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Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. This is

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Speaker 1: Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and today we're actually

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Speaker 1: bringing you a vault episode to help get us through

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Speaker 1: some some people being out of office here and there

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Speaker 1: over the next couple of weeks. So today's episode originally

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Speaker 1: published April nine, and it was on the Sargassum Seaweed.

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Speaker 1: That's right. This is the fun episode, full of fantastic

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Speaker 1: creatures in a wonderful environment and also a few allusions

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Speaker 1: to a movie we discussed on Weird How Cinema Z

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Speaker 1: also known as the Blood Waters of Dr Z. So

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Speaker 1: if you're interested in that Weird How Cinema episode, you'll

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Speaker 1: find that in the back catalog. Now, to lay things

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Speaker 1: out for you, I think we do have a fresh

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Speaker 1: original episode coming up for you on Thursday of this week.

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Speaker 1: Then we'll have a few more vaults for you the

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Speaker 1: week after that, But then we should be back with

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Speaker 1: all new things once again. Right, Welcome to Stuff to

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Speaker 1: Blow Your Mind, production of My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome

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Speaker 1: to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name is Robert

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Speaker 1: Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and today we're going to

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Speaker 1: go into the wettest of the woods, the saltiest of

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Speaker 1: the woods. Today the woods are salty, dark and deep.

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Speaker 1: And and we have promises to keep and miles to

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Speaker 1: float before we sleep, because we're going to be looking

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Speaker 1: at a sort of jungle in the ocean. That's right. Uh.

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Speaker 1: The ocean. Uh, it knows quite a mix of environments,

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Speaker 1: from rich coral reefs to desolate deep sea waste, from

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Speaker 1: sunlit shallows to hydrothermal vent heated depths. Marine organisms, of course,

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Speaker 1: face numerous challenges, but the most basic demands boiled down to,

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Speaker 1: you know, how not to end, how not to die,

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Speaker 1: how to prolong? It's era to quote waiting for the barbarians.

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Speaker 1: But this is especially of your small or your young organism.

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Speaker 1: You're gonna need food, and you're gonna need shelter. Uh,

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Speaker 1: And there's always going to be something trying to eat you.

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Speaker 1: And for a number of organisms, this is provided by Sargassum,

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Speaker 1: a genus of brown seaweed of sometimes brown, sometimes described

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Speaker 1: as brown and orange um as well. Discuss there a

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Speaker 1: number of different species here, but uh. Sargassum thrives abundantly

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Speaker 1: in the ocean. It floats free of the ocean floor

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Speaker 1: It provides a buoyant, free floating environment that travels on

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Speaker 1: the tides and offers food, refuge, breeding grounds, nurseries, hunting grounds,

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Speaker 1: et cetera for a wide variety of organisms. So in

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Speaker 1: this episode, we're going to discuss the sargassum organisms themselves,

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Speaker 1: the environment that they offer, some of its benefactors, and

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Speaker 1: also the problems posed by the so called Great Atlantic

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Speaker 1: sargassum Belt. Yeah, and that last point is interesting because

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Speaker 1: I will say, when you think of sea, do you

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Speaker 1: think of the macroalgy world, you don't usually think of

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Speaker 1: it as something that is particularly economically devastating or or

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Speaker 1: or even economically all that significant. But but that that

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Speaker 1: is not the case for sargassum. Yeah, as well. It's

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Speaker 1: it's it's an interesting topic to explore because in its

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Speaker 1: present form, it kind of cuts both ways. It's both

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Speaker 1: vitally important to uh to so many organisms and a

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Speaker 1: number of organisms that are then important to us, you know,

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Speaker 1: various um uh you know marine species that we depend on,

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Speaker 1: various fish and so forth. But then on the other hand, uh,

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Speaker 1: in an environment that is increasingly out of balance, uh,

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Speaker 1: it also poses a threat and it can pose quite

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Speaker 1: a nuisance, So we'll get into all that. So what

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Speaker 1: got you thinking about sargassum for today, Rob, Well, it's

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Speaker 1: because tomorrow's episode of Weird House Cinema will entail sargassum

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Speaker 1: and casual mention of a few of the creatures, one

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Speaker 1: creature in particular that calls it home. Um. Well, we'll

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Speaker 1: try to save all of that for tomorrow's episode. But

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Speaker 1: but yeah, that was probably the first place I heard

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Speaker 1: of sargassum, the Weed of deceit. I was wondering if

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Speaker 1: we should announce the movie, but maybe we should just

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Speaker 1: make everyone wait to find out if they're going to

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Speaker 1: be wondering, Wait, is it a Jaws clone where it's

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Speaker 1: a big raft of seaweed instead of a shark. Is

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Speaker 1: it like the Blair Witch Project, but instead of getting

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Speaker 1: lost in the woods of Virginia or wherever it is,

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Speaker 1: you get lost in the woods of the ocean of

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Speaker 1: the Sargasso Sea. Well that the truth will just suddenly

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Speaker 1: strike out at them and there'll be nothing they can

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Speaker 1: do about it. Uh So, So tune in tomorrow if

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Speaker 1: you wish for that. But but for this episode, we're

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Speaker 1: going to focus on first on on Sargassum. The the organism,

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Speaker 1: so sargassum glimpsed in the ocean or on the beach,

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Speaker 1: it might just look like a big heap of brown mess.

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Speaker 1: But about closer look you'll notice that it's composed of branches,

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Speaker 1: leafy bits, and what looked like plump berries. But they're

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Speaker 1: not berries, So don't don't pick them. Uh, I mean,

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Speaker 1: I guess you could pick them, But what they are

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Speaker 1: actually are newmaticists. These are air bubbles, um. Uh. They

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Speaker 1: are part of the organism held that you know, in

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Speaker 1: in these little cysts that help it excel at floating

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Speaker 1: around right. Because of course, there are different types of seaweed,

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Speaker 1: and some types of seaweed spend their life, you know,

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Speaker 1: submerged in the water, and they might be say, anchored

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Speaker 1: down by a type of organ known as a hold fast.

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Speaker 1: That is somewhat analogous to like the root ball of

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Speaker 1: a tree that holds it, except in the case of seaweed,

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Speaker 1: it would hold clumps of seaweed to the ocean floor.

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Speaker 1: Not entirely analogous, I mean, for many reasons, one of

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Speaker 1: which is that, uh, is that the seaweed that we're

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Speaker 1: talking about today is technically not even a plant. It

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Speaker 1: is a type of macroalgae, which will explain more about.

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Speaker 1: But in the case of sargassum, Uh, there are types

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Speaker 1: of sargassum that are free floating organisms that spend much

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Speaker 1: or all of their lives just floating on top of

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Speaker 1: the water to have good access to sunlight, of course,

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Speaker 1: which they need in order to make their food to survive.

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Speaker 1: But they've got to just sit there and float on

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Speaker 1: the top. And they're actually not even anchored to the

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Speaker 1: bottom at all. They just float out in the open ocean.

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Speaker 1: And I do just want to stress again that the

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Speaker 1: genus is Sargassum, and there I believe about a hundred

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Speaker 1: and fifty species um all sargassum. Uh. The hundred and

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Speaker 1: fifty number, I got that from the Ocean Foundation, though

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Speaker 1: curiously I saw some higher numbers out there as well.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if those were accurate. I'm sticking with

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Speaker 1: the one, right. So, there are different kinds that you'll find,

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Speaker 1: especially in different parts of the oceans around the world,

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Speaker 1: right Uh. And we'll be talking about some key ones though,

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Speaker 1: that are the most abundant, or at least in the

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Speaker 1: end of the part of the world that we're gonna

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Speaker 1: be discussing here. So, as I mentioned, sargassum is a

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Speaker 1: brown macroalgay, so it is different than plants. And how

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Speaker 1: exactly is it different than plants? Yeah? I think this

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Speaker 1: is also important to stress because if you don't think

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Speaker 1: much about seaweed, you might just you know, you know,

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Speaker 1: you might just as soon we all right, it's some

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Speaker 1: sort of plant that grows in the water. Um, And

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Speaker 1: I think that you might be reasonable to make that

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Speaker 1: assumption just based on its physical appearance, and certainly the

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Speaker 1: word seaweed um. Weeds are plants, yeah, yeah, And and

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Speaker 1: seaweed is also used informally a lot of times to

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Speaker 1: describe both the algae and some plant organisms. But the

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Speaker 1: algae are protests, meaning they are uh eukaryotic organisms, which

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Speaker 1: are not animals plants or fun gi um so land

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Speaker 1: plants for their part, they likely derived from fresh water

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Speaker 1: algae about five hundred million years ago. An algae is,

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Speaker 1: of course, when we look at the just the root

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Speaker 1: of the word um, they're synonymous with seaweed, as alga

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Speaker 1: is the Latin for seaweed. Okay, so if you if

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Speaker 1: you just think about algae like the most I would

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Speaker 1: say if I was to go on my own personal

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Speaker 1: life experience. When I hear the word algae by itself,

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Speaker 1: what I tend to think of is kind of green

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Speaker 1: pond scum, you know, kind of very like something floating

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Speaker 1: on top of a stagnant freshwater body like a pond

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Speaker 1: or a lake, that is made of tiny little fibers

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Speaker 1: that just kind of clumped together. Doesn't have any recognizable

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Speaker 1: macro structures the way larger plants like like flowers or

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Speaker 1: trees would. But that is not true of all kinds

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Speaker 1: of algae. These macro algaes that we see in these

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Speaker 1: types of seaweed, they have more complex structures that are

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Speaker 1: more like the structures of land plants. So they might

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Speaker 1: have something that is akin to the stalk of a

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Speaker 1: land plant and something that is akin to the leaves.

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Speaker 1: In these cases, they would be algal fronds. Yes, yeah,

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Speaker 1: so yeah again they look very plant like. You can

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Speaker 1: easily look at them and say, oh, they're will leave,

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Speaker 1: they're the berries. But uh, at any rate, again, a

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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty different species of sargassum uh, though we're

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Speaker 1: generally going to be talking about specific dominant species within

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Speaker 1: given regions. For instance, the two varieties found most often

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Speaker 1: in the Caribbean are Sargassum natan's and Sargassum fluitans um.

