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Speaker 1: By Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow

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Speaker 1: your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb, and I'm Joe

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Speaker 1: McCormick and Robert. You remember back in the day when

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Speaker 1: we did that pair of episodes about urban evolution, about

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Speaker 1: how certain animals and plants were adapting to the ways

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Speaker 1: that humans are changing the landscape on the surface of

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Speaker 1: the Earth, changing it to build cities, to build suburbs

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Speaker 1: and all that. And and along with all this change

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Speaker 1: in the landscape come new ecological niches, new opportunities for nutrition,

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Speaker 1: new ways of surviving, new new incentives and disincentives, and

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Speaker 1: along with that you get this whole new brand of

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Speaker 1: evolution is the kinds of creatures that evolved to live

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Speaker 1: in environments that we've created. Now, of course, it's easy

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Speaker 1: to think about ways that that might happen in in

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Speaker 1: city is on land, but you can also think about

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Speaker 1: the fact that sometimes people refer to like aircraft carriers

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Speaker 1: and large naval vessels as a city at sea, So

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Speaker 1: that starts to maybe make you wonder, is the same

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Speaker 1: thing happening with our large water craft? Are we creating

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Speaker 1: sort of urban marine environments in which in which all

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Speaker 1: new types of evolutionary niches are created. This is a

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Speaker 1: great question, and this is a question we're going to

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Speaker 1: dive into, uh in this at one point almost literally

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Speaker 1: right uh, in this two part exploration of stuff to

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Speaker 1: boil your mind. The first episode here is going to

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Speaker 1: focus on functional ships, ships at sea at large, and

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Speaker 1: then we're going to talk in the second episode about

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Speaker 1: what very often happens to ships at sea. Eventually they

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Speaker 1: wind up at the bottom of the sea, right they

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Speaker 1: wind up at shipwrecks, and in in either case there

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Speaker 1: are all these wonderful examples of how life adapts to

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Speaker 1: this unnatural structure, this unnatural uh floating, be it a

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Speaker 1: floating you know, city of floating, an aircraft carrier, or

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Speaker 1: just a mere dinghy blister in barnacles. Am I so

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Speaker 1: excited to talk about this stuff today? Yes? Now, I

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Speaker 1: do want to throw in just a quick note, uh.

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Speaker 1: We are going to talk about some of the dire

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Speaker 1: consequences of ships, but we're not going to get into

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Speaker 1: some of the particulars. Some of these we've talked about

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Speaker 1: on the show, concerning say, ship strikes and propellor injuries

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Speaker 1: to uh. To various organisms or sonic distress that can

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Speaker 1: occur just thanks to the sheer volume that just the

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Speaker 1: noise created by all of these large vessels let's see,

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Speaker 1: and some of the technologies they utilize. So not so

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Speaker 1: much the direct kinetic conflict between ships and wildlife, but

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Speaker 1: more like the the adaptations. Right, look at the non

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Speaker 1: human organisms that managed to thrive on ships, even though

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Speaker 1: in some cases their their their ability to thrive manages

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Speaker 1: to upset the balance of nature. Now, if I were

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Speaker 1: to start thinking about this topic, not knowing anything else,

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Speaker 1: the first organism that would come to my mind is

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Speaker 1: the barnacle. Yes, the barnacle. Uh. The barnacle is irresistible

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Speaker 1: because when you think of of ships, uh, you and

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Speaker 1: you try and focus in on organisms that are gaming

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Speaker 1: the system, the barnacle is just impossible to ignore. I'd say.

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Speaker 1: Barnacle is also a top five funny sounding word. Barnacle. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it kind of sounds like it's got that that K

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Speaker 1: sound that's always humorous in the in the English language,

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Speaker 1: and then it starts with like a barney sound. Um.

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Speaker 1: But as ridiculous as they sound, they can it gets

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Speaker 1: pretty serious at times. Well, so I only think of

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Speaker 1: barnacles as growing on ships, but that can't be the

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Speaker 1: only place they grow. So what does the natural home

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Speaker 1: of a barnacle. Well, you do have some species of

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Speaker 1: barnacle that thrive in other situations, such as the particular

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Speaker 1: variety of barnacle that is parasitic to a particular species

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Speaker 1: of crab that grows up you know, under its it's plating. Yikes. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's pretty pretty nasty. I think this is the one

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Speaker 1: that essentially like castrates the male crabs in uh, in

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Speaker 1: its you know, parasitic manipulation, brutal, Yeah, but especially ironic

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Speaker 1: given the size of barnacle genitalia. Yeah, but which we'll

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Speaker 1: get to in a in a bit here. But but

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Speaker 1: for the most part, when you're talking about barnacles, you're

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Speaker 1: talking about barnacles that cling to rocks, and then along

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Speaker 1: comes the whole of a ship, and it often presents

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Speaker 1: a very rock like surface on which it can attach. Yeah. Now,

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Speaker 1: the barnacle is a pretty interesting organism in its own right,

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Speaker 1: without even getting into the complexity of ships. They're they're

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Speaker 1: they're a sessile suspension feeder, but they have two active

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Speaker 1: swimming larval stages, so that the final version. The the

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Speaker 1: you know, the adult mature barnacle is indeed that little

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Speaker 1: crusty thing that's that's living on the rock around the

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Speaker 1: whole of the ship. That's the full vult that's the

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Speaker 1: full vultron. Yes, there are two stages before that where

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Speaker 1: they're free, free swimming their marine arthropods related to crabs

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Speaker 1: and lobsters. And they begin life as as these freshly

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Speaker 1: hatched larvae uh free moving plankton like creatures, and then

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Speaker 1: they developed through several mold stages into a a a

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Speaker 1: larva stage which seeks out a nice rock or a

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Speaker 1: rock like surface like the bottom of a ship to

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Speaker 1: call home. It positions itself, it's secrete cell shell platings

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Speaker 1: around it, and then it just never moves. It depends

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Speaker 1: on if it's attached to a rock. It's probably depending

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Speaker 1: on on the tides, for instance, to bring food close

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Speaker 1: enough for it to snatch up with its grasping sire sirie,

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Speaker 1: how do you spell that? Ce i r r I siri? Nice? So,

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Speaker 1: So this is like the world's most lethargic full vultron. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean basically they just set up shop and they

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Speaker 1: depend upon you know, the cyclical nature of of the

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Speaker 1: waters to bring them what they need to eat, and

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Speaker 1: then they grab it. You know, there are actually a

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Speaker 1: lot of organisms this in the ocean, and we'll talk

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Speaker 1: about a couple of other ones throughout these episodes. But

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Speaker 1: what the barnacle has in common with several other of

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Speaker 1: these organisms is that, like he has multiple stages of life,

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Speaker 1: including a free moving stage of life, and then later

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Speaker 1: it settles down and becomes sessile or immobile and just

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Speaker 1: stays in one place and sort of reaches out for

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Speaker 1: food and mating opportunities. So I've read they were roughly

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Speaker 1: somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty different species of barnacle.

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Speaker 1: And among shore barnacles, their habitat comes down to not

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Speaker 1: only region, but also shore level. So you know, some

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Speaker 1: are gonna like different different levels of shade. For instance,

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Speaker 1: some cluster amid high energy shore waves, you know, where

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Speaker 1: there's just a lot of circulation, a lot of crashing waves,

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Speaker 1: while others actually attached so far upshore that waters only

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Speaker 1: rise high enough for them to feed like a couple

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Speaker 1: of times a month. So you can already imagine that

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Speaker 1: there might be some like costs and benefits to that

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Speaker 1: kind of lifestyle. Like if you're in one of those

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Speaker 1: high energy wave region, I bet it's like that's really

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Speaker 1: hard on you with the water hitting you all the time,

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Speaker 1: but it probably also provides a lot more opportunities for

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Speaker 1: food to reach you, if stuff's coming in a lot, right, Yeah, exactly.

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Speaker 1: And of course, the main barnacle topic of interest here

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Speaker 1: today is the manner by which they attached to artificial structures. Um,

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Speaker 1: they attached to wharfs, uh, any kind of structure that

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Speaker 1: we have built and placed in the water, but particularly

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Speaker 1: UH they are infamous for attaching to the holes of ships.

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Speaker 1: Now this may come as no surprise to our more

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Speaker 1: nautical listeners, anybody out there who has been any amount

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Speaker 1: of time at sea or has you know, served in UH,

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Speaker 1: in the in the navy or whatnot. But barnacles are

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Speaker 1: a huge problem for ships, and they have been been

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Speaker 1: a problem for ships as long as we've had marine vessels.

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Speaker 1: Ancient seafaring people had to contend with the accumulation of barnacles.

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Speaker 1: And we do mean accumulation because we're not talking just

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Speaker 1: a handful of organisms. We're talking in some cases tons

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Speaker 1: of barnacles, literal tons of barn uncles, and they don't

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Speaker 1: just attach, They grow into the surface and formed dense

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Speaker 1: calcium deposits underneath the paint. And the technical name for

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Speaker 1: this growth on ships is biofouling nice, which which is misleading, right,

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Speaker 1: because I mean they're the barnacles just doing what it

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Speaker 1: is evolved to do. You you could make the argument,

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Speaker 1: I mean we're kind of biofouling and they're just biofouling

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Speaker 1: as well. Everybody's biofouling. Yeah, I mean, if we're really

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Speaker 1: tellying up biofouls, we should have biofouled out as a

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Speaker 1: species by now. Oh yes, And I think I think

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Speaker 1: that that becomes obvious throughout these podcast episodes. So how

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Speaker 1: did ancient people contend with barnacles? Well, there were two

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Speaker 1: time tested methods here. The first and the most popular

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Speaker 1: option that is still practiced today is to just periodically

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Speaker 1: dry dock a vessel, bring it up out of the water,

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Speaker 1: and just scrape all the barnacles off the hull and

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Speaker 1: then repaint it because of course the they're gonna pull

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Speaker 1: the paint away with them. That sounds difficult, Yes, yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's difficult. It's costly, especially with larger vessels, and it

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Speaker 1: takes your ship out of commission for a little bit.

