By Digo Zúñiga
Our collaborators, the Mullineaux lab group, conducted a HiPPO larval behavior experiment onboard. Released from COVID prison at the beginning of the cruise and no longer on COVID parole, Mullineaux Research Assistant Digo Zúñiga writes:
“No, we are not referring to the terrestrial mammal. Fun fact though (!): the closest living relative to deep sea diving whales isn’t the manatee or the seal, it’s actually the hippopotamus. For our purposes though, HiPPO stands for ‘High Pressure Plankton Observatory’. It’s a pressure chamber that allows us to observe larvae from the deep sea onboard the ship in pressures they naturally live in. Like COVID jail, it’s small and constrained, but unlike COVID jail it keeps deep sea larvae alive and happy long enough for us to record their behavior with a high-speed video camera. How the larvae swim in our HiPPO chamber tells us a little about how they can undergo long journeys to find different hydrothermal vent homes in a dark and vast ocean– currently a mystery to deep sea biologists. In other words, the HiPPO chamber is the closest us land creatures can get to watch deep sea baby animals in their natural habitat.
For those curious about what COVID quarantine is like on a research vessel, for me: it was not the worst thing imaginable. Luckily I got the booster vaccine a couple of weeks ago, and my case was pretty mild. The isolation was really the worst of it and each con had its corresponding pro. Though I got stuck in a windowless room for a week, I had it all to myself and didn’t have to share my bathroom with anyone (a rare premium on boats). I didn’t get to socialize with anyone during lunch, but I got room service for every delicious meal. And although I had to find what little energy my body could muster to get the occasional breath of fresh air, the view on the deck was a spectacular one– nothing beats that salty ocean breeze. I’m proud to say that the strict adherence to protocol was all worth it, and that nobody else got sick. I’d argue that the best way to experience COVID (other than to not get it at all), is in the middle of the Pacific with a great group of well-spirited, considerate fellow sea lovers.
Signed – Digo
EPR Biofilms4Larvae project is a multi-institutional NSF grant: OCE-1948580 (Arellano), OCE-1947735 (Mullineaux), OCE-1948623 (Vetriani).
Also find us on Instagram! @larvallab, #Biofilms4Larvae
The Inactive Sulfides project is a multi-institutional NSF grant: OCE-2152453 (Mullineaux & Beaulieu), OCE-2152422 (Sylvan & Achberger).
Also find us on Instagram! @jasonsylvan, #LifeAfterVents