Kai the Fish Guy shows off strange deep-sea fishes found in the Indian Ocean : Short Wave : NPR
Of the many species that scientists photographed aboard the RV Investigator, the deep sea batfish made one of the biggest splashes on social media.
Benjamin Healley / Museums Victoria
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Benjamin Healley / Museums Victoria
Of the many species that scientists photographed aboard the RV Investigator, the deep sea batfish made one of the biggest splashes on social media.
Benjamin Healley / Museums Victoria
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The bottom of the ocean is a tremendously inhospitable place to live. It’s dark, it’s cold, and the pressure is fierce. But the creatures that have evolved to live there are amazing.
“They are masters of the realm,” said Yi-Kai Tea, a biodiversity researcher at the Australian Museum in Sydney who has compiled a social media following as @KaiTheFishGuy. “You can’t live in 3,000 meters of water and not be a master at what you do. And the fact that these creatures are living there, thriving and making the most of these habitats, that’s a remarkable feat. ”
Kai recently returned from a 35-day expedition aboard the RV Investigator, a research vessel operated by the Australian government’s science agency CSIRO, to explore the deep seas around a new marine park in the Indian Ocean. Led by the Museums Victoria Research Institute, dozens of scientists mapped the ocean floor of Cocos (Keeling) Islands Marine Park.. Using nets down to six kilometres, they collected thousands of specimens, ranging from the adorable deep-sea batfish to the fearsome lizard to the unfortunately named bony-eared assfish.
Trip Chief Scientist Tim O’Hara estimated that about a third of them may be new to science – and each one is a marvel of deep sea evolution.
Today on the show, Kai takes host Aaron Scott on a tour of some of the most eye-catching deep sea fish and explains how they survive in this harsh environment.
“We got some really exciting finds: things like viper fish and pelican eels and tripod fish,” Kai said. “These were just my childhood favorites that I knew about basically since I was 10 years old, but I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would see and hold in person.”
Have questions or ideas for science topics you want to hear us cover? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.
Listen to Short Wave above Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.
Today’s episode was produced by Thomas Lu, edited by Gabriel Spitzer and fact-checked by Brit Hanson. Josh Newell was the audio engineer.