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Speaker 1: Right now, Another uh tactic that they had at their disposal,

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Speaker 1: some had their disposal anyway, it was too periodically dock

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Speaker 1: your saltwater vessel in freshwater so as to kill off

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Speaker 1: some barnacles. Because barnacles are a marine species, you don't

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Speaker 1: they're not gonna thrive in freshwater. So it but it

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Speaker 1: depends on the species. Apparently it's four to six hours

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Speaker 1: that's enough freshwater to kill some species, while others require

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Speaker 1: upwards of fifty hours. And they're apparently reports of ships

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Speaker 1: retaining their barnacles after being docked in freshwater for something

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Speaker 1: like thirty five months. So it doesn't it's not like

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Speaker 1: you just bring it into the freshwater and just watch

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Speaker 1: them all fall off necessarily. You've got a few tough

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Speaker 1: guys in there. Now some stats about why barnacles are bad,

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Speaker 1: just to really just drive home, like you know, why

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Speaker 1: you don't want to a ship's hole just encrusted with

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Speaker 1: these things and some of these stats. It's come from

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Speaker 1: a really insightful um but of course kind of jovial

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Speaker 1: April Edition article in addition of popular mechanics, does it

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Speaker 1: have puns. Um. I think it's gonna do a few

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Speaker 1: puns here and there, but these are mostly just the

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Speaker 1: facts here. This article pointed out that fifty to a

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Speaker 1: hundred tons of barnacles they may be removed from a

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Speaker 1: single scraping from some larger vessels, while very large vessels

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Speaker 1: may produce two hundred to three hundred tons of barnacles.

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Speaker 1: So think about ship carrying that much extra weight. Think

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Speaker 1: about you yourself carrying that much extra weight or something

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Speaker 1: more proportional to the human body around with you just

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Speaker 1: didn't sheer, uh, you know, essentially parasite weight. So this

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Speaker 1: could be like over a hundred cars worth of barnacles. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that is crazy to think about. I mean, look at

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Speaker 1: it this way. A really large vessel may have an

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Speaker 1: acre or more of space for barnacles if you just

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Speaker 1: imagine it just folded out flat, like a field of barnacles,

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Speaker 1: the unsuccessful sequel to Field of dreams. Yes, and as

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Speaker 1: you can imagine, this sort of accumulation can impact the

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Speaker 1: effectiveness of a vessel. It increases the frictional resistance, requiring

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Speaker 1: from one fifth to one third more fuel to operate

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Speaker 1: and reducing speed by one fourth. To one third of

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Speaker 1: its optimal like d barnacled speed. And then on top

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Speaker 1: of this, you know, especially by modern estimates, it can

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Speaker 1: reduce the fuel economy of a vessel by up and

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Speaker 1: this increases c O two emissions. So uh, yeah, they're

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Speaker 1: all these additional effects that spill off from just having

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Speaker 1: to drag all these extra organisms around with you. Now

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Speaker 1: that you've been describing all this, the barnacle based torture

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Speaker 1: method idea starts to make a lot more sense. Oh,

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Speaker 1: you talk about keel hauling. Yeah, I don't know much

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Speaker 1: about it, but I know it involves barnacles, so you know,

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Speaker 1: we I feel like maybe we'd have to hand it

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Speaker 1: off probably to like ridiculous history for them to do,

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Speaker 1: you know, proper history of kuel hauling, because it's one

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Speaker 1: of these things that is that that everyone pretty pretty

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Speaker 1: much agreed with bar barring. But here's the basic idea.

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Speaker 1: You take a pirate or sailor whoever is on board

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Speaker 1: that you're just pleased with. Is this something pirates would do?

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Speaker 1: There are accounts of pirates doing it, and there are

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Speaker 1: account they're also accounts of of it happening on naval vessels.

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Speaker 1: But it you know, it was long seen is just

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Speaker 1: a barbaric thing that that was frowned upon in many

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Speaker 1: different naval traditions, but other places considered it a viable punishment.

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Speaker 1: But the ideas that you would you would rope somebody up,

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Speaker 1: throw them over the front of the vessel, and then

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Speaker 1: they would be dragged banged under the hole and then

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Speaker 1: come up on the other side. I would come up

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Speaker 1: in the back of the vessel, and of course that

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Speaker 1: whole is covered in yield barnacles. Yeah, so although the

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Speaker 1: shell scraping into your body, lacerating you on top of you,

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Speaker 1: you just you know, slamming into the whole of the ship. Uh,

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Speaker 1: that that alone could be enough to kill you. And

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Speaker 1: then of course the drowning risk the cold waters in

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Speaker 1: many cases. So yeah, it's a pretty pretty grotesque thing

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Speaker 1: due to somebody. Uh, but it certainly becomes more grotesque

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Speaker 1: when you consider acres of barnacles. That is awful. Now,

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Speaker 1: you mentioned earlier ancient sailors dealing with the problem of

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Speaker 1: barnacles and coming up with solutions. One particularly effective solution

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Speaker 1: was copper. Oh copper, I mean, copper is a metal

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Speaker 1: we had access to for a long time, even before

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Speaker 1: we had bronze, we had copper. Yeah, so you saw

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Speaker 1: the ancient Greeks and the Romans, for instance, using copper

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Speaker 1: nails on the whole of their vessels. Uh. Later in

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Speaker 1: the eighteenth century, the British Navy sheathed its wooden holes

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Speaker 1: and copper um in part to deal with the barnacles,

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Speaker 1: but also to deal with shipworms, which we'll we'll touch

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Speaker 1: on later. Now you're probably wondering why copper, Why does

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Speaker 1: copper work? You know, because just it's not that it's

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Speaker 1: a metal alone, because we have steel holes that's still

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Speaker 1: become covered with barnacles. Well, the reason is because in

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Speaker 1: the water a toxic film forms on copper that repels

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Speaker 1: barnacle larvae and this is even them inside. It as

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Speaker 1: a potential factor in the superiority of the British Navy

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Speaker 1: at the time they had the copper plated holes, and

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Speaker 1: so the ships were just that much more efficient than

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Speaker 1: all of the competing vessels because they had just far

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Speaker 1: fewer literal hangars on on the holes. Now do you

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Speaker 1: know if they were coated in copper specifically for this

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Speaker 1: reason intentionally or was that just a happy accident. Now

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Speaker 1: it was it was to deal with barnacles and shipworms.

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Speaker 1: But of course the age of the wooden warship came

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Speaker 1: to an end in favor of steel, and in this

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Speaker 1: you end up losing your copper advantage. Now you can

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Speaker 1: use copper laced paints, but these particles leach out, and

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Speaker 1: in doing so they end up hurting vulnerable organisms that

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Speaker 1: aren't attaching to your hole, like salmon and oysters, meanwhile

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Speaker 1: depleting the paint of its protective power, so you end

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Speaker 1: up having to deal with the barnacles again. Anyway, then

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Speaker 1: there have been other poison based methods as well, So

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Speaker 1: lacing your whole paint with arsenic mercury strict nine cyanide

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Speaker 1: tin apparently pretty effective, but you end up with the

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Speaker 1: same consequences, just killing sea life wherever the ship goes,

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Speaker 1: because it's just raining down death, just poisoning the ocean. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: apparently the since that, the synthetic drug metatomadine has proven

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Speaker 1: pretty effective. According to a two thousand eleven article in

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Speaker 1: Popular Science by Joshua Saul, the drug quote activates the

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Speaker 1: octopamine receptor, is similar to adrenaline receptors in barnacle larvae,

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Speaker 1: causing them to flee. So in other words, it just

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Speaker 1: like cranks them up on barnacle math and so that

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Speaker 1: they can't settle in. Then they end up swimming off.

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Speaker 1: It wears when it wears off, but they end up

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Speaker 1: you know, they don't fix themselves to the whole. They're

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Speaker 1: like Jason, stay them in that movie exactly. You're not

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Speaker 1: gonna You're not gonna see Jason stay them in those

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Speaker 1: cranked movies, like settle down anywhere. No, he's gonna be

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Speaker 1: in constant motion. Uh. Now some other solutions have also

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Speaker 1: been presented UH many in recent years, such as the

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Speaker 1: use of a robotic whole bio mimetic underwater grooming system

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Speaker 1: or whole bug. So that'd be sort of like a

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Speaker 1: Remora fish for your for your shift, go along and

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Speaker 1: clean a whole room, but if you will, okay um.

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Speaker 1: There also have been new chemical approaches that depend on

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Speaker 1: in some cases, you know, on natural chemicals that have

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Speaker 1: been found in um in other organisms, bio mimetic approaches

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Speaker 1: that are based on say, shark skin or other uh

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Speaker 1: surfaces or structures skin, other skin inspired whole hydro gels.

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Speaker 1: And then there's been some some research concerning bacterial solutions

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Speaker 1: as well. UH but barnacles remain a problem. They've they've

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Speaker 1: performed exceedingly well and they continue to do so. Some

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Speaker 1: of the ships they grow on stick to a very

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Speaker 1: small geographic area. Uh, some don't move at all, especially

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Speaker 1: if they say, you know, sink to the bottom of

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Speaker 1: the sea, as we'll get to in their second episode.

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Speaker 1: But one interesting byproduct of all of this is that

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Speaker 1: it's enabled barnacles to travel in ways that they never

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Speaker 1: did in pre modern or even pre human time. Well. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: especially in their their later stages of life. Barnacles are

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Speaker 1: not light footed. You know, they're not going to be

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Speaker 1: hiking around unless they happen to end up on something

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Speaker 1: that travels with them. Right. And then, remember, you know,

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Speaker 1: even though this is the endpoint, barnacles do breed. The

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Speaker 1: cycle of life is going to continue, and it's going

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Speaker 1: to continue with those plankton like um mobile larvae. And

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Speaker 1: while we're on the subject of barnacle breeding, if you've

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Speaker 1: never looked up barnacle penises, that's worth of google. Well.

