Jeff Day
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jeffday.bsky.social
Jeff Day
@jeffday.bsky.social
3.2K followers 580 following 5.8K posts
i like weird deep sea shit, particularly cephalopods. also metal, parasitic fungi, horror, etc.

he/him, ace, adhd (maybe autistic?)

opinions are mine and not my employer’s
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jeffday.bsky.social
at around 1:06? i think thats actually a carnivorous sponge, something like this:

www.ncei.noaa.gov/waf/okeanos-...
close-up of the body portion of a stalked carnivorous sponge. looks like a white spheroid with thin, rigid filaments extending from it in a ring shape
October 22, 2025 at 8:52 PM
jeffday.bsky.social
was randomly browsing r/megalophobia earlier only to see an image of stygiomedusa with a snorkeler at the surface, which is bonkers since it's a deep sea jelly. 🦑🧪

after a little digging, it came from this paper: doi.org/10.1590/S198...

about this observation:
www.instagram.com/p/BzlnDMxht0y
October 20, 2025 at 7:54 PM
jeffday.bsky.social
absolutely wild finding that a specimen previously identified as ancistrocheirus, retrieved from a sperm whale stomach, was so different from any known oegopsid that it was placed in a new family and genus. it’s entirely depigmented except around the eyes.

mobydickia poseidonii
identification schematic for mobydickia poseidonii. starting from top left moving clockwise, there are: dorsal and ventral full body photos and sketches of the specimen, arm sucker photographs, tentacle hook photographs, photographs of the beak, a diagram of the radula, and a photograph of the gladius
July 4, 2025 at 6:12 PM
jeffday.bsky.social
I have attained a new level of Squid
Screenshot of the post composition UI of the bluesky iOS app. Next to my profile image, I have typed “Slosa”, and my phone has suggested “Slosarczykovia” as the word completion.
June 14, 2025 at 8:12 PM
jeffday.bsky.social
sigh. i knew what it was but i clicked anyway.
a screenshot of a post by faine, reskeeted by darth. text reads "what's up new bluesky users" and below that is a content block that says "Adult content" with a link on the right side titled 'Show'. i knew it was alf dick but i clicked it anyway like an idiot
October 17, 2024 at 4:57 AM
jeffday.bsky.social
may i offer you a chonky purple sea cucumber in this trying time?

www.youtube.com/live/xkMOwFZ...
a sea cucumber on the seafloor. the seafloor is dark bumpy rock partially covered with a dusting of sediment roughly the color of sand. the sea cucumber is a light purple, with dozens of very tiny feet? papillae? visible underneath the edge visible to us. there's also a pattern of slightly darker purple dots running along the top of it, plus a fainter, more regular pattern of smaller dots. imagine someone took a zucchini, made it floppy, then hit invert on the color in photoshop. something like that
July 22, 2024 at 4:54 AM
jeffday.bsky.social
also, here's a blind lobster (polychelidae)
a pink crustacean with all limbs concealed beneath its shell, a tail, a large thorax, and no visible head minus four thin antenna sticking out of the front. the tail is segmented and has two short fins on each side. it's sitting on top of a sediment-covered, dark rocky surface. imagine a shrimp, except if a shrimp always skipped leg day and only worked out its core. it's sorta shaped like a carrot.
July 22, 2024 at 4:34 AM
jeffday.bsky.social
schmidt ocean is live at 1962m depth, from the same unnamed seamount as the previous dive.

ever wanted to see what an umbellula sea pen looks like REALLY close? 🦑🧪

www.youtube.com/live/xkMOwFZ...
side view of the feeding portion of an umbellula. looks not dissimilar to a flower in overall structure, except this is entirely translucent, and the "flower" portion consists of eight branches extending from a singular bulb attached to the stalk, and in turn those eight branches split into eight MORE thinner branches, with very fine bristles extending from either side of each branch at regular intervals. the smaller branches are translucent and faintly tinted dark orange - a dark brown cylindrical structure is visible in the center of the stalk that attaches to the main "bulb" the same sea pen, viewed head-on, and illuminated from behind and above. the smallest branches now almost appear to be a glowing, faint orange, and the actual feeding orifice at the center of each polyp is visible.
July 22, 2024 at 4:23 AM
jeffday.bsky.social
ok ROPOS is wrapping up and schmidt just started broadcasting, starting off STRONG with a rhizophysid siphonophore!!! 🦑🧪

www.youtube.com/live/2hIpuVN...
flying spaghetti monster siphonophore. it's basically a mass of thick light green tentacles with tiny purple spherical tips, with incredibly long thin tentacles dangling below it.
July 20, 2024 at 10:11 PM
jeffday.bsky.social
in case anyone was wondering why they're called mushroom corals, here ya go: one with closed and retracted polyps at the top, two with them extended at the bottom.🦑🧪

