The Deep-Sea Podcast

https://www.armatusoceanic.com/podcast/013-submarine-special

Thom thought he had the podcast to himself, but it turns out the professor is back after 88 days at sea. It’s time for our submarine, or human occupied vehicle (HOV) if you’re posh, special. First we reunite ‘Vegemite and Haggis’ and talk to submarine pilot Tim Macdonald about his and Alan’s undersea adventures around Australia. Manganese nodule fields, gothic cathedrals, and an undersea UFO.

Life starts to imitate art. We chat with sci-fi author John Quentin who Alan has been consulting with while he writes his next book: The Galathea Legacy, about deep-ocean plastic pollution taking place at the site of the Galathea Expedition trawls in the Philippine Trench. A site which Alan and Tim recently dived… forcing John to tweak the draft as he strives for realism.

We then speak with Patrick Lahey and Frank Lombardo of Triton Submarines, a bespoke submarine manufacturer, about privately owned submersibles. Initially as luxury pleasure craft but we soon find out that there is a wide range of reasons why someone would want their own sub. Throughout their careers they have had many incredible experiences, like seeing a sixgill shark give birth and communicating with bioluminescent organisms.

The podcast wouldn’t be complete without checking in with Don Walsh. He tells us about the large commercial tourist submarines which have now produced more tourist submariners than the US navy.

It’s a packed episode but we sneak some news in there too. Deep-sea fishes have more variation in body shape than shallow-water fishes. A new species, genus, and family of brittle star from a lineage dating back to the Jurassic. Coelacanth can live up to a century and Mesobot, a new method for studying open water animals.

Glossary

Autonomous vehicle: A vehicle that doesn’t need a human pilot

Brittle star: Related to sea stars, they have very flexible whip-like arms. Echinoderms of the class Ophiuroidea

Globular: Globe-like, spherical

Human Occupied Vehicle (HOV): Another term for a submarine

Hypoxic: Insufficient oxygen

Thrusters: the propellers on an underwater vehicle that allow it to move

Links

Deep-sea fish have a lot more body shape variation than shallow fish

Deep-sea fish are confused by complex structures

New family of brittle star

Coelacanth can live to a century

John’s upcoming book The Galathea Legacy

Triton submersibles

Atlantis tourist subs

The hidden track is real, Thom did say ‘anus’ on TV. You can see us and a lot of our guests, and experience the Five Deeps Expedition, in Expedition Deep Ocean on Discovery+

Natural history collections, huge archives of carefully curated specimens, are an invaluable tool for the scientific community. They are also a place where the public get to interact with active research and meet scientists. Forget what you’d imagine working in a museum to be like, no two days are the same and both the collections and the talented people who work with them are in constant demand. One day your helping design new swimwear based on shark skin, the next settling an argument at a fishing competition.

If you’re wondering what jobs are out there in science or just curious to know what goes on behind the scenes at a museum, this episode has some surprises for you.

Alan is still away at sea, so Thom is joined again by Dr Heather Ritchie to tacked some deep-sea news, seabed mapping, secrets revealed by snailfish genes and wandering sponges are all hot off the presses. Don also drops in with an example of when you don’t want to collect biology, on the hull of your vessel as biofouling.

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

[email protected]

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

www.armatusoceanic.com

Links

𝐸𝑢𝑟𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑡𝑎𝑐𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑠 description

Bathymetry from The Five Deeps Published

The Yap Trench snailfish

Wandering sponges

James taking care of the beetles during lockdown

Microplastics in deep-sea fish

James talking about deep-sea fish.

CT scanning reveals anglerfish meal

Shark nostril research

Cookie-cutter shark bites

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa – deep sea video

The Fishes of New Zealand

Glossary

Authority – The scientist who describes a species

Snailfish – Members of the Liparidae, the deepest living fishes

TMAO - Trimethylamine N-oxide, a molecule that is involved in pressure adaptation

Taxonomy – The science of classifying living things

Type – A specimen that is formally associated with the scientific name

Holotype – The singular definitive example of a species

CT scanning – Computerised Tomography Scanning. Basically, a 3D x-ray

Sequence – A part of the genetic code that we can compare between samples

Isotopes – When atoms of the same element vary in their mass

Otolith – The ear bones of fishes

Alan is stranded out in the Pacific and Thom is left to present a show on genetics, a topic so confusing to him it may as well be magic. Luckily, friends of the show are on hand. Dr Heather Ritchie is tricked into co-hosting and we talk to Dr Johanna Weston about the things we can learn about the deep sea from genetic analysis.

Alan has found a way to get audio logs to us (pretty sure a Holtzman Wave isn’t a thing) and shares what he has been up to out at sea – it turns out, a lot! Listen in for lots of exclusives. This includes an interview with sub-pilot Tim Macdonald from inside the Limiting Factor at over 10,000 m depth. We are pretty sure this is the world deepest interview. The Deep-Sea Podcast lives up to its name, the deepest podcast around.

In recent news we discuss how our immune system doesn’t recognise deep-sea bacteria (and how that may be a good thing) and Thom gushes about his new favourite thing… blackwater photography.