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Speaker 1: The barnacle penises, i think are just one of either

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Speaker 1: the largest or one of the largest like penis to

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Speaker 1: body size ratio in in the entire animal kingdom because

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Speaker 1: obviously they can't like move around to find a mate,

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Speaker 1: so they essentially have to reach to find a mate,

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Speaker 1: and so there isn't a very strong incentive to have

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Speaker 1: a ridiculously long penis, and that is what a lot

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Speaker 1: of these little creatures have, so that they're not only

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Speaker 1: clinging to your whole, feeding from your whole, they're also

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Speaker 1: breeding on the whole of your ship up. So this

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Speaker 1: scenario with the you know, the ships encrusted with barnacles,

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Speaker 1: and then the ships moving around, uh sometimes across the

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Speaker 1: surface of the globe. This has led to the spread

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Speaker 1: of various invasive barnacle species linking coastal inco ecosystems that

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Speaker 1: would have never come into contact with with one another,

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Speaker 1: otherwise threatening to biodiversity in the process. And certainly barnacles

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Speaker 1: are just one part of the problem. But even in

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Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, according to Assessing the Global Threat

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Speaker 1: of Invasive Species to marine biodiversity by Muhlner at All

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Speaker 1: published in Frontiers and Ecology and the Environment, as few

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Speaker 1: as sixteen percent of marine ecosystems were unaffected by invaders,

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Speaker 1: and they stressed that these figures might be off due

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Speaker 1: just to under reporting. I mean previously, if you had

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Speaker 1: asked me to think about the invasive species threats caused

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Speaker 1: by ocean travel on boats, I primarily would have thought

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Speaker 1: of terrestrial animals stowing away in car go holds or

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Speaker 1: on boats and then getting moved from say, one island

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Speaker 1: to another. Yeah, I would not really have considered much

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Speaker 1: the marine ecosystems that are brought along by the parts

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Speaker 1: of the boat that are underwater or maybe even filled

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Speaker 1: with water, which we can get to in a bit.

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Speaker 1: But before we do that, first of all, we're gonna

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Speaker 1: take a break, and then we're going to discuss another

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Speaker 1: very notable infamous ship hopping organism. And this one resides

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Speaker 1: inside the hole a rascal with lungs. Thank alright, we're back.

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Speaker 1: So what do you think it is? What's the other

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Speaker 1: big organism that comes to mind when you think about

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Speaker 1: about the ships at sea? Hyenas? That would be good.

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Speaker 1: I didn't run across any any particular mention of hyenas.

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Speaker 1: Uh No, it's got to be the rat, right, it

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Speaker 1: has to be the rat, the rat man. What's the

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Speaker 1: most prominent religion with a rat god? Because I want

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Speaker 1: to join that one. I mean, rats are impressive. You

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Speaker 1: just gotta hand it to them. They know what's up. Well,

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Speaker 1: it does remind me that the Ganesha has a has

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Speaker 1: a rat as a vehicle, you know, and the rat

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Speaker 1: does have have some importance in different corners of Hinduism.

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Speaker 1: But but the idea of a of a rat is

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Speaker 1: a vehicle, a thing that would you know, that would

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Speaker 1: move you, that would move the remover of obstacles. Uh.

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Speaker 1: That that fits perfectly what we know of the rat.

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Speaker 1: Like the rat has gone everywhere that humans have gone.

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Speaker 1: It is our our our furry secretive shadow, I mean,

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Speaker 1: after like micro organisms that live inside our bodies. Is

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Speaker 1: there anything more inherently linked to human civilization that we

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Speaker 1: take with us everywhere we go to the extent of

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Speaker 1: a rat. I can't think of one. No, I mean,

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Speaker 1: I guess maybe cockroaches are perhaps another example. But in

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Speaker 1: both cases we're dealing with with animals that have been

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Speaker 1: with us as long as we've had surplus food, you know,

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Speaker 1: as long as we've been growing enough to say, oh,

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Speaker 1: I'll save this for later. The rats have been around

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Speaker 1: um and and so as long as we've been piling

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Speaker 1: some of the surplus uh material into ships or boats

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Speaker 1: the rats have been willing to come on board and

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Speaker 1: and find a place to hide if there is at

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Speaker 1: all room for them. Now, I wonder what makes a

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Speaker 1: rat decide to join the navy, Like, not all rats

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Speaker 1: do this. Some rats just hang out, but other ones

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Speaker 1: they go into the boats. And they're the ones that

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Speaker 1: that settled the new rat frontiers. Do we know what

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Speaker 1: makes one decide to do that? Well, I mean it's

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Speaker 1: the available food. It's it's just but we're gonna get

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Speaker 1: into like some slight differences here between the brown rat

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Speaker 1: and the black rat as far as it's willingness to

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Speaker 1: go to sea. Now, I should also point out that

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Speaker 1: in addition to always having ship rats, we've also always

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Speaker 1: had ship cats to deal with the problem. Like even

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Speaker 1: even on like ancient Egyptian river boats, the cats were there. Um,

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Speaker 1: if you go back into the vikings had ats for instance.

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Speaker 1: I didn't know that, yeah uh. And then we'll have

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Speaker 1: some examples later on of other know, some menagerie's living

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Speaker 1: aboard sea going vessels. Um, But it's one of those

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Speaker 1: as with the cat in with the dog. You know,

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00:22:11,840 --> 00:22:15,640
Speaker 1: there's this mix of purpose and companionship, Like the cat

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Speaker 1: is there, the cat is amusing you have a little

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Speaker 1: antisocial but then it occasionally kills a rat or a

399
00:22:22,440 --> 00:22:25,200
Speaker 1: mouse that would otherwise try and get into your provisions

400
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Speaker 1: or your cargo. Okay, question just popped into my mind

401
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Speaker 1: of interpretation of some great mythology. Take the Noah's ark story.

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Speaker 1: You gotta have two of every animal. I think they're

403
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Speaker 1: a different version where sometimes you gotta have more of

404
00:22:36,400 --> 00:22:39,240
Speaker 1: certain animals. But like, but yeah, so you gott have

405
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Speaker 1: at least two of every animal, male and female. Do

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Speaker 1: you do you bother packing two rats? Or do you

407
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Speaker 1: just assume you're gonna have at least a few hundred

408
00:22:48,359 --> 00:22:51,800
Speaker 1: rats anyway, so you don't bother to like put put

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Speaker 1: those on board. I like to imagine that that Noah

410
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Speaker 1: asks the Almighty this and says, hey, do I need

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Speaker 1: to pack the rats and the mice? And God says says, now,

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Speaker 1: don't worry about those that they're self packing. Right, if

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Speaker 1: you build it, they will come. Yeah, they're already. They're

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00:23:06,240 --> 00:23:09,680
Speaker 1: they're waiting on you. The field of barnacles. That that's

415
00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:14,119
Speaker 1: the motto. So when we look at rat success stories,

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Speaker 1: we're mainly talking here about the black rat Ratus rattus

417
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Speaker 1: a k a. The ship rat. And then there's brown

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Speaker 1: the brown rat or Rattus nor vegicus. Now, these are

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Speaker 1: just in general, some of the most successful mammals on

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Speaker 1: the planet, especially the brown rat, which with few exceptions,

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00:23:32,440 --> 00:23:36,480
Speaker 1: just lives wherever humans live. Um and as such, the

422
00:23:36,520 --> 00:23:39,800
Speaker 1: story of human migration is the story of of rat migration.

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Speaker 1: To a large extent, every island or new land that

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Speaker 1: humans have brought ruined too, they've also brought rats, rats,

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Speaker 1: who in turn have decimated native species, out competing them

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Speaker 1: for resources, introducing diseases, and preying on them, all depending

427
00:23:54,040 --> 00:23:56,760
Speaker 1: on how a given organism fits into the black or

428
00:23:56,800 --> 00:24:00,880
Speaker 1: brown rats approach to life, and sometimes the portunate natives

429
00:24:01,040 --> 00:24:05,600
Speaker 1: that fall to these new rat overlords our rodent species themselves.

430
00:24:05,640 --> 00:24:07,720
Speaker 1: So we've touched touched on some of these, uh in

431
00:24:07,720 --> 00:24:10,600
Speaker 1: our discussions of Christmas Island. Oh yeah, it was the

432
00:24:10,640 --> 00:24:13,520
Speaker 1: idea there that there was some native rat on Christmas

433
00:24:13,520 --> 00:24:18,280
Speaker 1: Island that kept the crab populations in check originally. Yeah,

434
00:24:18,320 --> 00:24:21,320
Speaker 1: that's the hypothesis anyway, and then there were like invasive

435
00:24:21,440 --> 00:24:24,320
Speaker 1: rats that killed off those rats, and then the crab

436
00:24:24,440 --> 00:24:28,480
Speaker 1: population skyrocket, right, Yeah, but that's potentially what's happening so

437
00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:31,800
Speaker 1: the first success story though here was that of the

438
00:24:31,840 --> 00:24:35,840
Speaker 1: black rat and the house mouse. They followed human agricultural

439
00:24:35,840 --> 00:24:40,120
Speaker 1: expansion for thousands of years, but interestingly enough, the brown

440
00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:43,639
Speaker 1: rat didn't leave its native abode in China and Mongolia

441
00:24:43,720 --> 00:24:46,840
Speaker 1: until far more recently um and so this would be

442
00:24:46,880 --> 00:24:50,240
Speaker 1: the difference alluded to in you know, of a rat's

443
00:24:50,320 --> 00:24:52,920
Speaker 1: willingness to take to see or take to the road.

