The Deep Sea Isn’t Barren, Here’s Why That Changes Everything

0:01 Hey Michelle, back again, doing another episode. This one's on deep sea biodiversity. And um yeah, we're gonna get into it. When most people picture the deep ocean, when most when most people, you know what's throwing me off is it the script keeps putting deep ocean, it's supposed to be deep sea. And that's throwing me off. So I apologize. Here we go. When most people picture the deep ocean, they imagine darkness, cold water, and almost no life. I'm gonna do that again because I meant to say deep sea. When most people picture the deep sea, they imagine darkness, cold water, and almost no life. But the reality Some of the strangest, oldest, and most remarkable animals on earth are living thousands of meters below the surface.

0:44 The problem isn't that life doesn't exist down there, is that we've only just begun to discover it. This is the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast, your weekday ocean news update. If you care about staying informed about the ocean every single weekday, Monday to Friday, hit that follow button right now on your favorite podcast app so you don't miss tomorrow's story. Welcome back to part two of our four-part series leading up to Friday's interview with a DFO scientist, Department of Fisheries Oceans Canada scientist, and an educator involved in one of the Canada's largest deep sea exploration projects and education projects. It's gonna be a lot of fun, so do not miss out. But here we're gonna be talking about the deep sea. Yesterday we talked about how little we've explored of the deep sea.

1:27 And today we're gonna be answering another question. If the deep sea is so dark and so cold, And under so much pressure, how can anything survive there? The answer changes the way you think about life on Earth, to be honest. Imagine being dropped in complete darkness. The temperature is only a few degrees above freezing. It's gonna be super cold. You probably wouldn't survive much. And of course, the pressure is hundreds of times greater than what you've experienced, what you're experiencing now. Food is scarce, there are no plants, there's no sunlight, no sunrise, no sunset. Which means there's no sunrise and no sunset. And if someone is describing those conditions to you, you might assume that nothing could survive there.

2:07 But instead, the deep ocean but instead the deep sea is filled with life. Scientists have discovered giant glass sponges that can live for thousands of years. Deep sea corals that create underwater forests without even seeing sunlight. Octopuses that brood their eggs for years before they hatch. Fish with transparent heads. Jellyfish that glow in brilliant blues and reds. Sea cucumbers that drift through the water like floating balloons. Some animals create their own light through bioluminescence. Others have enormous eyes designed to detect any of the faintest glow. Some don't even have eyes at all because they simply can't, because they simply don't need them.

2:50 Life has evolved in extraordinary ways because the deep sea plays by completely different rules. And every expedition seems to reveal another species scientists have never seen before. Think about that for a moment. In 2026, on the planet with billions of people, scientists are still discovering animals that have existed for millions of years without ever knowing that they were there. That's incredible. It's easy to focus on weird-looking animals. And honestly, like they're fascinating. Some of them, some people say they're like alien-like. But the real story isn't just about bizarre creatures, it's about the ecosystems. Deep sea corals provide habitat for fish, crabs, shrimp, and countless other species.

3:33 The massive sponge reefs filter enormous amounts of seawater every day, improving water quality and creating a home for marine life. Hydrothermal vents, which are even crazier of an environment or of a habitat, support entire communities powered not by sunlight, but by chemicals coming from inside the earth that would be toxic to us. Scientists once believed sunlight was essential for all ecosystems. Then they discovered life thriving through these vents, through these hydrothermal vents, rewriting biology textbooks around the world. Here in Canada, where I live, the Pacific Ocean is home to globally significant sponge reefs. Some of these reefs began forming thousands of years ago and provide habitat for commercially important species like rockfish.

4:18 Researchers have also discovered deep sea coral, deep-sea coral communities growing along underwater mountains. Growing along underwater mountains and canyons off British Columbia, many of these habitats are fragile. Some corals only grow millimeters a year. Some corals only grow millimeters each year. That means damage caused in minutes could take centuries to recover if it recovers at all. This is why scientists spend so much time documenting what's down there. They're building a baseline, and that's expensive, and it takes time because we know where these ecosystems are. 'Cause once we know where these ecosystems are, we can take bet we can make better decisions about protecting them.