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Speaker 1: I don't think it would be necessary to remember that,

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Speaker 1: but just know that again, we're gonna we're probably gonna

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Speaker 1: refer to sargassum a lot, just generally, but we're gonna

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Speaker 1: ultimately be dealing with specific species that are dominant within

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Speaker 1: a given a region. So sargassum reproduces a sexually through fragmentation,

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Speaker 1: a form of a sexual reproduction in which parents split

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Speaker 1: into fragments and those fragments then become adults. And furthermore,

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Speaker 1: the Caribbean sargasm species in particular, and some of these

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Speaker 1: other varieties that are important are hollow pelagic. That means

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Speaker 1: that they not only float freely on the ocean, but

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Speaker 1: they also reproduce vegetatively on the high seas. So they're

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Speaker 1: they're completely in international waters, you know, they're they're they're

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Speaker 1: they're a monkey knife fight that the land has no

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Speaker 1: control over. So yeah, but that would mean that they

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Speaker 1: don't they can do their whole life cycle without like

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Speaker 1: anchoring to the bottom at any point or returning to

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Speaker 1: shore or anything like that. Right, And that's gonna that's

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Speaker 1: gonna becoming important later on. It get it really gets

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Speaker 1: in ultimately the idea of sargassum being the wheat of

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Speaker 1: the seed, so it grows abundantly in the ocean, where

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Speaker 1: it forms vast floating rafts, as it's sometimes called. Though um,

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Speaker 1: I don't think these are rafts in the sense that

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Speaker 1: you could, you know, be a shipwrecked sailor at sea

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Speaker 1: and climb on top of it or hoist a sail

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Speaker 1: on it. But essentially just big rafts, big floating chunks

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Speaker 1: of of the sargassum, all tingled together, stretching in some

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Speaker 1: cases for miles, and these form in areas of converging

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Speaker 1: surface currents u and in doing so they create a

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Speaker 1: vital environment, like we alluded to earlier. But on top

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Speaker 1: of the environment, the organism itself provides food. According to

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Speaker 1: the Ocean Foundation, sargassum contributes and estimated six of the

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Speaker 1: total primary production in the upper one meter of the

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Speaker 1: water column. Okay, so that would refer to like different

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Speaker 1: different stages of the food chain. So you've got the

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Speaker 1: primary producers that are familiar to us. These are generally

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Speaker 1: photosynthesizing organisms, like like plants on land, you know, that

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Speaker 1: absorbs sunlight to power the chemical reactions that make their bodies.

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Speaker 1: And then you've got the secondary uh, characters on the

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Speaker 1: food chain that eat the primary producers. You know that

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Speaker 1: that eat plants to survive, the same thing is true

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Speaker 1: in the ocean. So you've got these primary producers that

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Speaker 1: are at least near the top of the water column

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Speaker 1: are going to be basing their their energy cycle on

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Speaker 1: sunlight to to produce these molecules that make up their

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Speaker 1: body that that in turn are eaten by other organisms

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Speaker 1: that are the sort of the secondary organisms in that

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Speaker 1: food chain. Yeah, it's it's like you said at the

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Speaker 1: very beginning, this is the forest that we're discussing. Like

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Speaker 1: in a way, don't think of the ocean itself as

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Speaker 1: the forest. Think of the think of the sargassum. These

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Speaker 1: going to these rafts of sargassum as the forest. Because

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Speaker 1: the ocean, as we've discussed in the show before, the

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Speaker 1: ocean can be a wasteland. The ocean can be a

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Speaker 1: desert and um and in desert, the sargassum can be

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Speaker 1: the oasis um. It serves as a place of refuge

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Speaker 1: for various creatures as well as again breeding grounds nurseries.

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Speaker 1: In fact, it's the primary nursery for a number of

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Speaker 1: important to human to humans, especially fish species like the

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Speaker 1: Ma ma. And given all of this activity that's going

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Speaker 1: on at the various creatures that call it home, sometimes

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Speaker 1: exclusively uh, their home, it's also prime stalking zone for

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Speaker 1: many marine predators, So both sargasm predators who live there

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Speaker 1: and have evolved a thrive in its environment, but also

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Speaker 1: general marine apex predators that are drawn in by the by,

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Speaker 1: by the riches there by the biodiversity. Uh, let's see

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Speaker 1: if a few other just sort of general um facts

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Speaker 1: about sargassum. It can survive wide temperature and salinity variances,

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Speaker 1: and after about a year, those new maticists that help

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Speaker 1: it to remain buoyant, uh, they lose their buoyancy and

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Speaker 1: bits of sargassum will then sink to the sea floor,

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Speaker 1: where it will actually been up providing carbon for various

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Speaker 1: deep sea creatures. So it's not only an important energy

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Speaker 1: source for the sunlit shallow regions of the sea, but

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Speaker 1: for the dark depths as well. I guess, serving as

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Speaker 1: kind of like that that nutrient rainfall that we've talked

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Speaker 1: about before that rains upon the deep and indeed when

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Speaker 1: it washes up on the shore. Uh. I guess for

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Speaker 1: for the most part we're talking about it. If it's

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Speaker 1: washing up in manageable quantities, um, it can actually nourish beaches,

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Speaker 1: It can prevent sand from blowing away. Uh. And when

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Speaker 1: it washes up, it also serves as a food source

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Speaker 1: for various coastal species. Um. And not only is it

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Speaker 1: generally not harmful to humans, it's actually edible. More than that,

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Speaker 1: in a bit, uh, there are also possible biofuel and

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Speaker 1: pharmaceutical possibilities for sargassum um. We'll get into some of

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Speaker 1: the drawbacks later on, but but one of the interesting

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Speaker 1: things here is that like the idea of just sargassum

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Speaker 1: piling up on the beach again in manageable quality quant quantities,

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Speaker 1: it does bring to mind that sort of contest, that

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Speaker 1: disagreement at times over what constitutes the beach or what

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Speaker 1: the beach should look like. You know, should there be

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Speaker 1: anything on the beach other than um human strolling and

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Speaker 1: enjoying their vacation. You know, uh, you know some of

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Speaker 1: the some of the really beautiful beaches out there, a

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Speaker 1: lot of times they are manicured, you know, things like

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Speaker 1: seaweed are collected regularly in order to have that sort

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Speaker 1: of Hollywood beach presented. Uh. And in many cases there's

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Speaker 1: an argument to me, may then no debris would be

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Speaker 1: on the beach naturally, and it in the right quantities,

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Speaker 1: it can be important to keeping the sand from washing away,

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Speaker 1: keeping the beach from eroding, etcetera. I can see the

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Speaker 1: point of view that would say I'm okay with the

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Speaker 1: beach that has natural debris, but not unmanageable amounts of

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Speaker 1: natural debris or artificial debris. I mean you certainly you

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Speaker 1: know you don't want too many beer cans. That's going

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Speaker 1: to kind of ruin your beach experience. Yeah, nobody wants

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Speaker 1: to step on a beer can on the beach, but likewise,

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Speaker 1: nobody really wants to have to walk over a tin

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Speaker 1: foot high a mound of urgassum like dead, rotting seaweed.

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Speaker 1: Right right now, Um, we're gonna be getting into the

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Speaker 1: history of humanities awareness and understanding of sargassum uh here.

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Speaker 1: And the first bit I want to share is that

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Speaker 1: you know, certainly early sailors described sargassum mats, and one

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Speaker 1: individual in particular, Christopher Columbus UH This was in when

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Speaker 1: abundance sargassum fooled Columbus into thinking he was approaching land.

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Speaker 1: And I couldn't find anything that really defined this for me.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if you did, Joe, but I assume

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Speaker 1: this is what the term the weed of Deceit refers

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Speaker 1: to the idea that you might encounter sargassum mats out

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Speaker 1: at sea and you could make the same air that

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Speaker 1: Columbus made and think, oh, look at all the seaweed. Uh,

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Speaker 1: there's it's thick. It's everywhere. We must be really close

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Speaker 1: to land at this point. Sure. I don't know that

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Speaker 1: that's where the name comes from, but that makes sense. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So on September six, ain't Columbus road, And this is

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Speaker 1: of course translated quote. We have begun to see large

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Speaker 1: patches of yellowish green weed, which seems to have been

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Speaker 1: torn away from some island or reef. I know better

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Speaker 1: because I make the mainland to be farther on. And

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Speaker 1: then on September sevent I saw a great deal of

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Speaker 1: weed today from rocks that lie to the west. I

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Speaker 1: take this to mean we are near land. The weed

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Speaker 1: resembles a grass, except that it has long stalks and

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Speaker 1: shoots and is loaded with fruit like the like the

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Speaker 1: Mastic tree. Um. So, uh, you know, I guess on

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Speaker 1: the on September six, it sounds like he was like, no,

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Speaker 1: you can't fool me. We're not that close to land.

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Speaker 1: But on September seventeen, he said, nope, we are close

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Speaker 1: to land. Look at all this seaweed. I had to

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Speaker 1: look up what the mastic tree is because I didn't know,

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Speaker 1: but it's the but it's known as Pistachia lentiscus. Ah. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I looked up a picture of it as well, and

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Speaker 1: I do see some some prominent little round fruits that. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: the little berries that I assume that's that's what he

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Speaker 1: was comparing to the what what are actually new maticists? Yea.

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Speaker 1: As we mentioned earlier, the neumatis are these little tiny

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Speaker 1: berry shaped gas bladders that helped the the seaweed float.

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Speaker 1: But in this case, yeah, it looks kind of like

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Speaker 1: these berries in a tree that would have been familiar

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Speaker 1: to Columbus. I think the looking at the Mastic tree

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Speaker 1: apparently is useful for its resin thank so. A special

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Speaker 1: note is the Sargasso Sea. This is a truly vast

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Speaker 1: patch of sargassum. According to the Ocean Foundation, the Sargasso

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Speaker 1: Sea is sometimes referred to as the Atlantic Golden Rainforest

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Speaker 1: UH and the islands quote unquote uh in the Sargasso

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Speaker 1: Sea can be acres across, while the regions they occupy

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Speaker 1: can stretch for miles. Right now, the Sargasso Sea is

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Speaker 1: interesting because it is the only real sea in the

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Speaker 1: world that doesn't have any land boundaries. The Sargasso Sea

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Speaker 1: is a sea within an ocean. It's uh, this patch

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Speaker 1: in the mid all of the Northern Atlantic. Basically, it's

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Speaker 1: just a large patch if you were to look at

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Speaker 1: the eastern coast of the United States, uh and you

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Speaker 1: know in the Caribbean maybe with the bottom edge down

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Speaker 1: around like Cuba and uh in Puerto Rico, and then

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Speaker 1: going up along the the coast of North America up

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Speaker 1: towards Newfoundland, and then you just extend out east from there.

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Speaker 1: There's this big patch in the middle of the Atlantic

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Speaker 1: Ocean which is known as the Sargasso Sea. Now we

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Speaker 1: should be clear that it is not like blanket covered

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Speaker 1: in sargassum seaweed, but there are It is known for

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Speaker 1: having large rafts of sargassum seaweed within it, and the

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Speaker 1: Sargasso Sea is interesting in a number of ways. One

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Speaker 1: thing about it is it's known for having UH, for

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Speaker 1: being a place where ships can easily become be calmed,

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Speaker 1: and this is a a risk that people who are

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Speaker 1: not very familiar with sea voyages might not think about

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Speaker 1: very often. But back in the days of sailing, one

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Speaker 1: thing that was really danger riss is if the winds

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Speaker 1: die down and you can't say, you know, there's nothing

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Speaker 1: to propel your ship in the direction where it needs

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Speaker 1: to go. All throughout the the Atlantic around the Sargasso Sea,

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Speaker 1: there tend to be these wind currents. You know they're

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Speaker 1: there are winds that will blow you UH, that will

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Speaker 1: blow you east to west, down from the from the

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Speaker 1: coast of Africa, down towards UH, towards the Caribbean, and

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Speaker 1: towards the northern coast of South America. And then there

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Speaker 1: are winds and currents in the ocean that lead up

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Speaker 1: north along the east coast of North America. And then

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Speaker 1: if you go up north from there, there are winds

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Speaker 1: and currents that will lead you back towards the east

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Speaker 1: from the west. So essentially you create this box in

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Speaker 1: the middle of the North Atlantic that is surrounded by

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Speaker 1: currents that go in a circle around it, and this

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Speaker 1: is often known as the North Atlantic Gyre. Now, anyone

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Speaker 1: who's ever watched, you know, any number of sailing movies

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Speaker 1: or TV shows, or any TV show that includes like

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Speaker 1: a a voyage by sale across the ocean, This is

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Speaker 1: a This is almost a standard bottle episode right here,

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Speaker 1: where where suddenly the ship uh is in a is

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Speaker 1: in a region where there's just no no wind at all,

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Speaker 1: nothing could propel them, and everybody just sets around and

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Speaker 1: gets like superstitious and uh a little bit crazy until

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Speaker 1: the wind picks back up and saves everybody right. And

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Speaker 1: you can imagine like if you actually were traveling across

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Speaker 1: the Atlantic and you didn't know what you were what

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Speaker 1: you were going to see, or what was going to

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Speaker 1: be out there. Maybe you'd heard some tales of sea monsters.

