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The thought of another Monday just makes us clam up. 🙅🏽🙅🏻‍♂️⁠ ⁠ This clam, Acesta mori, lives like a brachiopod, attached to rocks with a clump of threads called a byssus. MBARI researchers have observed this species on Davidson Seamount and other seamounts off the California coast. They are generally found between 1,000 and 2,000 meters (3,000 and 6,000 feet) of rocky deep-sea habitats. These clams are often surrounded by brittle stars, abundant on the seafloor at these depths.

#tfw an isopod gives you the stink eye (without the eyes). ⁠ ⁠ This isopod, Anuropus, is often found attached to a deep-sea jellyfish, Deepstaria. But this one was found "free-swimming" in the deep midwater and collected by ROV Doc Ricketts. It is about two inches long. Photo by Steve Haddock.⁠ ⁠ To learn more about the deep-sea jellyfish Deepstaria and its parasitic isopod, check out the video on our YouTube channel. #linkinbio

Behold, the beauty of geology 🤩⁠ ⁠ At the Endeavour Segment of the Juan de Fuca Ridge, the underwater landscape is littered with angular fragments of basalt that were the remnants of an old lava lake. This is a region that was once filled with hot lava and eventually drained. As the ROV Doc Ricketts flew by this area, researchers could see evidence of this cooling and draining in the stacked horizontal layers. ⁠ ⁠ The platy horizontal layers of basaltic lava along the back wall were once part of a solid platy surface layer of basalt covering a molten lake of lava. As this molten lava drained, a new top surface was exposed, and a new horizontal platy layer was formed. The pillars were actually created by seawater—as hot magma flowed into the lake during the eruption, some water was trapped below. Being less dense, this water escaped upward through the lava, solidifying tubes of basalt on its ascent. We call these “pit and pillar” features.

Bernie is waiting for that vampire squid to finally show. #bernieonboard #wehadto

Trash talk—we're not fans. ⁠ ⁠ The human imprint of marine debris and plastic pollution is now evident in all marine ecosystems, including the deepest parts of our ocean. Marine debris imposes physical hazards to marine animals that eat or get tangled in it. Additionally, ocean plastic pollution poses a chemical hazard to the marine animals that ingest it. This toxic load includes both the synthetic ingredients in the plastic itself and the contaminants that adhere to the plastic from the surrounding seawater.⁠ ⁠ Each of us has a role to play in helping society make informed decisions for the future. We can do this by reducing our reliance on single-use plastics. Recycling, reusing, and properly disposing of trash items will help keep litter from ever entering the ocean.⁠

Phronima would be the stuff of nightmares, if she wasn't only an inch long. 🤭⁠ ⁠ This is the parasitic amphipod Phronima sedentaria. Individuals of this species will find a salp, eat the salp’s insides, then take up residence inside the zombified host, and even lay eggs in there. The amphipod continues to swim around with its head inside the salp, and that’s how we often encounter them in the deep sea. ⁠