Science and the Sea podcast
196 episodes - English - Latest episode: 6 days ago - ★★★★★ - 14 ratingsThe goal of Science and the Sea is to convey an understanding of the sea and its myriad life forms to everyone, so that they, too, can fully appreciate this amazing resource.
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Episodes
Melting Fire
June 26, 2022 05:00 - 2 minutes - 5.19 MBWhat happens in the Arctic doesn’t always stay in the Arctic. Changes in conditions in the Arctic Ocean can have an impact on land as well. A loss of sea ice, for example, appears to increase the risk of wildfires in the Pacific Northwest. Wildfires have been a growing problem in Washington, Oregon, and northern California for a couple of decades. Around Labor Day of 2020, for example, fires in Washington burned more than half a million acres in just 36 hours. And the 2021 fire season in Ca...
Octopus Garden
June 19, 2022 05:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBDavidson Seamount -- an extinct underwater volcano off the coast of California -- has been described as “an oasis of the deep.” It’s home to huge coral reefs -- some of them more than a century old. It hosts crabs, many species of deep-sea fish, and big fields of sponges. And scientists recently discovered something else: the largest congregation of octopuses seen anywhere in the world -- more than a thousand of them. They nicknamed the spot the Octopus Garden. The seamount is the largest ...
The Blob
June 12, 2022 05:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBIn the 1958 B-movie “The Blob,” Steve McQueen and the gang stop the blobby monster from absorbing people by freezing it. The Air Force then drops it on Arctic sea ice to keep it frozen. With the sea ice melting in a hurry, though, perhaps we should keep an eye out to make sure it doesn’t head back for land. On the other hand, the warming climate has already given us an ocean “blob”: a giant pool of warm water off the Pacific coast. It killed huge numbers of marine organisms. This blob was...
Heat Waves
June 05, 2022 05:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBBig heat waves are hotter, more common, and cause more suffering than ever -- and not just on land. Marine heat waves are a problem as well. Eight of the 10 largest ever seen have occurred since 2010 -- a result of Earth’s warming climate. And the hot spells are likely to become an even bigger challenge in the decades ahead. A marine heat wave is just what it sounds like: A large patch of water that’s much warmer than average. The heat wave can last anywhere from days to years. The biggest...
New Digs
May 29, 2022 05:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBThe White’s seahorse could be forgiven for feeling unwelcome. The seahorse is found mainly along the eastern coast of Australia. In the last couple of decades, though, its population has dropped by 90 percent. The main cause is a loss of habitat, but the seahorse has also been hurt by storms. Researchers are trying to roll out a sort of welcome mat, though. They’re setting up “hotels” on the ocean floor that could become new seahorse habitats. The White’s seahorse is a few inches long. It...
Back From the Edge
May 22, 2022 05:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBThe Steller sea lion used to be a common sight along the Pacific coast, from Alaska to California. But for some reason, the sea lion’s population plunged. So in 1990, the sea lion was placed on the endangered species list, which gave it legal protections. Thanks to conservation efforts, the species in the eastern half of its range recovered. And in 2013, the eastern Steller sea lion was removed from the endangered list. Over the decades, more than 700 species of plants and animals have bee...
Vanishing Krill
May 15, 2022 05:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBNature doesn’t always work in ways that seem to make sense -- at least at first glance. You might expect, for example, that as giant whales disappeared from the Southern Ocean during the 20th century, their prey -- tiny organisms known as krill -- would flourish. But that didn’t happen. Instead, the krill began disappearing as well. Baleen whales use a comb-like structure known as baleen to filter krill and other small organisms from the water. And each whale can gulp tons of food every da...
Versatile Tusks
May 08, 2022 05:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBThe tusk of a narwhal has a lot of uses. It may help the whale attract a mate, sense prey, and stun its prey. It inspired folktales of unicorns. And today, it’s helping scientists examine changes in the environment. A narwhal tusk can reach up to 9 or 10 feet in length. It’s actually a tooth that grows from the upper jaw of a male. It forms a new layer every year. And like the rings of a tree, each layer records a little about the year, including the narwhal’s diet and its exposure to poll...
