Indoor cat

"I would make a great cat! I nap most of the day, I hate taking baths, I look cute in a cardboard box, and most of my enemies are birds."
- the TV show Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Throughout the pandemic, my husband and I have referred to ourselves as "indoor cats." It started as a humorous way to process the situation, but let's be honest - after a solid year of isolation, a moving laser point would be pretty darn interesting.

One of the things this indoor cat has been doing lately is going through all the video footage from Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary that we recorded last summer. During our telepresence broadcasts, we were actually able to take a remotely-operated vehicle inside the shipwreck Portland. I was land-based for telepresence week, so I didn't get to see all the footage as it was being recorded. It's incredibly exciting to review the footage and see the inside of the wreck for myself.

I've been inside plenty of shipwrecks for recreational SCUBA diving (yes, Mom, I was safe), and in most cases, the inner chambers are actually pretty boring for me because nothing lives there - well, at least nothing large enough to see. My husband appreciates the engineering and historical artifacts inside sunken vessels, but I usually lose interest as soon as the biodiversity declines.

The Portland is different. A large gash on the starboard side of the ship allows water to flow freely through the wreckage, so animals can live inside the wreck. In addition, the upper deck on the bow and pieces of the stern have collapsed within the last 10 years, further opening up the inside of the Portland. This water flow brings food to sessile suspension feeders like sponges, sea squirts, and bryozoans, which in turn serve as food for sea stars, crabs, and fish.

Check out some of the best images from the Portland penetration below. I like to think of these animals that live inside a shipwreck as my fellow indoor cats.