Huge and unexplained bloom has fishers racing to save their nets, and scientists hurrying to study the rare animal 
 
 A rare, tiny marine creature known as the “unicorn of the sea” has swarmed in its millions on the west coast of America, ruining fishermen’s nets and baffling scientists who are scrambling to find out more about them. “On one of our cruises we saw 60,000 in five minutes and they were ripping apart our nets,” said Blondheim. She said every time she or fisherman had seen them the swarm stretched “as far as the eye can see”. There are so many unknowns at this point, it really is a remarkable bloom.” 
 
 Ocean Networks 🇨🇦 (@Ocean_Networks) Typically found in the tropics, we're seeing huge numbers of #pyrosomes in the eastern Pacific. It’s just very unusual to find them so close to shore, so evenly distributed, and so abundant.” 
 
 It’s strange, researchers say, because the warm ocean water that has been hanging out off the West Coast since 2014 has dissipated this year. Courtesy of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 
 
 Richard Brodeur, a research biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is leading an effort to collect live pyrosomes to study in his lab in Newport, Oregon. “People haven’t done anything experimentally with these guys.” 
 
 Brodeur said the pyrosomes might be a lingering effect of the warm water “blob” that in 2015-16 brought in unusual marine life including a tropical sea snake and red crabs.
– They are called "unicorns of the sea" and they are infesting the Pacific Coast, destroying fishing nets and puzzling scientists, the Guardian reports. The tiny blob-like creatures are infesting some stretches of the West Coast as far north as Alaska so badly that fishermen can't catch anything. The translucent tubular invaders are pyrosomes, and while they generally range in size from a few inches to 2 feet, they band together in huge colonies. (See video.) They rip nets and clog hooks, and wash up on beaches to the consternation of the locals. One researcher began spotting the "sea pickles" in nets in February and since then, the numbers have exploded, per Oregon Public Broadcasting. One research boat captured 60,000 within minutes. "They were glowing and floating on the surface, completely covering the sea," says University of Oregon researcher Hilarie Sorensen. The creatures—their Greek name means "fire bodies"—prefer the tropics, but even there, they haven't been seen in the "insane" numbers of this year's bloom, says Sorensen. The impact of the little cucumbers is unknown, but there is concern their massive presence could foul ecosystems. While the bloom could be a natural phenomenon, Dr. Lisa-ann Gershwin says "an abundance this gobsmackingly big" indicates something fishy may be going on. Warming seas could be a possible explainer, or perhaps changes in the marine food supply or shifting currents. (Killer whales are also tormenting Alaskan fishermen.)