444
00:24:53,760 --> 00:24:56,560
Speaker 1: I was looking at a two thousand sixteen genomic study

445
00:24:56,560 --> 00:25:00,960
Speaker 1: published in the Royal Society's journal Proceedings be that mapped

446
00:25:01,080 --> 00:25:05,080
Speaker 1: the expansion of the brown rat using tissue samples from

447
00:25:05,119 --> 00:25:08,840
Speaker 1: three d and fourteen rats from seventy six global locations.

448
00:25:09,560 --> 00:25:11,720
Speaker 1: So this was the first in depth genetic study of

449
00:25:11,720 --> 00:25:13,919
Speaker 1: brown rats from around the world and was conducted by

450
00:25:13,960 --> 00:25:18,879
Speaker 1: Fordham University. They followed this sub species movements first of

451
00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:22,320
Speaker 1: all into Southeast Asia, and from there I believe they

452
00:25:22,320 --> 00:25:25,879
Speaker 1: went to they hit Japan and in Siberia, and then

453
00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:28,760
Speaker 1: there was another movement that ends up going out across

454
00:25:28,920 --> 00:25:32,080
Speaker 1: Eurasia via the Silk Road. And then once it gets

455
00:25:32,240 --> 00:25:34,920
Speaker 1: all the way to Europe, that's that's where it really

456
00:25:35,080 --> 00:25:38,760
Speaker 1: uh sets off because here it's it is it perfectly

457
00:25:39,280 --> 00:25:42,480
Speaker 1: lined up for the voyages of discovery and of course,

458
00:25:42,560 --> 00:25:46,560
Speaker 1: of course a colonization and exploitation. So from here they

459
00:25:46,680 --> 00:25:51,920
Speaker 1: end up reaching the America's Africa, Australia and untold you

460
00:25:51,960 --> 00:25:54,879
Speaker 1: know islands in between. And one key point here, according

461
00:25:54,880 --> 00:25:57,480
Speaker 1: to the researchers, is that while the black rat is

462
00:25:57,520 --> 00:26:00,800
Speaker 1: a natural expansionist, following the path alf of grain and

463
00:26:00,880 --> 00:26:04,760
Speaker 1: garbage through human history, the brown rat is otherwise is

464
00:26:04,840 --> 00:26:07,200
Speaker 1: usually normally you know, it's normally happy just to hang

465
00:26:07,200 --> 00:26:11,520
Speaker 1: out in a single location. He's the Bilbo Baggins of rats.

466
00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:14,919
Speaker 1: You know, he's not eager to travel and adventure, at

467
00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:18,000
Speaker 1: least not without some prodding. Um. But of course we

468
00:26:18,040 --> 00:26:21,320
Speaker 1: know Bilbo does travel, he does adventure, right, So so

469
00:26:21,600 --> 00:26:23,960
Speaker 1: the question then is you know what prodded him on,

470
00:26:24,160 --> 00:26:27,200
Speaker 1: what prodded the uh, this particular species of rat on?

471
00:26:29,080 --> 00:26:33,359
Speaker 1: Well basically yeah, but you know, again, the house mouse

472
00:26:33,960 --> 00:26:37,879
Speaker 1: originated in the fertile crescent black rats in India, and

473
00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:42,320
Speaker 1: so you know, early farming societies and widespread trade, that's

474
00:26:42,359 --> 00:26:44,639
Speaker 1: what pumped these rodents out pretty early on. But the

475
00:26:44,640 --> 00:26:47,320
Speaker 1: brown rat didn't really jump into high gear to the

476
00:26:47,400 --> 00:26:50,760
Speaker 1: last three centuries, the most recent three centuries of human civilization,

477
00:26:51,560 --> 00:26:54,480
Speaker 1: particularly the brown rats of Europe again who departed on

478
00:26:54,600 --> 00:26:58,200
Speaker 1: these voyages uh to uh, you know, to take North

479
00:26:58,200 --> 00:27:01,639
Speaker 1: and South America Africa and show you and uh and

480
00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:05,399
Speaker 1: in that the Brown rats expansion expansion, the authors argue here,

481
00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:11,200
Speaker 1: is entirely human mediated. Uh. It's depending into a very

482
00:27:11,240 --> 00:27:15,320
Speaker 1: large extent on the ships. Interestingly enough, the researchers didn't

483
00:27:15,320 --> 00:27:17,919
Speaker 1: find evidence of a lot of rat immigrants though to

484
00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:20,159
Speaker 1: New York City. They were looking at the the the

485
00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:24,440
Speaker 1: rat genome there. But so many ships come there, yeah,

486
00:27:24,640 --> 00:27:27,199
Speaker 1: so and and certainly the rats are still coming. But

487
00:27:27,240 --> 00:27:30,199
Speaker 1: they pointed out that what appears to be happening is

488
00:27:30,240 --> 00:27:33,440
Speaker 1: that the New York City rats are just so entrenched,

489
00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:38,720
Speaker 1: so well fed and powerful, and just so mean and territorial,

490
00:27:38,800 --> 00:27:41,399
Speaker 1: they can't be dethroned, exactly, they can't be beat. So

491
00:27:41,440 --> 00:27:46,480
Speaker 1: they're actually protecting their territory from new incoming rats. If

492
00:27:46,520 --> 00:27:48,520
Speaker 1: you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.

493
00:27:48,560 --> 00:27:50,600
Speaker 1: But lots of people who can make it elsewhere can't

494
00:27:50,600 --> 00:27:52,800
Speaker 1: make it there, right And of course this this would

495
00:27:52,800 --> 00:27:56,880
Speaker 1: hold true theoretically for places beyond New York City. Essentially

496
00:27:56,920 --> 00:28:00,520
Speaker 1: like once the rats have entrenched themselves. Once the brown

497
00:28:00,600 --> 00:28:03,480
Speaker 1: rats have have taken over in an area, they're gonna

498
00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:05,719
Speaker 1: hold it. They're gonna hold that fork because this is

499
00:28:05,760 --> 00:28:10,000
Speaker 1: their their sweet garbage empire. All right, I think we

500
00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:11,720
Speaker 1: should take a quick break, but when we come back,

501
00:28:11,800 --> 00:28:17,679
Speaker 1: we will talk about ballast water and builge life. Thank alright,

502
00:28:17,720 --> 00:28:21,000
Speaker 1: we're back. And and in this portion of the podcast

503
00:28:21,040 --> 00:28:25,439
Speaker 1: episode really getting into a territory of ship life that

504
00:28:25,640 --> 00:28:29,120
Speaker 1: is easy to overlook. Yeah, so yeah, you can imagine.

505
00:28:29,359 --> 00:28:31,040
Speaker 1: Of course, the first thing I would have thought of

506
00:28:31,080 --> 00:28:34,399
Speaker 1: would be barnacles clinging to the hull. Then if you

507
00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:38,000
Speaker 1: imagine things stowing away in a ship, obviously rats come

508
00:28:38,040 --> 00:28:41,800
Speaker 1: to mind. But ship life, by by no means stops there.

509
00:28:42,280 --> 00:28:45,400
Speaker 1: There is so much more shift life to talk about. Uh,

510
00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:47,760
Speaker 1: And so I want to start with the question of

511
00:28:48,040 --> 00:28:50,440
Speaker 1: have you ever seen what's on the underside of like

512
00:28:50,480 --> 00:28:53,120
Speaker 1: a yacht or a sail boat? What's down there? It's

513
00:28:53,120 --> 00:28:56,240
Speaker 1: not just like a sort of round bottom, right. What

514
00:28:56,360 --> 00:28:59,880
Speaker 1: you will usually see is a big fin thing poke

515
00:29:00,200 --> 00:29:03,720
Speaker 1: down into the water below the yacht or the sailboat.

516
00:29:03,760 --> 00:29:05,880
Speaker 1: And this is known as the keel. I guess the

517
00:29:05,920 --> 00:29:08,880
Speaker 1: same word that's referenced in the horrible practice of keel

518
00:29:08,920 --> 00:29:12,240
Speaker 1: haul uh. And it can serves several functions, but one

519
00:29:12,240 --> 00:29:15,880
Speaker 1: of the main functions of the keel is stability. It's

520
00:29:15,920 --> 00:29:19,280
Speaker 1: there to keep the boat stable and upright, and it

521
00:29:19,360 --> 00:29:21,240
Speaker 1: does this a couple of ways. So one is that

522
00:29:21,280 --> 00:29:24,800
Speaker 1: if you imagine like wind blowing really hard against the

523
00:29:24,840 --> 00:29:27,480
Speaker 1: sail of a sailboat and it's sort of tipping the

524
00:29:27,520 --> 00:29:30,719
Speaker 1: boat over to one side, the keel will be underwater

525
00:29:30,920 --> 00:29:35,120
Speaker 1: pushing against the water, and this helps provide a counterbalancing

526
00:29:35,200 --> 00:29:38,680
Speaker 1: resistance force that makes it harder to roll the boat.

527
00:29:38,800 --> 00:29:42,640
Speaker 1: Just imagine like empty out a plastic soda bottle and

528
00:29:42,680 --> 00:29:44,680
Speaker 1: floated on the surface of the water, and see how

529
00:29:44,720 --> 00:29:47,840
Speaker 1: easy it is to roll that around on its side.

530
00:29:48,720 --> 00:29:51,440
Speaker 1: Obviously would be very easy, But if you take a

531
00:29:51,520 --> 00:29:55,360
Speaker 1: single fin to the bottle running lengthwise under the water,

532
00:29:55,480 --> 00:29:58,240
Speaker 1: suddenly the fin hanging down in the water is going

533
00:29:58,280 --> 00:30:00,680
Speaker 1: to make it a lot harder to roll the bottle around.

