We think of the deep sea as an eerily quiet and spooky place but that isn’t completely true, animal communication, seismic activity, human noise and even the sound of rain and waves from 10 km above can all be heard. 

We chat with undersea audio expert Dr David Barclay about the fascinating audio properties of the deep ocean. As we are talking audio data on an audio medium, lets have some fun with a game of ‘what can we grenad-hear’ where Thom tries to guess the deep-sea sound.

We also have deep-sea news: India are developing their own 6 km rated human occupied vehicle (Samudrayaan); genetics links deep-sea shrimp with their planktonic juvenile stages; the HACON project explores the Aurora black smoker field at 4000 m/13,000 ft under the Arctic; we also reveal that a mysterious squid-like creature, was, in fact, a squid.

We also discuss communication (through the medium of famous quotes). Are we losing the ability to actually engage and learn things from each other? Are we all just yelling at each other online from our respective teams? Not willing to really listen to the other side but rather ‘own them’ and drop the mic. In a pandemic of misinformation where a catchy meme can ruin, or even end, peoples lives do we have a duty to try to engage with people? What about the tole that takes on our own mental health?

Don Walsh drops by with some amazing stories from his sub commander days. A life entirely dependent on listening and being quiet. We then have a ‘tale from the high seas’ from Larkin to finish things up.