How do fish survive in the deep ocean?
What allows fish to cope with the immense water pressure of the ocean depths?
When listener Watum heard about the Titan submersible implosion in the news in 2023, a question popped up in his mind: if a machine that we specifically built for this purpose cannot sustain the water pressure of the deep ocean, how do fish survive down there?
In this episode, we travel with marine biologist Alan Jamieson to the second deepest place in our oceans: the Tonga trench. Meanwhile, presenter Caroline Steel speaks to Edie Widder about the creatures that illuminate our oceans, and travels to Copenhagen to take a closer look one of the strangest deep sea creatures and its deep sea adaptations.
But even fish have their limits! Scientist Paul Yancey correctly predicted the deepest point that fish can live, and it all comes down to one particular molecule.
So is there anything living beyond these depths? Well, there is only one way to find out…
Contributors:
Prof Alan Jamieson, University of Western Australia
Luke Siebermaier, Submersible Team Leader, Inkfish
Dr Edie Widder, Ocean Research & Conservation Association
Peter Rask Møller, Natural History Museum of Denmark
Prof Paul Yancey, Whitman College
Presenter: Caroline Steel
Producer: Florian Bohr
Editor: Martin Smith & Cathy Edwards
Production Co-ordinator: Ishmael Soriano
Studio Manager: Steve Greenwood
(Image: Deep-sea fish - stock photo, Credit: superjoseph via Getty Images)
Last on
More episodes
Clip
-
How lantern fish become invisible
Duration: 02:20
Featured
-
.
Broadcasts
- Fri 9 Aug 2024 19:32GMTÂ鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú World Service
- Mon 12 Aug 2024 01:32GMTÂ鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú World Service
- Mon 12 Aug 2024 04:32GMTÂ鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú World Service Australasia, Americas and the Caribbean, South Asia & East Asia only
- Mon 12 Aug 2024 08:32GMTÂ鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú World Service
- Mon 12 Aug 2024 12:32GMTÂ鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú World Service East and Southern Africa, News Internet & West and Central Africa only
Podcast
-
CrowdScience
Answering your questions about life, Earth and the universe