Researchers spot a horrifying undersea beast close to the US

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Federal researchers from the United States just returned from a deep-sea expedition off the coast of Hawaii's Big Island.

Their mission was to figure out why waters surrounding the archipelago, or group of islands, are so abundant in biodiversity while nearby areas are like "sea deserts," according to BuzzFeed News.

Basically, they wanted to know why there are so many types of creatures near Hawaii when the rest of the area nearby did not have nearly as much variety when it comes to undersea life.

Researchers with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration told the Associated Press that they took samples from the waters 1,500 to 2,000 feet deep using trawling nets.Trawling nets are nets that one or two boats can drag behind themselves.

Jack Kittinger, the senior director of the Hawaii program at Conservation International, said some areas of the ocean have more marine diversity than others, and scientists want to better understand how currents, temperature and topography interact to make this happen.

Scientists think that the reason why this particular area is so rich with marine life is that the seafloor rises dramatically as it reaches the surface, which brings unique nutrients along with it.

They hope the findings from this experiment can help with management and policy.

Right now, scientists don't even know that much about the ocean.

"What we know about the ocean is less than the surface of the moon," Kittinger told AP.

In a similar mission, Conservation International and the University of Hawaii explored a bit further off the coast of Hawaii at a group of underwater volcanoes -- another biodiverse area.

"My goal today is to ... find out what's living on them, find out how they support ocean life, what their effect is from ocean currents and essentially what drives the ocean, what makes the ocean what it is," said Conservation International's Greg Stone, who worked on the mission as a marine biologist.

Take a closer look at some of these terrifying animals spotted on the mission:

Deep-sea creatures found in Hawaii
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Deep-sea creatures found in Hawaii

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