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Speaker 1: Who knows. You get into an area where there is

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Speaker 1: less wind than you're used to than when you traveled

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Speaker 1: into the area, you are suddenly be calmed. It becomes

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Speaker 1: hard to travel and you're just kind of stuck there

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Speaker 1: in the water. And then you start seeing these weird

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Speaker 1: rafts floating around in the middle of the ocean. Towards you.

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Speaker 1: I can imagine that's pretty odd, YEA. And in fact,

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Speaker 1: we maybe don't have to imagine, because there are some

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Speaker 1: historical sources that that may well be referring to this.

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Speaker 1: I guess it's debatable whether they're referring to this or

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Speaker 1: something else. But uh, I wanted to look at the

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Speaker 1: question how long has the Sargasso Sea been written about? Uh.

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Speaker 1: It gets its current name from Portuguese sailors. I believe

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Speaker 1: of like you know, the the early modern period, or

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Speaker 1: actually I think before that, from like the fifteenth century.

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Speaker 1: But but I was looking around to see how far

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Speaker 1: back written accounts of the Sargasso c go. And I

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Speaker 1: found an interesting, possibly applicable bit of history in a

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Speaker 1: book by the British archaeologist and Oxford professor Sir Barry Cunliffe. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And the book is called on the Ocean, the Mediterranean

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Speaker 1: and Atlantic from Prehistory to a d fIF hundred from

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Speaker 1: Oxford University Press in And this is in a chapter

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Speaker 1: where Cunliffe is writing about records of exploration west of

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Speaker 1: the Pillars of Heracles. So the Pillars of Heracles today

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Speaker 1: are understood to refer to the Strait of Gibraltar, that

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Speaker 1: gap between between Morocco and the Iberian Peninsula, where you

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Speaker 1: can just go through this narrow passage to get out

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Speaker 1: of the Mediterranean Sea and into the broad Atlantic Ocean.

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Speaker 1: And so he's writing about the exploration beyond this point

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Speaker 1: out to the west by the ancient cultures of North Africa, Europe,

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Speaker 1: and Central Asia. And for for most of these cultures,

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Speaker 1: the Mediterranean Sea was of course their bread and butter.

401
00:22:20,720 --> 00:22:23,120
Speaker 1: I mean, the sea, even the Mediterranean Sea has has

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Speaker 1: plenty of dangers and mysteries to it. But sea voyages

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Speaker 1: within this region where you know, we're well understood for

404
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Speaker 1: for trade and and exploration and warfare and fishing and

405
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Speaker 1: all that. But sea voyages west into the Atlantic Ocean

406
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Speaker 1: or another story. And so you get plenty of tales

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Speaker 1: and say Greek thought and Greek mythology about islands that

408
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Speaker 1: maybe lay out to the west of the Pillars of Hercules,

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Speaker 1: way out there in the ocean that that is mostly

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Speaker 1: unexplored by your people. Most of the early explorers who

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Speaker 1: passed west of Gibraltar did so in order to travel

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Speaker 1: along the coast to the north or south. So this

413
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Speaker 1: would be traveling up along the coast of the Iberian

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Speaker 1: Peninsula to form these ports, along places like Cadiz that

415
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Speaker 1: became a Phoenician port, or south along the coast of Africa.

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Speaker 1: The Phoenicians and the Greeks did this to various extents,

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Speaker 1: but the vast and presumably mostly empty Atlantic Ocean was

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Speaker 1: not not among everybody, but widely assumed in ancient times

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Speaker 1: to be a place of mystery and danger, especially by

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Speaker 1: Greek authors. And Kunlife gives the example of the ancient

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Speaker 1: Greek poet Pindar, who was writing in the early fifth

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Speaker 1: century b c. E uh and so to quote from

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Speaker 1: Kunliffe here describing the pillars of Heracles, situated at the

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Speaker 1: western extremity of the known world, far from home, he advises, quote,

425
00:23:46,359 --> 00:23:49,800
Speaker 1: what lies beyond cannot be trodden by the wise or

426
00:23:49,920 --> 00:23:54,280
Speaker 1: the unwise. One cannot cross from Ghadeer towards the dark west.

427
00:23:54,680 --> 00:23:57,840
Speaker 1: Turn again the sails towards the dry land of Europe.

428
00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:02,360
Speaker 1: The dark west. Yeah, I mean this vast, stormy ocean.

429
00:24:02,440 --> 00:24:04,440
Speaker 1: You you don't know, if you know you travel out

430
00:24:04,480 --> 00:24:07,040
Speaker 1: on it, Like would would you even reach land if

431
00:24:07,040 --> 00:24:09,880
Speaker 1: you kept sailing? I mean it was not known. However,

432
00:24:09,960 --> 00:24:13,240
Speaker 1: kun Of writes that Phoenician sailors were more adventurous in

433
00:24:13,320 --> 00:24:17,120
Speaker 1: general in pushing westward uh And about around the year

434
00:24:17,200 --> 00:24:21,800
Speaker 1: six hundred b C. A Phoenician expedition sponsored by the

435
00:24:21,960 --> 00:24:27,359
Speaker 1: pharaoh Necho the second had been reported to have circumnavigated Africa.

436
00:24:27,720 --> 00:24:31,119
Speaker 1: And though we don't have the original sources for the

437
00:24:31,119 --> 00:24:35,119
Speaker 1: account that I'm about to describe, there are later Roman

438
00:24:35,320 --> 00:24:41,639
Speaker 1: quotations of the accounts of Phoenician sailors possibly pushing further

439
00:24:41,800 --> 00:24:45,520
Speaker 1: west into the Atlantic in exploration. And one of these

440
00:24:45,560 --> 00:24:51,080
Speaker 1: notable sailors was a Carthaginian navigator named him Ilco. That's

441
00:24:51,240 --> 00:24:54,320
Speaker 1: h I m I l c O, who lived probably

442
00:24:54,400 --> 00:24:57,240
Speaker 1: sometime in the fifth century b c. E. Now, the

443
00:24:57,280 --> 00:25:01,320
Speaker 1: Carthaginians were an ancient civilization that was based along the

444
00:25:01,400 --> 00:25:04,159
Speaker 1: coast of North Africa. I think their their capital was

445
00:25:04,200 --> 00:25:08,000
Speaker 1: in modern day Tunisia. But who expanded too much of

446
00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:11,000
Speaker 1: the ancient Mediterranean. And then here I'm going to read

447
00:25:11,040 --> 00:25:14,600
Speaker 1: from Cunliffe as he introduces and quotes another ancient source

448
00:25:14,720 --> 00:25:18,920
Speaker 1: for for knowledge about Himilco. So Himilco quote, whose report

449
00:25:19,200 --> 00:25:22,760
Speaker 1: published long ago in the secret Annals of the Carthaginians,

450
00:25:23,240 --> 00:25:27,920
Speaker 1: is selectively quoted in a grossly pretentious poem compiled by

451
00:25:27,920 --> 00:25:33,080
Speaker 1: our Roman administrator Rufus Festus Aviennas in the fourth century

452
00:25:33,160 --> 00:25:36,920
Speaker 1: a d. A few lines of his Aura maritima will

453
00:25:36,960 --> 00:25:40,160
Speaker 1: suffice to give the flavor. And then this quotes lines

454
00:25:40,200 --> 00:25:45,080
Speaker 1: three seventy four. To the west of these pillars, Himilco

455
00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:49,560
Speaker 1: reports that the swell is boundless, the sea extends widely

456
00:25:49,840 --> 00:25:54,120
Speaker 1: the salt water streaks. Fourth, no one has approached these waters.

457
00:25:54,160 --> 00:25:57,000
Speaker 1: No one has brought his keel into that sea, because

458
00:25:57,000 --> 00:26:00,520
Speaker 1: there are no propelling breezes at sea, and no breath

459
00:26:00,560 --> 00:26:04,080
Speaker 1: of Heaven's air aids the ship. Hence, because the mist

460
00:26:04,160 --> 00:26:07,320
Speaker 1: cloaks the air with a kind of garment, a cloud

461
00:26:07,359 --> 00:26:10,880
Speaker 1: always holds the swell and persists throughout the humid day.

462
00:26:12,200 --> 00:26:16,399
Speaker 1: And so that's describing possibly some of the becalmed area

463
00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:19,240
Speaker 1: of the North Atlantic, with like within the Gyre region

464
00:26:19,280 --> 00:26:21,720
Speaker 1: that we talked about before, you know, surrounded by the currents,

465
00:26:21,720 --> 00:26:25,000
Speaker 1: but is very often very still in that middle area

466
00:26:25,320 --> 00:26:29,320
Speaker 1: that overlaps with the Sargasso Sea. But then Cunliff goes

467
00:26:29,359 --> 00:26:34,119
Speaker 1: on to describe further how Aviennas quotes from him Ilko

468
00:26:34,280 --> 00:26:38,200
Speaker 1: to describe his voyage. Uh Cunlift writes Elsewhere he talks

469
00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:41,480
Speaker 1: of monsters of the deep and beasts who swim amid

470
00:26:41,520 --> 00:26:45,879
Speaker 1: the slow and sluggish crawling ships, and again great fear

471
00:26:45,960 --> 00:26:49,720
Speaker 1: of monsters stalks the deep. When the wind falls, the

472
00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:53,320
Speaker 1: sluggish liquid of the lazy sea is at a stand still,

473
00:26:53,720 --> 00:26:57,360
Speaker 1: while thick seaweed often tops the sea, and the tide

474
00:26:57,440 --> 00:27:02,040
Speaker 1: is hindered by the marshy rack. The marshy rack. Oh

475
00:27:02,160 --> 00:27:06,280
Speaker 1: yeah um and Kunlaf also says Himilko was evidently not

476
00:27:06,480 --> 00:27:10,040
Speaker 1: enamored of his encounter with the ocean. Perhaps perhaps his

477
00:27:10,119 --> 00:27:13,480
Speaker 1: vessel was drawn south into the dull drums and reach

478
00:27:13,600 --> 00:27:18,120
Speaker 1: the Sargasso Sea, as some commentators have suggested, or perhaps

479
00:27:18,119 --> 00:27:22,000
Speaker 1: he reported in this dispiriting way simply to aggrandize his

480
00:27:22,040 --> 00:27:25,439
Speaker 1: own achievement and to deter others. Another possibility is that

481
00:27:25,520 --> 00:27:29,600
Speaker 1: his original report was embroidered by Aviennus Uh. So we

482
00:27:29,640 --> 00:27:33,439
Speaker 1: don't know exactly what he's describing here and if what

483
00:27:33,520 --> 00:27:36,359
Speaker 1: he's describing is real, especially since we're only getting it

