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Scientists have discovered what some call “real life” SpongeBob and Patrick: from the timeless and beloved Nickelodeon cartoon “SpongeBob”.
The characters, a yellow sea sponge with buck teeth and a pin-headed pink starfish, have been on television for more than two decades.
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So when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Retriever Seamount – a remote-controlled high seas vehicle – grabbed the couple sitting side-by-side in the Atlantic Ocean, it was difficult for the National Museum marine biologist to Smithsonian Natural History. Christopher Mah is not making the comparison.
“I normally avoid these refs … but WOW. THE REAL LIFE SpongeBob and Patrick! #Okeanos Retriever seamount 1885m,” Mah tweeted Tuesday.
“I thought it would be funny to make the comparison, which for once was actually quite comparable to the iconic images / colors of cartoon characters,” Mah told Business Insider on Wednesday. “As a starfish biologist, most of Patrick and SpongeBob’s representations are incorrect.”
Mah noted in the post that the pink Chondraster star was probably hoping to eat the Hertwigia sponge, instead of teaming up to sell candy bars to the people of Bikini Bottom.
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He then posted an image from the 2013 North Atlantic Canyons Expedition to Okeaanos showing a Chondraster feeding on a sponge.
The ROVs are part of the 2021 NOAA North Atlantic Stepping Stones: New England and Corner Rise Seamounts Expedition, during which the NOAA vessel Okeanos Explorer would gather information on unknown and poorly understood areas of deep water at off the east coast.
“During this expedition, scientific teams at sea and on land will work together to map the seabed and observe many targeted sites in this region for the first time,” the agency said of the telepresence mission. “Unmanned vehicle (ROV) dives are scheduled for July 2 to 28, at depths ranging from 250 to 4,000 meters (820 to 13,124 feet).”
Scientists have been stationed on land and at sea to observe regions including deepwater coral and sponge communities, fish habitats, areas expected to have high levels of marine mineral accretion, flanks seamounts and Guyot peaks, seamounts, ecosystems in the canyons of the northeast. and Seamounts Marine National Monument, and other unexplored areas in the New England and Corner Rise Seamounts.
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NOAA has scheduled a total of 25 ROV dive missions – day and night – before completing its expedition on Thursday.
The expedition will also contribute to NOAA’s Atlantic Seabed Partnership for Integrated Research and Exploration (ASPIRE), a long-term multinational collaborative field program “focused on improving knowledge and improving collective understanding of the North Atlantic ”.
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