@roposrov.bsky.social

www.youtube.com/live/7nwi-lW...
a light greyish-brown sediment and semi-rocky substrate, studded with bright yellow paramuricea corals, plus a small rock formation center frame with three anthomastus (mushroom coral) on it. the top one literally looks like a red mushroom, its surface dotted with a handful of darker circles. these are closed polyps. the bottom two have their polyps fully extended, looking more like a bush with thick red branches sticking out of it at regular intervals.
July 20, 2024 at 9:16 PM
jeffday.bsky.social
gilbert canyon! which is, uh, *googles* off of rhode island:
map of the northeast canyons and seamounts marine national monument, showing bear seamount, physalia seamount, retriever seamount, mytilus seamount, and northwest of them, from west to east, oceanographer canyon, gilbert canyon, and lydonia canyon. an inset map shows the monument relative to the NE coast of the united states. it's on the edge of the continental shelf southeast of the state of rhode island.
July 20, 2024 at 8:23 PM
jeffday.bsky.social
turns out when you're a bit of hard substrate surrounded by a lot of soft sediment, you get REALLY popular. descriptions are in the alt text. 🧪🦑

@roposrov.bsky.social

www.youtube.com/live/7nwi-lW...
a lone rock against largely empty greyish brown seafloor. the rock is overgrown with a variety of different sessile organisms, including octocorals, sponges, and even a tubeworm. closer look at the rock. front center is a glass sponge, which looks like a translucent whitish cylinder that extends perpendicularly outward from the rock then curves to point straight at the surface. immediately to the left of it is a bubblegum coral, which looks like a thick pink tree branch attached to the rock by a holdfast, which looks like a whitish yellow blob of polyurethane spray foam. above the sponge is a yellow paramuricea coral - similar tree branch-like structure, but bright canary yellow and slightly fluffier. to the left of the paramuriciea are two dark brown black corals, which look somewhat similar to feathers with thick bushy plumage. to the right of the sponge is a desmophyllum, a cup coral, with its tentacles extended - picture a daisy that's partially opened and you've got the rough appearance of the cup structure and outstretched tentacles. oh my god i ran out of alt text stuff i didn't get to in the last photo's alt text - several cup corals on the left portion of the rock, and a few mushroom corals (anthomastus). anthomastus is pinkish red, with a structure that... resembles a mushroom, and cylindrical arms jutting out of it at various points, with the typical octocoral polyps (eight outstretched arms) open at their tips. there's also a squiggly white cylindrical structure bottom right with a feather-like extrusion at the tip, which is a tubeworm!
July 20, 2024 at 8:11 PM
jeffday.bsky.social
small blob of squid ink floated by and caught on a bamboo coral. martha saying it has a consistency of hershey's chocolate syrup, she's apparently been "slimed" once previously by a large squid 😂😂

@roposrov.bsky.social

www.youtube.com/live/7nwi-lW...
a slender, whip-like coral against a light greyish-brown sediment seafloor. the coral has a orangeish-pink brittle star attached to it, practically doing the splits so all of its arms are attached to the coral. a smoky dark yellow blob clings to a small portion of the coral, the current making the majority of it extend to the left.
July 20, 2024 at 6:14 PM
jeffday.bsky.social
CRAB

neolithodes according to martha. common name porcupine crab. pretty obvious why, lmao 🦀🦑🧪

@roposrov.bsky.social

www.youtube.com/live/7nwi-lW...
closeup of a red, spike-covered crab. its legs are very long relative to the body. there's a light dusting of grey sediment on the top of its carapace and to a lesser extent the top portion of each leg. the crab is facing away from us, and the positioning of two large spikes on the rear of its carapace, along with the seam between the top portion of the carapace and the underside, makes it look like a frowning face. tighter zoom of the same red, spike-covered crab.
July 20, 2024 at 6:05 PM
jeffday.bsky.social
octopus!! graneledone, i think.