484
00:27:36,440 --> 00:27:38,720
Speaker 1: quoted by a secondary source and we don't have the

485
00:27:38,720 --> 00:27:41,600
Speaker 1: original source. But of course it is true. There's the

486
00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:43,840
Speaker 1: danger of the dull drums, the calm part of the

487
00:27:43,880 --> 00:27:47,760
Speaker 1: Atlantic where you won't have winds to propel your your sales. Uh,

488
00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:50,240
Speaker 1: so you can very well get trapped there. That could

489
00:27:50,240 --> 00:27:54,400
Speaker 1: well overlap with large stretches of seaweed, the sargassum seaweed

490
00:27:54,440 --> 00:27:57,600
Speaker 1: that you would find in the Sargasso Sea. So one

491
00:27:57,640 --> 00:28:00,399
Speaker 1: possible interpretation of what we're getting here is that this

492
00:28:00,520 --> 00:28:07,160
Speaker 1: ancient Carthaginian sailor him Ilco actually sailed to the Sargasso Sea, survived,

493
00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:10,360
Speaker 1: returned to Carthage eventually, and you know, lived to tell

494
00:28:10,400 --> 00:28:13,600
Speaker 1: the tale. But again it's worth stressing that modern some

495
00:28:13,840 --> 00:28:17,040
Speaker 1: modern scholars are are doubtful. It's hard to know for sure,

496
00:28:17,440 --> 00:28:19,920
Speaker 1: but some details line up if they're accurate. You've got

497
00:28:19,920 --> 00:28:23,679
Speaker 1: these reports about the marshy rack of seaweed coinciding with

498
00:28:23,680 --> 00:28:25,760
Speaker 1: the Doldrums. It it lines up in a kind of

499
00:28:25,800 --> 00:28:28,720
Speaker 1: interesting way. And then finally, of course, the mention of

500
00:28:28,760 --> 00:28:31,720
Speaker 1: sea monsters right the I wonder if it's possible to

501
00:28:32,440 --> 00:28:36,280
Speaker 1: mistake the shadow of a huge floating raft of sargassum

502
00:28:36,320 --> 00:28:39,320
Speaker 1: for a sea monster stalking the deep. Again, I don't know,

503
00:28:39,400 --> 00:28:42,520
Speaker 1: but it strikes me as possible. Yeah. Yeah, And well,

504
00:28:42,520 --> 00:28:45,239
Speaker 1: once you get into discussing sea monsters, of course, as

505
00:28:45,280 --> 00:28:47,840
Speaker 1: we've we've explored in the show before, especially looking at

506
00:28:47,840 --> 00:28:51,760
Speaker 1: the work of the check ven Douser. Yeah, right on

507
00:28:51,880 --> 00:28:54,680
Speaker 1: sea monsters. I believe he pointed out in his book

508
00:28:54,760 --> 00:28:57,880
Speaker 1: that you know, at times sea monsters are a manifestation

509
00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:01,720
Speaker 1: of uh certainly of of second and third hand accounts

510
00:29:01,760 --> 00:29:04,760
Speaker 1: of of actual organisms. Other times their products of the mind,

511
00:29:04,840 --> 00:29:08,680
Speaker 1: sometimes their products of of economic or political forces. So

512
00:29:08,760 --> 00:29:12,520
Speaker 1: they're the whole host of reasons uh to to speak

513
00:29:12,560 --> 00:29:15,000
Speaker 1: the word of the name of the sea monster. But

514
00:29:15,040 --> 00:29:17,640
Speaker 1: that's certainly the yeah, the doldrums that seemed to be

515
00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:22,000
Speaker 1: described here, and then the uh, the the rack, the muck,

516
00:29:22,760 --> 00:29:25,680
Speaker 1: the seaweed here this does sound a lot like the

517
00:29:25,720 --> 00:29:29,840
Speaker 1: descriptions modern descriptions of the sargassoc. Oh. And sorry, there's

518
00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:32,440
Speaker 1: one thing I didn't clarify, but just to avoid confusion,

519
00:29:32,440 --> 00:29:34,280
Speaker 1: because it's not a common word, I had to look

520
00:29:34,280 --> 00:29:37,160
Speaker 1: this up. Rack here in this quotation is spelled with

521
00:29:37,200 --> 00:29:40,480
Speaker 1: the W W R A C K, And I was like,

522
00:29:40,520 --> 00:29:42,760
Speaker 1: what is that referring to? Is that like referring to

523
00:29:42,920 --> 00:29:45,680
Speaker 1: like a like a shipwreck, because rack sometimes is an

524
00:29:45,680 --> 00:29:49,080
Speaker 1: alternate spelling of rack or wreckage. But also I looked

525
00:29:49,080 --> 00:29:51,000
Speaker 1: it up and apparently. It is also just a word

526
00:29:51,040 --> 00:29:55,000
Speaker 1: sometimes used to refer to a massive seaweed like green vegetation.

527
00:29:55,360 --> 00:29:58,800
Speaker 1: Could be oh, there is a rack with the W. Yeah, okay,

528
00:29:58,840 --> 00:30:02,440
Speaker 1: well sometimes it U. I wasn't familiar with the precise definition,

529
00:30:02,480 --> 00:30:06,000
Speaker 1: but I totally understood it in the context of the sentence.

530
00:30:06,040 --> 00:30:09,080
Speaker 1: It's like, look at this rack, there's no getting through it.

531
00:30:09,560 --> 00:30:12,880
Speaker 1: So so certainly you can imagine that the rack would

532
00:30:12,880 --> 00:30:15,880
Speaker 1: not be a great place to find yourself as a

533
00:30:15,960 --> 00:30:20,760
Speaker 1: human sailor, certainly in in ancient times. But of course

534
00:30:21,280 --> 00:30:24,920
Speaker 1: the Iraq is home to a great many organisms, as

535
00:30:24,920 --> 00:30:29,720
Speaker 1: we've already alluded to here. So uh for one thing,

536
00:30:29,760 --> 00:30:35,600
Speaker 1: you have you have various um micro and macro um epiphytes.

537
00:30:35,840 --> 00:30:37,640
Speaker 1: These are organisms that grow on the surface of a

538
00:30:37,720 --> 00:30:41,520
Speaker 1: plant and derived derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain,

539
00:30:41,600 --> 00:30:44,120
Speaker 1: and water. Uh. So you have that's those sorts of

540
00:30:44,240 --> 00:30:46,800
Speaker 1: organisms growing there. You have fung gi. You have more

541
00:30:46,840 --> 00:30:49,960
Speaker 1: than a hundred species of invertebrates that are known to

542
00:30:50,240 --> 00:30:53,440
Speaker 1: uh to to live within the sargassum, over a hundred

543
00:30:53,440 --> 00:30:56,840
Speaker 1: species of fish, four species of turtle. Again, and it

544
00:30:56,920 --> 00:30:58,960
Speaker 1: kind of spirals out because once you have a certain

545
00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:03,880
Speaker 1: amount of of life, uh, fostered within the sargassum, it's

546
00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:05,960
Speaker 1: going to attract other things as well, so you'll see

547
00:31:05,960 --> 00:31:08,800
Speaker 1: things like sharks showing up, etcetera. So we are not

548
00:31:08,840 --> 00:31:13,320
Speaker 1: going to attempt to cover everything that lives in the sargassum,

549
00:31:13,440 --> 00:31:16,560
Speaker 1: but we are going to talk about some of the standouts,

550
00:31:16,560 --> 00:31:19,360
Speaker 1: because there are some really fun, really interesting, really weird

551
00:31:19,880 --> 00:31:23,720
Speaker 1: organisms that call the rack home in the first of

552
00:31:23,720 --> 00:31:27,000
Speaker 1: which I want to talk about is the sargassum fish,

553
00:31:27,080 --> 00:31:30,800
Speaker 1: also known as the sargassum frog fish. Now, is this

554
00:31:30,960 --> 00:31:33,320
Speaker 1: the one that you lured me into this episode with?

555
00:31:33,400 --> 00:31:36,160
Speaker 1: Because the first thing that I became aware of when

556
00:31:36,200 --> 00:31:39,240
Speaker 1: you were getting interested in sargassum was was that you

557
00:31:39,320 --> 00:31:40,840
Speaker 1: came to me and you said, Joe, there is a

558
00:31:40,840 --> 00:31:44,520
Speaker 1: fish with hands. Yes, yes, this would be uh, this

559
00:31:44,520 --> 00:31:48,000
Speaker 1: would be the sargassum frog fish. Um and uh and

560
00:31:48,120 --> 00:31:51,160
Speaker 1: and I'll and I'll explain what I mean by by hands.

561
00:31:51,160 --> 00:31:53,360
Speaker 1: And they're not quite hands, but they are enough like

562
00:31:53,520 --> 00:31:57,520
Speaker 1: hands that you're committed to get excited um and uh

563
00:31:57,560 --> 00:32:00,880
Speaker 1: and yeah, it's probably the most famous sargas some denizen.

564
00:32:01,160 --> 00:32:05,720
Speaker 1: It's the species history of history o frog fish of

565
00:32:05,800 --> 00:32:09,880
Speaker 1: the family Uh. At Tinninara day and it's the only

566
00:32:09,920 --> 00:32:14,040
Speaker 1: species of its genus. So, uh, we'll describe them here,

567
00:32:14,200 --> 00:32:16,360
Speaker 1: but also feel free to look up images or video.

568
00:32:16,480 --> 00:32:19,080
Speaker 1: I mean, there's nothing quite like seeing video of these uh,

569
00:32:19,160 --> 00:32:22,920
Speaker 1: these creatures. I think there's some wonderful national geographic footage.

570
00:32:23,320 --> 00:32:27,760
Speaker 1: But also the Weird House Cinema selection for tomorrow also

571
00:32:27,840 --> 00:32:30,280
Speaker 1: will feature some actual footage of this creature right at

572
00:32:30,280 --> 00:32:34,840
Speaker 1: the top. Um So, the uh, the sargassum fish grows

573
00:32:34,840 --> 00:32:37,880
Speaker 1: to around twenty centimeters in lengths, so about seven point

574
00:32:37,960 --> 00:32:41,560
Speaker 1: eight inches. And I should I guess I should say,

575
00:32:41,560 --> 00:32:45,600
Speaker 1: first of all, they generally have this appearance that you'll

576
00:32:45,640 --> 00:32:49,520
Speaker 1: find with other frog fish um and uh and and

577
00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:53,840
Speaker 1: they're related to uh to the angler fish of the deep. Uh.

578
00:32:53,920 --> 00:32:58,880
Speaker 1: So they have these upturned mouths, which kind of give

579
00:32:58,920 --> 00:33:01,280
Speaker 1: them kind of this uh, the frowny face, look, this

580
00:33:01,520 --> 00:33:05,240
Speaker 1: kind of froggy appearance and uh and and so that

581
00:33:05,320 --> 00:33:07,400
Speaker 1: that's the first thing to drive home about them. So

582
00:33:07,440 --> 00:33:09,400
Speaker 1: they have that that kind of body that I think

583
00:33:09,400 --> 00:33:12,959
Speaker 1: at number of you can can imagine, but they sometimes

584
00:33:13,040 --> 00:33:15,880
Speaker 1: sort of think of it as the drawbridge jaw. Yes, yes,

585
00:33:15,920 --> 00:33:18,000
Speaker 1: that's a good way of describing a drawbridge jaw, and

586
00:33:18,040 --> 00:33:20,240
Speaker 1: of course, like like pretty much all fish, you know,

587
00:33:20,280 --> 00:33:23,800
Speaker 1: they're they're going to consume by by lunging and inhaling,

588
00:33:24,280 --> 00:33:27,280
Speaker 1: you know, pulling their their prey rapidly into their mouth.