534
00:30:00,920 --> 00:30:03,400
Speaker 1: The other advantage is that the keel helps give the

535
00:30:03,400 --> 00:30:06,520
Speaker 1: boat a lower center of gravity. It pulls the center

536
00:30:06,640 --> 00:30:09,680
Speaker 1: of the hull down and that also helps resist any

537
00:30:09,720 --> 00:30:12,200
Speaker 1: force that wants to roll the boat. Or I think

538
00:30:12,200 --> 00:30:14,800
Speaker 1: it's called healing healing the boat over to the to

539
00:30:14,920 --> 00:30:18,200
Speaker 1: the side. Now, imagine that you've got a really big boat.

540
00:30:18,200 --> 00:30:21,320
Speaker 1: You want, like a cargo ship that can transfer a

541
00:30:21,360 --> 00:30:25,240
Speaker 1: load of shipping containers across the ocean. Obviously, it needs

542
00:30:25,240 --> 00:30:28,120
Speaker 1: to have a very big hull, be very buoyant, So

543
00:30:28,280 --> 00:30:31,280
Speaker 1: you might load it up with heavy cargo, uh, to

544
00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:33,760
Speaker 1: to take to your destination, and it sits down deep

545
00:30:33,760 --> 00:30:36,760
Speaker 1: in the water because it's full, right uh. And so

546
00:30:36,840 --> 00:30:39,480
Speaker 1: you deliver the cargo. But once you deliver the cargo,

547
00:30:39,640 --> 00:30:42,640
Speaker 1: if you don't fill back up immediately with more cargo,

548
00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:45,480
Speaker 1: you're going to be traveling around with an empty or

549
00:30:45,560 --> 00:30:48,960
Speaker 1: mostly empty hull. You be riding high and dry exactly.

550
00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:52,120
Speaker 1: So you might imagine, oh, my god, is that what

551
00:30:52,280 --> 00:30:56,040
Speaker 1: that phrase comes from. I never knew that, I assumed,

552
00:30:56,160 --> 00:30:59,600
Speaker 1: but I actually have never looked it up. I'm gonna assume.

553
00:30:59,640 --> 00:31:01,920
Speaker 1: You must us to be right. Can't wait for the

554
00:31:01,960 --> 00:31:05,560
Speaker 1: corrections if you're not. So. Yeah, So you might imagine

555
00:31:05,600 --> 00:31:08,600
Speaker 1: that a ship in this situation faces a problem similar

556
00:31:08,640 --> 00:31:11,520
Speaker 1: to a sailboat without a keel. Right, it's buoyant, it's

557
00:31:11,560 --> 00:31:14,440
Speaker 1: sitting high up in the water without enough mass deep

558
00:31:14,440 --> 00:31:16,840
Speaker 1: in its hold to keep the center of gravity low

559
00:31:16,960 --> 00:31:20,000
Speaker 1: and prevent it from rolling. So the answer to this

560
00:31:20,040 --> 00:31:23,440
Speaker 1: problem is what's known as ballast. This is material that's

561
00:31:23,480 --> 00:31:27,160
Speaker 1: taken into the ship's hull to provide stability. And if

562
00:31:27,160 --> 00:31:29,880
Speaker 1: you're a giant metal tub sitting out in the ocean,

563
00:31:29,960 --> 00:31:36,080
Speaker 1: a very convenient and accessible form of ballast is what water. Obviously,

564
00:31:36,520 --> 00:31:39,800
Speaker 1: so in chips that use ballast water, after they discharge cargo,

565
00:31:40,040 --> 00:31:42,520
Speaker 1: they will fill tanks in the hull up with water

566
00:31:42,600 --> 00:31:45,240
Speaker 1: for ballast and then pump the ballast water out when

567
00:31:45,240 --> 00:31:47,960
Speaker 1: they load up their hull with new cargo. So they'll

568
00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:50,880
Speaker 1: be going to one place filling up with tens of

569
00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:54,840
Speaker 1: thousands of tons of seawater than going to another place

570
00:31:54,960 --> 00:31:58,040
Speaker 1: and dumping it all out. Perhaps you can begin to

571
00:31:58,160 --> 00:32:02,080
Speaker 1: imagine how this could go wrong, because it's not just seawater.

572
00:32:02,400 --> 00:32:05,440
Speaker 1: It's not just it's not like pure water from your

573
00:32:05,600 --> 00:32:08,440
Speaker 1: your out of your brid of filter. No, it's more

574
00:32:08,480 --> 00:32:12,040
Speaker 1: like the stank water that comes out of your refrigerator filter.

575
00:32:12,280 --> 00:32:15,600
Speaker 1: Right do you have one of those? Is the refrigerator

576
00:32:15,640 --> 00:32:18,640
Speaker 1: put out nasty water? It does not put out any water. Now,

577
00:32:19,120 --> 00:32:21,240
Speaker 1: we don't get to experience that. More than half the

578
00:32:21,240 --> 00:32:22,960
Speaker 1: people I know who have one of those things that

579
00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:25,600
Speaker 1: puts out water. It puts out this water with an

580
00:32:25,600 --> 00:32:29,240
Speaker 1: other worldly funk. I don't know what's going on there.

581
00:32:29,520 --> 00:32:32,600
Speaker 1: It may be being drawn from the ocean. But yeah,

582
00:32:32,680 --> 00:32:34,840
Speaker 1: So I want to talk about a few ways that

583
00:32:34,920 --> 00:32:38,040
Speaker 1: this could really go wrong, because in alertic it's kind

584
00:32:38,040 --> 00:32:40,320
Speaker 1: of like a filter feeder. It's it's if it's as

585
00:32:40,360 --> 00:32:42,960
Speaker 1: if a large whale to one corner of the world

586
00:32:43,480 --> 00:32:45,800
Speaker 1: sucked all this stuff in and instead of digesting it,

587
00:32:45,840 --> 00:32:49,840
Speaker 1: just vomited it somewhere else. It's more like that that

588
00:32:49,920 --> 00:32:52,720
Speaker 1: ancient description of the kraken that we talked about it

589
00:32:52,760 --> 00:32:56,200
Speaker 1: I think in the Bathosphere episodes that said that it's,

590
00:32:56,440 --> 00:32:59,560
Speaker 1: you know, this giant fish that it sucks in like

591
00:32:59,680 --> 00:33:03,000
Speaker 1: mill ends of gallons of water. Basically, it sucks in

592
00:33:03,040 --> 00:33:06,160
Speaker 1: a whole ocean's worth of things and then just belches

593
00:33:06,200 --> 00:33:09,240
Speaker 1: it all out after it has partially eaten it or whatever.

594
00:33:09,480 --> 00:33:11,800
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just you're drawing in a lake basically.

595
00:33:12,440 --> 00:33:15,440
Speaker 1: Uh So, here's here's one thing that happened. I want

596
00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:18,200
Speaker 1: to talk about the jelly invasion. So we will be

597
00:33:18,200 --> 00:33:22,640
Speaker 1: looking at the carnivorous tina for Nemeopsis laity, also known

598
00:33:22,680 --> 00:33:26,040
Speaker 1: as the sea wall nut. That sounds delicious. It's I

599
00:33:26,080 --> 00:33:28,120
Speaker 1: don't know. I haven't tried it, you know. I did

600
00:33:28,160 --> 00:33:30,520
Speaker 1: forget to mention that there are varieties of barnacle you

601
00:33:30,600 --> 00:33:33,560
Speaker 1: can eat that are consumed in for instance, Japanese and

602
00:33:33,640 --> 00:33:37,160
Speaker 1: Spanish customs. So the sea walnut, it's it's a species

603
00:33:37,160 --> 00:33:40,440
Speaker 1: of comb jelly native to the east coast of the

604
00:33:40,480 --> 00:33:43,560
Speaker 1: America's So it goes sort of like along the east

605
00:33:43,600 --> 00:33:46,160
Speaker 1: coast of North America, I think somewhere around New England

606
00:33:46,440 --> 00:33:49,760
Speaker 1: and then way all the way down to Argentina. It

607
00:33:49,920 --> 00:33:52,680
Speaker 1: does not really look like a walnut to me. You

608
00:33:52,720 --> 00:33:54,960
Speaker 1: can look it up. It's more like a It's a small,

609
00:33:55,080 --> 00:33:58,320
Speaker 1: transparent comb jelly is usually just a few centimeters or

610
00:33:58,360 --> 00:34:01,800
Speaker 1: a few inches long. It's got feeding tentacles, It's got

611
00:34:01,800 --> 00:34:04,560
Speaker 1: these spiny combs running up and down the length of

612
00:34:04,600 --> 00:34:07,680
Speaker 1: the body that glow with a faint bioluminescence when the

613
00:34:07,760 --> 00:34:10,680
Speaker 1: jelly is disturbed. And so even though it is a

614
00:34:10,760 --> 00:34:13,920
Speaker 1: native to the U to the eastern coast of the

615
00:34:13,920 --> 00:34:18,440
Speaker 1: America's in the early nineteen eighties and Mimiopsis appeared in

616
00:34:18,480 --> 00:34:23,280
Speaker 1: the Black Sea and it rapidly expanded to colonize the area.

617
00:34:23,560 --> 00:34:26,440
Speaker 1: In the words of author T. A. Shiganova in a

618
00:34:26,640 --> 00:34:30,960
Speaker 1: nine paper and Fisheries Oceanography, quote, the Black Sea was

619
00:34:31,080 --> 00:34:34,640
Speaker 1: characterized until the mid nineteen seventies as a highly productive

620
00:34:34,680 --> 00:34:38,880
Speaker 1: ecosystem at all trophic levels, which by the nineteen nineties

621
00:34:38,960 --> 00:34:43,160
Speaker 1: had degraded to an ecosystem with low biodiversity dominated by

622
00:34:43,200 --> 00:34:46,840
Speaker 1: a dead end gelatinous food web. Now that may be

623
00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:50,560
Speaker 1: just technical terminology, but it sounds it sounds quite pejorative.