@roposrov.bsky.social

www.youtube.com/live/7nwi-lW...
splotchy purple octopus, sitting on a sediment light grey-brown seafloor. the skin of the octopus has a bumpy texture, and there's a whitish, scar-looking feature winding around the side of its mantle closest to us. it has its two front arms raised up and outstretched, as if it's about to walk very very slowly away from the ROV. also visible are three corals, the two in front are paramuricea, and are a mustard yellow, each with a orange brittle star attached, its arms twined around the skeleton. behind the octopus is an acanella coral, which is more delicate and a pale orange.
July 20, 2024 at 6:01 PM
jeffday.bsky.social
"you got him!"

"now what?"

"NOOOOOOOOOOooo"

"I think he just flipped you the bird"

after 3x valiant collection attempts, they're moving on, and the squattie lives to squat another day.
view of the manipulator arm of ROPOS against a brownish grey rocky cliff face, with a bamboo coral in the background. the squat lobster is partially stuck to the suction sampler, arms outstretched. view of the manipulator arm of ROPOS against a brownish grey rocky cliff face, with a bamboo coral in the background. the squat lobster is only caught by its arms now and is swimming quite forcefully away from the sampler view of the manipulator arm of ROPOS against a brownish grey rocky cliff face, lowered. the squat lobster is perched on the cliff face, arms once again aggressively outstretched toward the ROV. "flipping you the bird" 😂
July 20, 2024 at 5:33 PM
jeffday.bsky.social
ROPOS is currently diving around oceanographer canyon and doing a livestream, check them out! currently attempt to collect a squat lobster on this gorgeous primnoa coral. martha nizinski is the current watch lead and is a wonderful narrator.
an extremely large primnoa coral against a grey rocky cliff face. the coral is orange and has its polyps extended, imagine a.... fuzzy pipecleaner with bright orange bristles, structured like a very intricate tree branch. now imagine that branch is stuck to a grey flat rock via a large base that looks like a splat of polyurethane spray foam. there's a squat lobster perched on it, arms outstretched at us. it's a red-orange crustacean with very long, spindly limbs, and small claws. closer zoom on the same coral from the opposite side. the individual polyps are a little more visible from this close up, and we can see that some of them closer to the base are closed up, looking like a spattering of orange bumps against the stark white of the naked coral skeleton. we can see two squat lobsters, each with its arms aggressively splayed out, almost as if they're challenging the ROV, "you wanna piece of this??? let's GO." the port manipulator of ROPOS is visible, holding the suction sampler, which is really just a corrugated plastic tube with a thick blue nylon bungee cord attached to it. some bonus biology we can see this close up is a small red pycnogonid (sea spider), perched closer to the main stalk of the coral skeleton, where the polyps end and naked skeleton begins.
July 20, 2024 at 5:30 PM
jeffday.bsky.social
schmidt ocean institute is currently down for a 24 hour dive on a seamount off the nazca ridge. there's been a ton of cool biology observations, including

CRAB

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTQZ...

🦑🧪
a tight zoom on a bright red lithodid crab. its carapace is roughly spherical, with substantial legs jutting out from the bottom. the entire surface of the crab is covered with spiky protrusion, with those on the top being quite large, some of them even with a branching structure. there is a light dusting of sediment on the top of the crab's carapace. tight zoom on a juan fernandez golden crab. we are looking at it from the front, and can see its carapace and the top 1/3rd of most of its legs. despite the name, it's more of a light orange/pale ink. the back legs are much skinnier than the front two, which are very stout (the claws are not visible).
July 19, 2024 at 3:25 AM
jeffday.bsky.social
the other really awesome sighting occurred in the last five minutes of the dive; they encountered a squid at around 125m and spent about five minutes filming it fairly close up:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ky9...
a red squid against the dark blue backdrop of the midwater. its mantle is pointed down and to the right, and its fins are mid-flap. we can see that the fins are rather long and extend the full length of the mantle, and on one of the tentacles which is visible we can see that there are a number of hooks. some distinct, dark red dots are visible on the side of the mantle facing us; these are photophores.
July 16, 2024 at 5:03 PM
jeffday.bsky.social
im going to attempt to post my way out of overwhelming existential dread; here are some neat things that the schmidt ocean institute saw on their dive on the 14th. first up was a casper octopus:

www.youtube.com/live/-ky9jTc...

