Saving Seafood

A Research Vessel Found SpongeBob Look-Alikes A Mile Under The Ocean’s Surface

August 2, 2021 — An ocean expedition exploring more than a mile under the surface of the Atlantic captured a startlingly silly sight this week: a sponge that looked very much like SpongeBob SquarePants.

And right next to it, a pink sea star — a doppelganger for Patrick, SpongeBob’s dim-witted best friend.

Christopher Mah was one of the scientists watching a live feed from a submersible launched off the NOAA ship Okeanos Explorer. He’s a research associate at the National Museum of Natural History who frequently collaborates with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He’s also an expert on starfish.

Mah immediately noticed the underwater creatures’ resemblance to the animated buddies. “They’re just a dead ringer for the cartoon characters,” Mah tells NPR.

So he tweeted an image of the two noting the resemblance, delighting lots of folks. Someone helpfully added faces and legs.

Read the full story at NPR

For Scientists, Chunks of Whale Earwax Can Be Biological Treasure Troves

January 26, 2017 — Whale earwax? Really? It’s weird on so many levels—that whales even have earwax, that someone thought to go looking for something like that, and that the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History has stored not one, not ten, but about 1,000 samples of whale earwax plugs for well over 50 years.

And those samples, which not very long ago were gathering dust and some questions about their value, are now turning the scientific community on its (wait for it) . . . ear.

That’s because they are far more than the odd, quotidian and rather gross objects that they seem. We are learning now that samples of whale earwax are quite possibly unique in their ability to describe the life history of the longest-lived marine mammals, as well as give us a glimpse into a place and a time we cannot reach any other way. They are, in effect, physiological and ecological time capsules, and to research scientists who are trying to better understand the world’s oceans they are solid gold.

“It’s a good example of specimens which were collected for one purpose many, many years ago—the first ones were collected at the turn of the 20th century or so—and now as we find another way to interrogate these specimens, we’re able to discover that they have a whole other story to tell,” says Smithsonian researcher Charley Potter, who was the museum’s collection manager in the vertebrate zoology division until he retired in 2015.

Read the full story at Smithsonian