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When a team of scientists and sailors studying Lake Erie algae blooms docked their ship in Cleveland last autumn, they expected a short stop to fix a noisy rudder.
Instead, they discovered a new life form aboard the research vessel R/V Blue Heron.
Grease that oozed from the rudder shaft was teeming with a previously-undocumented bacteria, likely stowaways from faraway tar pits that found refuge in the warm, oxygen-free steering components.
Officials with the Large Lakes Laboratory at the University of Minnesota Duluth announced the discovery June 24.
“It was totally brand new to science,” said Catherine O’Reilly, observatory director.
After spotting the goo during the repair stop, crew members asked university scientists to check it out.
“I didn’t really think this was going to materialize into anything,” said Cody Sheik, a biologist at the Large Lakes Observatory.
But the team’s analysis of a cupful of the goo revealed the newly-discovered microbe they’ve since named ShipGoo1.
Humans have probably interacted with ShipGoo1 before, Sheik said, but nobody ever took the time to figure out what it was and add it to a global database of microbes.
More than a dozen ships like the Blue Heron ply the Great Lakes and ocean waters as part of the US Academic Research Fleet, a flotilla of government and university-owned ships used to conduct scientific research.
The Blue Heron is part of the US Academic Research Fleet, a flotilla of ships that conduct research in oceans and coastal waters. (Courtesy of University of Minnesota Duluth)
Some have helped discover new ocean life. But this is the first known instance of such a discovery on the ship itself.
The ShipGoo1 shares similarities with other microbes found in tar pits and underground petroleum deposits, a detail that leads Sheik to believe they entered the Blue Heron in the petroleum-based grease that keeps the rudder from seizing up.
“The beauty about science is that we might be completely wrong,” Sheik added.
While exciting, the discovery isn’t that surprising, said Gregory Dick, a University of Michigan professor who studies microbial communities in the Great Lakes.
Scientists haven’t even come close to documenting all life forms on earth, and they frequently discover new microbes. But Dick said the discovery raises questions about what other species could be hiding out in human-built environments.
“We don’t study those environments very well, so I think that’s fascinating that they’re finding novel microbes in there but I’m not too surprised.” he said.
Sheik said the ShipGoo1 discovery could help scientists understand how organisms survive the journey from oil fields to ships. If they can crack that mystery, they may be able to prevent such stowaways in the future, eliminating the possibility of the microbes eating away at the ships’ steel.
That, in turn, could help extend the vessels’ lifespan, Sheik said.
But beyond its potential usefulness to humans, the discovery is simply a fun outcome of scientists’ pursuit of curious side projects while researching other topics, said O’Reilly, the observatory director.
“It’s one of the reasons why it’s important to provide money for basic research,” she said.
Sheik’s team will likely publish the genetic sequences of ShopGoo1 sometime this fall, he said. After that, the organism will get a new name. ShipGoo1 might be quirky, but the new name will describe its characteristics, such as how it interacts with the environment or what it eats.
“This is the fun part about science,” Sheik said. “We get to find (a) discovery where we didn’t think we were going to find anything.”
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Featured image: Researchers aboard the R/V Blue Heron asked scientists to analyze a goo oozing out of the ship’s rudder shaft, and consequently discovered a new species of microbe. (Courtesy of University of Minnesota Duluth)
