Dr Craig R McClain

A new paper shows that deep-sea corals host dense communities of amphipods, including the spiny genus Epimeria. This individual was photographed at 921 m on a purple gorgonian. Photo from tinyurl.com/bdfrs85x

MBARI deep-sea robot films an adorable baby squid in Monterey Bay • MBARI During a scientific cruise in Monterey Bay aboard MBARI’s research vessel Rachel Carson last month, biologists from our education and conservation partner, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, encountered a bab...

Spotted: Adorable baby deep-sea squid! 🥰

During a recent scientific cruise aboard MBARI’s R/V Rachel Carson, biologists from our education and conservation partner, @montereybayaquarium.org, encountered a baby glass squid bobbing along in the water column: www.mbari.org/news/mbari-d...

I saw them there last spring. They are in for refits at the shipyard

two men standing in front of an american video store ALT: two men standing in front of an american video store

There is a mollusk journal names Festivus published by the San Diego Shell Club. And I can only think of one thing every time I encounter it.

A line curve showing number of awards for fiscal year 2026 compared to fiscal years 2021-2025 across NSF. The fiscal year 2026 curve lies well below curves for other fiscal years.

NSF Update

Funding curve overall. A little bit of progress in the past week, but only a little bit.

Now by Directorate...

1/11

A line curve showing number of awards for fiscal year 2026 compared to fiscal years 2021-2025 for the Directorate for Geosciences. The fiscal year 2026 curve lies well below curves for other fiscal years.

Directorate for Geosciences

5/11

Somewhere, in the vast depths of the abyss, there's a worm that lives on the corpse of a dead blue whale, consuming the oil that leaches from its bones.

It's name is Osedax mucofloris, the bone-eating zombie snot flower worm. It will never see this video.

Envy it.

For #molluscmonday the the red-lined bubble snail (Bullina lineata). Although delicate looking, they are voracious predators on small worms.

Why can't they all get onboard with reviewer 1

Landscape Ecology

🌍🦑 This #OpenAccess study from 'Landscape Ecology' highlights how seascape ecology can link spatial patterns and ecological processes across abyssal and hadal depths. @drcraigmc.bsky.social bit.ly/3Zuto5L #MarineEcology

A yellow brittle star with six arms on a purple branching soft coral.

A yellow brittle star with six arms on a purple branching soft coral.

A yellow brittle star with six arms on a purple branching soft coral; the yellow arms wrap around the branches like snakes.

Several yellow brittle stars on a purple branching soft coral.

Some more commensal brittle stars (Ophiothela mirabilis) on a purple octocoral (Leptogorgia rigida). Playa Balandra, La Paz, Baja California. 🦀🦑 #baja #tidepool #echinoderm

Smiley for the win!!! #spottedeagleray #eagleray #smiley #remora #remorahat #ftw #stingraysofcoralcity #coralcity #coralcitycamera #miami #coral #portmiami #biscaynebay

Although you seem to be a bit more in the the thick of it!

I think I'm a little concerned (if I am reading this right) about how segregated academic ecology/conservation is from the rest of the Bluesky landscape.

Today for our lab meeting we are reading about dolphin falls and I'll admit I'm. sucker for a good photo mosaic #marinelife www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A genuinely informative watch. @drandrewthaler.bsky.social continues to be one of the clearest, strongest voices advocating for the deep sea and sound science.

YouTube video by Forbes Breaking News Maxine Dexter Decries 'Concerning Lack Of Transparency' In Deep Sea Mining Permitting Process

Maxine Dexter Decries 'Concerning Lack Of Transparency' In Deep Sea Mining Permitting Process www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLY2...

Dragon in the deep. 🐉⁠
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Dragonfish (family Stomiidae) are cunning predators. Although they are strong swimmers, they prefer to lie in wait and ambush unsuspecting fishes and crustaceans. This black dragonfish (Idiacanthus sp.) was spotted at 527 meters (1,729 feet) in Monterey Bay.

Collections like these aren’t dusty archives. They are active infrastructure for science. Every jar is a data point across time, space, and extinction risk. Without collections, we lose our ability to ask new questions about the oceans.

8/ Ended with a nerd bucket list item, Holopus crinoids which look like meaty little fist. Been fascinated with them since @echinoblog.bsky.social wrote about them years ago echinoblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/crin...

7/ Started with a lineup of sea urchins armed with the most gnarly spines imaginable. Equal parts elegant and threatening. Evolution does not mess around.

6/ Also: a jar holding tens of thousands of brittle stars. Not hyperbole. Just a quiet reminder of how abundant some deep-sea life can be when conditions line up.

5/ One specimen really stuck with me: a seastar from ~8,000 meters depth. That’s pressure most engineering materials struggle with. This thing just exists there.

4/ Saw both extremes of the seastar world today: some of the largest species ever described and some so small they feel unreal in a jar. Scale in the oceans is wild.

3/ Learned that some starfish are nearly paper thin and live flattened against gravel. My mind is still blown by these guys.

Deep-sea-floor diversity in Asteroidea is shaped by competing processes across different latitudes and oceans - Nature Ecology & Evolution Global trends in species richness in the deep sea are poorly explored. This study uses occurrence records of Asteroidea to show that species richness in the deep benthos is restricted below ~1.5 °C bu...

2/ Got an incredible behind-the-scenes tour of the echinoderm collection with Dr. Hugh Carter whose recent Nature Ecology & Evolution paper is a must-read for anyone thinking about deep-biodiversity www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Visited the Natural History Museum London last week and honestly: collections like this are the backbone of everything we think we know about the ocean. Absolute treasure trove.

The mammal hall at @nhm-london.bsky.social gives a wonderful example of the scale of life. Here a full size elephant display is against a back drop of a replica full size blue whale. The blue whale is so large I cannot even fit it into the frame.