A pteropod captured from the northeastern Pacific Ocean. They are often called sea butterflies or sea angels because of their ethereal, butterfly-like wings which evolved from feet. Photo: Nancy Copley © Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Imagine you live hundreds of meters deep in the sea to hide from predators. But every night you swim upward to find food in nutrient-rich surface waters and descend again before dawn. And to do it, you swim the equivalent of eighty miles in the course of a night.

The one centimeter long Clio pyramidata swims 400 meters up and 400 meters down every night from a depth of 450 meters to 50 meters. Based on the length of its body, that would be like a five and half foot person swimming over eighty miles in the course of a night. Photo: © Amy Maas

You would be a pteropod. A pyramid-shaped pteropod, Clio pyramidata, swims 400 meters up and down every night. It’s one centimeter long. That would be like me—at five and a half feet—swimming over eighty miles in the course of a night. To top it off, the diminutive world-class swimmer belies the very category of its existence: it’s a snail.

I had a chance to shadow the research of one of the world’s experts on pteropods, Dr. Amy Maas, on a Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) expedition led by Dr. Maureen Conte. Maas studies how climate change impacts biochemical cycles in the ocean, especially how pteropods respond to ocean acidification. Maas was assisted by Dr. Andrea Miccoli and Jordan Wingate. Miccoli worked with Maas on respiration experiments which shed light on the role of pteropods in carbon sequestration. Wingate worked on a study of pteropod locomotion to understand the mechanics of their remarkable swimming speed for underwater robotics applications.

Pteropods are “pelagic snails,” the oceanic counterpart of terrestrial snails you might find in a backyard or a forest. They are a type of plankton called zooplankton—tiny organisms that drift in the ocean or larger creatures in early development like fish larvae.

Dr. Amy Maas (left) and Jordan Wingate (right) examining zooplankton under a dissection microscope in a lab aboard the R/V Atlantic Explorer. Photo: © Liz Cunningham

Zooplankton basically means “animal plankton.” It’s derived from the Greek word, zoon, meaning animal, and planktos, the Greek word for wanderer or drifter. Diminutive as they might be, some only visible under a microscope, zooplankton are nevertheless animals. They breath, eat, avoid being eaten, and some, like the pteropod, swim at impressive speeds.

The “little animals” migrate up and down every night in every sea of the world. They make up what’s called the deep scattering layer which was discovered in the 1940s. Military sonar operators were flummoxed by what looked like gigantic portions of the sea floor rising from the depths. In one instance, the commander of the Atlantic Task Force, Admiral John S. Thatch, sent frantic SOS signals, stating a huge “cloud” in the sea was wreaking havoc with the ship’s sonar. The frightful “moving sea bottoms” turned out to be vast swathes of microscopic and near-microscopic living creatures on the move, migrating to feed.

Twice a year Maas collects samples in the Sargasso Sea, about 75 kilometers southeast of Bermuda in the western part of the North Atlantic gyre. Our boat, the R/V Atlantic Explorer, was equipped with labs for processing samples. In the opposite lab, Maureen Conte headed up the Oceanic Flux Program, which for over forty years has analyzed samples from as deep as 14,000 feet, making innumerable contributions to the understanding of ocean ecosystems. The OFP has continuously collected and analyzed that data for over forty years—the longest time-series of its kind.

Aboard the R/V Atlantic Explorer. From left to right, J.C. Weber, Dr. Rut Pedrosa-Pàmies, Dr. Maureen Conte, Dr. Amy Maas and Jordan Wingate. The impressive mooring gear belongs to the Oceanic Flux Program (OFP), which has measured particle fluxes in the deep Sargasso Sea for over 40 years. It’s the longest-running time-series of its kind. Photo: © Liz Cunningham

Maas warned me ahead of time, “You’ll be working graveyard.” Mass collected her samples at night, because that’s when the pteropods are closest to the surface.

My first night on the boat I bolted awake from a nap when my alarm went off and banged my head on the low-lying bunk ceiling. I groggily made my way down the stairs to the main deck, clutching the railing. “The seas,” the captain, George Gunther, had explained earlier, “were a bit confused.” Translation: we were in a high-pressure zone between a macro-scale extratropical cyclone (“Nor’easter) and a hurricane.

Miccoli, Mass, and Wingate were already at work. The zooplankton are collected by trolling with a Reeve net, which looked like an oversized butterfly net attached to a large bucket, or a high-tech net called the MOCNESS equipped with an elaborate array of remote controls and sensors. The boat trolls with the net in the water for about three hours. Then Maas, assisted by Miccoli and Wingate, meticulously sort and store the samples in the lab for experiments until almost dawn.

