We’ve Explored Space Better Than Our Own Ocean, How Is That Possible?

0:00 Okay, Michelle, Andrew here. We're gonna be doing uh four episodes. I've got an interview this week with Ontario on Oceans Networks Canada, Ocean Networks Canada, and so we're gonna be talking about that. well on Friday, and then so these are four that will go with that. So I am away uh Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Monday, Tuesday. I'm away. I'm back on Tuesday night. Um The Monday episode, what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna do all the show notes and stuff from the transcript here. ah and then so I'll have it all uploaded and ready to go. And then all you have to do is just put I'm gonna have it and I'm actually gonna have for the first two actually, Monday and Tuesday, I'm gonna have the everything done on Libsyn.

0:46 All you to do is just upload the um upload the the thing to the right to the right title. Um And then that'll help me because I'm up at a cottage and I don't have a lot of um access to internet and stuff like that. So I'm gonna have that done. If you can just upload it, it'll be scheduled for Monday at 3 a.m. my time. so if you can just upload it before that, that would be great. Let me know when it's uploaded. Same with the Tuesday. If you can get that uploaded, you can do that on Monday, your time, um, and then have it uploaded. The show notes will be ready for you. Okay, I'll do those tonight. Okay. Here we go. I always do last minute. I don't know why I always do a last minute, but always do last minute on these.

1:29 So I almost didn't do it this week, but I wanted to get some done. Okay, here we go. Start off July hot. Imagine standing out on a beach and looking out at the ocean. Now imagine almost everything beneath the surface is still a mystery. In fact, we've met more of the moon and Mars than we've actually seen in detail on our very own seafloor. How is that possible? This is the How to Protect the Ocean podcast, your weekday ocean news update. If you care about staying informed on the ocean every single weekday, hit that follow button right now on the podcast app that you're listening to. So you do not miss tomorrow's story.

2:10 Welcome to part one of a four-part series leading up to a very special interview later on this week with scientists and educational people from the Ontario Networks Canada from Oceans Networks Canada. What are Canada's most I'm gonna try that one again. Welcome to part one of a four-part series leading up to a special interview later this week with a scientist from Department of Fisheries Notions as in Canada, as well as uh an educator from Oceans Network Canada. Uh it's it's behind it's it's it's basically about the Canada's most ambitious deep sea, not only exploration projects, but educational projects as well.

2:59 So today we are starting with one simple question: how Can there's how can there still be so much of our own planet that we've never explored? It's a strange thing to think about. You know, we live in an age where satellites can show us our neighborhood from space, rovers can rovers have driven across Mars, and telescopes can detect planets orbiting distant stars. Yet the largest habitat on Earth remains unknown. Remains mostly unknown. And that's the deep ocean. When people hear that we've explored on when people hear that we've explored only a tiny when people hear that we've only when people hear that we've explored only a tiny fraction of the deep ocean, they s they often imagine scientists they often imagine scientists haven't bothered looking.

3:51 But that's not the case. The challenge is that the deep sea ocean that the the challenge is that the deep sea is one of the most difficult places on earth to reach. Sunlight appears after about sunlight disappears after about 200 meters. Sunlight disappears after 200 meters. As you descend farther, the pressure increases dramatically. At a depth of a thousand meters, the pressure is roughly one hundred times greater than what we experience at sea level. Go even deeper than that and the pressure begins to and the and the go even deeper than that and the pressure becomes crushing. Most submarines can't survive it. We've even saw a submarine implode because it wasn't built properly. Humans can't as humans And humans certainly can't survive that on their own.

4:37 Even sending cameras thousands of meters below the sea the surface requires incredibly specialized equipment. The ocean only covers the ocean also covers more than 70% of our planet. That means scientists aren't exploring a single cave or canyon. They're trying to that they're trying to understand. That means scientists aren't exploring a single cave or canyon. They're trying to understand an enormous three-dimensional world that stretches across millions of square kilometers. It's easy to forget the ocean isn't just wide. It's deep. Really deep. And if you stacked Mount Everest inside the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean, its summit wouldn't its summit would still be underwater.

5:18 That's the scale that we're talking about here. Scientists estimate Scientists estimate that we've visually explored only a tiny percentage of the deep sea floor. Of the deep sea floor, of the ocean seafloor. That means that there are mountains we've never seen, canyons we've never mapped, species we haven't even discovered yet. Entire ecosystems remain hidden beneath the waves. And that should make one of and that should make every one of us curious. It's time to put our science hat on, folks. Because if we don't know what's there, How do we know what we're protecting or not protecting in in certain cases? Now you're probably wondering, like who cares?

