Dr Craig R McClain
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drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain
@drcraigmc.bsky.social
10K followers 2.3K following 1.6K posts

Marine Ecologist, Deep-Sea Explorer, Climate Change Researcher, Science Communicator, Ed @deepseanews

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Environmental science 55%
Geography 19%
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drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · Jun 24
I've wanted to write this article for years. About my and other's struggles to even survive sometime in #academia. Thank you to the amazing editors at @plosbiology.org that gave me the forum to write this piece. #science
Too poor to science: How wealth determines who succeeds in STEM
From student to researcher, a career in science can come with a high price tag. This Perspective explores how persistent financial barriers limit who can succeed in science, revealing how wealth shape...
journals.plos.org

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 2d
During mating, females display a uniform pale coloration, while males show a high-contrast stripe–bar–spot pattern. LPSO also shows evidence of pair bonding, including repeated associations, shared dens, and food sharing...rare in octopuses.

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 2d
Most octopus species mate using either “distance mating,” where the male extends a specialized arm into the female’s mantle from a distance. LPSO instead engages in a beak-to-beak mating posture, with both individuals facing one another and arms interlaced.

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 2d
Brief break from my usual deep-sea content to highlight the Larger Pacific Striped Octopus (LPSO), a species known for mating and social behaviors that differ markedly from most octopuses. www.youtube.com/watch?v=niuf...
Larger Pacific Striped Octopus Mating
YouTube video by PLOS Media
www.youtube.com

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 2d
If you remove mucus from the ocean, the deep sea starves.
Carbon transport slows.
Food webs collapse.

The largest ecosystem on Earth is quietly held together by secreted goo.

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 2d
Some deep-sea snails and invertebrates use mucus-derived proteins as part of their shell or protective layers.
It’s not just glue—it’s structure, impact resistance, and chemical buffering.

Slime, but make it functional.

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 2d
Many deep-sea animals don’t chase food, they trap it.
Worms, jellies, and other suspension feeders deploy mucus nets that passively collect particles drifting by.

Energy capture in the deep sea is often just… sticky patience. www.facebook.com/watch/?v=136...
Redirecting...
www.facebook.com

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 2d
Larvaceans build giant mucus “houses” to filter food from the water.
When clogged, they abandon them.

Those discarded houses sink fast, delivering concentrated carbon to the deep sea.
One animal, one house, one express elevator to the abyss. www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3mj...
Researchers study sea creature "mucus houses"
YouTube video by Associated Press
www.youtube.com

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 2d
Marine snow isn’t just “dead stuff falling.”
It’s clumps of mucus, fecal pellets, shed feeding webs, microbes, and organic debris glued together by sticky polymers.

Without mucus, most food never reaches the deep seafloor. www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAO-...
Deep-sea blizzard: Today's forecast calls for flurries of marine snow
YouTube video by MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute)
www.youtube.com

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 2d
The deep sea runs on mucus...
Marine snow, larvacean houses, feeding nets, even snail armor...slime is infrastructure down there.

Reposted by Craig R. McClain

echinoblog.bsky.social
Chris Mah @echinoblog.bsky.social · 2d
*laugh* a FASCINATING observation of this sea cucumber, Paracaudina from Australia doing.. something. Blowing bubbles? A great big "WHAT?" #echinoday www.inaturalist.org/observations...
Paracaudina bacillis
Paracaudina bacillis from Blairgowrie Yacht Squadron/Point Nepean Rd, Blairgowrie VIC 3942, Australia on January 20, 2026 at 09:03 AM by Jak Grimm. Wonder what the pearl bubble is?
www.inaturalist.org

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 3d
Read and see more at @mbarinews.bsky.social www.mbari.org/animal/ballo...
Balloon worm • MBARI
The balloon worm drifts through the midwater, casting a mucous net to feed on tiny bits of food slowly sinking from above.
www.mbari.org

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 3d
The balloon worm looks nothing like a typical worm because it doesn’t live on the seafloor, it floats in the deep midwater. With a gelatinous, bag-like body for buoyancy, it drifts and feeds on sinking organic particles. www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5KG... #marinelife #wormwednesday
Weird and Wonderful: The balloon worm floats in the ocean’s twilight zone
YouTube video by MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute)
www.youtube.com

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 3d
Ocean heat content keeps smashing records, but don’t worry! Someone will definitely invent a new graph before they cut emissions.
zacklabe.com Zack Labe @zacklabe.com · 9d
An additional dataset in showing that global ocean heat content (0-2000 m depth) is surging off the charts after another new record in 2025... 🌊

Graphic/data (anomalies) from www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/globa...
Line graph time series of global ocean heat content for the 0-2000 m layer for 3 year averages, yearly averages, and five years averages from the late 1950s to 2025. There is a long-term warming trend. The baseline is 1955-2006 for the zero reference to calculate the anomalies.