Don Walsh tells us about inspecting ex-soviet reactors and discovering he is standing on top of a running one and Thom and Heather tell the tale of acquiring a -80 ℃ freezer in New Caledonia.

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

[email protected]

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

www.armatusoceanic.com

Links

Deep-sea bacterial invisible to human immune system

Blackwater photography article

Blackwater photography paper

‘The Code’ - INTERNATIONAL CODE OF ZOOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE

The genetic code database – GenBank

You can track where Alan currently is here

Glossary

Tales of monsters persist to this day and there’s no better place to hide them than in the deep sea. We are joined by paleontology student and cryptozoology blogger Tyler Greenfield to look at some of the most famous sea monsters and see if there is any truth to the stories. We discuss megalodon, globsters, plesiosaurs/Nessie and all manner of strange carcasses that wash up from time to time.

We have a good hard listen to The Bloop and I call upon an expert in the undersea calls of marine animals, Nicky Harris. She also has a tale from the high seas for us… a rather grizzly bit of nature in action. People in the front row will get wet.

Also in this episode, we talk about glowing sharks, the largest bioluminescent vertebrate. Soft robotics to the planets deepest places and Alan picks a fight with a polar bear, taking on The Octonauts’ very own Captain Barnacles.

Finally, we hear from Don Walsh, who shares some ocean myths that went on to have a grain of truth.

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

[email protected]

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

www.armatusoceanic.com

Links

Bioluminescence of the Largest Luminous Vertebrate, the Kitefin Shark, Dalatias licha: First Insights and Comparative Aspects

Self-powered soft robot in the Mariana Trench

10 Bizarre Deep Sea Creatures (treehugger.com)

Tyler’s fantastic blog

Tyler’s cryptozoology paper archive

A link to Beebe’s book, Half A Mile Down

You can find Tyler on Twitter @TylerGreenfieId

Papers on Helicoprion

1. Jaws for a spiral-tooth whorl: CT images reveal novel adaptation and phylogeny in fossil Helicoprion

On the Giant Octopus (Octopus giganteus) and the Bermuda Blob: Homage to A. E. Verrill

How to tell a sea monster: molecular discrimination of large marine animals of the North Atlantic

NOAA’s response to the Mermaids: A body found

Fish tales: Combating fake science in popular media

Credits

Theme – Hadal Zone Express by Märvel (http://marvel.nu/)

Additional music - Lost In The Forest - Doug Maxwell, Media Right Productions

We are both biologists and a little bias toward the deep-sea critters, but the deep ocean contains a wealth of geological discoveries, after all, it is the geology which creates the deep sea.

We catch up the latest news, including life discovered 100s of km under the ice, slowing water currents, vampire squid history and the rules of naming something new, be it a species or an undersea feature.

We then have a chat with geologist and explorer (and friend of the show) Heather Stewart about the geology of the deep sea and how we produce maps of the ocean floor. Why do people talk about how little of the ocean has been mapped when we can clearly see it is all mapped on google earth?

What about some of the more unusual features that we see on the deep seabed in Google Earth, are those roads and pyramids? I have a chat with ‘my mate Dave™’, David Howell, about marine archaeology and looking for sunken human settlements.

Finally, we hear from Don Walsh, who recollects the time he used the bathyscaph Trieste to deploy devices to listen out for nuclear tests.

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

[email protected]

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

www.armatusoceanic.com

Links

Life under the ice

Gulf Stream weakening

Fossil evidence of vampire squid

Plastic waste as biodiversity hotspots

New species without holotype (of the many papers you can read on this):

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5672740/

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.620702/full

A proposal for modesty

Here is a great tool where you can see the direct and satellite global data

Credits

Theme – Hadal Zone Express by Märvel

Working in the deep sea is entirely dependent on technology and the incredible forces push engineering to its limit. If you are doing something that no one has done before, chances are you are going to have to make some of your own tools. Unfortunately, we must spend a lot more on our equipment for the same data as shallower science. This makes funding difficult but also makes the deep sea quite an exclusive club.

We are joined by James Cameron (yes, that one) to talk about solving the problems of working deep with new technology. He shares how he went about illuminating the Titanic and confesses that his films are often an outlet for the technology he wishes he could build. Some of the concepts coming in Avatar 2 are an example of this. Don Walsh joins us as ever to give his take on the importance of the engineering that allows us to do the things we do.

In recent news, we have a new deep-sea fish, and it’s a beast with a very cool name. In honour of the Valentine’s day we talk about love in the deep sea with some different reproductive strategies. We take some listener questions and it Tails from the High Seas my old colleague Izzy talks about a wild storm and getting superstitious with your equipment.

