Science and the Sea Podcast

For anyone who’s ever had a cold, the flu, or any other illness caused by a virus, getting rid of viruses might sound like a good idea. But many viruses play important roles in the environment. That includes marine viruses. They recycle nutrients, and can help control other microscopic organisms. So it’s good to keep them around.

But in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea, viruses are disappearing in a hurry. The drop corresponds to changes in the sea caused by Earth’s warming climate.

Marine scientists have been keeping tabs on Blanes Bay si...

The oceans near the poles are cold—really cold. Because of the salt content, water temperatures can remain below freezing for most or all of the year. And that can be bad for life. Ice crystals can develop in the blood and other fluids, destroying cells. Yet many species of fish thrive in these frigid environments. In part, that’s because they produce proteins that work like antifreeze.

Inspired by those fish, researchers have developed a synthetic version of the proteins. The “mimics,” as they’re called, could prevent medications that have to be kept cold from...

Cats sometimes drop food at their owner’s front door—lizards, mice, or other small prey. A recent study found that killer whales sometimes offer food to people as well. But the reason for that sharing is unclear.

Orcas are social animals. They hunt together, they play, and they share their food. And they’re often found around people. They swim along with boats and divers, and they’ve even hunted with human fishers.

In a recent study, scientists compiled reports of orcas sharing food with people on boats, in the water, or on shore...

Most of the tropical storms that roar across the Atlantic basin are born over Africa—especially the really big ones. They begin as low-pressure systems over the Sahara Desert, and are pushed into the Atlantic Ocean by a powerful jet stream.

La Niña may boost that process. A recent study found that it may help create stronger systems over Africa, potentially leading to stronger tropical storms.

La Niña is part of a back-and-forth cycle in the eastern Pacific Ocean, from warmer to cooler waters. La Niña is the cooler phase. And i...

The frigid waters of the Arctic and Antarctic hide some giants: sea spiders the size of serving trays, sharks as long as minibuses, half-ton squid twice that length—almost all of them the largest examples of their type anywhere on the planet.

This phenomenon is known as polar gigantism. Biologists are still trying to explain it. In fact, they’re even trying to confirm that it’s a real thing; giants have been found in the deep ocean, and they may also inhabit other parts of the ocean, but we just haven’t seen them yet.

If you happen to have a spare fiber in your undersea fiber-optic cable, marine scientists might like to have a chat. They’re using the cables to listen to the sounds of the oceans—from the rumble of underwater earthquakes to the low moans of blue whales.

Scientists typically listen in with special undersea microphones. But they’re expensive, and their range is limited. Fiber-optic cables stretch across hundreds of thousands of miles of ocean floor, so they offer greater coverage at lower cost.

The technique is known as D-A-S—distributed acoustic sensing. A laser...

1933 was a bad year for the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Slime mold wiped out the eelgrass beds in the shallow coastal waters. A big hurricane made things even worse. Without the seagrass habitat, fish and crab populations were decimated, and bay scallops vanished. And neither seagrass nor scallops were seen again for almost seven decades.

Today, though, both are recovering. Healthy eelgrass covers 10,000 acres. And there are enough scallops that people are talking about opening a recreational harvesting season.

The comeback began when a scientist at the College of William & Mary discovered a...

After the 1944 D-Day invasion of Europe, Germany launched a months-long attack on London and Belgium. Its V-1 “buzz bombs” killed thousands. Today, though, the remnants of some of these terror weapons are providing homes for marine life.

An estimated 1.6 million tons of unexploded munitions litter German waters. The weapons were dumped at the end of the two world wars. As their metal casings rust away, their toxic explosives wash into the water.

And that should be bad for marine life. But a recent study found abundant life at a previously unknown dump site: fish...

Some of the clouds that waft across the Southern Ocean may have an icky source: penguin poop. Ammonia in the poo mixes with other chemicals in the air. That creates the “seeds” that form water droplets, which clump together to make clouds.

Water doesn’t form droplets on its own. It has to have something to glom on to—a grain of dust, a bit of pollen, or some other solid particle. Some of the particles are known as aerosols. They form when different chemicals link up in the air. And the clouds they create are brig...

A symphony is playing in the estuaries of South Carolina—the sounds of shrimp, fish, dolphins, and other creatures. To marine biologists, each sound is like a musical note. Individual notes reveal details about the species that produce them. The symphony reveals the rhythms and health of the complete estuary.

Estuaries are shallow regions where rivers meet the sea. They host a wide variety of life. But the waters tend to be murky, so it’s hard to see what’s going on. So instead, researchers in South Carolina have been listening to estuaries since 2013. They’v...

