Scientists back from a trip earlier this month to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are sharing stories about their discovery of giant sponges, some of them never before seen.

One of the sponges was described as something out of a “Dr. Seuss” painting, while another was described in appearance as bearing a faint resemblance to the motion picture villain “Alien.”
Researchers from the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory are now faced with the task of trying to identify what family and species the newly discovered sponges belong to and to name them if they are, in fact, new species.
High-definition video footage shot from the two deep-sea submersibles used on the trip is so precise and clear, the scientists are hoping to identify the new species without having to use tissue samples from them.