Offshore stories: Tales of typhoons and science in submarines

From being repeatedly thrown off your bed in a storm, to seeing blue whales out of your porthole, working at sea doesn't leave you short of stories. And with Dr Thom and the Professor both heading offshore soon, they thought what better time to share some of their sea stories. From tips on how to hold your pee for 12+ hours, to tales of typhoons, this episode is jam-packed with real-life tales from decades of working offshore.

In deep sea news: Norway has decided to go ahead with deep sea mining, cold coral reefs are being discovered, and hoards of marine fungi have been found in the twilight zone! But more importantly than all of that: the Professor was awarded an OBE! His sword and noble steed are currently in the post (first class), and we’re hoping they reach him in Perth from the Palace.

We’ve also started a new segment with long-time friend of the show, Andrew Stewart who has an interesting hobby of manufacturing cod-liver shark-liver oil. Expect more unexpected stories from Andrew in future episodes!

Finally, we want to say thanks again for your support! We have lots of exciting upcoming episodes all about the (in)famous hagfish, deep sea sharks and our favourite: chimera. Stay tuned!

We’re really trying to make this project self-sustaining so we have started looking for ways to support the podcast. Here’s a link to our page on how to support us, from the free options to becoming a patron of the show. We want to say a huge thank you to those patrons who have already pledged to support us:

Antony Raymont | Courtney Johnston | Davina Gifford | Sophie Schindler

Thanks again for tuning in, we’ll deep-see you next time!

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Feel free to get in touch with us with questions or your own comments on:

podcast@armatusoceanic.com

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Twitter: Alan - @Hadalbloke, Thom - @ThomLinley, Georgia - @geeinthesea

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

www.armatusoceanic.com

Further resources

Just the Zoo of us Podcast with Dr Thom

DOSI newsletter to keep up with everything deep sea

News

Megalodon tooth found in nodule field

Norway becomes the first country in the world to approve commercial-scale deep-sea mining.

Largest study of ocean dna finds a huge abundance of fungi in the mesopelagic zone. Scientific paper & news article

Hagfish genome sequenced

Largest cold-water coral reef to date has been found

Guest info

Andrew’s bio

Andrew’s blog on the Gut Stuffer 2000

Soundtrack of the month

A Song About an Anglerfish - Hank Green

Glossary

Cold-water corals - Deep-water corals (or cold-water corals) grow in water temperatures of 4 - 12°C. Unlike shallow water corals, they do not depend on a symbiotic algae (zooxanthellae) for growth and survival, resulting in slower growth.

Deep-sea mining - The process of extracting manganese nodules from the deep ocean floor.

Hagfish - An eel-shaped jawless fish. Hagfish are marine predators and scavengers.

Hull - A hull is the watertight body of a ship.

Megalodon - An extinct species of giant shark that lived approximately 23 to 3.6 million years ago.

Metagenomes - Genetic material taken from the environment rather than from one individual.

OBE - (Order of the British Empire) is a British award rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service.

Squalene - Squalene is a natural oil that comes from shark liver.

Submarine - A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater.

Thrusters - Manoeuvering thrusters (bow thrusters and stern thrusters) are propulsion devices built into, or mounted to, either the bow or stern, of a ship to make it more manoeuvrable.

Credits

Theme – Hadal Zone Express by Märvel

Logo image - Wikicommons

Edited by - Georgia Wells