🧪🦑
a pale greyish-purple octopus resting on a light brown sediment seafloor. its arms are curled upward, showing a single row of suckers. we are zoomed in close enough to see that each sucker is ringed by dark purple ridges (teeth?). the skin of the octopus appears loose and diaphanous, which is often the case with deep sea octopods. the eyes are jet black and protrude slightly from the mantle. telemetry from the ROV is overlaid on the image, showing a depth of 4442m and a temperature of 1.87 degrees celsius, amongst other things. office space meme with two frames; the top is an image of a woman's hands holding a different image in each hand - the left image is casper the friendly ghost, the right is the other image in this skeet; a screenshot of a casper octopus from the schmidt ocean institute dive 690. the bottom frame is pam; a white woman with light brown hair wearing a collared shirt with a dark pink cardigan. the top caption reads, "Corporate needs you to find the differences between this picture and this picture." the bottom caption reads, "They're the same picture."
July 16, 2024 at 4:56 PM
jeffday.bsky.social
Screenshot of a tweet by Mikel Jollett. The text reads, "The Juggalos outnumber the white supremacists at the Lincoln Memorial today." -- is not a sentence I ever thought I'd write.
July 5, 2024 at 3:26 AM
jeffday.bsky.social
the gonatus observation was an interesting one because it was wayyyy further south than their documented range.
map from gbif.org for occurrences of gonatus onyx. the existing documented occurrence records appear as clusters of yellow dots centered around the western coast of north america, from baja california up to alaska, with a more disperse cluster in the gulf of alaska, the bering sea, and a small cluster off the east coast of japan. i've drawn a red dot southwest of costa rica to illustrate the location of dive 625, which is when this squid was observed
June 8, 2024 at 5:02 PM
jeffday.bsky.social
i have absolutely no clue how my mom managed to forget all of the sex scenes and (brief) cannibalism when suggesting we all watch this. i was in high school at the time, i think?
movie poster for The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover the title appears, centered against a black background above an ensemble shot of the cast, with helen mirren sitting in the center, staring blankly out of frame to the left.
June 7, 2024 at 6:57 PM
jeffday.bsky.social
getting up close and personal with the deep sea lizardfish, bathysaurus mollis

link to live dive: www.youtube.com/live/tSmv_Gw...
a fish, ghostly white with faint pink undertones, lying on a light brown sediment seafloor, its translucent pectoral fins splayed outward like tiny wings. its eyes are dark gold and reflective, with a narrow band of tissue immediately surrounding them black fading to blue. the mouth is extremely wide and extends around the entire front half of its head, with thin, translucent, sharp teeth interleaved across its entire length. a fish, ghostly white with faint pink undertones, lying on a light brown sediment seafloor, its translucent pectoral fins splayed outward like tiny wings. its eyes are dark gold and reflective, with a narrow band of tissue immediately surrounding them black fading to blue. the mouth is extremely wide and extends around the entire front half of its head, with thin, translucent, sharp teeth interleaved across its entire length. this is a slightly zoomed out version of the previous image - we can see the entire body of the fish, which is roughly a very slightly tapered cone extending backwards from the head, with its caudal fin held pointing directly away from its body, perpendicular to the seafloor.
June 5, 2024 at 6:29 PM
jeffday.bsky.social
whoa, so i took a quick framegrab of an octopus from the schmidt dive just now and per mike vecchione, this is A) the deepest observed incirrate (non-dumbo) octopus by a couple hundred meters B) likely the as-yet-to-be described casper octopus! 🧪🦑

link to live dive: www.youtube.com/live/tSmv_Gw...
a rock outcropping covered with a thick, beige layer of detritus. upside down under an overhang we see a pale purplish-white octopus, with the outward halves of its arms coiled loosely into spirals. some of the feathery arms of a vermillion brittle star are visible at the top right.
June 5, 2024 at 5:29 PM