5:58 So what? If everybody lives, if nobody lives down there, why does it matter? And that's a fair question, to be honest. The answer is that the deep ocean isn't separate from our lives. It's connected in almost everything. It's connected to almost everything. The deep ocean stores enormous amounts of carbon, helping regulate Earth's climate. It plays a major role in nutrient cycling. That supports life throughout the ocean. Many commercial import many commercially important fish spend most many commercially important fish spend part of their time many commercially open sorry, Michelle. Many commercially open fish, many commercially open fish spend part of their lives connected to deep habitats, to deep sea habitats.

6:43 Scientists continue discovering organisms that produce scientists continue. man, I'm having trouble here. Scientists continue. Scientists continue discovering organisms. Science scientists continue to discover species that produce compounds with potential medical applications. And the deep sea helps support the ocean systems that produce much of the ocean we breathe. In other words, if you're not in other words, if you'll in other words, if you ah in other words, even if you're in other words, even if you'll never visit the deep sea, you benefit from it every single day. There's another reason why this matters. Human activity is expanding farther offshore.

7:24 Deep sea fishing, underwater cables, potential seabed mining, energy development, climate change, all these activities can affect places we barely studied. Imagine someone proposing to log a forest before everyone. Imagine imagine someone proposing to log a forest before anyone had even identified trees or counted the wildlife that living there. I'm going to do that one again. Imagine someone proposing to log a forest before anyone had even identified the trees or counted the wildlife living there. It would seem backwards. And that's exact yet that's exactly the situation scientists are trying to avoid in parts of the deep sea.

8:05 Before we make decisions, we need knowledge. And knowledge begins with exploration. If you're getting value from this quick ocean update, follow this show so you never miss another episode. The good news is that we're entering an exciting period for ocean exploration. Technology has improved dramatically over the last decade. Scientists can now create incredibly detailed maps of the seafloor using multi-beam sonar. Remotely operated vehicles or ROVs can dive thousands of meters while sending live video back to researchers on the ships above. High-definition cameras reveal animals that no human has ever seen alive. And environmental DNA, and also known as e-DNA, allows scientists to detect species simply by analyzing seawater.

8:52 Artificial intelligence is helping researchers pr artificial intelligence is also helping researchers pro process enormous amounts of video and imagery much faster than ever before. In many ways, we're experiencing a modern age of discovery. And Canada has an important poll. And Canada has an important role to play. Our Pacific Coast is home of submarine canyons. Underwater mountains, underwater mountains called seamounts, deep coral gardens, sponge reefs, and habitats that scientists are only beginning to understand. Every expedition has the seafloor to discover something new. Sometimes it's a species, sometimes it's a habitat. And sometimes it eats and sometimes it's better understanding of how our planet works.

9:36 That's why exploration isn't about That's why exploration isn't about satisfying curiosity alone. It's about making smarter decisions, better fisheries management, better marine protected areas, better conservation, better climate science. You can't protect what you don't understand. And that's exactly why scientists continue exploring places that most of us will never see with our own eyes. Later this week, you're going to hear from people leading one of Canada's deep ocean exploration efforts and educational efforts. But before we get there, there's another question that we need to answer. If the deep ocean is so dark, so cold, and under so much pressure, how can anything possibly live there?

10:18 The answer is far more incredible than people imagine, and we're going to explore that tomorrow. The deep sea may be out of sight, but it should never be out of mind. Understanding what's beneath the surface is the st is the first step toward protecting one of the Earth's most important ecosystems. I want to thank you so much for joining us on today's episode. This is just a these are just quick hit episodes where we talk about what we're going to be talking about, where we talk about some of the topics that we talk about in Friday's episode when we're going to be interviewing some people from Department of Fisheries and Oceans, a person from Department of Fisheries Oceans in Canada, and we're also going to be talking to an educator from Ocean Networks Canada. You're going to want to stay tuned to that.

10:59 So follow this episode right now so that you do not miss out on Friday's episode and of course tomorrow's episode. we're going to be discovering why it's so important that of the deep sea why the deep sea is so important. Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm your host Andrew Lewin. If you want to no sorry before we do that if you want to support this podcast and support all the effort that I do I'm a basically a one person show. I have a team member who helps me edit that I pay to edit and she does an amazing job. Her and her husband do amazing jobs in editing all of my my clips, my podcasts, my YouTube videos. And soon more clips that we're going to be doing or more short form videos that we're going to be doing for Instagram and uh and TikTok.

11:42 I just want if you want to so if you want to support all that effort that we do, you can go to speakupforblue.com forward slash Patreon. That's speakeupforblue.com forward spot forward slash Patreon. The link is in the show notes as well as how to get a hold of me on Instagram or on TikTok. Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Have a great day. We'll talk to you next time. and happy conservation. I'm gonna do that one more time. Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin. Have a great day. We'll talk to you next time in happy conservation. All right, Michelle, that was a little dirty, but hopefully we can clean that up. Sorry about that.