Sweet Treatment
May 01, 2022 05:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBThe groups that rescue and treat sick or injured sea turtles take advantage of a lot of modern science: the latest medications, CAT scans, laser surgery, and much more. But some of those groups also use one of the most ancient treatments of all: honey. Some even keep their own beehives to maintain a fresh supply. Honey has been used as a treatment for people for thousands of years. It’s been applied to cuts and scrapes, burns, and other wounds. And both ancient accounts and modern research...
Fish Chatter
April 24, 2022 05:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBFish make a lot of noise. They grunt, click, pop, squeak, groan, buzz, and make many other sounds. And they’ve probably been talking for a long time. Scientists have long known that some fish make sounds. In fact, some fish are named for their sounds: drums ... grunts ... and croakers ... among others. Like land animals, they use sound to attract mates, avoid predators, find prey, and defend their territory. As scientists have studied the ocean soundscape in more detail, they’ve discovere...
COVID Clutter
April 17, 2022 05:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBCovid-19 has impacted just about every aspect of life. One of those impacts is ocean pollution. Millions of masks, gloves, and other pieces of debris have washed up on beaches or into the open ocean. That’s a problem not just for human life, but for all life in or around the oceans. Masks and other protective gear can be whisked into the oceans by rivers, winds, drainage systems, and other avenues. Winds and tides drive some of the trash onto the beaches. Scientists have recorded old masks...
Sly Whales
April 10, 2022 05:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBLong-finned pilot whales like to talk. They produce a wide variety of clicks, buzzes, whistles, and calls. That allows them to identify friends and family, even over long distances. And it may also help keep them safe from killer whales. Long-finned pilot whales are fairly small as whales go. They can reach lengths of 20 to 25 feet, and weigh two or three tons. They have a stout body, with long, curving flippers. They live in pods of a dozen or so, headed by the mother of the clan. And the...
Pearl and Hermes
April 03, 2022 05:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBIn April of 1822, the ships Pearl and Hermes were hunting whales far from the main islands of Hawaii when they found something bigger. They ran aground on an atoll -- a ring of coral reefs atop a dead undersea volcano. The sailors made it to one of the atoll’s tiny islands, where they lived for months before rescue. And today, the atoll is named for their ships. Pearl and Hermes is near the northwestern tip of the Hawaiian Island chain, about 1300 miles from Honolulu. It’s part of the olde...
Diseased Seagrass
March 27, 2022 05:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBSeagrass beds face many threats these days: pollution, reduced habitat, and stronger tropical storms, to name a few. Another is disease. As the oceans get warmer, organisms that cause diseases multiply quickly. They attack the grass, killing or weakening not just individual plants, but entire meadows. Seagrass is an important part of the marine ecosystem. It purifies the water, and it provides habitat for fish and shellfish. They attract birds, mammals, and other creatures. So losing the s...
Growing Seaweed
March 20, 2022 05:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBA recent study says that seaweed grown in farms could be a twofer: It could reduce the pollution in estuaries while producing nutritious food. Seaweed is grown commercially in some parts of the world, but it’s been slow to catch on in the United States. It’s picking up in some parts of the country, though -- especially Maine and Alaska. The study was conducted by researchers in the United States and Israel. They developed a model of how large-scale seaweed farms located in estuaries might...
‘Doomsday’ Glacier?
March 13, 2022 06:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBEarth’s glaciers are melting. But some are in a bigger hurry than others. A glacier in Antarctica is adding water to the oceans faster than any other. More than a trillion tons of its ice have melted since 2000. That’s raised global sea level by a few millimeters. And the glacier could add a lot more to the oceans in the decades ahead. Thwaite’s Glacier covers an area as big as Florida. And it has a nickname: the Doomsday Glacier. A collapse could raise sea level by as much as three feet. ...