Reposted by Craig R. McClain

bookswain.bsky.social
bookswain.bsky.social @bookswain.bsky.social · 3d
“ZOOPHYTES Pl. 1”

Hand-colored illustrations of echinoderm species from ‘Dictionnaire Universel d'Histoire Naturelle’ by French botanist Charles
d'Orbigny, published in 1849.
Zoophytes is an antiquated term for plant-like invertebrate animals.
Coin for scale. 🦑
Illustrations of different echinoderm species dominated by a light purple striped sea urchin (Cidaridae) in the center. A sand dollar in the lower left (order Clypeasteroida) highlights the five-fold symmetry radial symmetry found in echinoderms. #oceanlife #sciart 🐡 #sealife #invertebrates #invertefest

Reposted by Stephen M. Walt, Joanna Bryson, Marc Lynch , and 80 more

davidho.bsky.social
David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 4d
This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again.

www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
This line graph illustrates the percentage change in agency staff levels from the previous year for nine major U.S. federal scientific and health organizations between the fiscal years 2016 and 2025. The agencies tracked include the CDC, Department of Energy, EPA, FDA, NASA, NIH, NIST, NOAA, and NSF. For the majority of the timeline between 2016 and 2023, the agencies show relatively stable fluctuations, generally staying within a range of +5% to -5% change per year. However, there is a dramatic and uniform plummet starting in the 2024–25 period. Every agency depicted shows a sharp downward trajectory, with staffing losses ranging from approximately -15% to over -25%. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows the most significant decline, dropping to roughly -26%, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows the least severe but still substantial drop at approximately -15%.

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 4d
Naturally occurring wood from trees and logs swept to the ocean

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 4d
It’s controlled biomineralization.

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 4d
Like other snails, these scaly foot snails build armor (shell) by secretion. The mantle and foot tissues actively transport dissolved iron and sulfur ions from vent fluids into specific tissues, where they’re chemically precipitated as iron sulfide inside an organic matrix.

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 4d
You’re right. Iron sulfide isn’t a metal. It’s a compound made of iron and sulfur, and while the iron part is metallic, the resulting material has very different properties. Still impressive materials science even if it is not a Marvel origin story.

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 4d
This seems like a very cool paper. Unfortunately, I don't have access to Ecology Letters. How can I get one form you?

Reposted by Trevor A. Branch

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 4d
Shipworms aren’t worms. They’re bivalves that eat wood with the help of symbiotic bacteria turning wooden shipwrecks into functioning ecosystems. #MolluscMonday Fantastic image from seahistory.org/sea-history-...

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 4d
Many deep-sea bivalves don’t rely on feeding at all. They host bacteria that turn chemicals like methane or sulfide into food. Sunlight optional. #MolluscMonday 📷 ocean.si.edu/ecosystems/d...

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 4d
Some deep-sea snails reinforce their shells with iron sulfide. Not metaphorical armor. Literal metal. #MolluscMonday

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 4d
FYI cowrie biology is quietly wild. Their living mantle completely envelops the shell, repairing damage, maintaining that gloss, and even controlling color patterns. There are likely well over 300 species, many rarely seen and still poorly studied. #molluscmonday
k-hermit.com でんか @k-hermit.com · 11d
Because I love cowries and their mantles,
I’ll keep creating the “Cowrie Before & After photobook.” 📖´-

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 5d
Life in Extremes — Cold Seeps of Argentina | 4K ROV Highlights
YouTube
Share your videos with friends, family, and the world
www.youtube.com

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 5d
The deep ocean operates on scales that are hard to study and easy to ignore. This paper is an attempt to give that complexity a framework and to encourage more people to work across disciplines to make sense of it.

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 5d
One of the core ideas of this paper is that the deep ocean isn’t uniform or featureless. Spatial structure, connectivity, and context matter at depth and seascape ecology gives us a way to finally study that at the scales it deserves.

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 5d
Feeling very grateful today to be part of this big, thoughtful collaboration. New open-access perspective on deep ocean seascape ecology lays out where the gaps are and how we actually move from concept to practice. Huge thanks to an incredible group of coauthors. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Deep ocean seascape ecology: gaps and pathways for application - Landscape Ecology
Context The ecological implications of multiscale spatial heterogeneity remain poorly resolved in many parts of the ocean, especially at abyssal (3000–6000 m) and hadal (> 6000 m) depths. Seascape eco...
link.springer.com

drcraigmc.bsky.social
Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 5d
Being good at science and being good at navigating academia are two very different skill sets.

Reposted by Anna O. Law, John W. Williams, Gavin A. Schmidt , and 14 more

ljrissler.bsky.social
Leslie Rissler @ljrissler.bsky.social · 7d
The National Science Foundation sign on our Eisenhower Av building is now gone.

The NSF mural in the foyer is removed and torn off in sheets.

We were supposed to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the agency in May 2025. That never happened.
NSF building on Eisenhower Av. HUD now owns. Destroying the NSF mural in the foyer. Of the Eisenhower building.