You don’t have to be anywhere near an ocean storm to feel its power. Big waves can travel far across the ocean, causing damage thousands of miles from the storm itself.

These waves are called swells. They’re much longer from one peak to the next than typical waves. They can reach monstrous heights close to a storm, but they calm down as they move away from it.

The waves are created by winds inside a storm. They push the water, building peaks. Individual waves overlap, creating even bigger waves. The waves can...

It’s easy to gain weight on a road trip—restaurant meals and junk food add up. But that’s not the case for some humpback whales. According to a recent study, a group of humpbacks lost an average of 24,000 pounds per adult during its annual migration—the equivalent of a city bus.

The whales feed around Antarctica. They filter the tiny organisms known as krill from the water. So by autumn, the whales are nice and fat. The 103 adults in the study averaged about 33 tons apiece.

When autumn arrives, the humpbacks head into war...

Second place doesn’t get a lot of attention: the second-tallest mountain, the second expedition to reach the North Pole, silver medalists in the Olympics. The second-deepest spot in the oceans isn’t exactly a household name either: the Tonga Trench.

The deepest spot is in the Mariana Trench, in the western Pacific Ocean. It’s about 36,000 feet deep—almost seven miles. That’s a few hundred feet deeper than the lowest spot in the Tonga Trench.

The Tonga is in the southern hemisphere, northeast of New Zealand. It’s more than 800 miles long, and ru...

Kelp forests are some of the most important habitats in coastal waters around the world. They provide breeding grounds for fish and shellfish, and protect juveniles from predators. They absorb carbon dioxide, which helps control climate change. But the forests are vanishing—they’re being devoured by sea urchins. In part, that’s because the forests are losing their protectors.

In New Zealand, one of those protectors is rock lobsters—known locally as kōura. But they’re vanishing, too, as the result of overfishing.

Kōura are different from the lobsters in the United S...

Sharks and rays are in trouble. A study a few years ago found that the global population had dropped by more than 70 percent since 1970. And three-quarters of all shark and ray species could face extinction in the next few decades.

The main threat is overfishing. Sharks and rays are valued for their meat, fins, and liver oil. Some countries provide strong protections. Others—especially those where the fish are big business—have weak protections or none at all. And even where sharks and rays are protected, it can be hard to keep track of them.

The Japanese spider crab is harmless to people. But it might not look that way if you happened across it at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. It can span 12 feet—the largest known crab on the planet.

The crab’s hard body is typically about a foot long, and the crab weighs 35 or 40 pounds. It has 10 legs. Eight of them are for walking along rocky ocean bottoms. The other two hold powerful claws. The claw legs are longer than the walking legs on males, but shorter on females.

Japanese spider crabs spawn in f...

For many native Hawaiians, the centerpiece of just about any New Year’s celebration is onaga, a fish that’s also known as ruby snapper or longtail red snapper. It’s served at everything from weddings to birthdays, but it’s especially popular at year-end celebrations—in part because it’s a symbol of good fortune. It’s prized for its light pink flesh, mild flavor, and its texture—all of which are considered just right for sashimi.

Onaga is one of the “deep seven” bottomfish—a culturally important group that includes six species of snapper and one specie...

The Franciscana dolphin has quite the schnozz. Its beak is longer in relation to the size of its body than that of any other dolphin or whale—up to 15 percent of the animal’s total length.

The Franciscana has another distinction: It’s the only “river dolphin” that doesn’t actually live in freshwater rivers. Instead, it lives in saltwater. It’s found along the coast of South America, from southern Brazil to central Argentina. It’s in bays and estuaries, and up to a few miles out to sea in the Atlantic Ocean.

Franciscana do...

A type of damsel fish from the other side of the world has invaded the Gulf of Mexico. But it doesn’t appear to be doing much harm to the fish that were already there—at least not so far.

The Regal Damselfish comes from the Indian and western Pacific oceans. It’s only about four inches long, and it lives on coral reefs, in shallow coastal waters.

The invader was first seen in the Gulf in 2013. It probably hitchhiked on an oil platform that was moved from the eastern hemisphere.

A rece...

The wolves on a small island in Alaska have a diet problem. They’ve wolfed down dangerously high levels of mercury—a result of eating sea otters.

Pleasant Island is a mile off the coast of Glacier Bay National Park, in Alaska’s panhandle.

Wolves have decimated the island’s population of deer, which used to be their main prey. So the wolves started eating sea otters. In fact, otters now make up about two-thirds of their diet.

