The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation NRK (nrk.no) first reported the diving incident:
An American citizen has been confirmed dead after a diving accident in the Plura Cave in Rana. Although a defibrillator was used after a short time, his life was not saved.
The following is a first-hand statement given to me by one of the divers involved with the fatal dive. They spoke to me on the evening of 4 April 2023.
Given the scientific name Clavelina ossipandae, scientists discovered that it was a new species of sea squirt after divers posted images of it online. Naohiro Hasegawa, a researcher at Hokkaido University and co-author of the study that first described the species in the journal Species Diversity, told Reuters: “The white parts that look like bones are the blood vessels that run horizontally through the sea squirts’ gills. The black parts on the head that look like a panda’s eyes and nose are just a pattern, and we don’t really know why the pattern is there.”
The hypothesis has been questioned in a recent study by Dr. Eric E.G. Clua and Dr. Carl G. Meyer, published in a Special Issue of the journal Behaviour. They point out that not only is it unsupported by the evidence, but it fails to stand up to close scrutiny.
NOAA has called on fishermen to play a key role in preserving underwater historical treasures. To protect these maritime time capsules, NOAA has stressed the importance of avoiding fishing activities around known shipwreck sites
There are more than 200 wrecks in the sanctuary, according to NOAA, which specifically mentioned the World War II minesweeper USS Heroic, the trawler Josephine Marie and the 55ft North Star, along with eight unna