589
00:33:27,840 --> 00:33:32,240
Speaker 1: Um their masters. These particular fish, though, uh, the sargassom

590
00:33:32,280 --> 00:33:36,560
Speaker 1: fish are masters of camouflage, at least within the sargassum environment,

591
00:33:36,800 --> 00:33:41,720
Speaker 1: because they've adapted to physically look like the sargassum, complete

592
00:33:41,720 --> 00:33:45,600
Speaker 1: with fleshy appendages that look like weed. I've seen some

593
00:33:45,680 --> 00:33:47,840
Speaker 1: of the some of the appendages have even been compared

594
00:33:48,040 --> 00:33:51,440
Speaker 1: to organisms that live within the weed um. So they

595
00:33:51,480 --> 00:33:54,320
Speaker 1: just they just they look like they're just a part

596
00:33:54,400 --> 00:33:57,880
Speaker 1: of the environment. You'll see images or even footage sometimes

597
00:33:58,240 --> 00:34:01,800
Speaker 1: of the sargassum fish hiding in the seaweed and you

598
00:34:01,960 --> 00:34:04,760
Speaker 1: really cannot pick them out with a human eye. I

599
00:34:04,760 --> 00:34:07,520
Speaker 1: think at some point I watched a documentary or part

600
00:34:07,520 --> 00:34:09,560
Speaker 1: of a documentary that had some of these in it,

601
00:34:09,600 --> 00:34:11,600
Speaker 1: and it was one of those like you know, trick

602
00:34:11,640 --> 00:34:13,520
Speaker 1: shots where they show you the shot and then it's

603
00:34:13,560 --> 00:34:16,200
Speaker 1: like there are three sargassum fish in the shot, you

604
00:34:16,239 --> 00:34:18,120
Speaker 1: can't see them at all, and then has to like

605
00:34:18,160 --> 00:34:20,840
Speaker 1: circle them or zoom in on them or something. I

606
00:34:20,840 --> 00:34:23,920
Speaker 1: think I've seen the same one. Yeah. Um. But of

607
00:34:23,960 --> 00:34:27,040
Speaker 1: course it's not just their physical structure and initial coloration.

608
00:34:27,120 --> 00:34:29,760
Speaker 1: The other cool thing about them is they can further

609
00:34:29,880 --> 00:34:33,359
Speaker 1: adjust their coloration from dark browns and greens to light

610
00:34:33,400 --> 00:34:36,800
Speaker 1: browns and greens to complete the illusion, to to fine

611
00:34:36,920 --> 00:34:41,839
Speaker 1: tune it so that they blend in you know, seemingly completely. Um.

612
00:34:41,880 --> 00:34:44,279
Speaker 1: And they can do this quite rapidly as well. This

613
00:34:44,400 --> 00:34:47,040
Speaker 1: is important for the sargassum fish because again it is

614
00:34:47,040 --> 00:34:51,000
Speaker 1: a voracious hunter, but also it's the jungle baby, so

615
00:34:51,400 --> 00:34:53,839
Speaker 1: you know they're they're also they also have to be

616
00:34:53,880 --> 00:34:57,279
Speaker 1: on guard against other predators, so it also helps protect them.

617
00:34:57,560 --> 00:35:00,759
Speaker 1: Now they let's get to the hands, so if you will,

618
00:35:01,160 --> 00:35:05,200
Speaker 1: uh so their pants, their pelvic fins uh, you know

619
00:35:05,239 --> 00:35:08,280
Speaker 1: the fins up front. They have nine to eleven rays

620
00:35:08,880 --> 00:35:13,760
Speaker 1: uh in them and they're stalked, essentially forming what act

621
00:35:13,840 --> 00:35:16,680
Speaker 1: like clause. Basically, they can use these things again they

622
00:35:16,920 --> 00:35:20,040
Speaker 1: look like clause, they look like fish clause, and they

623
00:35:20,080 --> 00:35:22,920
Speaker 1: can use these to grip objects, and they use these

624
00:35:23,120 --> 00:35:26,920
Speaker 1: to clamber over and through the seaweed. Okay, so they

625
00:35:26,960 --> 00:35:29,440
Speaker 1: can use them to grip objects, not in the sense

626
00:35:29,480 --> 00:35:33,280
Speaker 1: of like like our fingers where you would manipulate objects freely.

627
00:35:33,320 --> 00:35:35,879
Speaker 1: But they can grip things in the sense of like

628
00:35:36,320 --> 00:35:40,120
Speaker 1: sort of pushing against surfaces. Right. Yeah, they're not gonna

629
00:35:40,120 --> 00:35:41,920
Speaker 1: be able to use an iPhone, they can't play the

630
00:35:41,960 --> 00:35:46,239
Speaker 1: piano worth of dying, but but they can use these appendages.

631
00:35:46,320 --> 00:35:48,280
Speaker 1: You have to sort of grip and push through things,

632
00:35:48,280 --> 00:35:51,000
Speaker 1: which is gonna be vitally important when you're hanging out

633
00:35:51,200 --> 00:35:55,520
Speaker 1: in the sargassum like little gravoid spines. Yeah, so they're

634
00:35:55,520 --> 00:35:58,279
Speaker 1: really cool. Definitely look up. I mean they're beyond cool.

635
00:35:58,280 --> 00:36:04,080
Speaker 1: They're a little creepy looking. I highly recommended checking them out. Um. So, so,

636
00:36:04,120 --> 00:36:08,080
Speaker 1: obviously the adults live in the mats and their eggs

637
00:36:08,080 --> 00:36:10,680
Speaker 1: are placed there as well, but the larvae develop in

638
00:36:10,960 --> 00:36:15,480
Speaker 1: the water columns between fifty and six deep um. And

639
00:36:16,560 --> 00:36:18,920
Speaker 1: you might think, well that, I guess the sargassum environment

640
00:36:18,960 --> 00:36:21,879
Speaker 1: then is just no place for for kids, right um.

641
00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:24,840
Speaker 1: And this is certainly the case, especially since the sargassum

642
00:36:24,880 --> 00:36:27,319
Speaker 1: fish is more than happy to eat them as well.

643
00:36:27,719 --> 00:36:30,239
Speaker 1: So they're in They're not only incredibly voracious, but their

644
00:36:30,320 --> 00:36:34,160
Speaker 1: notorious cannibals. I was reading about some of the studies

645
00:36:34,200 --> 00:36:37,919
Speaker 1: where they've they've caught sargassum fish and they've they've looked

646
00:36:37,920 --> 00:36:40,959
Speaker 1: inside at their bellies and they'll find like multiple juveniles.

647
00:36:41,280 --> 00:36:43,319
Speaker 1: You know, they'll find some juveniles and they just they'll

648
00:36:43,400 --> 00:36:47,279
Speaker 1: just just gobble them up delicious. Yeah. So again, just

649
00:36:47,320 --> 00:36:50,560
Speaker 1: a fabulous fish. Just it's everything about it is uh

650
00:36:51,120 --> 00:36:56,799
Speaker 1: is both beautiful and frightening, uh in just the right proportions. Now,

651
00:36:57,000 --> 00:37:00,680
Speaker 1: they're not the only creature that that that lives are again,

652
00:37:00,800 --> 00:37:02,680
Speaker 1: and they're not the only creature that that takes a

653
00:37:02,800 --> 00:37:05,640
Speaker 1: sargassum as part of its uh you know, official or

654
00:37:05,719 --> 00:37:08,719
Speaker 1: unofficial name. For instance, there's the sargassum pipe fish. This

655
00:37:08,800 --> 00:37:10,640
Speaker 1: is a species of pipe fish that makes its home

656
00:37:10,680 --> 00:37:13,759
Speaker 1: in the sargassum mats uh. And like all pipe fish

657
00:37:13,760 --> 00:37:17,279
Speaker 1: and seahorses, the male carries the egg. Um. They're just

658
00:37:17,360 --> 00:37:20,200
Speaker 1: into these elongated um, you know, beautiful fish with that

659
00:37:20,280 --> 00:37:25,200
Speaker 1: kind of signature, uh seahorsey head now. Um. Just briefly

660
00:37:25,480 --> 00:37:28,080
Speaker 1: a couple of other organisms. Well, first, in general should

661
00:37:28,080 --> 00:37:30,800
Speaker 1: say that that the Sargasso Sea in particular is a

662
00:37:30,840 --> 00:37:36,080
Speaker 1: spawning site for various eels, uh, including threatened and endangered eels.

663
00:37:36,880 --> 00:37:41,120
Speaker 1: But speaking of decapods, there is also worth our consideration.

664
00:37:41,360 --> 00:37:46,680
Speaker 1: The sargassum swimming crab or U Portunists say, I, uh,

665
00:37:46,719 --> 00:37:49,759
Speaker 1: this is uh just one variety of crab you'll find

666
00:37:49,800 --> 00:37:52,520
Speaker 1: in sargassum mats, but it's an impressive one and a

667
00:37:52,560 --> 00:37:55,799
Speaker 1: species adapted to blend into the environment. They have an

668
00:37:55,800 --> 00:38:00,000
Speaker 1: orange brown colorization that apparently matches up with the sargassum

669
00:38:00,040 --> 00:38:03,480
Speaker 1: pretty well. And as the name implies, they're more adapted

670
00:38:03,560 --> 00:38:06,880
Speaker 1: for swimming than walking. U. The fourth pair of legs

671
00:38:06,920 --> 00:38:11,680
Speaker 1: are modified into paddle like structures. Now, crabs, of of course,

672
00:38:11,680 --> 00:38:15,440
Speaker 1: are noted for walking sideways, so you might wonder how

673
00:38:15,480 --> 00:38:18,839
Speaker 1: does it swim. Well, they tend to swim sideways as well. Uh,

674
00:38:18,880 --> 00:38:21,160
Speaker 1: and apparently they're quite fast. They depend on a mix

675
00:38:21,400 --> 00:38:25,080
Speaker 1: of active and passive hunting, so they'll they'll actively chase

676
00:38:25,160 --> 00:38:28,399
Speaker 1: after something again sideways uh to catch it, but they'll

677
00:38:28,440 --> 00:38:32,640
Speaker 1: also fall back on that that sort of ambush hunting

678
00:38:32,920 --> 00:38:37,680
Speaker 1: within the jungle of the sargassum. Yeah. Now, in addition

679
00:38:37,800 --> 00:38:41,719
Speaker 1: to these organisms that spend all or most of their

680
00:38:41,760 --> 00:38:45,760
Speaker 1: lives in the sargassum, there are also organisms that use

681
00:38:46,200 --> 00:38:50,080
Speaker 1: sargassum as a sort of like a stepping stone during

682
00:38:50,120 --> 00:38:54,040
Speaker 1: their migration patterns. One example that's often referenced would be

683
00:38:54,560 --> 00:38:57,560
Speaker 1: young sea turtles. Yeah, and I've also heard that it's

684
00:38:57,680 --> 00:39:01,279
Speaker 1: important to even like migratory birds for species. Again, it's

685
00:39:01,360 --> 00:39:04,600
Speaker 1: it's it's an oasis in the wastes, an oasis in

686
00:39:04,640 --> 00:39:12,880
Speaker 1: the desert of the sea. Thank thank so. Now, earlier

687
00:39:12,920 --> 00:39:16,480
Speaker 1: we we alluded to the sargassum being not not only

688
00:39:16,600 --> 00:39:21,000
Speaker 1: this this bountiful environment, but also potentially a problem, a

689
00:39:21,080 --> 00:39:24,759
Speaker 1: problem for humans and the sort of human likes and

690
00:39:24,840 --> 00:39:29,759
Speaker 1: dislikes concerning beaches, but also just for the environment as

691
00:39:29,800 --> 00:39:34,080
Speaker 1: a whole. As the Ocean Foundation points out, it's ecologically

692
00:39:34,160 --> 00:39:37,120
Speaker 1: important the sargassum, but it doesn't mean it doesn't have

693
00:39:37,320 --> 00:39:41,960
Speaker 1: some downsides, especially when you're dealing with large volumes. Right,

694
00:39:42,040 --> 00:39:45,840
Speaker 1: And this is something that's become especially a problem within

695
00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:49,160
Speaker 1: just the last decade or so. Actually, it can really

696
00:39:49,200 --> 00:39:51,719
Speaker 1: be dated to a year in particular from what from

697
00:39:51,760 --> 00:39:54,840
Speaker 1: everything we've been reading for the year two thousand eleven.