624
00:34:51,480 --> 00:34:54,200
Speaker 1: So the Black Sea's got this dead end gelatinous food

625
00:34:54,200 --> 00:34:57,760
Speaker 1: web now. And to quote from article and New Scientists

626
00:34:57,800 --> 00:35:01,760
Speaker 1: by Fred Pierce, quote, at one point it's biomass reached

627
00:35:01,840 --> 00:35:08,200
Speaker 1: a billion tons, ten times the world's annual fish landings.

628
00:35:08,280 --> 00:35:11,160
Speaker 1: Uh So, essentially what had been a diverse and thriving

629
00:35:11,200 --> 00:35:15,279
Speaker 1: habitat for marine life was turned into jelly hell, and

630
00:35:15,400 --> 00:35:18,840
Speaker 1: fish populations were hit really hard, especially since the sea walnut.

631
00:35:18,920 --> 00:35:21,880
Speaker 1: It hurts them in two different ways. It preys on

632
00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:25,200
Speaker 1: fish eggs and larvae directly, so it's eating up the fries,

633
00:35:25,719 --> 00:35:29,000
Speaker 1: but also it preys on zooplankton, which is a food

634
00:35:29,080 --> 00:35:31,560
Speaker 1: source for the fish. So it's just it's like a

635
00:35:31,680 --> 00:35:35,840
Speaker 1: biological apocalypse scenario. It's like like a green goose scenario,

636
00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:39,200
Speaker 1: exactly right. So you've got this species of anchovy that

637
00:35:39,280 --> 00:35:44,360
Speaker 1: was really hit hard, the ingraulis in krasicolus, and that

638
00:35:44,360 --> 00:35:48,160
Speaker 1: that was an important commercial fishery. It was catastrophically affected,

639
00:35:48,200 --> 00:35:51,000
Speaker 1: at least for a time in the nineteen nineties. Uh

640
00:35:51,040 --> 00:35:53,279
Speaker 1: that we should also note that the sea walnut was

641
00:35:53,320 --> 00:35:55,799
Speaker 1: not the only problem facing life in the Black Sea

642
00:35:55,840 --> 00:35:59,480
Speaker 1: at the time. You've got the other obvious culprits like pollution,

643
00:35:59,560 --> 00:36:02,359
Speaker 1: YouTube location and so forth lending a hand and really

644
00:36:02,400 --> 00:36:05,719
Speaker 1: screwing up this ecosystem. And given how we introduced this,

645
00:36:05,800 --> 00:36:08,200
Speaker 1: it might not be hard to guess how the jellies

646
00:36:08,280 --> 00:36:11,640
Speaker 1: from Hell ended up colonizing the Black Sea. The most

647
00:36:11,680 --> 00:36:14,960
Speaker 1: likely explanation is they were brought there by accident in

648
00:36:15,000 --> 00:36:19,799
Speaker 1: the ballast water of merchant ships. So ships somewhere that

649
00:36:19,880 --> 00:36:23,680
Speaker 1: these jellies existed naturally filled up their ballast tanks. They

650
00:36:23,719 --> 00:36:26,000
Speaker 1: went to the Black Seed to pick up some cargo,

651
00:36:26,120 --> 00:36:30,040
Speaker 1: They discharged their ballast tanks, and they spit a bunch

652
00:36:30,040 --> 00:36:32,799
Speaker 1: of jellies out into the Black Sea that quickly took root,

653
00:36:33,440 --> 00:36:36,960
Speaker 1: reproduced fast, and and colonized the entire thing and turned

654
00:36:36,960 --> 00:36:40,400
Speaker 1: it into the dead end gelatinous food web. Yeah, nobody

655
00:36:40,400 --> 00:36:43,879
Speaker 1: wants that were basically in another blob scenario, right, Yeah,

656
00:36:43,960 --> 00:36:45,799
Speaker 1: so maybe maybe you're you don't want to think about

657
00:36:45,840 --> 00:36:49,399
Speaker 1: dead en gelatinous food web. How about crab horror? Uh? So,

658
00:36:49,480 --> 00:36:51,760
Speaker 1: we we've mentioned, i think on the show before, the

659
00:36:51,960 --> 00:36:57,120
Speaker 1: invasive European green crab, the car car Kenis maynas, which

660
00:36:57,160 --> 00:36:59,719
Speaker 1: is an invasive species in North America, thought to be

661
00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:04,040
Speaker 1: read by ships being carried across the ocean and ballast water. Yeah.

662
00:37:04,160 --> 00:37:08,240
Speaker 1: I believe we touched at least briefly on the fact

663
00:37:08,280 --> 00:37:11,319
Speaker 1: that they're too small to eat, but if you have

664
00:37:11,600 --> 00:37:16,360
Speaker 1: the proper equipment and methods, you can kind of process

665
00:37:16,440 --> 00:37:19,640
Speaker 1: them down into a rather tasty broth. That's been one

666
00:37:19,680 --> 00:37:23,360
Speaker 1: of the crab stock Yeah, crab stock, Yeah, essentially. Uh.

667
00:37:23,400 --> 00:37:25,600
Speaker 1: This is, of course, has been one of the solutions

668
00:37:25,680 --> 00:37:28,399
Speaker 1: or attempted solutions to many an invasive species problem. Can

669
00:37:28,440 --> 00:37:31,719
Speaker 1: we figure out a way for us to eat them? Um?

670
00:37:31,760 --> 00:37:36,279
Speaker 1: And and will certainly come back to another invasive species

671
00:37:36,440 --> 00:37:39,640
Speaker 1: for which we often try and roll out this this option,

672
00:37:39,880 --> 00:37:43,560
Speaker 1: the rat, well man and the rat. The rat is

673
00:37:43,600 --> 00:37:46,160
Speaker 1: certainly showing up and even the finest of restaurants in

674
00:37:46,200 --> 00:37:49,960
Speaker 1: the in the world, but usually not on the plate,

675
00:37:50,760 --> 00:37:53,839
Speaker 1: at least not while anybody's looking. Right. But this isn't

676
00:37:53,840 --> 00:37:56,400
Speaker 1: the only invasive crab. Oh no, no, there are a

677
00:37:56,400 --> 00:37:59,480
Speaker 1: bunch of other species. I think we may have also

678
00:37:59,520 --> 00:38:02,520
Speaker 1: mentioned that Chinese mitten crab. It's been spread far outside

679
00:38:02,520 --> 00:38:05,799
Speaker 1: its original range and not look nearly as interesting as

680
00:38:05,800 --> 00:38:08,080
Speaker 1: the name makes it sound. It's got kind of like

681
00:38:08,200 --> 00:38:11,000
Speaker 1: it's got kind of white claws maybe that look a

682
00:38:11,040 --> 00:38:14,960
Speaker 1: little bit mitteny, but not just like full on mittens. No, no, no,

683
00:38:15,239 --> 00:38:17,600
Speaker 1: that would be cool. But uh, but it's not like

684
00:38:17,640 --> 00:38:20,120
Speaker 1: the boxing crab that has the pom poms, right, or

685
00:38:20,200 --> 00:38:23,560
Speaker 1: doesn't look like the hof crab, you know, the hydrothermal

686
00:38:23,640 --> 00:38:25,920
Speaker 1: vent lobster that had kind of kind of looks more

687
00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:28,640
Speaker 1: like it has mittens, at least to my eye. Now,

688
00:38:28,719 --> 00:38:31,880
Speaker 1: I guess comparatively, this is a relatively boring looking crab.

689
00:38:31,960 --> 00:38:35,719
Speaker 1: But it is a harmful invasive species and brought from

690
00:38:35,719 --> 00:38:39,080
Speaker 1: one place to another by the discharge of ballast water. Probably.

691
00:38:39,560 --> 00:38:44,000
Speaker 1: Now there's also there are even more tragic examples, like cholera.

692
00:38:44,719 --> 00:38:48,160
Speaker 1: So Cholera is a diarrheal disease caused by infection with

693
00:38:48,200 --> 00:38:51,880
Speaker 1: the bacterium Fibrio colora, and according to the CDC, there

694
00:38:51,880 --> 00:38:56,000
Speaker 1: are an estimated two point nine million cases of cholera infection,

695
00:38:56,400 --> 00:39:01,360
Speaker 1: leading to approximately nine thousand deaths worldwide every year. Cholera

696
00:39:01,600 --> 00:39:05,480
Speaker 1: is is a major public health menace, and it's spread

697
00:39:05,480 --> 00:39:10,600
Speaker 1: primarily through the ingestion of unclean, unwashed food and unclean

698
00:39:10,719 --> 00:39:14,880
Speaker 1: drinking water, especially say, when sewage is allowed to commingle

699
00:39:15,040 --> 00:39:18,800
Speaker 1: with water that's later used to drink or prepare food,

700
00:39:19,080 --> 00:39:22,200
Speaker 1: or or water crops or something like that. Uh. And

701
00:39:22,200 --> 00:39:25,399
Speaker 1: it's widely believed by experts that cholera is spread by

702
00:39:25,400 --> 00:39:28,600
Speaker 1: ballast water. I've seen ballast water cited by experts as

703
00:39:28,640 --> 00:39:32,200
Speaker 1: an explanation for an epidemic of cholera in South America

704
00:39:32,239 --> 00:39:35,440
Speaker 1: in the early ninety nineties that began in Peru but

705
00:39:35,520 --> 00:39:38,880
Speaker 1: spread to multiple countries and ended up killing thousands of people.

