It’s February, the month of love and there’s love in the deep ocean too. We talk reproductive strategies in the deep sea with Professor Craig Young, Dr Autun Purser and Dr Mike Vecchione. How do you find a mate in the sparsely populated deep ocean? How can egg and sperm meet when you are fixed growing on a rock? How can your babies disperse and find a suitable habitat, especially if you live in a rare habitat like a hydrothermal vent? We find the solutions to all these problems and more.
We also have our regular contributors. Dr Don Walsh shares how a dolphin entourage isn’t a good thing if you’re trying to be a quiet and sneaky sub. Larkin also shares how it’s difficult to keep romance on the DL when you live in the tight confines of a ship, people do love to gossip.
In recent news, we announce the launch of Alan’s Deep-Sea Research centre but get distracted by the retired yob of a bird, the Kookaburra. We also consider starting a side-hustle selling dirty deep-sea bottled water and discuss a massive icefish nesting ground found in Antarctica.
We answer Maya’s listener question, ‘are there deep-sea-sons?’ Do they even know it is the month of romance?
Feel free to get in touch with questions or you own tales from the high seas on:
podcast@armatusoceanic.com
 
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Read the show notes and find out more about us at:
www.armatusoceanic.com
 
Glossary
Abyssal plain – the wide-open spaces of the deep sea, most of the planet
Filter feeder – animal that feeds by filtering the water e.g., sponge
Gametes – the reproductive cells, eggs and sperm
Gonad – the organ that produces the gametes
Hadal trench – the deep-sea trenches more than 6 km deep
Hermaphrodite – both male and female simultaneously
Sessile – animals that cannot move (opposite of mobile)
 
Links
Launch of Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre
Deep-Ocean bottled water
First humans to the bottom of the Atacama Trench
Massive icefish breeding ground paper
Seasons in the Abyss by Slayer
Ecosystems of the World – Craig has a great chapter on reproduction in this book
Paper - Estimating dispersal distance in the deep sea: challenges and applications to marine reserves
Paper - Reproduction, Larval Biology, and Recruitment of the Deep-Sea Benthos
Paper - Hadal snailfish reproduction
Larkin’s YouTube channel My Salty Sea Life
 
Credits
Theme – Hadal Zone Express by Märvel
Logo image
Deep-sea Lizardfish, Bathysaurus ferox
Icefish nests