At 1.883 meters deep In the Argentine Sea, a Patagonian lobster surprised the scientific team by get between the robot and its offspring, in a scene as rare as it is revealing about the behavior of life in deep waters.
The sequence, broadcast live during the oceanographic campaign of the Schmidt Ocean Institute in collaboration with CONICET, showed how the female perceived the vehicle as a threatened and protected her eight offspring before facing the device.
This is how the meeting developed
El ROV SuBastian, equipped with lights and arms, examined a rock formation off Mar del Plata When the lobster appeared from the left of the frame, he retraced his steps and he stood in front of the camera next to his shelter.
Moments later, the juveniles emerged; the female He pushed them into the cavity and adopted a defensive posture, with the clamps open and the body tense while the vehicle maintained the operating distance.
When researchers tried to collect a snail on the rock with the ROV's vacuum for sampling, the mother reacted immediately: hit the base of the robot and raised a cloud of sediment, momentarily reducing visibility.
After completing the shot, the team moved away from the hollow and focused on the lobster again to check its condition; in the live broadcast they clarified that the animal was not harmed and returned to his lair as normal.
This episode is part of the operations in the Mar del Plata Canyon, one of the most important underwater relief systems in the area, where the objective is to map canyons, study vulnerable ecosystems and document little-known communities.
What we know about Thymops birsteini
The protagonist belongs to the nephropid family, with the scientific name Thymops birsteini, a cold-water lobster from the South Atlantic that lives on the shelf and slope, including the Patagonian areas of the Argentine Sea.
Its morphology includes two large clamps, four pairs of walking legs that help manipulate food and an elongated tail or pleon that allows for quick escape maneuver; although it generally moves slowly, it can react sharply to a nearby threat.
The ROV SuBastian and the mission
The remotely operated vehicle ROV SuBastian, from the Schmidt Ocean Institute and deployed from the Falkor vessel, features high-power spotlights, cameras, manipulator arms and a suction system to controlled sampling without excessive direct contact.
The Continental Slope IV campaign brings together specialists from the CONICET and other national institutes alongside the international SOI team. The YouTube broadcasts brought together more than 70.000 people, who celebrated the animal's bravery and joked about its pincers without losing sight of the scientific value of the record.
In addition to real-time images, they are generated 3D models and environmental analysis which, according to those responsible, will be published in open repositories such as CONICET Digital, OBIS and GenBank, and will be adapted to educational material in schools and museums.
Changes in the next stage of research
With the end of this phase approaching, the Falkor, in a new stage of research based in Montevideo, will be coordinated by the University of the Republic of Uruguay, with the participation of local institutions, and subsequently return to Argentine waters and continue with several additional campaigns.
The scene in which the lobster defends its offspring demonstrates the maternal instinct in the depths and also the potential of technology to document natural interactions without excessive intervention, providing valuable knowledge about remote species and habitats.