Breathing Air
March 06, 2022 06:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBFor most fish, there’s one way to breathe. The fish takes in water through its mouth and passes it over its gills. Tiny blood vessels in the gills absorb oxygen from the water and send it through the fish’s body. If the fish leaves the water for more than a few minutes, it suffocates -- it can’t breathe oxygen from the air. But a well-known sport fish can take big gulps of air. And several other species of fish can survive on land for hours. The mudskipper, for example, is one of several ...
Warmer Corals
February 27, 2022 06:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBWarming oceans have damaged or destroyed many coral reefs. But some appear to be adapting to the warm-up. Reef systems in a part of the central Pacific Ocean, for example, have suffered less damage from a couple of recent underwater heatwaves than from an earlier one. That could mean that coral offspring that are more resistant to heat are taking hold. Corals die when it gets hot because they expel the algae that give corals their color. The algae are a major source of energy for corals. S...
Heading South
February 20, 2022 06:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBIf you’re lounging in the Florida Keys one day and you see an iceberg drifting by, you might think you’ve had one too many margaritas. But a recent study says giant icebergs did make it to the Keys thousands of years ago -- the result of massive flooding thousands of miles away. Researchers examined scour marks in the ocean floor off the coast of the southeastern United States. The marks are V-shaped grooves in the sediments, carved by icebergs scraping along the bottom. Based on the depth...
Sablefish
February 13, 2022 06:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBA fish known as black cod has become a lot more popular in recent years. It has a buttery texture and flavor, and it contains a lot of healthy omega-3 fatty acids. And federal agencies say it’s sustainable -- current populations and fishing regulations mean it’s not in danger of disappearing. The only problem is that it’s not a cod at all. Instead, it’s the sablefish -- one of only two species in its family. But it’s acquired a lot of aliases, including butterfish, blue cod, and more than ...
Tracers
February 06, 2022 06:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBScientists learn a lot about the oceans by measuring a pinch of this and a smidge of that. These tiny amounts can help trace ocean currents, determine the abundance of microscopic life, measure pollution, plot past changes in the climate, and find out how the current climate is changing. Scientists are learning all of that and more from Geotraces, an international program that samples the water from all the oceans. Since the start of the program in 2010, scientists from about 35 countries ...
Cloudy Seas
January 30, 2022 06:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBWhen the clouds begin to thicken up, many of us head for cover. And small marine organisms may do the same thing. Some recent research found that they move up or down as cloud cover changes -- a way to keep safe as the amount of light changes. Many fish and other organisms move up and down in the water as light levels vary. When it gets dark, they move up to feed. And as day begins to break, they move down to avoid being eaten themselves. They also change their depth in response to moonlig...
Saving Tuna
January 23, 2022 06:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBFor fans of sushi, sashimi, and tuna steaks on the grill, we have some good news. Four species of tuna have rebounded in recent years, lowering the threat of extinction. An agency of the United Nations monitors the health of more than 138,000 species of life -- in the oceans and on land. And every few years, it takes a new look at each species. Many species are in worse shape than ever -- mostly as the result of human activities. But a few have improved. This year’s assessment, for exampl...
Endangered!
January 16, 2022 06:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBOnly one species of penguin lives north of the equator -- and it’s nowhere near the North Pole. Instead, it inhabits the warm, sunny Galapagos Islands, off the coast of South America. But it’s endangered -- its population has dwindled to just a couple of thousand. Without help, it could vanish. The Galapagos penguin is one of more than 5600 species of birds, fish, turtles, and other marine critters that need help. They’re listed as threatened, endangered, or critically endangered by an int...
Arctic Layers
January 09, 2022 06:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBTo borrow an old phrase, everything old is new again. Consider life in the Arctic Ocean. As the ocean warmed up after the last Ice Age, it was divided into several layers. The layering made life hard for the smallest members of the marine food chain. And with the Arctic growing warmer now, the same thing could happen again. That could limit not only microscopic life, but larger organisms as well. Researchers probed the history of the Arctic by studying fossils found in the sediments. In pa...