The MOCNESS being launched into the Sargasso Sea at night. It is a high-tech version of sampling net with multiple openings which allow it to collect samples from different depths. Photo: © Liz Cunningham

Amy occasionally dropped a few pteropods and other zooplankton in a glass dish for me to look at under a dissection microscope which was lashed to a counter with thick straps and ratchet buckles. The boat gyrated back and forth so much, it was hard to keep my eyes next to the eyepieces. Wingate politely reminded me to keep my hand on the dish, lest the boat surge and send it flying off the table.

The iridescent creatures swam frantically in the small dish, their world suddenly illuminated and confined. They too were blurry-eyed, their circadian rhythms rudely interrupted. Watching them, I felt something shift in me.

Truths are truths. You know something, you believe it. Evidence shows it. But sometimes an experience comes along that drives that truth home with a strength that leaves your awareness irreversibly changed.

The transparent, jewel-like creatures yanked from the dark open ocean had so much to tell us about our world. The truths of the pteropod’s world—the “world according to pteropod”—are not some arcane oceanographic footnote, they are crucial for all of us.

Pteropod shells are starting to thin and fray. They are less able to form their shells because of ocean acidification—the fact that the carbon dioxide we’ve pumped into the atmosphere has made the seas 30% more acidic in the last 200 years. That sharp drop in pH is more dramatic than any change in ocean chemistry in the last 50 million years.

So, what’s the big deal about a drop in pH? Well, in your body or mine, a blood pH drop of 0.2 or 0.3 can cause seizures and comas, even death. That’s what makes this question so chilling: What will this do to biological cycles in the ocean? To living creatures? To food chains?

The pteropods Heliconoides inflatus brood their babies inside their shells. Pteropods are such an abundant food source that they have been nicknamed the “potato chips of the sea.” Photo: Leo Bianco-Bercial © Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

As ocean acidification progresses, the survival of pteropods and other creatures that form shells and skeletons—coral, oysters, starfish—becomes even more uncertain. Pteropods are nicknamed the “potato chips of the sea,” because they are essential food for everything from juvenile fish to herring, mackerel, rays, seabirds and whales.  Like cutting a link in a chain, the loss or decline of pteropods and similar organisms can disrupt the entire food chain.

The pteropod’s world is also deeply connected to the biological cycles by which the ocean sequesters carbon. Like powerful brakes on a Mac truck driving down a steep incline, the seas have put an enormous brake on climate change, sequestering over 25% of the carbon dioxide we’ve pumped into the atmosphere. Just how much carbon is that? It’s 525 billion tons, continuing at a current rate of 22 million tons a day.

Like all zooplankton, pteropods breathe. When they exhale carbon dioxide at depth it stays there. That carbon dioxide is sequestered along with the carbon in their bodies that sink when they die. Their fecal pellets sequester even more carbon.

Dr. Andrea Miccoli preparing respiration experiments which calculate the oxygen consumption of pteropods. Photo: © Liz Cunningham

If the biological cycles by which carbon is sequestered are seriously disrupted or collapse, so too will the ocean’s ability to put a brake on climate change. That takes us to the runaway climate change scenarios that we need to do everything in our power to avoid.

“We know the chemistry, what we don’t know is how resilient the biology is,” Dr. Maas told me. “We keep adding more to the situation, more temperature, more acidity, and we are not sure when we are going to hit what we call a tipping point—the biological tipping point both for individual species and for the whole ecosystem.”

It’s like an errant EKG for the health of the planet. The ethereal, wing-footed creatures who are endangered speak to our own endangerment, that the life of our planet as we know it is in grave danger.

But real hope starts with truth and action. And pteropods exemplify another truth, key to our survival—their world speaks legions about the interconnected nature of life. Understanding that connectedness through science is key to charting a better future. And each of us is a part of that interconnected web—every time one of us acknowledges that climate change is a global emergency, that reducing our carbon imprint is imperative, we push the needle toward a better future.

