PANACEA, Fla. (WTXL)-- To some people they're probably gross, but to some others, including scientists, they're pretty interesting. The Bathynomus Giganteus or the Giant Sea Roach made its way to Panacea this weekend.
The Gulf Specimen Marine Lab hosted the living sea roaches and deep sea hagfish on display on Sunday. The creatures were collected by Jack Rudloe aboard a FSU Research Boat during a cruise out into the Gulf of Mexico.
The trip's original goal was to study deep water sharks, but the roaches were caught in the traps and picked up the marine lab staff.
"People have never seen anything like this before because we don't experience it. When we go to the beach we see crabs, we see lobsters and fish and all the other stuff we see that comes in the seafood or whatever. We never get to see the things that are really just relatively a few miles off shore where the continental shelf just drops all the way down into the abyss," said Jack Rudloe.
This is the first time the sea roaches have been on display at the Gulf Specimen Marine lab since their first appearance to the New York Aquarium in 1976.