5:01 Now, if you think about how this is all done, the baseline data, how we need to collect all this information, how long it takes to collect all this information, and even how expensive it is. It requires funding. It requires people to be like, hey, like I really believe in this. We need to support this through either government funding or extra external funding somehow, right? Well, this is like what this podcast does. Right. If you get value from listening to this podcast each and every weekday that we produce an episode to help you understand the ocean just a little bit more, I would love for you not only to follow this podcast, but help support our work on Patreon. Go speakupforblue.com forward slash Patreon and you can support our work so that you know we can pay our pay my editor a little better because I pay out of pocket, support the editor, support the the effort that I put in here.

5:51 And you know, allow me to have a little wiggle room when I decide to do new things. I put up all my stuff on various social media platforms, on you know, on um on Patreon, on he on this podcast platform, on YouTube, all that kind of stuff. It's a lot of work. And if you want to support me, you're more than welcome to do so. Go to speakupforblue.com forward slash Patreon. Now, one of my favorite things about ocean exploration is that nobody knows exactly what they're going to find. Researchers head out with the maps, they have hypotheses, they know where interesting habitats might exist, but they also expect surprises. Sometimes they discover species completely new to science.

6:32 Other times they observe behaviors that have never been seen been even recorded before. A few years ago, researchers found what looked like an octopus nursery, where dozens of octopus mothers gathered to care for their eggs. Another expedition revealed deep sea coral gardens stretching farther than anyone has ever expected. These discoveries remind us that exploration isn't just about filling in blank spaces on a map. It's about changing our understanding of how our planet works. And there's something worth remembering. Every species has a story. And as someone who communicates storytelling and using storytelling, that's important. Every ecosystem has a role. The more we explore, the more we realize how connected everything really is.

7:15 Healthy deep sea habitats support healthier oceans. Healthier oceans support fisheries, biodiversity. Sorry, I can do that again. Healthier oceans support fisheries, biodiversity, climate regulation, and ultimately us people. So when someone says the deep sea is empty, you know that's one of the biggest myths in marine science, or just in in human knowledge. It's not empty, it's alive, it's diverse. And in many ways, it's still introducing itself to us. So when A deep sea mining executive says, hey, that all that's down there is just a bunch of worms. Well, first of all, there's a diversity of worms, and those worms can be very important. We just don't know what their function is or many other functions are, but a lot of times they're really important.

7:55 But that doesn't mean that this that's all that's out there. There's so many other species that are out there that we just haven't figured out yet. Tomorrow we're going to tackle another fainting tomorrow, we're going to tackle another fascinating question. If humans can't survive thousands of meters underwater, How do science actually explore? How do scientists actually explore these incredible places? If humans can't, I'm gonna do that again. If humans can't survive thousands of meters underwater, how do scientists actually explore these incredible places? The answer involves technology that feels like someone is out of a science fiction. The answer involves technology that feels like something out of a science fiction movie. The deep sea isn't a lifeless abyss, it's one of the Earth's richest ecosystems.

8:39 And we're only beginning to understand the incredible life it supports. I want to thank you for joining me on today's episode. I really appreciate you listening to this. I feel like this she this week is all about hope and all about curiosity, like understanding our curiosity and filling, fulfilling that curiosity to really get to know a part of the ocean that we haven't been able to explore because we haven't had that technology. Tomorrow we're going to talk about what that technology is and how it's helped us explore the deep sea. But if you want, if and if you don't want to miss that episode, please follow. And of course, support us on Patreon if you like what I've been doing for the last 11 years. Go to speakupforblue.com forward slash Patreon. I want to thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast.

9:22 Check out the show notes for all of our social links. And thank you so much for joining us. Have a great day. We'll talk to you next time and happy conservation. Okay, Michelle. That one was a quick one. We're gonna have some quick ones this week. Here we go.