National Black Bear Day: The Sea Bear.

If you’ve ever watched SpongeBob SquarePants, you probably remember the legendary Sea Bear, a terrifying creature that attacks anyone who dares to wear a sombrero. While it’s all part of the show’s ridiculous humor, the question often floats around: Are sea bears actually real?

Well, the answer is no but actually yes. There’s no creature in the ocean officially known as a “sea bear,” at least not like the one from SpongeBob. That monster is pure cartoon nonsense. But in the real world, the term “sea bear” has occasionally been used as a nickname for tardigrades—microscopic animals also called “water bears” or “moss piglets.” These tiny, nearly indestructible organisms can survive in the ocean, in boiling temperatures, and even in the vacuum of space. While they aren’t exactly what you’d want to cuddle, they do have an adorable, bear-like appearance under a microscope.

Tardigrades serve three huge purposes for anyone studying oceanic biology, like scientific research;

Tardigrades are extremophiles, meaning they can survive extreme conditions—boiling, freezing, radiation, even outer space. Studying them helps scientists:

• Understand how life can endure in harsh environments (including other planets).
• Develop new methods of preserving biological materials like vaccines or stem cells without refrigeration.
• Explore DNA repair and radiation resistance, which could lead to breakthroughs in medicine and space travel.

Secondly, environmental indicators;

Tardigrades are sensitive to changes in their environment, especially pollution. This makes them useful bioindicators for scientists studying ecosystem health in soil, moss, and freshwater systems.

And thirdly, how they play their part in biodiversity and creating an ecosystem balance;

Though tiny, tardigrades are part of the food web in micro-ecosystems. They feed on plant cells, algae, and small invertebrates, and in turn, may be consumed by even smaller predators like nematodes. They’re a quiet but essential part of biodiversity.

Speaking of bears, today is National Black Bear Day! This holiday, celebrated on the first Saturday of June, is all about appreciating North America’s most common bear species: the black bear. Unlike their SpongeBob counterpart, black bears are generally shy, curious, and rarely aggressive toward humans. They roam forests and mountains, not oceans, and play a vital role in the ecosystems they inhabit.

So no, you don’t need to draw a protective circle in the sand just yet—but maybe do take a moment to admire the real bears out there, on land and sea. Whether they’re stomping through forests or surviving the harshest corners of Earth at a microscopic scale, the bear world—both real and imagined—is full of fascinating surprises.