In the same spirit of talking about copepods; the first striking thing you notice about them is that some of them carry two big sacs of developing embryos with them. The sacs are almost as big as the copepod themselves.

I wonder how much drag does carrying an egg sac cause on the copepod. It’s important, since in dog eat dog world of the ocean; if you are not fast – you are food. It gets complicated since I can imagine the mother carrying the egg sacs might mean the chances of a safe environment – but that is only true if the mother is safe. But an egg sac by itself is sitting food anyway. Fascinating!!

Next I will actually image the development and release of the baby copepods. Until that time, enjoy this image.