Biologists have been studying the wolves for years. When a pack member died in 2020...

In July of 2022, two scientists descended to the Challenger Deep—the deepest spot in the oceans. The first thing they saw on the bottom wasn’t a new species of life or some other exotic wonder. It was a glass beer bottle—sitting seven miles deep.

Litter isn’t limited to the giant “garbage patches” on the ocean surface. It’s found on the bottom as well—even in the deepest of all locations. It’s been seen on the floors of all the oceans and seas, including the Arctic and Southern oceans.

A recent study, fo...

Here’s an old saying about nature: Drown a salt marsh, drown a coastline. Okay, we made that one up. But it’s true. And you might hear it more in the future because marshes are threatened by rising sea levels.

But a team of researchers has developed a way to know that a marsh is in trouble before it vanishes—providing time to preserve and restore threatened systems.

Coastal salt marshes offer many benefits. They store carbon, filter the water, and provide habitat for wildlife and fishing grounds for people. And they act as...

The sei whale is one of the largest creatures on Earth. Adults can be more than 60 feet long and weigh as much as a fully loaded semi—the third-largest of all whales. And they’re found across the world, in all but the warmest and coldest waters. Yet they’re poorly known, by the public and scientists alike.

The sei whale—spelled S-E-I—gets its name from a Norwegian name for pollock, a cod-like fish. The name was bestowed because the fish and whales showed up at the same time of year.

Sei whales hav...

An old hag churns the waters near two islands off the western coast of Scotland. The churning creates the third-largest whirlpool in the oceans—the Gulf of Corryvreckan, or Brecan’s cauldron.

Scottish folklore says the Old Hag was the goddess of winter. She stirs the water while washing her plaids. When scientists discovered that a pillar of rock on the ocean floor helps do the churning, they called it “the Old Hag.”

The maelstrom fires up as tidal currents flow between the islands of Jura and Scarba. The strait is narrow and deep, so...

Scientists are tuning in to seagrasses. That may tell them how much carbon the grass is storing—an important detail in understanding our changing climate.

Seagrass beds are among the most efficient carbon-storage depots on Earth. But it’s hard to know how much total carbon they’re socking away, and how the amount changes over time. Researchers have to dig up patches of grass and sediment and analyze them in the lab.

But scientists at the University of Texas at Austin are working on a new technique. Seagrasses take up carbon dioxide from t...

The oceans are gobbling up Alaska’s northern coastline in a hurry—a result of our planet’s warming climate. That could force some towns to move farther inland, away from the hungry ocean.

The Arctic is undergoing especially rapid change. Both air and ocean temperatures have increased three times faster than the global average. That’s drastically reduced the amount of ice covering the Arctic Ocean during much of the year. With more open water, waves can grow bigger and stronger, so they hit land with greater force.

At the same time, the warm...

Charles Darwin wrote about much more than evolution. Among other things, after his ’round-the-world trip in the 1830s, he wrote a book about coral reefs—an attempt to explain the origins of different types of reefs. A century and a half after the book was published, people got the idea that Darwin described reefs as “oases in marine deserts.” He didn’t—and they’re not.

A recent study showed that, while reefs are some of the most vibrant ecosystems on the planet, the waters around most of them are busy as well.

Researchers st...

“Medicane” sounds like a mash-up of medicine and a candy cane—maybe something to get your kiddos to take their medicine. The term is a mash-up, but there’s nothing sweet about it. The word is short for “Mediterranean hurricane”—a compact storm twirling across the Mediterranean Sea.

Unlike hurricanes in the Atlantic or Pacific oceans, those in the Mediterranean are most likely to fire up in the fall and early winter. A cold low-pressure system moves in from the Atlantic or the Arctic. As the cold air crosses the warmer sea water, the temperature difference bui...

A forest fire both destroys and creates. It destroys the plants and animals that live there. But it creates the conditions for a new ecosystem to develop through a process called ecological succession.

Scientists recently reported that a similar process plays out in one of the deepest spots in the oceans. Big blobs of sediments settle on the bottom. That can destroy the organisms that inhabit the region. But the sediments bring nutrients and stir things up in a way that starts a new cycle of life.

The scientists studied sediments from the...

About three-quarters of all the antibiotics in use today were developed from a type of bacteria that lives in the soil. But nasty bacteria are becoming more resistant to those treatments. So scientists are scouring the world for sources of new antibiotics—including the ocean floor. And they recently found a couple of good candidates at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, off the coast of Norway.

Biologists gathered many organisms during a research cruise in 2020. And they collected bacteria from four of those organisms, including a type of sponge and a scallop. The bacteria ar...