Links

New giant slickhead

Vampire squid reproduction

Rattails spawning

The Crabsuit

Credits

Theme – Hadal Zone Express by Märvel

Sound effects obtained from https://www.zapsplat.com

We impact the deep sea in many ways we don’t realise. Some are deliberate, some are accidental, some we didn’t even notice at the time. We talk about ways we have impacted the deep sea and touch on the huge problem that is marine plastic, a particular problem in the isolated Mediterranean Sea. His serene highness Prince Albert II of Monaco tells us about his experience diving to the deepest point in the Mediterranean, the Calypso Deep (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calypso_Deep) and his Beyond Plastic Med

(https://www.beyondplasticmed.org/en/) initiative.

To solve these problems sometimes we have to ask ourselves difficult questions. There often isn’t right and wrong but shades of grey and nothing is ever as simple as it seems. How much of the deep sea would you sacrifice if it solved climate change? This may not be as hypothetical as it sounds.

You can submit your own ‘tails from the high seas’ about an experience you have had offshore or pose us a question/comment on:

[email protected]

Theme – Hadal Zone Express by Märvel (http://marvel.nu/)

Links

Mercury paper:

https://www.pnas.org/content/117/47/29292

Sam’s work and his podcast:

https://www.samillingworth.com/

Eurythenes plasticus video:

https://youtu.be/phAFW05eKI8

Eurythenes plasticus educational resources:

https://www.plasticus.school/en/

2020 Grand Prix for Good:

https://www2.eurobest.com/winners/2020/gp4g/

Carbon storage paper:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1876610217318878

Mesozoic Ocean:

https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/11283/paleo_TAKASHIMA_et_al-2006.pdf

Deep-Sea observatories:

http://www.poseidon.hcmr.gr/eurosites/about.php

Deep Mediterranean paper:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00227-018-3413-0

Beyond Plastic Med:

https://www.beyondplasticmed.org/en/

It’s the holidays so we decided to get together, have a few drinks and tell some stories from life at sea. We even get Märvel – the barons of high-energy rock and roll on the line for a festive chat.

This is a silly/gross episode, even by our standards. There are stories of seasickness and competitive food fungus… you have been warned.

[email protected]

Theme – Hadal Zone Express by Märvel (http://marvel.nu/)

Our world is rapidly changing. As we move away from fossil fuels and our use of electronics increases, demand is climbing for a handful of metals key to the manufacture of modern technology. Mining the deep sea may meet these demands but is probably the most contentious issue the community is facing right now. Is there a net benefit for the deep sea; funding research and understanding, addressing climate change, and encouraging developing nations? Or is the deep sea too fragile and too unknown to be responsibly exploited?

We bite off far more than we can chew by taking on this issue in a deep-sea mining special episode. Luckily, we have some guests we can call on to help us understand the issue. Professor Jeffrey Drazen of University of Hawai`i at Manoa explains just what deep-sea mining is and its ecological impacts. We then speak with Michael Lodge, secretary-general of the International Seabed Authority (ISA). The ISA, comprised of 167 member states and the European Union, regulates and controls all mineral-related activities in the open ocean – that’s the majority of the planet!

We also have current news and a chat with Don Walsh, who of course it turns out, has first-hand experience with the complexities of mining in the ocean.

You can submit your own ‘tails from the high seas’ about an experience you have had offshore or pose us a question on:

[email protected]

Theme – Hadal Zone Express by Märvel (http://marvel.nu/)

Links

ECO Magazine Deep-Sea Heroes: http://digital.ecomagazine.com/publication/?i=683954&ver=html5&p=22

Scary bigfin squid video: https://youtu.be/L8xXnVkOGsA

Bigfin squid paper: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0241066

Eel swarm: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967063720302107

ISA website: https://www.isa.org.jm/

DeepData: https://www.isa.org.jm/deepdata

UNESCO report: http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/1535/

#deepseamining #deepsea #mining #ManganeseNodules #manganese #PolymetallicNodules #Polymetallic #ISA #InternationalSeabedAuthority #MichaelLodge #LawOfTheSea #HighSea #InternationalLaw #conservation #EnvironmentalImpact #seamount #HydrothermalVent #ProtectedArea #ProtectedHabitat  

In this episode we explore the power of storytelling and complete the arc of our first five episodes: science communication and perception of the deep sea.

We talk with multiple New York Times bestseller Susan Casey (https://susancasey.com/) about telling a good story and engaging people with a narrative, while still being scientifically accurate. Don Walsh (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Walsh) is kind enough to record his thoughts on the importance of good storytellers, which of course also contains a story we never knew about Don.

Storytelling is an incredibly powerful tool, but it can be a difficult one to wield. Alan talks of some experiences where the public perception of a story was not what was expected but also the risk of not telling the story at all and of assumptions being made.

We have our regular returning segments: Recent news, which seems very squiddy this episode; tails from the high seas, where Alan is imprisoned in a seaman’s mission; and Thom tries out a new segment about the history of some deep-sea animal names.

You can submit your own ‘tails from the high seas’ about an experience you have had offshore or pose us a question on:

[email protected]

Theme – Hadal Zone Express by Märvel (http://marvel.nu/)

Links

• The description of the roundnose grenadier from 1765: https://www.ntnu.no/ojs/index.php/DKNVS_skrifter/article/download/710/642