Although Big Red is unique, it doesn’t seem to be rare. Since the jellyfish entered marine biologists’ radar in 1998, the creatures also have been spotted in deep waters off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, Hawaii and Japan. The discovery of Big Red comes only months after a virtual epidemic of another deadly stinging jellyfish species clogged fishermen’s nets in Japan.

“It’s very interesting, particularly the discovery of a large jellyfish,” says Doug Herdson, a marine biologist at the UK National Marine Aquarium. “Off the US coast and so large is unusual.” Adds Matsumoto, “Diving almost every day, we tend to take for granted some of the unusual and even bizarre animals that we see in the deep ocean. This just shows that we need to keep our eyes open, because there`still plenty to discover down there.”

The official announcement of discovery of the Tiburonia granrojo jellyfish is in the current issue of Marine Biology.