706
00:39:38,960 --> 00:39:41,959
Speaker 1: Cholera is no joke, and we should always be thinking

707
00:39:41,960 --> 00:39:44,840
Speaker 1: about ways to stop it from spreading. But by taking

708
00:39:44,840 --> 00:39:47,759
Speaker 1: in ballast water at one place and dumping it out

709
00:39:47,840 --> 00:39:50,719
Speaker 1: somewhere else, you can risk spreading cholera from one point

710
00:39:50,719 --> 00:39:52,880
Speaker 1: of the globe to another. And of course it's cases

711
00:39:52,920 --> 00:39:55,600
Speaker 1: like these that that have led to public campaigns to

712
00:39:55,680 --> 00:39:59,319
Speaker 1: require all the merchant ships to sterilize ballast water. That

713
00:39:59,440 --> 00:40:01,800
Speaker 1: this is a a thing that would help prevent spreading

714
00:40:01,880 --> 00:40:05,479
Speaker 1: harmful forms of ballast dwelling life from one place to another.

715
00:40:05,520 --> 00:40:06,960
Speaker 1: And there are plenty of ways to do this right.

716
00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:10,200
Speaker 1: You can have combinations of like filters just on intake

717
00:40:10,239 --> 00:40:14,200
Speaker 1: and outflow, your radiation biosides and all all that kind

718
00:40:14,200 --> 00:40:16,920
Speaker 1: of stuff. Everything you would expect. Yeah, because especially when

719
00:40:16,960 --> 00:40:20,319
Speaker 1: you when you really think about the sheer number of

720
00:40:20,680 --> 00:40:24,239
Speaker 1: big cargo vessels out there on the seas. You know,

721
00:40:24,560 --> 00:40:27,000
Speaker 1: we know, it's easy to sort of fall into the

722
00:40:27,040 --> 00:40:30,719
Speaker 1: trap of thinking about you know, us living in this

723
00:40:30,800 --> 00:40:34,920
Speaker 1: age that's defined by uh by air travel. But but

724
00:40:35,200 --> 00:40:38,160
Speaker 1: so many of our goods are are making their way

725
00:40:38,160 --> 00:40:41,680
Speaker 1: around the world on these giant ships. Yes, absolutely, you

726
00:40:42,160 --> 00:40:45,799
Speaker 1: use something that arrived by ship every day. Now, there

727
00:40:45,840 --> 00:40:48,719
Speaker 1: are plenty of other organisms we could chat about here. Um,

728
00:40:48,920 --> 00:40:51,719
Speaker 1: the zebra muscle, for instance, shows up a lot in

729
00:40:51,760 --> 00:40:55,000
Speaker 1: these papers. One that uh that I happened upon. I

730
00:40:55,000 --> 00:40:56,960
Speaker 1: mean I looked it up bit because when I think

731
00:40:57,000 --> 00:41:00,719
Speaker 1: of invasive aquatic species, I and help but think of

732
00:41:00,760 --> 00:41:04,120
Speaker 1: the lion fish. Now if you if you've ever looked

733
00:41:04,120 --> 00:41:07,200
Speaker 1: at well salt water with fish in it, I feel

734
00:41:07,239 --> 00:41:10,520
Speaker 1: like there's a really good chance you've seen a lion fish.

735
00:41:10,800 --> 00:41:15,160
Speaker 1: Because this also known as the zebra fish. It's confusing, well,

736
00:41:15,640 --> 00:41:18,880
Speaker 1: lion zebra it's very If you look at one, you

737
00:41:18,920 --> 00:41:22,319
Speaker 1: can it's the main thing you see is that it

738
00:41:22,400 --> 00:41:25,799
Speaker 1: has kind of a stripy ornate pattern, but also kind

739
00:41:25,800 --> 00:41:28,840
Speaker 1: of a main kind of currence. You know, it's got both,

740
00:41:29,000 --> 00:41:33,319
Speaker 1: so both in the liberty spikes. Yeah, it looks they

741
00:41:33,360 --> 00:41:36,760
Speaker 1: look super stylish. Now, when we say lionfish, that's generally

742
00:41:36,840 --> 00:41:40,440
Speaker 1: referring to several species of the genus Taros tarois, but

743
00:41:40,560 --> 00:41:43,680
Speaker 1: the most infamous member of the genus is the red

744
00:41:43,800 --> 00:41:49,239
Speaker 1: lion fish or tarois of Volatons, a beautiful and really

745
00:41:49,280 --> 00:41:52,960
Speaker 1: an almost delicate looking reef fish from the Indo Pacific

746
00:41:53,200 --> 00:41:56,799
Speaker 1: that is anything but delicate. No. These they may look

747
00:41:56,880 --> 00:42:00,600
Speaker 1: like a living Christmas ornament, but they're a spiny, venomous

748
00:42:00,680 --> 00:42:04,880
Speaker 1: carnivore that has proven itself incredibly durable and has staked

749
00:42:04,880 --> 00:42:08,439
Speaker 1: out invasive territory and warm waters around the world. Now

750
00:42:08,480 --> 00:42:10,799
Speaker 1: you can find them u all up and down the

751
00:42:10,800 --> 00:42:14,240
Speaker 1: Atlantic coast of North and South America from Rhode Island

752
00:42:14,320 --> 00:42:17,560
Speaker 1: to Brazil. Uh And they have a host of enemies

753
00:42:17,880 --> 00:42:20,680
Speaker 1: in their native waters that will gladly gobble them up,

754
00:42:21,160 --> 00:42:23,520
Speaker 1: you know, various sharks and whatnot, but they have no

755
00:42:23,719 --> 00:42:28,239
Speaker 1: natural enemies elsewhere. In fact, some would be predators in

756
00:42:28,280 --> 00:42:30,920
Speaker 1: these foreign waters. They try to eat them, but they

757
00:42:30,960 --> 00:42:33,280
Speaker 1: can't cope with the spines, right, they haven't co evolved

758
00:42:33,320 --> 00:42:36,960
Speaker 1: a defense, so you end up with just way too

759
00:42:36,960 --> 00:42:40,919
Speaker 1: many lionfish hanging out. For instance, Um, several years ago,

760
00:42:41,360 --> 00:42:43,840
Speaker 1: I went on a family trip to Jamaica and we

761
00:42:43,880 --> 00:42:45,800
Speaker 1: did a lot of snorkeling, and it was just super

762
00:42:45,840 --> 00:42:48,040
Speaker 1: cool getting to see all of these you know, natural

763
00:42:48,080 --> 00:42:50,799
Speaker 1: denizens of this little coral reef that was right off

764
00:42:51,600 --> 00:42:53,920
Speaker 1: off the coast there. It was really one of the

765
00:42:53,960 --> 00:42:58,160
Speaker 1: most magical experiences of my life. But at the same time,

766
00:42:58,280 --> 00:43:00,719
Speaker 1: you'd reach these corners, you'd see, oh, here's a lionfish here,

767
00:43:00,800 --> 00:43:02,880
Speaker 1: and here's the lionfish there, and they're not supposed to

768
00:43:02,880 --> 00:43:04,839
Speaker 1: be there. And then sometimes it would be like, oh,

769
00:43:04,920 --> 00:43:07,760
Speaker 1: here's half a dozen lion fish just hanging out together.

770
00:43:08,000 --> 00:43:10,920
Speaker 1: And yes, it's a beautiful organism. Uh And and that's

771
00:43:10,920 --> 00:43:15,560
Speaker 1: why they've been very popular as aquarium specimens, but when

772
00:43:15,600 --> 00:43:17,920
Speaker 1: they are taken out of their native waters, they just

773
00:43:18,480 --> 00:43:21,160
Speaker 1: take over. Now, why why do they wind up in

774
00:43:21,200 --> 00:43:24,400
Speaker 1: these native water as well? The most accepted theory, backed

775
00:43:24,440 --> 00:43:27,719
Speaker 1: up by a sort of limited genetic diversity and invasive populations,

776
00:43:28,080 --> 00:43:30,720
Speaker 1: is that they stem from aquarium species that were dumped

777
00:43:30,760 --> 00:43:35,359
Speaker 1: into the Atlantic Ocean around southeast Florida, UH and from

778
00:43:35,360 --> 00:43:38,560
Speaker 1: here the currents distributed their egg masses and larvae far

779
00:43:38,600 --> 00:43:44,200
Speaker 1: and wide. But ballast waters can also help distribute larval dispersion,

780
00:43:44,719 --> 00:43:47,960
Speaker 1: certainly within their adopted habitats, but some have argue that

781
00:43:47,960 --> 00:43:50,000
Speaker 1: it could have played a role in their overall expansion

782
00:43:50,000 --> 00:43:53,440
Speaker 1: as well. Um again, don't be fooled by the glamorous

783
00:43:53,440 --> 00:43:56,960
Speaker 1: look though these are. The lionfish is a hearty little monster.

784
00:43:57,200 --> 00:43:58,920
Speaker 1: You're saying that they could they could make it for

785
00:43:58,920 --> 00:44:01,360
Speaker 1: a bit in the tank. There are there are at

786
00:44:01,440 --> 00:44:04,920
Speaker 1: least anecdotal accounts of them surviving in bulge water, you know,

787
00:44:05,000 --> 00:44:08,080
Speaker 1: just sort of the mucky water and the very depths

788
00:44:08,080 --> 00:44:10,520
Speaker 1: of a ship. Over the last few decades, the world

789
00:44:10,560 --> 00:44:14,719
Speaker 1: has experienced and an exponential increase in documented marine invasions

790
00:44:14,800 --> 00:44:18,319
Speaker 1: due to the global transport of invertebrates in ballast water

791
00:44:18,360 --> 00:44:20,920
Speaker 1: as we've been touching on, and lion fish populations in

792
00:44:20,960 --> 00:44:23,799
Speaker 1: the Atlantic have increased as well. Though it's always worth

793
00:44:23,840 --> 00:44:27,359
Speaker 1: noting that there's there's more public awareness regarding the lion fish.

794
00:44:27,360 --> 00:44:30,560
Speaker 1: There have been some some um, some big campaigns to

795
00:44:30,760 --> 00:44:35,120
Speaker 1: encourage local fishermen to uh to catch lion fish and

796
00:44:35,160 --> 00:44:37,960
Speaker 1: then also reminding them like, here's how you can eat them.