698
00:39:54,920 --> 00:39:59,920
Speaker 1: Starting around two thousand eleven, something started happening with sargass

699
00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:03,960
Speaker 1: them in the Atlantic Ocean where there was a sudden

700
00:40:04,239 --> 00:40:07,080
Speaker 1: increase that has gone on in many years since then,

701
00:40:07,600 --> 00:40:13,080
Speaker 1: of of sargassum inundations where beaches and shore lines along

702
00:40:13,239 --> 00:40:16,320
Speaker 1: areas in the Caribbean, along the coast of Florida, along

703
00:40:16,360 --> 00:40:18,879
Speaker 1: places in the coast of the northern coast of South

704
00:40:18,880 --> 00:40:23,080
Speaker 1: America would just be caked with sargassum, like they're just

705
00:40:23,400 --> 00:40:27,160
Speaker 1: mounds and mounds of seaweed piling up to the point

706
00:40:27,239 --> 00:40:31,600
Speaker 1: that it in some cases would make these shores unusable

707
00:40:31,640 --> 00:40:34,319
Speaker 1: for what humans have been using them for, usually in

708
00:40:34,320 --> 00:40:37,440
Speaker 1: in the years beforehand. Yeah, if if any of you

709
00:40:37,520 --> 00:40:41,560
Speaker 1: out there are are snorkelers, or are you know, related

710
00:40:41,600 --> 00:40:45,400
Speaker 1: to our friends with snorkeling enthusiasts, then you've you've probably

711
00:40:45,480 --> 00:40:49,799
Speaker 1: heard about the blight of sargassum, about the disappointment of off, say,

712
00:40:49,920 --> 00:40:53,719
Speaker 1: you know, reaching a popular snorkeling area and finding that

713
00:40:53,760 --> 00:40:57,360
Speaker 1: there's just sargassum everywhere, um, you know. So it's in

714
00:40:57,600 --> 00:40:59,960
Speaker 1: particular one of the things that the Ocean Foundation points out,

715
00:41:00,560 --> 00:41:04,600
Speaker 1: huge rafts of it can actually smother other sea grasses

716
00:41:05,000 --> 00:41:08,279
Speaker 1: and even coral reefs. Um. You know. Granted, coral reefs

717
00:41:08,320 --> 00:41:11,840
Speaker 1: are facing uh a number of problems, um, you know,

718
00:41:11,920 --> 00:41:14,600
Speaker 1: and are and uh and we've gone into that in

719
00:41:14,640 --> 00:41:18,800
Speaker 1: past episodes. But but certainly this could disrupt your ability

720
00:41:18,840 --> 00:41:22,040
Speaker 1: to even properly view them as a as a tourist

721
00:41:22,080 --> 00:41:24,960
Speaker 1: in the ocean, as a as a snorkeler, um, you know,

722
00:41:25,000 --> 00:41:28,560
Speaker 1: out there trying to to observe this natural habitat. Uh

723
00:41:28,600 --> 00:41:31,600
Speaker 1: it can also this is interesting this this has brought

724
00:41:31,680 --> 00:41:35,080
Speaker 1: up as well. Apparently sargassum can serve as a means

725
00:41:35,320 --> 00:41:39,920
Speaker 1: of transport for invasive species. Though UM, I honestly wonder

726
00:41:40,040 --> 00:41:44,480
Speaker 1: if this at all compares to human enabled invasive species transport.

727
00:41:44,840 --> 00:41:47,600
Speaker 1: It seems like, um it almost wouldn't matter compared to

728
00:41:47,640 --> 00:41:51,520
Speaker 1: what humans can and have done. Uh you know, importing

729
00:41:51,520 --> 00:41:55,920
Speaker 1: species like the lion fish into regions that um, that

730
00:41:55,920 --> 00:41:59,920
Speaker 1: that are not balanced enough to to contain them. Well, yes,

731
00:42:00,080 --> 00:42:02,520
Speaker 1: but I would also say that there I think there

732
00:42:02,600 --> 00:42:06,840
Speaker 1: is at least a strong likelihood that human behavior is

733
00:42:06,880 --> 00:42:10,640
Speaker 1: a major contributor to these these new build ups of

734
00:42:10,680 --> 00:42:13,560
Speaker 1: sargassum in the last Yeah, and we'll and we'll get

735
00:42:13,560 --> 00:42:16,240
Speaker 1: into into more of that in just a second. Um,

736
00:42:16,440 --> 00:42:19,040
Speaker 1: just a few more points here that the Ocean Foundation

737
00:42:19,080 --> 00:42:22,200
Speaker 1: made Uh. Sargassum of course can prevent boats and fishermen

738
00:42:22,239 --> 00:42:24,919
Speaker 1: from setting out to sea. It can also prevent sea

739
00:42:24,960 --> 00:42:29,000
Speaker 1: turtles from making it to nest in these cases as well.

740
00:42:29,320 --> 00:42:32,120
Speaker 1: So you know, again you have it massing up on

741
00:42:32,160 --> 00:42:35,279
Speaker 1: the beach. In particular, if it's um, you know, a

742
00:42:35,320 --> 00:42:38,400
Speaker 1: certain amount of that is arguably good for the beach,

743
00:42:38,440 --> 00:42:40,080
Speaker 1: but if you have too much of it, yeah, it's

744
00:42:40,080 --> 00:42:44,040
Speaker 1: gonna actually interfere potentially in a sea turtle's ability to

745
00:42:44,080 --> 00:42:46,640
Speaker 1: come on shore lady eggs and then have the hatchlings

746
00:42:46,800 --> 00:42:50,040
Speaker 1: be able to properly get back out to sea again

747
00:42:50,080 --> 00:42:52,799
Speaker 1: in in an appropriate amount of time. And if it

748
00:42:52,880 --> 00:42:55,759
Speaker 1: masses on the beach, the sargassum it, if it's not

749
00:42:55,800 --> 00:42:59,480
Speaker 1: removed in time, it can produce hydrogen sulfide, which can

750
00:42:59,520 --> 00:43:02,360
Speaker 1: have a made your can have major detrimental effects on

751
00:43:02,520 --> 00:43:05,719
Speaker 1: coastal ecosystems. Yeah, I mean, it can have all kinds

752
00:43:05,719 --> 00:43:08,279
Speaker 1: of negative effects on the wildlife itself. I mean, one

753
00:43:08,280 --> 00:43:10,200
Speaker 1: would be like if it doesn't reach the beach, if

754
00:43:10,200 --> 00:43:12,440
Speaker 1: you're just talking about it still being in the water.

755
00:43:13,320 --> 00:43:18,440
Speaker 1: Big blooms of algal organisms in the water can have

756
00:43:18,600 --> 00:43:22,800
Speaker 1: downstream effects when the blooms eventually die and then there's

757
00:43:22,880 --> 00:43:26,880
Speaker 1: all of this dead, decomposing material in the water, and

758
00:43:26,920 --> 00:43:30,600
Speaker 1: then the decomposition of that material ends up robbing the

759
00:43:30,640 --> 00:43:34,759
Speaker 1: water of dissolved oxygen, which in turn leads to these

760
00:43:34,800 --> 00:43:37,360
Speaker 1: big fish die offs and die offs of other organisms

761
00:43:37,360 --> 00:43:39,640
Speaker 1: because there's not enough oxygen in the water for them

762
00:43:39,640 --> 00:43:42,480
Speaker 1: to breathe. Yeah, and also all that decomposition in the

763
00:43:42,480 --> 00:43:46,000
Speaker 1: water can promote harmful blooms of bacteria and other microbes.

764
00:43:46,360 --> 00:43:48,200
Speaker 1: I guess the way to to to think of it

765
00:43:48,239 --> 00:43:55,160
Speaker 1: is it's basically like spiraling imbalance in the ecosystem. And

766
00:43:55,280 --> 00:43:59,560
Speaker 1: uh and and uh it's it's place in this. This

767
00:43:59,560 --> 00:44:03,120
Speaker 1: this the cascade of imbalance. Now to get kind of

768
00:44:03,120 --> 00:44:06,719
Speaker 1: a I guess sort of a bird's eye or I

769
00:44:06,719 --> 00:44:11,360
Speaker 1: guess satellite view of things. Um. I found this pretty helpful.

770
00:44:11,360 --> 00:44:13,719
Speaker 1: I was looking at a July twenty nineteen article from

771
00:44:13,800 --> 00:44:18,080
Speaker 1: NASA Goddard. They utilize the satellite images to observe the

772
00:44:18,520 --> 00:44:23,400
Speaker 1: Great Atlantic Sargassum belt. Uh so at this point, based

773
00:44:23,440 --> 00:44:26,560
Speaker 1: on simulations, they confirmed that its shape was due to

774
00:44:26,640 --> 00:44:30,120
Speaker 1: ocean currents and that it can grow large enough so

775
00:44:30,160 --> 00:44:33,919
Speaker 1: as to blanket the surface of the Tropical Atlantic from

776
00:44:33,920 --> 00:44:36,400
Speaker 1: the west coast of Africa to the Gulf of Mexico.