About three-quarters of all the antibiotics in use today were developed from a type of bacteria that lives in the soil. But nasty bacteria are becoming more resistant to those treatments. So scientists are scouring the world for sources of new antibiotics—including the ocean floor. And they recently found a couple of good candidates at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, off the coast of Norway.

Biologists gathered many organisms during a research cruise in 2020. And they collected bacteria from four of those organisms, including a type of sponge and a scallop. The bacteria are similar to...

A team of astronomers recently reported the possible discovery of a compound in the atmosphere of another planet that could be produced by life. If the compound really is there, then the planet might smell familiar—like a day at the beach.

Many factors go into creating the “smellscape” of the sea. Locally, things like pollution, red tides, and decaying seaweed can make the beach smell less than pleasant. Globally, though, the two major odors come from evaporated sea spray, and from a compound of sulfur and carbon known as DMS—dimethylsulfide—the compound that might have...

A team of astronomers recently reported the possible discovery of a compound in the atmosphere of another planet that could be produced by life. If the compound really is there, then the planet might smell familiar—like a day at the beach.

Many factors go into creating the “smellscape” of the sea. Locally, things like pollution, red tides, and decaying seaweed can make the beach smell less than pleasant. Globally, though, the two major odors come from evaporated sea spray, and from a compound of sulfur and carbon known as DMS—dimethylsulfide—the compound that might have been seen...

The weedfish is cryptic. That doesn’t mean that it speaks in riddles or leaves notes that no one can decipher. Instead, it’s easily hidden—it blends into its environment. Divers say it’s so well disguised that even if you find one, it’s impossible to find it again if you look away for even just a second.

There are several species of weedfish. Most of them live around New Zealand or southern Australia. They’re mainly found in shallow waters, living in dense beds of kelp—the “seaweed” that’s anchored to the bottom.

T...

The weedfish is cryptic. That doesn’t mean that it speaks in riddles or leaves notes that no one can decipher. Instead, it’s easily hidden—it blends into its environment. Divers say it’s so well disguised that even if you find one, it’s impossible to find it again if you look away for even just a second.

There are several species of weedfish. Most of them live around New Zealand or southern Australia. They’re mainly found in shallow waters, living in dense beds of kelp—the “seaweed” that’s anchored to the bottom.

The weedfish is...

Many volcanoes are among the most majestic sights on the planet: Tall and wide, they belch molten rock or plumes of ash that can tower miles high. But there’s another class of volcano that’s much less impressive. These guys are short and squatty. And they burp out bubbles and blobs of mud, water, and gas. What they lack in majesty, though, they make up for in numbers: more than a thousand have been discovered on land, and many others have been found at the bottom of the ocean.

One of the most recently disc...

Many volcanoes are among the most majestic sights on the planet: Tall and wide, they belch molten rock or plumes of ash that can tower miles high. But there’s another class of volcano that’s much less impressive. These guys are short and squatty. And they burp out bubbles and blobs of mud, water, and gas. What they lack in majesty, though, they make up for in numbers: more than a thousand have been discovered on land, and many others have been found at the bottom of the ocean.

One of the most recently discovered marine exam...

Using an anvil to smash prey sounds like something Wile E. Coyote would try—unsuccessfully, of course. But some other creatures are a lot more successful at it: fish. More than two dozen species of fish have been seen using “anvils” to smash open their prey. All of them were types of wrasse, a colorful fish found around the world.

Tool use has been observed in birds, mammals, and other animals on land. In marine environments, it’s been seen in octopuses and crabs. And for several decades, the list has included wrasses.

The fish...

Using an anvil to smash prey sounds like something Wile E. Coyote would try—unsuccessfully, of course. But some other creatures are a lot more successful at it: fish. More than two dozen species of fish have been seen using “anvils” to smash open their prey. All of them were types of wrasse, a colorful fish found around the world.

Tool use has been observed in birds, mammals, and other animals on land. In marine environments, it’s been seen in octopuses and crabs. And for several decades, the list has included wrasses.

The fish grabs a...

The world has a huge appetite for the batteries that power electric vehicles. Many of the elements needed to make batteries are spread across the ocean floor—especially in the Pacific. They form nodules the size of potatoes that contain a lot of manganese, nickel, and other key metals. But some of the nodules may already be acting as batteries—generating an electric current that produces oxygen.

Most oxygen in the oceans comes from tiny organisms near the surface that use photosynthesis—a process that requires sunlight. But researchers recently found a possible new source of oxy...