Green Eggs and Clam

Another aspect of this site that’s fascinating is the epibiotic interactions. Epibiotic means things living on other things, like barnacles on a whale. At this site we have a cascading epibiotic relationship with the tubeworms. On top of these tubeworms live a clam called Acesta oophaga, or the egg-eating clam. These clams have a specialized shell that fits over the opening of a tubeworm in order to eat their eggs when they spawn. On top of these clams live another organism, a type of worm called a sabellid worm. These worms bore into the shells of the clams and filter the water flowing around them. One of the graduate students from the University of Oregon on our cruise, Lauren Rice, is interested in these epibiotic interactions. In this picture here, you can see the circular feeding crown of the sabellid worms, on the yellow clams, on the tubeworms with their red heads poking out.

Once ready, Jason began its descent. After passing through nearly 600 meters of deep blue water, with the occasional ctenophore or shrimp floating by, we saw the silty seafloor. A maze of a tubeworm garden appeared before us. The first challenge at every site is locating where our science equipment was deployed on the last cruise. We always save the coordinates of our sites, but they don’t always line up. We scanned the bottom, swerving over and around small and large bushes, searching for our distinctive instruments. Thankfully, we found the target site right next to one of the largest tube worm bushes, larger than Jason. Under the shadow of the worms, we picked up our equipment, placed it within Jason’s basket, and returned to the surface.