777
00:44:37,440 --> 00:44:41,680
Speaker 1: Major blooms have occurred in every year between twenty eleven

778
00:44:42,080 --> 00:44:45,799
Speaker 1: and again this was a July articles, so that's as

779
00:44:45,840 --> 00:44:47,880
Speaker 1: far up as it went at the time. UH, with

780
00:44:48,000 --> 00:44:53,040
Speaker 1: the exception of which this was apparently UH this year

781
00:44:53,080 --> 00:44:56,800
Speaker 1: was impacted by unusually low seed populations during the winter,

782
00:44:56,920 --> 00:45:02,480
Speaker 1: but otherwise eleven onward, it's been sargassum season. Prior to

783
00:45:03,280 --> 00:45:05,840
Speaker 1: most of the free floating sargassum in the ocean was

784
00:45:05,880 --> 00:45:09,359
Speaker 1: primarily found in patches around the Gulf of Mexico and

785
00:45:09,440 --> 00:45:13,719
Speaker 1: the Sargasso Sea. But then something changed, something seemingly in

786
00:45:13,760 --> 00:45:18,280
Speaker 1: the biochemistry the ocean. Obviously, you know, people were asking

787
00:45:18,280 --> 00:45:20,920
Speaker 1: a lot of questions about climate change UH and and

788
00:45:20,960 --> 00:45:25,279
Speaker 1: ultimately I guess the reality is is complicated, but basically yes,

789
00:45:25,320 --> 00:45:29,200
Speaker 1: it's pointed out by a doctor Paula Bontempi of NASA's

790
00:45:29,200 --> 00:45:34,880
Speaker 1: Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry Program, the ocean's biochemistry is changing

791
00:45:34,960 --> 00:45:38,239
Speaker 1: due to a mix of natural and human forces, and

792
00:45:38,280 --> 00:45:40,920
Speaker 1: it seems to be leading to an ecosystem shift with

793
00:45:41,000 --> 00:45:44,319
Speaker 1: important implications for marine life and human life. Since we

794
00:45:44,360 --> 00:45:46,799
Speaker 1: depend on many of the species in question and live

795
00:45:46,840 --> 00:45:50,359
Speaker 1: in in in many of the environments that are impacted. UH.

796
00:45:50,440 --> 00:45:53,879
Speaker 1: Climate change is certainly a key aspect of this as

797
00:45:54,040 --> 00:45:59,680
Speaker 1: it impacts precipitation and ocean circulation, but increased water temperatures

798
00:46:00,000 --> 00:46:03,320
Speaker 1: typically don't seem to be the cause. It's these other causes.

799
00:46:03,360 --> 00:46:07,160
Speaker 1: But again, uh, climate change is very much part of

800
00:46:07,200 --> 00:46:09,000
Speaker 1: the issue. I don't want to make it sound like

801
00:46:09,000 --> 00:46:10,880
Speaker 1: it's not. Yeah, if you were. If you want to

802
00:46:10,880 --> 00:46:13,480
Speaker 1: read more in depth about this research, there's a really

803
00:46:13,480 --> 00:46:16,440
Speaker 1: good article in The Atlantic by Ed Young from July

804
00:46:16,960 --> 00:46:22,200
Speaker 1: nineteen called hy waves of seaweed have been smothering Caribbean beaches. Again,

805
00:46:22,239 --> 00:46:25,719
Speaker 1: this from July nineteen by Ed Young. Uh, that's worth

806
00:46:25,760 --> 00:46:27,320
Speaker 1: looking up, and it gets into a lot of the

807
00:46:27,600 --> 00:46:30,360
Speaker 1: difficulty and uncertainty in trying to figure out exactly what

808
00:46:30,520 --> 00:46:33,959
Speaker 1: the underlying factors leading to this change that we first

809
00:46:33,960 --> 00:46:37,960
Speaker 1: saw in the year two thousand eleven was establishing this

810
00:46:38,120 --> 00:46:41,640
Speaker 1: this huge belt of sargassum that was not there previously.

811
00:46:41,680 --> 00:46:44,320
Speaker 1: And what we want to be very clear, this Atlantic

812
00:46:44,400 --> 00:46:48,600
Speaker 1: sargassum belt is different from the sargassum in the Sargasso Sea.

813
00:46:48,640 --> 00:46:51,360
Speaker 1: The Sargasso Sea is further north in the North Atlantic

814
00:46:51,440 --> 00:46:54,640
Speaker 1: off the east coast of of like the United States,

815
00:46:55,080 --> 00:46:58,360
Speaker 1: whereas this would be something that stretches more between Brazil

816
00:46:58,480 --> 00:47:02,160
Speaker 1: and Africa. In fact, one of the things that Ed

817
00:47:02,239 --> 00:47:05,360
Speaker 1: Young writes about in this article was the very idea

818
00:47:05,400 --> 00:47:07,600
Speaker 1: of the satellite photos that you were talking about that

819
00:47:08,200 --> 00:47:11,719
Speaker 1: one of the fortunate things for studying sargassum blooms on

820
00:47:11,760 --> 00:47:15,879
Speaker 1: the large scale is that sargassum reflects more infrared light

821
00:47:16,000 --> 00:47:19,000
Speaker 1: than the seawater around it, So when you look down

822
00:47:19,000 --> 00:47:22,840
Speaker 1: with satellites, sargassum patches can appear as hot spots in

823
00:47:22,920 --> 00:47:27,400
Speaker 1: the ocean that can be seen from space. Young sites, Uh,

824
00:47:27,440 --> 00:47:31,080
Speaker 1: the researcher named Jim Gower of the Fisheries and Oceans

825
00:47:31,120 --> 00:47:35,879
Speaker 1: Canada for for doing this satellite research. But yeah, the

826
00:47:35,880 --> 00:47:38,960
Speaker 1: the satellite photos found that the bloom really began in

827
00:47:39,160 --> 00:47:42,200
Speaker 1: April of two thousand eleven, which correlates with you know

828
00:47:42,280 --> 00:47:44,799
Speaker 1: these times when these pile ups on the beaches, the

829
00:47:44,800 --> 00:47:49,720
Speaker 1: sargassum inundations really started becoming a problem that people noticed.

830
00:47:50,400 --> 00:47:53,719
Speaker 1: But they started noticing the blooms off the coast of

831
00:47:53,800 --> 00:47:57,560
Speaker 1: Brazil in the satellite images from two thousand eleven. And

832
00:47:57,600 --> 00:48:01,680
Speaker 1: then Young also points to research by someone named Ming

833
00:48:01,760 --> 00:48:05,720
Speaker 1: Chi Wang from the University of South Florida who, along

834
00:48:05,760 --> 00:48:08,400
Speaker 1: with her colleagues, they've basically established that, yeah, this bloom

835
00:48:08,480 --> 00:48:11,120
Speaker 1: is just going to be an ongoing yearly thing now,

836
00:48:11,800 --> 00:48:14,480
Speaker 1: uh that that it's coming and it's probably not going

837
00:48:14,520 --> 00:48:17,280
Speaker 1: to stop. Though. One of the interesting things this article

838
00:48:17,320 --> 00:48:21,520
Speaker 1: gets into is a delay between the proximate causes that

839
00:48:21,560 --> 00:48:24,080
Speaker 1: are likely leading to the blooms and then when the

840
00:48:24,120 --> 00:48:26,959
Speaker 1: blooms show up within you know, what we can see

841
00:48:27,000 --> 00:48:29,360
Speaker 1: with our satellites or what's piling up on our beaches.

842
00:48:30,040 --> 00:48:33,080
Speaker 1: Because a couple of the factors that have been identified

843
00:48:33,080 --> 00:48:38,239
Speaker 1: as likely candidates leading to these blooms. One is um

844
00:48:38,440 --> 00:48:41,960
Speaker 1: is water being discharged from the Amazon River. You know,

845
00:48:41,960 --> 00:48:47,040
Speaker 1: it's coming out of South America. UM. And this water

846
00:48:47,120 --> 00:48:51,839
Speaker 1: coming out of the Amazon River is probably being especially

847
00:48:52,040 --> 00:48:56,960
Speaker 1: saturated with nutrients from agriculture that's happening all along the

848
00:48:57,000 --> 00:48:59,880
Speaker 1: Amazon basin, and so this is like it's like for

849
00:49:00,000 --> 00:49:03,080
Speaker 1: fertilizer that is flooding into the ocean, and then of

850
00:49:03,120 --> 00:49:06,480
Speaker 1: course that is feeding blooms of of this macro algae.

851
00:49:07,000 --> 00:49:09,040
Speaker 1: And then there are other factors they get into that

852
00:49:09,040 --> 00:49:12,640
Speaker 1: are probably contributing, such as like what the different temperatures

853
00:49:12,640 --> 00:49:14,600
Speaker 1: are this year. It's the same thing you were talking

854
00:49:14,640 --> 00:49:17,839
Speaker 1: about that um that climate change doesn't seem to be

855
00:49:17,880 --> 00:49:20,640
Speaker 1: the cause of it in the sense of increasing ocean

856
00:49:20,719 --> 00:49:25,439
Speaker 1: temperatures lead to uh, lead to macro alogy blooms, because

857
00:49:25,480 --> 00:49:28,520
Speaker 1: that doesn't appear to be the case, but downstream other

858
00:49:28,600 --> 00:49:31,759
Speaker 1: effects of climate change are very likely contributing to this.

859
00:49:32,120 --> 00:49:35,600
Speaker 1: It's just not the temperature of the water itself. Another

860
00:49:35,680 --> 00:49:38,800
Speaker 1: factor that they're talking about is access to the seed

861
00:49:38,880 --> 00:49:43,640
Speaker 1: populations of of seaweed. It's like, how many patches of

862
00:49:43,760 --> 00:49:47,319
Speaker 1: seaweed are there leftover that survived the winter of the

863
00:49:47,320 --> 00:49:50,480
Speaker 1: previous year and can act as a kind of seed

864
00:49:50,640 --> 00:49:54,560
Speaker 1: for the regrowth of the seaweed every new season. Yeah,

865
00:49:54,600 --> 00:49:56,799
Speaker 1: because I think it kind of brings back that that

866
00:49:56,840 --> 00:50:00,719
Speaker 1: point about the neumaticis having a like a year lifespan,

867
00:50:00,880 --> 00:50:02,799
Speaker 1: so there's gonna be a certain amount of crossover as

868
00:50:02,840 --> 00:50:05,719
Speaker 1: well here from one year to the next. Um. I

869
00:50:05,800 --> 00:50:09,120
Speaker 1: was impressed one of the quotes you pulled from from

870
00:50:09,160 --> 00:50:12,359
Speaker 1: the eight young article just about how many tons of

871
00:50:12,400 --> 00:50:15,440
Speaker 1: seaweed we're talking about here? Yeah, yeah, yeah, So the estimate,

872
00:50:15,480 --> 00:50:17,880
Speaker 1: I think this would be referring to the year previous

873
00:50:17,920 --> 00:50:20,320
Speaker 1: to when this article was written, So it was published

874
00:50:20,320 --> 00:50:22,400
Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen, so I think this would be referring

875
00:50:22,480 --> 00:50:26,640
Speaker 1: to the summer of eighteen during June, when the Sargassin

876
00:50:26,680 --> 00:50:31,000
Speaker 1: Belt was at at its most fruitful, it was estimated

877
00:50:31,040 --> 00:50:35,040
Speaker 1: to contain twenty two million tons of seaweed. And then

878
00:50:35,080 --> 00:50:38,719
Speaker 1: there's even a clarification later in the article that that

879
00:50:38,960 --> 00:50:44,080
Speaker 1: estimate is probably low since the resolution of the satellite

880
00:50:44,120 --> 00:50:47,800
Speaker 1: camera that's taking the infrared imagery to establish that number,

881
00:50:48,280 --> 00:50:51,400
Speaker 1: it has like a minimum sort of pixel distance resolution,

882
00:50:51,480 --> 00:50:53,719
Speaker 1: so it can only see patches that show up at

883
00:50:53,719 --> 00:50:56,440
Speaker 1: a minimum resolution of something like a kilometer. I think

884
00:50:56,440 --> 00:50:59,200
Speaker 1: it was. It could be long about that. Uh, doing

885
00:50:59,200 --> 00:51:01,000
Speaker 1: that just stuff memory, but I think that's what it was.