Volcanic Nap
January 02, 2022 06:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBA volcano responsible for one of the most powerful eruptions of the last 10,000 years may be settling in for a nap -- the result of higher sea levels. Santorini Volcano is in the Aegean Sea, southeast of mainland Greece. About 3600 years ago, it staged a spectacular eruption. It may have blown 15 cubic miles of rock and gas into the air. The eruption has been blamed for the demise of the nearby Minoan culture. And that could have triggered the legend of the lost city of Atlantis. Research...
Migraine Relief
December 26, 2021 06:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBSalmon, tuna, herring, and other fish aren’t just tasty. They’re packed with omega-3 fatty acids -- healthy fats that may help improve everything from Alzheimer’s to heart disease to arthritis. And a recent study found that you might be able to add migraines to the list as well. Migraines affect millions of Americans. They generate sharp pain, nausea, and other nasty symptoms. A migraine can last for hours, and it can make it impossible to work or do much of anything else. And many people ...
Snowflake Eels
December 19, 2021 06:00 - 2 minutes - 2.61 MBThe snowflake moray eel has been known to slither onto the beach to catch a tasty crab. That’s not all that unusual -- several species of fish sometimes leave the water to eat. But the snowflake really leaves the water behind. Unlike other fish, it can swallow its prey without swallowing water to wash it down. The snowflake is found in tropical waters across the Indian and Pacific oceans, from Africa to Mexico and Central America. It lives on reefs or rocky sea floors, where it can hide fr...
Flexible Arms
December 12, 2021 06:00 - 2 minutes - 2.61 MBIf your arms and legs are a little stiff when you get out of bed in the morning, you might be envious of the octopus. It has some of the most flexible appendages yet studied. Its eight arms can move in several ways, in any direction, and at any point on the arm. The arms make up more than half of the octopus’s body weight. That’s because an octopus relies on them for just about everything it does: moving through the ocean, finding and catching prey, fighting, mating, and camouflaging itsel...
Setting a Baseline
December 05, 2021 06:00 - 2 minutes - 2.61 MBDoctors sometimes run tests even when they know you’re just fine. The tests tell them how your body works when it is fine, making it easier to figure out what’s wrong when you’re sick. Marine biologists sometimes do the same thing with fish. They run tests to see how the fish operate under current environmental conditions. That can help them figure out how the fish are faring in the future under different conditions. An example is some work done by scientists at the University of Texas Ma...
Deep Life
November 28, 2021 06:00 - 2 minutes - 2.61 MBLife can find a niche just about anywhere, from tall mountaintops to the bottom of the deepest parts of the ocean. And it doesn’t stop there. Microscopic organisms live in the sediments below the ocean floor. A recent study found such organisms at depths of three-quarters of a mile, where temperatures were far above the boiling point of water. The study was part of the International Ocean Discovery Program, which studies all the world’s oceans. Researchers drilled into the sediments at the...
Listening In
November 21, 2021 06:00 - 2 minutes - 2.61 MBYou can learn a lot about people by eavesdropping on their conversations: where they’ve been, where they’re going, what they’re thinking. And the same thing applies to fish. Listening to their conversations can reveal when they’re busiest, how they move around during the day and the year, when it’s mating season, and much more. A recent study, for example, listened to a type of rockfish off the coast of California. Researchers studied bocaccio rockfish in the Channel Islands National Marin...
Dirty Water
November 14, 2021 06:00 - 2 minutes - 2.61 MBThe world’s oceans just keep getting more polluted. That’s not good for anything living in them or near them -- including people. In fact, ocean pollution may cause millions of premature deaths every year. A recent study looked at hundreds of smaller studies done over the last few years. It put them together to provide a look at conditions around the globe. It found that pollution is widely spread, and it’s getting worse. It’s made worse by increased manufacturing, bigger farming operatio...
