Antarctic Fishes

The gang has swapped places, Alan is back in Perth and now it’s Thom’s turn to hit Antarctica. He’s out with the Schmidt Ocean Institute on the Antarctic Climate Connections expedition to the Bellinghousen Sea, to the west of the Antarctic Peninsula.

He will record, edit and upload a podcast from there… somehow. This episode may sound a little rougher as a result, but the content is gold as ever… Underrated belter alert.

The Prof managed to have some downtime with the family in Antarctica and has some great stories to tell, he’s a chopper guy now. He’s over subs and only into helicopters now… the subs of the sky.

We talk to Antarctic fishes expert Thomas Desvignes about the fishes that are only found there and their amazing adaptations. Of course, we also have a remote coffee with Andrew.

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:

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 tales from the high seas on:

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Reference list News

Cable damage

https://bbc.com/news/articles/cqx9g5wwp89o

Vessel named after Don

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimclash/2025/01/11/naval-ships-named-after-explorers-don-walsh-and-victor-vescovo/

Antarctic ice melting dynamics

https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-marine-040323-074354

https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/antarctica/how-is-the-ocean-melting-antarctica-were-starting-to-figure-it-out

Guest

Antifreeze in fish: https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.94.8.3811

Supercooling and heating processes: https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1410256111

Cod antifreeze: https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1817138116

X-cell disease paper: https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(22)00860-4

Hemoglobin paper: https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article/40/11/msad236/7329987

The new species of dragonfish: https://www.mapress.com/zt/article/view/zootaxa.5501.2.3

Nesting in notothenioids: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/faf.12523

Icefish nest colony: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(21)01698-5

And the three comics:

https://blogs.uoregon.edu/antarcticfishdiversity/

https://blogs.uoregon.edu/antarcticxcell/

https://blogs.uoregon.edu/fishsexdetermination/

Follow Thomas on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/notothentoma.bsky.social

Credits

Theme – Hadal Zone Express by Märvel

Logo image: Thom Linley

Song of the month: Five Magics by Megadeath