886
00:51:01,440 --> 00:51:03,960
Speaker 1: And uh. And so like patches that are smaller than that,

887
00:51:04,120 --> 00:51:06,359
Speaker 1: with which there are probably plenty, they're not even really

888
00:51:06,400 --> 00:51:09,600
Speaker 1: showing up on the imaging. So that's a lot of seaweed.

889
00:51:09,760 --> 00:51:11,920
Speaker 1: That's a lot of seaweed, folks, And there's a lot

890
00:51:13,320 --> 00:51:15,520
Speaker 1: and that's ending up on a lot of it's ending

891
00:51:15,600 --> 00:51:18,480
Speaker 1: up on the shores eventually. But one thing that is

892
00:51:18,480 --> 00:51:22,400
Speaker 1: worth stressing again is that while researchers have probably identified

893
00:51:22,440 --> 00:51:26,080
Speaker 1: some very good candidates for the explanations of of these

894
00:51:26,360 --> 00:51:29,480
Speaker 1: blooms and inundations of sargassum in the last decade or so.

895
00:51:29,600 --> 00:51:32,680
Speaker 1: There's still some uncertainty. There's like stuff we don't know

896
00:51:32,719 --> 00:51:35,480
Speaker 1: about what what could be leading to it and what

897
00:51:35,600 --> 00:51:39,400
Speaker 1: could be the limiting and contributing factors. Anyway, that the

898
00:51:39,760 --> 00:51:41,719
Speaker 1: article by ed Young is a really good read. You

899
00:51:41,719 --> 00:51:45,400
Speaker 1: should look it up. Yeah, absolutely, I recommend that one. Now.

900
00:51:46,239 --> 00:51:48,839
Speaker 1: You know, in the past, I think it's been brought

901
00:51:48,920 --> 00:51:52,319
Speaker 1: up when we're dealing with invasive species or species that

902
00:51:52,320 --> 00:51:54,360
Speaker 1: are out of balance, one of the best things that

903
00:51:54,400 --> 00:51:58,239
Speaker 1: you can do is develop an appetite for that species,

904
00:51:58,719 --> 00:52:02,319
Speaker 1: uh in human being. Now, I don't I don't think

905
00:52:02,440 --> 00:52:05,319
Speaker 1: anybody's making an argument that that could um make a

906
00:52:05,360 --> 00:52:09,680
Speaker 1: difference with the sargassum. But it is again worth noting

907
00:52:09,719 --> 00:52:13,560
Speaker 1: that sargassum is something that humans can eat. Uh. We

908
00:52:13,719 --> 00:52:16,640
Speaker 1: we mentioned that already, and I found a wonderful blog

909
00:52:16,800 --> 00:52:20,520
Speaker 1: titled Eat the Weeds with Green Dean. Um. So his

910
00:52:20,600 --> 00:52:23,080
Speaker 1: name is Dean, but he's Green Dean. Get it and

911
00:52:23,320 --> 00:52:27,799
Speaker 1: the blogs. The blog is titled Sargassum Sea Vegetable And

912
00:52:27,880 --> 00:52:30,960
Speaker 1: in this post, Green Dean points to a few different

913
00:52:30,960 --> 00:52:35,440
Speaker 1: culinary traditions that have recipes for sargassum. Uh. Though he

914
00:52:35,520 --> 00:52:40,000
Speaker 1: points out that given the different species. Basically, it's sargassum

915
00:52:40,080 --> 00:52:42,440
Speaker 1: is going to quote very in taste and texture, So

916
00:52:42,480 --> 00:52:46,240
Speaker 1: there is no one way to cook your local species. Uh.

917
00:52:46,320 --> 00:52:48,520
Speaker 1: He says that some amount of experimentation is going to

918
00:52:48,600 --> 00:52:53,440
Speaker 1: be required, but basically he goes through different cuisines in

919
00:52:53,440 --> 00:52:56,959
Speaker 1: this post, points out that sometimes it's consumed fresh. Other

920
00:52:57,000 --> 00:53:00,760
Speaker 1: times it's cooked, saying coconut milk or vinegar or lemon juice.

921
00:53:01,040 --> 00:53:04,759
Speaker 1: Other Times it's smoke dried, or it's boiled. Sometimes it's

922
00:53:04,760 --> 00:53:08,480
Speaker 1: even sweetened and put into steam buns. Sometimes it's cooked

923
00:53:08,480 --> 00:53:11,680
Speaker 1: with fish. Basically, they're just numerous ways to approach it,

924
00:53:12,520 --> 00:53:14,760
Speaker 1: but it's it's worth checking out. The link I recommended

925
00:53:14,719 --> 00:53:17,840
Speaker 1: it said, eat the weeds dot com you'll find a

926
00:53:17,880 --> 00:53:21,600
Speaker 1: post on the sargasm sea vegetable. Um. I'm not sure

927
00:53:21,600 --> 00:53:25,000
Speaker 1: I've ever had sargassum in a dish. Maybe I have

928
00:53:25,120 --> 00:53:27,560
Speaker 1: and I just wasn't alert to it, But now I

929
00:53:27,760 --> 00:53:29,799
Speaker 1: feel like I really, I really want to have it.

930
00:53:30,160 --> 00:53:31,759
Speaker 1: I don't know if I have either. I mean, I've

931
00:53:31,760 --> 00:53:33,839
Speaker 1: had a number of seaweed salads, but I don't know

932
00:53:33,880 --> 00:53:36,640
Speaker 1: what species were in them. Yeah, well, I know some

933
00:53:36,680 --> 00:53:39,160
Speaker 1: basic things. I mean, I know like combo and combo,

934
00:53:39,160 --> 00:53:42,880
Speaker 1: of course, is a seaweed based food additive that is

935
00:53:42,880 --> 00:53:46,200
Speaker 1: an amazing source of umami flavor. It's it's it's almost

936
00:53:46,200 --> 00:53:50,719
Speaker 1: like raw msg. It's that it's good stuff um But

937
00:53:51,160 --> 00:53:52,839
Speaker 1: but yeah, other than that, I don't know. I mean,

938
00:53:52,880 --> 00:53:56,040
Speaker 1: I've had I've had like various seaweed salads at Japanese

939
00:53:56,080 --> 00:53:58,680
Speaker 1: restaurants that have had different types of seaweeds, some that

940
00:53:58,719 --> 00:54:01,800
Speaker 1: looked kind of like orange around, like like some species

941
00:54:01,840 --> 00:54:05,359
Speaker 1: of sargassum do So maybe I have I don't know. Huh, yeah,

942
00:54:05,400 --> 00:54:07,560
Speaker 1: I think I've I've only I know of at least

943
00:54:07,560 --> 00:54:10,879
Speaker 1: one time, had like a sampler of seaweed salads from

944
00:54:10,880 --> 00:54:13,000
Speaker 1: the Japanese restaurant. But in those cases, I think they

945
00:54:13,000 --> 00:54:16,600
Speaker 1: were all still rather green. They didn't have um any

946
00:54:16,680 --> 00:54:20,680
Speaker 1: kind of darker coloration. So I don't know. I'm gonna

947
00:54:20,680 --> 00:54:22,480
Speaker 1: look for it now now it is on it is

948
00:54:22,560 --> 00:54:25,720
Speaker 1: it is something I want to specifically try out, knowing

949
00:54:26,080 --> 00:54:28,400
Speaker 1: that it is sargassum. I just looked it up to

950
00:54:28,400 --> 00:54:31,440
Speaker 1: make sure. I I thought that combo was not sargassum,

951
00:54:31,480 --> 00:54:34,600
Speaker 1: and it is not. Comb is a type of kelp. Well, obviously,

952
00:54:34,600 --> 00:54:36,960
Speaker 1: we'd love to hear from everyone out there about this

953
00:54:37,000 --> 00:54:39,719
Speaker 1: topic in general, but but specifically on this question of

954
00:54:40,239 --> 00:54:44,960
Speaker 1: the cooking and the consumption of sargassum. If you've if

955
00:54:44,960 --> 00:54:47,200
Speaker 1: you you definitely know you've had it, and you've had

956
00:54:47,200 --> 00:54:50,279
Speaker 1: in a particular way that was yummy or or or

957
00:54:50,400 --> 00:54:52,600
Speaker 1: or not yummy, let us know we would love to

958
00:54:52,640 --> 00:54:55,360
Speaker 1: hear from you, and likewise, just in you know, in general,

959
00:54:55,440 --> 00:54:59,120
Speaker 1: any feedback about about the various organisms we've discussed here

960
00:54:59,160 --> 00:55:03,680
Speaker 1: surrounding sar assam or uh sargassom, seaweed itself. Perhaps you're

961
00:55:03,680 --> 00:55:06,160
Speaker 1: a snorkeler and have your you know, two cents you

962
00:55:06,160 --> 00:55:08,920
Speaker 1: want to throw in, uh right in, we'd like to

963
00:55:08,960 --> 00:55:11,480
Speaker 1: hear from you. In the meantime, if you would like

964
00:55:11,520 --> 00:55:13,239
Speaker 1: to hear other episodes of Stuff to Blow your Mind,

965
00:55:13,239 --> 00:55:14,879
Speaker 1: you can find us in the Stuff to Blow your

966
00:55:14,880 --> 00:55:18,120
Speaker 1: Mind podcast feed and you know where to find that

967
00:55:18,200 --> 00:55:22,120
Speaker 1: just wherever you get podcasts UM subscribe if you can

968
00:55:22,680 --> 00:55:25,719
Speaker 1: rate us, if the platform allows you to um, you

969
00:55:25,760 --> 00:55:27,320
Speaker 1: know it gives us. I guess a good rating is

970
00:55:27,360 --> 00:55:30,040
Speaker 1: what we're asking for. You know, that supposedly helps us out,

971
00:55:30,840 --> 00:55:33,080
Speaker 1: But in general, we're just thankful if you're if you're

972
00:55:33,120 --> 00:55:35,960
Speaker 1: listening to the show and uh, you know right in.

973
00:55:36,040 --> 00:55:37,640
Speaker 1: Let us know what you like about the show, what

974
00:55:37,640 --> 00:55:39,840
Speaker 1: what you would like to hear from us in the future,

975
00:55:39,920 --> 00:55:43,759
Speaker 1: what other topics you would like us to consider. Yes, absolutely,

976
00:55:44,080 --> 00:55:46,760
Speaker 1: uh so, I guess we're closing out here, so huge

977
00:55:46,760 --> 00:55:50,680
Speaker 1: thanks as always to our wonderful audio producer Seth Nicholas Johnson.

978
00:55:51,000 --> 00:55:52,640
Speaker 1: If you would like to get in touch with us,

979
00:55:52,680 --> 00:55:55,480
Speaker 1: as as Rob just asked there, to let us know

980
00:55:55,600 --> 00:55:58,360
Speaker 1: feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest a

981
00:55:58,400 --> 00:56:00,600
Speaker 1: topic for a future episode, or just to say hi,

982
00:56:00,719 --> 00:56:03,520
Speaker 1: you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow

983
00:56:03,560 --> 00:56:13,640
Speaker 1: your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is

984
00:56:13,680 --> 00:56:16,400
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts for my

985
00:56:16,440 --> 00:56:19,360
Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

986
00:56:19,440 --> 00:56:33,120
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.