We like to let our hair down a little for the Christmas episode and do something a little different. We recorded video this episode! You can find the video version of this podcast on our YouTube page. Me and Alan crack out some mulled wine and decide to interview each other for this episode. Things get a little off the topic of deep sea but it’s all in good fun (if a little dark at times).

We won’t leave you totally without some deep-sea updates though. We still have our news section which includes new research into how sponges may be able to think, a deep-sea crawler that has been tirelessly surveying Station-M for seven years, a new species of deep-diving beaked whale, a new and really nice video of the creepy bigfin squid, can rockfish help us live longer and it turns out that Terry the fat shark is real.

No episode would be complete without checking in with Don Walsh, who tells a story of a Christmas in the Western Antarctic… the far side, and Larkin who has her Christmas plans suddenly change while trying to leave her ship in Mexico.

Whatever you celebrate at this time of year, we hope you have a wonderful time. See you all again in the new year.

Feel free to get in touch with us with questions or you own tales from the high seas on:

[email protected]

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Read the show notes and find out more about us at:

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Glossary

Box core: A large sediment sampling device that takes one huge sample

Grimpoteuthis: the dumbo octopuses

Hadal: Deeper than 6000 m

Holotype: a single specimen expressly designated as the name-bearing “type”

Lander: a freefalling vehicle which sinks to the seabed and returns to the surface by dropping ballast

MBARI: Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute

Multi core: A large sediment sampling device that takes multiple smaller samples

Paratype: A specimen cited along with the type collection in the original description of a taxon

ROV: Remotely Operated Vehicle

Sunk Cost Fallacy: Sticking with a bad idea because you have already invested so much in it.

Links

Sponge neurons

Benthic Rover II

New beaked whale

Paper

New bigfin squid video

Chunky shark

Deep-sea rockfish longevity

Paper

Mammoth tusk

Garfield phone beach

Ray Troll

Paleo Nerds Podcast

Burial at sea

Iron Maiden - Live After Death

Larkin’s YouTube channel My Salty Sea Life

Credits

Theme – Hadal Zone Express by Märvel

Sound effects from the BBC archive

Logo image

Terry the fat shark

Our countdown timer at sea