Vanishing Sharks
November 07, 2021 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.61 MBIt’s a case fit for Sherlock Holmes: the case of the disappearing sharks. Almost 20 million years ago, about 90 percent of all sharks, and 70 percent of shark species, disappeared from the open ocean. Scientists reached that conclusion by studying sediments from two locations in the Pacific Ocean. One was in the north Pacific and the other in the south. The sediments were in core samples -- long tubes pushed into the sea floor. The tubes filled with sediments from up to 50 feet below the ...
Urchin Smorgasbord
October 31, 2021 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.61 MBA heat wave a few years ago off California’s Monterey Peninsula presented sea otters with a smorgasbord: an eruption of one of their favorite foods, sea urchins. And the otters have taken advantage. But they don’t appear to like all the urchins. Instead, they pick the most choice ones. And that’s left a patchwork of kelp beds where there used to be a continuous forest. Kelp used to cover many square miles of the sea bed in that region. In 2014, though, a marine heat wave killed off large a...
Hands Off
October 24, 2021 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.61 MBIt’s illegal to own or transport many types of marine life. That’s usually either because a species is endangered, or because it could cause problems if it’s introduced into a new region. But it’s also illegal to own or transport even pieces of many species. It’s illegal to own any piece of a marine mammal, such as a walrus tusk, for example. It’s also illegal to own any part of a sea turtle, including jewelry made from the turtle shells. The only exceptions are for pieces gathered before ...
A New Song
October 17, 2021 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.61 MBBlue whales are hidden giants. They’re the largest animals on the planet. But they’re shy, and they inhabit some of the most remote locations on the planet, so they’re hard to spot. Yet researchers recently found a new group of them. They didn’t actually see any of the whales. Instead, they heard their “songs” in recordings made over the last couple of decades. They sped up the recordings to make the calls easier to hear. Each population of blue whales produces its own unique songs. The so...
Into the Maelstrom
October 10, 2021 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.61 MBEvery six hours or so, there’s a watery traffic jam in a narrow channel that connects two fjords in Norway. As the water piles up, it creates powerful currents and some impressive whirlpools. Saltstraumen Maelstrom is one of the most powerful tidal currents in the world. It takes place in a channel that separates two bits of land. The channel is a couple of miles long, but only about 500 feet wide. And that’s why things get jammed up. As the tide rises and falls twice each day, water rush...
Managing Fish
October 03, 2021 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.61 MBKeeping a close eye and a firm hand on fish stocks seems to keep them in pretty good shape. On the other hand, not keeping an eye on them, and letting fishing fleets do as they wish, doesn’t work out so well. Lots of stories these days talk about how fish stocks are declining around the world. And in many cases, that’s certainly true. And it was true for many other cases until the last couple of decades. But a study released in 2020 found that conditions in many regions have improved. Res...
Spaghetti Monster
September 26, 2021 05:00 - 2 minutes - 2.61 MBYou never know what you might find on the beach. The variety of plants, animals, and objects just keeps growing. In part, that’s because of our changing climate. As the oceans get warmer, new critters turn up on beaches where they’ve never been seen before. One recent newcomer was an odd creature that washed ashore on Mustang Island in Texas, near Corpus Christi. Beachgoers reported seeing several of them. They looked like a miniature version of something from an old sci-fi flick: the craw...
Endangered Croaker
September 19, 2021 05:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBOne of the most expensive commodities on Earth is the swim bladder of a large fish found in the Gulf of California. It’s a delicacy in China, where it’s thought to heal arthritis and other ailments. A single bladder can fetch thousands of dollars. Don’t try finding one, though. The fish is endangered, so it’s illegal to catch, sell, or even have one. The totoaba is in the family of drums and croakers. In fact, it’s the largest of all drum species. An adult can be six feet long and weigh mo...
Changes?
