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Hydrate Ridge from Jeffrey Marlow on Vimeo.
In my work as a geobiologist, we occasionally get the chance to go examine some of the world's most remote, bizarre locations in search of novel ways of life. I'm primarily interested in the creative metabolic strategies that microbes use to make a living, but during a research expedition, it's common to come across the "charismatic macrofauna" - bug-eyed fish, slithery eel-like creatures, octopi, and several different types of crabs.
This video, taken during a Jason dive aboard the Atlantis Research Vessel back in 2011, provided some comic relief during our sampling process. We were there to sample the methane-eating microbes around and within the methane vents of Hydrate Ridge, which operate through a complicated syntrophic partnership with other species. Jason is an unmanned vehicle, and while the shipboard pilots are incredibly dextrous with the manipulator arms, they are no match for a frightened hermit crab...despite several attempts at capture.
And rest assured, no crabs were (significantly) harmed in the making of this video.