Liz Cunningham’s mission is to be a voice for the life of the seas and the people who are working to save it, to inspire and empower others to join the effort to save our seas and forge a sustainable future. She writes and speaks to audiences about ocean conservation and the traits we need to be effective stewards of our seas and life on this planet—among others, courage, an engaged, active hope, and the ability to work together to find solutions. She is the author of the award-winning book, Ocean Country with a foreword by Carl Safina. More information about her work is available at: http://www.lizcunningham.net

Links to learn more:

The top 100 solutions to counter climate change. Project Drawdown reviews, analyses, and identifies the most viable global climate solutions: https://www.drawdown.org

An Interview with Dr. Amy Maas
http://www.bios.edu/currents/scientist-at-work-a-conversation-with-bios-biologist-amy-maas

The Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences
http://www.bios.edu/#!/who-we-are

The Oceanic Flux Program:
https://www.mbl.edu/ecosystems/conte/ofp/

The ocean’s role as a carbon sink: “Carbon Dioxide and Our Ocean Legacy,” by Richard A. Feely, Christopher L. Sabine, and Victoria J. Fabry
https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/pubs/PDF/feel2899/feel2899.pdf

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This article was written by Kevin Majoros

Ever and Ever, a new aluminum canned water brand, launched in June of 2019 in conjunction with award-winning incubator Lonely Whale’s Question How You Hydrate campaign.

Ever & Ever is owned and produced by Lonely Whale partner, All Market Inc. (AMI), the makers of leading coconut water brand Vita Coco and organic energy drink brand Runa.

AMI introduced Ever & Ever as a catalyst for change in the water aisle to give consumers on the go – who left their reusable water bottles at home – the opportunity to purchase single-use waters that won’t harm the environment.

The Advantages of Single-Use Aluminum Over Plastic

By 2050, the ocean is expected to contain more plastic by weight than fish. Unlike single-use plastic water bottles, aluminum cans are 100% recyclable. Ever & Ever aluminum bottles are easily and infinitely recyclable when disposed of correctly in a recycling bin.

Nearly 75% of aluminum ever produced is still in use today, compared to 91% of plastic waste having never been recycled. Yet, one million single-use plastic bottles are sold every minute around the world, according to market research group Euromonitor.

“We are in the business of selling beverages in single-use packaging, and our team shares a passionate commitment to finding ways to neutralize our impact on the environment. Consumers are starting to recognize the negative impact of single-use plastic, yet their choices in grocery and convenience stores are limited,” said Mike Kirban, CEO of AMI. “As an agile, independent company, we know AMI is uniquely positioned to help address this issue, and we are so proud and eager to get this environmentally-friendly water brand in the hands of our consumers.”

Partnering Together to Promote Sustainable Alternatives

Question How You Hydrate is a new Lonely Whale movement that empowers consumers to choose and champion sustainable alternatives to single-use plastic water bottles. The campaign is being launched in partnership with Point Break Foundation and creative agency Young Hero.

Ever & Ever is one of Lonely Whale’s preferred sustainable alternatives to single-use plastic water bottles. Just as the name suggests, the Ever & Ever bottle is infinitely recyclable. When recycled, an aluminum bottle can be turned into a new can in as little as 60 days.

“AMI partnered with Lonely Whale to think about our long-term strategic sustainability initiatives and how we can neutralize the impact of our single-use packaging,” said Jane Prior, chief marketing officer of AMI. “Born out of this partnership was the opportunity to launch Ever & Ever, a solution that consumers can use to #HydrateLike a mother, a traveler, an athlete, an activist and more.”

Showcasing Solutions for an Ocean Free from Plastic Waste

As part of the campaign, Lonely Whale, Ever & Ever and other #HydrateLike partners have launched a pop-up Museum of Plastic in New York City. The museum illustrates an ocean free from plastic waste and the solutions available to everyday consumers to inspire action and make a positive impact. The Museum of Plastic is available for a limited time at 473-475 Broadway, NYC.

“Single-use plastic water bottles are a relatively new phenomenon which exploded onto the scene in the 1990s and have since become the norm for consuming water,” said Dune Ives, executive director of Lonely Whale. “Our Question How You Hydrate campaign is waking the world up to the problem with this reliance on single-use plastic water bottles. We’re thrilled to promote Ever & Ever as a new alternative that allows everyone to answer one simple call: No matter how you hydrate, do it without single-use plastic.”

Ever & Ever is sold in 16-ounce Alumi Tek bottles, individually and in 12-packs. The aluminum canned water is available in still or sparkling and can be purchased online, on Amazon and will be available at retail stores in the United States.

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Kevin Majoros shares stories on sports, ocean adventuring and conservation. He is based in Baltimore/Washington and travels the world as a competitive swimmer.