Ep 068: The Unseen Ocean Collective
Alan and Thom were both guests on the Oceanography Podcast, a weekly podcast hosted by Clark Marchese and produced by Pine Forest Media.
Oceanography focuses on the Ocean’s most urgent stories, through thoughtful conversations with oceanographers, leading researchers, policymakers, climate scientists, and deep-sea researchers from around the world.
This podcast is expertly hosted by a terrific science communicator, and brings listeners beneath the surface to take an immersive, and interdisciplinary look at the blue heart of our planet.
Listen to Thom's interview on Oceanography
Listen to Alan's interview on Oceanography
Misha Glenny and guests discuss one of the wonders of the natural world. In 1875 in the western Pacific, the crew of HMS Challenger discovered the Mariana Trench which turned out to be deeper than Everest is high, by two kilometres. Trenches like Mariana form when one tectonic plate slips under another and heads down and there are around fifty of them globally. While at one time some thought it was too dark and deep for life there and others wildly imagined monsters, the truth has turned out to be much more surprising.
With
Heather Stewart,
Director of Kelpie Geoscience and Associate Professor at the University of Western Australia
Jon Copley
Professor of Ocean Exploration and Science Communication at the University of Southampton
And
Alan Jamieson
Director of the Deep Sea Research Centre at the University of Western Australia
Humans have only visually explored 0.001% of the deep sea — it's deep, dark, but full of life.
In this exclusive Discover Magazine podcast episode, we speak with Dr. Katy Croff Bell, who is a National Geographic explorer and the founder and president of the Ocean Discovery League, and Professor Alan Jamieson, who co-hosts the podcast, "Deep-Sea Podcast," has published over 150 scientific publications, participated in over 80 deep-sea expeditions, and completed 30 deep-sea submersible dives.
These experts explain why we've only explored a tiny fraction of the deep sea, what it's like to dive in a submersible, and what creatures live deep below.
🎙️ Featuring expert insights and first-hand accounts from researchers who’ve descended into the abyss. Host is Erin Berge, senior digital editor at Discover Magazine.
Giant foot-long sea spiders, icefish with milky-white blood, and 200 year-old coral communities - these are among the creatures a team of international scientists came across when an iceberg the size of Chicago broke off in January.
A ship run by the US research organisation Schmidt Institute had been heading for Bellingshausen Sea when the iceberg broke clean from the George VI Ice Shelf, exposing 510 square kilometres of previously inaccessible ocean.
The scientists spent eight days studying the seafloor with a remote control camera, and were surprised to find a thriving ecosystem.
Thom Linley is a deep-sea fish expert and a curator of fishes at Te Papa, and he was the sole Kiwi scientist aboard the ship.
At about 18 minutes in:
We hear from Professor Alan Jamieson from the depths of the Tonga Trench. He recently dived into it to see what weird and wonderful creatures he’d find there – but when he reached the bottom, he didn’t see what he expected...!
In this episode, we travel with marine biologist Alan Jamieson to the second deepest place in our oceans: the Tonga trench. Meanwhile, presenter Caroline Steel speaks to Edie Widder about the creatures that illuminate our oceans, and travels to Copenhagen to take a closer look one of the strangest deep sea creatures and its deep sea adaptations.
But even fish have their limits! Scientist Paul Yancey correctly predicted the deepest point that fish can live, and it all comes down to one particular molecule.
So is there anything living beyond these depths? Well, there is only one way to find out…
Dr Thom Linley has always been fascinated with fish, how they behave, their ecology and their different ocean habitats.
He is a curator of fishes at Te Papa, and also co-hosts the Deep-Sea Podcast, where he speaks to scientists about their marine discoveries.
Dr Linley was among the first teams to capture video of the world's deepest fish, including those living in the Kermadec Trench, just north of New Zealand.
Various shows have featured his work, including Blue Planet II and Shark Week.
He's also passionate about encouraging neurodivergent people into science.
Join Ellen & special guest, deep sea biologist Dr. Thom Linley, for a literal deep dive into an animal that just might change the way you think about the creatures of the abyss: the ethereal snailfish. We discuss what it’s like to be among the first humans to ever see a species, life in the trenches – like, the actual Mariana trench, freedom from beauty norms and justice for the blobfish, slurping up meat-flavored jellybeans off the ocean floor, and the adorable side of the hadal zone.
Explorer Dr. Alan Jamieson has gone on nearly 70 expeditions to the deepest parts of the ocean. We talk deep sea exploration, life at the bottom of the ocean and how we're impacting the deep sea. From the tech to the experience, Dr. Alan knows his way around the part of the world few people dare to explore. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Bobs of All Time
The "aliens" of Earth live in the deepest parts of the ocean, and marine biologist Alan Jamieson has the photographs to prove it. Explore the depths with Jamieson as he challenges what you may believe (or have been told) really lies waiting in the world's darkest, most remote waters. A fascinating, bizarre and surprisingly peaceful dive into the watery world like you've never seen before.
Dr. Alan Jamieson is a Scottish marine biologist, engineer, author, and explorer known for studying life in the furthest depths of the oceans. Through the extensive use of landers—a combination of ship-mounted echo sounders and unmanned camera systems—Alan’s research focuses on discovering new species, establishing the true depth ranges of marine animals, and highlighting anthropogenic impacts at full ocean depths. He was the Chief Scientist at Victor Vescovo’s Five Deeps Expedition, a project aimed at mapping and exploring the deepest points of the world’s five oceans. Today, Alan serves as CEO of Armatus Oceanic, an organization he co-founded in 2019 for R&D in marine tech, expeditions, and science dissemination. Through Armatus, Alan co-hosts the Deep-Sea Podcast with Dr. Thomas Linley. In addition to his work as CEO at Armatus, Alan currently serves as a professor at the University of Australia and is the Founding Director of the Deep-Sea Research Centre.
Alan J. Jamieson 1*, Glenn Singleman2, Thomas D. Linley1, and Susan Casey
A recurring question within deep-sea science and conservation is why don’t people care about the deep sea? How does the deep-sea science
community convince non-scientific audiences to support, engage, and care more for the largest habitat on Earth? Here, we examine various
aspects of an apparent dichotomy of perspectives .... Read more
We know more about the Moon than the deep sea.
This idea has been repeated for decades by scientists and science communicators, including Sir David Attenborough in the 2001 documentary series The Blue Planet. More recently, in Blue Planet II (2017) and other sources, the Moon is replaced with Mars.
As deep-sea scientists, we investigated this supposed “fact” and found it has no scientific basis. It is not true in any quantifiable way.
So where does this curious idea come from?... Read more
Alan J. Jamieson 1,2,*, Thomas D. Linley 2 and Prema Arasu1
Why don’t people care about the deep sea? was a question addressed in a 2020 Food for Thought article in this journal. That article delivered an extensive critique of misleading statements, poorly structured analogies, and common misconceptions to challenge the largely negative or unnecessarily sensationalist narrative when the deep sea is communicated to the public. The overarching sentiment of that article has been countered by a Comment in which it is argued that people do in fact care about the deep sea. However, this counter argument is based on very little to do with the deep sea but rather a corpus of... Read more
Alan J Jamieson , Denise J B Swanborn , Todd Bond , Prema Arasu , Julian C Partridge
The term ‘deep sea’, which is often interchangeable with the term ‘deep ocean’, relies on the definition of the global ocean deeper than 200 m, often with the caveat of being beyond the continental shelf, and/or corresponding to other abiotic factors. The general perception and perceived value of large swaths... Read more