which disturbed his peace of mind. One creature he described was the “living firehose”, a serpentine headless creature that glowed green, and swam about the divers at speeds comparable to a race car. This raises questions, a serpentine glowing creature, even of considerable size, could be a worm of some sort, but worms lack the means of propulsion to move so quickly. Nitrogen Narcosis can be common on deep scuba dives, and this is notorious for causing hallucinations and delusions. So this “living-firehose” was probably a very convincing hallucination, especially since the diver was noticeably disturbed by such sightings, meaning his state of mind may have been affected too.
If we must speculate, the ocean has many large swimming invertebrates that are loosely called “worms”. Nemertaen worms can even reach a comparable length to a small firehose, in the tens of meters. So, the Living Firehose (Pyronemertea viridis) is a very large Nemertean of the open ocean, which will ascend from the deep sea towards the surface at night. Interestingly, this worm is not only long, but relatively thick, and well-muscled as far as worms go. The reason for this is that the living firehose is an active predator, and can swim very quickly by eel-like undulations. It feeds mainly on small fish and shrimp, prey may be attracted or distracted by this creature’s greenish phosphorescence. As with many glowing marine predators, it may also be attracted to other sources of light, such as a welder’s flame or flashlight. Contrary to some sightings, it does not travel as fast as a car; their speed can be hard to judge because of their length, their glow, and the darkness of the sea at night.
Location: Gulf of Mexico, nearby to offshore oil rigs.
Time: Sighted in circa 1970’s, first reported in 2000.
As much of a cop-out as it seems, some sightings are so odd, and so isolated, that under some circumstances we can assume that it may have been a hallucination. This notion is particularly likely in the case of scuba divers.
An odd sighting was posted on an internet message board around the year 2000, which described an acquaintance who worked for Gulf Oil as a diver mending oil rigs in the 1970’s. Supposedly he quit because he had seen very odd things which disturbed his peace of mind. One creature he described was the “living firehose”, a serpentine headless creature that glowed green, and swam about the divers at speeds comparable to a race car. This raises questions, a serpentine glowing creature, even of considerable size, could be a worm of some sort, but worms lack the means of propulsion to move so quickly. Nitrogen Narcosis can be common on deep scuba dives, and this is notorious for causing hallucinations and delusions. So this “living-firehose” was probably a very convincing hallucination, especially since the diver was noticeably disturbed by such sightings, meaning his state of mind may have been affected too.
If we must speculate, the ocean has many large swimming invertebrates that are loosely called “worms”. Nemertaen worms can even reach a comparable length to a small firehose, in the tens of meters. So, the Living Firehose (Pyronemertea viridis) is a very large Nemertean of the open ocean, which will ascend from the deep sea towards the surface at night. Interestingly, this worm is not only long, but relatively thick, and well-muscled as far as worms go. The reason for this is that the living firehose is an active predator, and can swim very quickly by eel-like undulations. It feeds mainly on small fish and shrimp, prey may be attracted or distracted by this creature’s greenish phosphorescence. As with many glowing marine predators, it may also be attracted to other sources of light, such as a welder’s flame or flashlight. Contrary to some sightings, it does not travel as fast as a car; their speed can be hard to judge because of their length, their glow, and the darkness of the sea at night.