September 12, 2021 05:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBThe last El Niño was a whopper. It produced a monster storm season in the North Pacific, extreme drought in the Caribbean and parts of Africa, and a jump in global temperatures. And it kept the southern United States cool and wet. That was in 2015 and ’16 -- about two decades after the previous big El Niño. And based on that trend, we might expect the next big one in the mid-2030s. Recent studies, though, suggest the cycle could be speeding up. If climate change continues at its present r...
Sharks and Seagrass
September 05, 2021 05:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBIf you’re spending an afternoon on your favorite bay, you probably don’t want to see any sharks gliding through the water. But the bay itself just might. Without sharks, the ecosystem can change -- in ways that can be bad for the bay and anyone living near it. Researchers studied how that might play out in Shark Bay, on the western tip of Australia. Seagrass carpets about 1500 square miles of the bay floor. It acts as a buffer against storms, provides habitat for marine life, and filters t...
Gut Check
August 29, 2021 05:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBMarine biology combines old and new, stinky and sterile -- often in a single project. In 2016, for example, researchers gathered fish from a coral reef in the Pacific Ocean. They cut the fish open to see what they’d eaten, then used the latest technology to analyze the DNA of what they found. The study was designed to help us learn how changes in coral reefs caused by people are changing the balance of life on the reefs. The loss of a few species can ripple along the food chain, causing bi...
Keeping Warm
August 22, 2021 05:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBIt’s hard to imagine that land around the top of the northern Pacific Ocean would have been more hospitable during the last ice age than it is today. But there’s evidence of just that. The conditions might have allowed people to begin the migration from Asia to the Americas. And a recent study suggested a possible reason for the milder weather: stronger currents in the North Pacific. At the peak of the ice age, more than 20,000 years ago, much more water was frozen in glaciers. As a result...
Nasty Birds
August 15, 2021 05:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBIf you’re a fan of Alfred Hitchcock movies, this plot might sound familiar: Thousands of angry seabirds attack a town on the California coast. They ram into cars, houses, telephone poles, and everything else. The sound is deafening. Scared residents lock their doors and call for help. If you’re thinking of “The Birds,” you’re right -- and wrong. That is the outline of Hitchcock’s 1963 classic. But it also was a real event. It happened on August 18th, 1961, at Capitola, California, on Mont...
Vanishing Sawfish
August 08, 2021 05:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBSouthern Florida has been seeing more of a fish that had just about vanished from its coastline. Most of the rest of the world, though, has been seeing less of it. And without some urgent action, before too long they might not see it at all. The sawfish is one of the most distinctive creatures in the oceans. It’s a type of ray. It has a long, flat snout -- called a rostrum -- that’s lined with “teeth” that jut out to the sides. The rostrum and head are coated with sensors that detect the m...
Research Assistants
August 01, 2021 05:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBWhen researchers at Oregon State University were studying the rumbling of Earth’s crust about a hundred miles offshore, they noticed something interesting. Whenever fin whales were around, they got some especially strong signals. So they’ve suggested that the whales might make good research assistants -- they could help probe the ocean floor and below. That’s not the only way in which marine creatures could help us learn about the bottom of the sea. Scientists in Japan reported that sting ...
Colorful Eyes
July 25, 2021 05:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBFish display an amazing array of colors. Some are blacker than charcoal, others have rainbow-colored stripes, and still others have a mottled appearance to help them blend into the background. And the variety extends to fish eyes. They can feature colorful specks, dark stripes, and irises from red to green. Some even shine in the dark. The eyes of most fish are pretty dull -- a black pupil surrounded by a white iris. But there are times when a different color scheme can be helpful. It migh...
Birds Galore
July 18, 2021 05:00 - 2 minutes - 5.18 MBThe recent saga of life on Ascension Island is a series of miscalculations. When the island was first settled, in 1815, it was a haven for millions of birds. But colonists also brought rats, which overran the island. So the settlers brought in cats to eat the rats -- which they did. But the rats and cats also ate the birds and their eggs. That decimated the birds, driving at least one species to extinction. But the cats were eliminated a decade ago, so the birds are coming back. Ascension ...