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With Dr Thom and The Professor busy prepping for their upcoming expeditions offshore, we had time to squeeze out one more episode before they set sail.
We caught up with the legendary Di Tracey from NIWA to talk all things deep-water coral. How they live, what makes them different from their shallow water relatives, and how they are adapted to life in the deep dark ocean. Di's long career in deep-sea ecology is also intertwined with her extensive work in making the marine sciences a better place for women to work. She talks us through what it was like to begin her career offshore, often being the only woman on board, and how she helped change the industry for the better.
In the news this week we have a few exciting new updates. We can indeed confirm that as of our last episode where we spoke about the vulnerability of subsea cables, there were multiple apparent attacks and cables were cut. We can only assume that hostile nations do indeed listen to the deep-sea podcast (thanks for subscribing!).
Andrew is back from his stint offshore and he is chock-full of stories for us. Brand new dragonfish species, near-misses with box jellyfish and also some cookie-cutter sharks. It's all happening!
Support us by becoming a patron and joining our deep-sea community!
We want to say a huge thank you to those patrons who have already pledged to support us:
Christian Nilsson | Mol Mir
Thanks again for tuning in, we’ll deep-see you next time!
If you liked this episode, you might enjoy these:
Chimaera
natural history collections
seamounts
Feel free to get in touch with us with questions or your own comments on:
Follow us on social media!
Keep up with the team on social media
Twitter:
Alan - @Hadalbloke | Thom - @ThomLinley | Georgia - @geeinthesea
Instagram:
Georgia - @geeinthesea | Thom - @thom.linley
Bluesky:
Thom - @deepseapod.com
Read the show notes and find out more about us at:
www.armatusoceanic.com
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Further resources
NEWS/Articles mentioned
Subsea cables: update - cables cut
China's new cable laying technology
Upside-down anglerfish footage
People mentioned
Dianne “Di” Tracey - Deep sea ecologist at NIWA, New Zealand
Andrew Stewart - Curator of Fishes at Te Papa Museum, New Zealand
Mol mir - Molecular planarian biologist and artist
Song of the month
The Weakerthans - Sun in an Empty Room.
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Credits
Theme – Hadal Zone Express by Märvel
Logo image - Ocean Exploration Trust
Edited by - Georgia Wells
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Glossary
Aotearoa - The Māori-language name for New Zealand
Te reo Māori - The Polynesian language of the Māori.
Treaty of Waitangi (or Te Tiriti o Waitangi in Māori) - A key founding document of New Zealand signed in 1840 by the British Crown and Māori chiefs, and established British sovereignty over New Zealand while granting Māori rights to their land and interests.
Tangata whenua - A Māori phrase that means "people of the land". It refers to the indigenous Māori people of a specific area or the country as a whole.
Tangata Tiriti - A Māori phrase that refers to non-Māori people who belong to Aotearoa by right of the Treaty of Waitangi.
Oocyte - A developing egg.
Spermatocyte - A developing sperm cell.
Scleractinia - Or ‘Stony corals’. A type of corals with hard skeletons made of calcium carbonate. They are often reef-like.
Bamboo corals - Corals that make their skeletons from a mixture of calcium carbonate and gorgonian.
Black corals - Chitinous corals, can be faster growing than the other two groups.