Into The Industry: Seaslug Researcher
Elyssa Quinton
Michael Middlebrooks from Tampa University tells us about how and why he now dedicates his life to learning and educating others about the ocean. He also shares some stunning images of sea slugs he has discovered on his journey!
Hey Michael, tell us a bit about yourself.
I am marine invertebrate zoologist working as an Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Tampa. At UT I primarily teach the Marine Invertebrate Zoology and Invertebrate Zoology courses. I spend a lot of time taking my students into the field to explore and learn about marine invertebrates in their natural habitats.
I also run a research lab that studies symbiosis in photosynthetic sea slugs. The slugs that I study steal chloroplasts from green algae they eat and then use those chloroplasts to make their own energy from the sun! It’s a really interesting system and we are always learning new things about as we try to figure out how the slugs actually manage to make this work.
I am also an avid scuba diver and spend a lot of my free time scuba diving locally and internationally whenever I can. I find that I really can’t get enough of exploring the ocean looking for interesting critters. I’m also happy to travel out of the water and I like going to concerts and reading (although I do most of that on airplanes when I am travelling).
Michael is passionate about teaching others about invertebrate zoology! Photo: Michael Middlebrooks.
You’ve built your life around the ocean. What drew you to it in the first place?
I grew up in North Florida on the St. Johns River and I’ve always liked biology. When I was a kid, I spent a lot of time catching animals in the river and nearby creeks and trying to keep them in aquaria. The excitement of finding new things I had never seen before always drew me back to keep exploring.
Also, before I was born, my dad was in the Navy and my parents were stationed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The stories and photographs from scuba diving on the reefs in Cuba always captured my imagination and made me excited to start diving when I was a teenager.
Elysia clarki spotted in Florida Keys. Photo: Michael Middlebrooks.
Why did you choose to enter the world of academia and research. What are some other options available for people wanting a marine science career?
I actually didn’t start out intending to make a career in Marine Science. I had intended to keep scuba diving as a hobby and just enjoy the ocean recreationally. I originally went to college to study journalism (I was very involved in my high school newspaper), but realised the field was quite different than I had imagined so I switched majors to my Biology and never looked back.
Around the same time, I also completed the coursework to become a scuba instructor, which was something I did on the side for a while in college. I no longer teach scuba diving, but that was a valuable experience which opened up a lot of opportunities and was also a lot of fun.
When I first started graduate school at the University of South Florida, I had imagined myself going into a research heavy academic career. As a teaching assistant at USF, I discovered that I also really enjoyed teaching and especially getting to explore the marine environment with students. I was fortunate to find a job which allows me to teach subjects that I am excited about and conduct novel research on my sea slugs.
Michael taught scuba diving on the side whilst studying at college. Photo: Michael Middlebrooks.
What does a typical day in your life look like? What do outside people think it looks like?
I would say there is no typical day. It varies quite a lot which is part of the appeal to me. This week I spent Sunday night in the lab getting some aquaria ready; Monday on the water snorkelling to collect sponges for my class and algae to feed to slugs for research, Tuesday reading scientific papers and working on a draft of my own research article, Wednesday was a lecture on sponges in the morning for my Marine Invertebrate Zoology course and then meeting with students in the afternoon, Thursday was the lab for the course where we examine live animals and analyse data (last week was a field trip where we collected the data), and Friday I taught a class about Echinoderms (sea stars and their relatives) followed by meetings in the afternoon.
I think most people imagine the job as more glamorous than it is. In reality, there is less time spent on the beach and more time spent reading scientific literature. There is also a good bit more manual labour than most people imagine. That said I still get to snorkel and scuba dive for work and I can’t really imagine a job that I would enjoy more.
Elysia crispata, spotted in the British Virgin Islands. Photo: Michael Middlebrooks.
How do you hope your work and teaching will influence others?
There are a few major lessons that I hope to get across to my students. The first is the value of spending time in the water and exploring. There is no substitute for first-hand in the water experience for learning about wildlife. I get so many of my ideas for experiments from observing animals in the wild. You will never run into a bucket list animal at your desk, you have to go outside. More time in nature equals more chances for once in a lifetime encounter.
The other really important lesson is about how little we actually know about most organisms. We have over a million species of invertebrate animals and for many of them we know little more than a basic species description. There is so much to learn and so much to do. It is exciting to see all of the possibilities out there!
Elysia subornata spotted in Tampa Florida. Photo: Michael Middlebrooks.
What advice do you have for those who want to help conserve marine resources, but who may not directly work in the field?
I recommend that everyone who is interested to spend some time in marine habitats if you haven’t already. Do a little research before you go to make sure you are working with eco-friendly companies and then go see the coral reefs and seagrass beds and mangroves. You don’t really get a sense for what is at state until you are there in the water. Then share your experiences with others who are interested. It will take large actions to conserve and restore the world’s marine resources and that won’t happen unless a lot of people really care.
What has been your most memorable ocean experience in the field so far?
I have had so many great encounters, it is so hard to pick! One of the most memorable for me was my first encounter with a bobtail squid in Lembeh, Indonesia. These tiny cephalopods (about the size of a grape) are shy and have the cutest way of hiding when they notice you looking at them. I made a video of it, you can watch here.
In the raw footage you can actually hear me squealing under water because it is so adorable. I’ve had a lot of other great encounters with octopus, whale sharks, sea turtles, cuttlefish, slugs, manatees, sea lions, and even silly things like having my nails cleaned by shrimp at a cleaning station, but that little bobtail squid is what I remember most fondly.
The Bobtail squid spotted in Lembeh Indonesia! This is only about an inch long, they have no cuttlebone unlike their close relatives the Cuttlefish. Photo: Michael Middlebrooks.
Which ocean species is on your bucket list to see?
I’m always excited to see something I’ve never seen before, so my bucket list is huge! Currently I am most wanting to see some more cephalopods in the wild like the flamboyant cuttlefish, nautilus, and the argonaut. I also always quite excited anytime I find a gastropod (sea slug or snail) that I haven’t seen before. There are some really beautiful relatives of some of the slugs that I study which live in the Indo-Pacific. I would love to see more of them in the wild.
Elysia crispata spotted in British Virgin Islands. Photo: Michael Middlebrooks.
Whose work has influenced and inspired you?
Honestly, I’ve been most influenced by the people I have worked with directly. I had some great teachers and professors while I was studying. My middle school science teacher, Glenn Cole, had a big impact on my interest in science. I learned a lot from my scuba course director Keith Mattson. At Florida State University I had some great professors, most notably Bill Herrnkind. He set me up with an internship and job after undergrad with one of his former students Mark Butler from Old Dominion University where I worked on lobster ecology in the Florida Keys. At the University of South Florida I learned a lot from my PhD advisor Susan Bell and my post-doc advisor Skip Pierce both of whom I still enjoy collaborating with today.
Costiella sp. spotted in Jardines de la Reina, Cuba. Photo: Michael Middlebrooks.
You can follow Michael’s work on Instagram here.