797
00:44:37,960 --> 00:44:40,920
Speaker 1: Here are cooking uh here, here some preparation methods you

798
00:44:40,960 --> 00:44:44,600
Speaker 1: can employ, and I'm told that they're quite tasty. But

799
00:44:44,719 --> 00:44:46,279
Speaker 1: then also the other part of this is that they

800
00:44:46,320 --> 00:44:48,440
Speaker 1: do stand out more as well. Like when you see

801
00:44:48,440 --> 00:44:52,480
Speaker 1: a lion fish uh in its own habitat or in

802
00:44:52,800 --> 00:44:56,640
Speaker 1: an an invasive situation, it really catches your attention because

803
00:44:56,640 --> 00:44:59,040
Speaker 1: it is an eye grabbing fish. It is a fish

804
00:44:59,040 --> 00:45:03,280
Speaker 1: who's very body is alerting you to its presence and saying,

805
00:45:03,320 --> 00:45:06,120
Speaker 1: don't mess with me. Wherebert I'd say before this episode,

806
00:45:06,480 --> 00:45:10,280
Speaker 1: ballast water regulation was not something I realized was worth

807
00:45:10,320 --> 00:45:12,960
Speaker 1: caring about. Now I realized that is a very important

808
00:45:13,080 --> 00:45:17,640
Speaker 1: issue for for world ecological preservation. Absolutely. Now some of

809
00:45:17,640 --> 00:45:20,239
Speaker 1: you may be listening and wondering, well, just how many

810
00:45:20,239 --> 00:45:23,200
Speaker 1: different species can pile up in the bilge waters of

811
00:45:23,239 --> 00:45:26,640
Speaker 1: a ship like the lionfish right or or its whole

812
00:45:27,160 --> 00:45:29,200
Speaker 1: uh you know, cleaning to the side or in the ballast.

813
00:45:30,000 --> 00:45:32,799
Speaker 1: I looked at an article titled Marine Boating Habits and

814
00:45:32,840 --> 00:45:35,239
Speaker 1: the Potential for the spread of Invasive Species in the

815
00:45:35,239 --> 00:45:39,160
Speaker 1: Gulf of St. Lawrence by Darbyson at All, February two

816
00:45:39,160 --> 00:45:43,920
Speaker 1: th eight in Aquatic Invasion, Volume four. And they were

817
00:45:44,040 --> 00:45:47,120
Speaker 1: just looking at boats in the Atlantic's Gulf of St.

818
00:45:47,200 --> 00:45:50,200
Speaker 1: Lawrence in Canada, and they found that bilge water and

819
00:45:50,280 --> 00:45:54,440
Speaker 1: whole scrapings from the vessels there contained thirty one and

820
00:45:54,520 --> 00:45:58,759
Speaker 1: forty seven taxa, respectively. So that's thirty one from billage water,

821
00:45:58,920 --> 00:46:03,120
Speaker 1: forty seven from whole scrapings. And this included such invasives

822
00:46:03,239 --> 00:46:07,160
Speaker 1: as the clubbed toniquet and the green crab. All right,

823
00:46:07,239 --> 00:46:10,000
Speaker 1: And to clarify, how is bilge water different from ballast

824
00:46:10,000 --> 00:46:13,080
Speaker 1: water that's not ballast water. No. My understanding is that

825
00:46:13,120 --> 00:46:17,560
Speaker 1: bilge water is kind of it's more it's not it's

826
00:46:17,600 --> 00:46:20,000
Speaker 1: not so much intentionally taken in. It's not part of

827
00:46:20,000 --> 00:46:22,719
Speaker 1: this ballast system in these larger ships. I think it's

828
00:46:22,800 --> 00:46:25,640
Speaker 1: more like what manages to leak into the ship and

829
00:46:25,680 --> 00:46:28,920
Speaker 1: then gets pumped out later. Right. Yeah, so like older

830
00:46:28,920 --> 00:46:32,640
Speaker 1: ships like a clipper ship, Uh my understanding, would not

831
00:46:32,719 --> 00:46:35,759
Speaker 1: have had a ballast system certainly like a modern ship does,

832
00:46:35,840 --> 00:46:38,520
Speaker 1: but it would have had bilge water. Nice. Now, of course,

833
00:46:38,560 --> 00:46:41,160
Speaker 1: there are a whole host of invasive creatures that ventured

834
00:46:41,200 --> 00:46:45,399
Speaker 1: along on ships because humans intentionally brought them along. We've

835
00:46:45,400 --> 00:46:48,880
Speaker 1: already talked about the cat um we mentioned in passing

836
00:46:48,960 --> 00:46:53,880
Speaker 1: the dog. Chickens came with us as well, and also

837
00:46:53,960 --> 00:46:57,640
Speaker 1: even some some old world monkeys came along for a ride.

838
00:46:57,800 --> 00:47:01,760
Speaker 1: And this h the idea of of old world monkeys

839
00:47:02,480 --> 00:47:05,880
Speaker 1: hanging out in in in the on a ship, in

840
00:47:05,920 --> 00:47:08,680
Speaker 1: the riggings of of a ship, uh, forced me to

841
00:47:09,040 --> 00:47:13,600
Speaker 1: do a bit of a dive here looking into accounts

842
00:47:13,640 --> 00:47:18,960
Speaker 1: of animals running wild, particularly primates running wild on old ships.

843
00:47:19,760 --> 00:47:22,879
Speaker 1: And there's actually there's an account from an eight nine

844
00:47:23,120 --> 00:47:26,040
Speaker 1: edition of the Sydney Morning Herald that tells of the

845
00:47:26,120 --> 00:47:29,919
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty nine voyage of the Margaret, which sets sail

846
00:47:29,960 --> 00:47:33,560
Speaker 1: from South Africa for Boston with a cargo of something

847
00:47:33,760 --> 00:47:38,600
Speaker 1: around a hundred cockatoos, a dozen snakes, two crocodiles and

848
00:47:38,640 --> 00:47:43,359
Speaker 1: orangutang and a gorilla in various monkeys and parrots. And

849
00:47:43,360 --> 00:47:47,560
Speaker 1: this is this is a horrible story, um that that.

850
00:47:48,000 --> 00:47:51,000
Speaker 1: It's just just just full of terrible things happening. So

851
00:47:51,040 --> 00:47:53,359
Speaker 1: first of all, there were rats on board as well,

852
00:47:53,400 --> 00:47:55,840
Speaker 1: of course, and they ate all the provisions for the birds,

853
00:47:56,160 --> 00:47:59,080
Speaker 1: and that doomed most of the birds to perish. Then

854
00:47:59,160 --> 00:48:03,480
Speaker 1: bad weather released snakes and crocodiles, who then battled with

855
00:48:03,520 --> 00:48:07,200
Speaker 1: the rats. At the end of this battle, Royal, you

856
00:48:07,280 --> 00:48:10,040
Speaker 1: had one crocodile remaining, and then it was crushed by

857
00:48:10,040 --> 00:48:14,120
Speaker 1: falling cargo in another storm. And then the monkeys escaped

858
00:48:14,120 --> 00:48:16,640
Speaker 1: into the ship's rigging and the crew were only able

859
00:48:16,719 --> 00:48:20,240
Speaker 1: to recapture four of them before uh more, stormy weather

860
00:48:20,320 --> 00:48:22,480
Speaker 1: set in and swept the rest of the monkeys out

861
00:48:22,480 --> 00:48:26,279
Speaker 1: to sea. Yeah, and so they perished. And then the

862
00:48:26,320 --> 00:48:30,200
Speaker 1: gorilla also got out and allegedly threatened sailors with a truncheon.

863
00:48:30,880 --> 00:48:33,840
Speaker 1: Um there. This is a quote that's related in the

864
00:48:33,840 --> 00:48:37,360
Speaker 1: BBC article of the incident from two thousand fourteen. Quote.

865
00:48:37,400 --> 00:48:40,759
Speaker 1: Having obtained possession of an iron bar, he commanded all

866
00:48:40,800 --> 00:48:44,840
Speaker 1: objects within ten feet of where he was chained, reported

867
00:48:45,320 --> 00:48:50,640
Speaker 1: the the Devisease and Wiltshire Gazette. With this formidable truncheon,

868
00:48:50,800 --> 00:48:53,560
Speaker 1: he threatened to brain every sailor who came within range.

869
00:48:53,960 --> 00:48:57,640
Speaker 1: The cook one day, unwarily approaching, heard the bar whistling

870
00:48:57,680 --> 00:48:59,759
Speaker 1: through the air and ducked, but not in time to

871
00:48:59,760 --> 00:49:03,239
Speaker 1: say his head, which was half scalped. WHOA. So yeah,

872
00:49:03,239 --> 00:49:05,719
Speaker 1: they ended up with just a chain guerrilla throwing things

873
00:49:05,719 --> 00:49:08,319
Speaker 1: around within the ship, and they just had to put

874
00:49:08,400 --> 00:49:10,400
Speaker 1: up with it until they got back. Why is it

875
00:49:10,440 --> 00:49:13,040
Speaker 1: hard for me to feel bad for the humans? And yeah,

876
00:49:13,280 --> 00:49:16,400
Speaker 1: I don't at all. I feel bad exclusively for the

877
00:49:16,440 --> 00:49:19,120
Speaker 1: for the animals in that story. But but it does

878
00:49:19,200 --> 00:49:23,359
Speaker 1: partially answer my question about about whether monkeys could take

879
00:49:23,440 --> 00:49:26,160
Speaker 1: up in the rigging of a ship and survive, say,

880
00:49:26,400 --> 00:49:30,160
Speaker 1: you know, you know, a transatlantic voyage and set up

881
00:49:30,200 --> 00:49:33,440
Speaker 1: somewhere else, you know, purely on their their own without

882
00:49:33,480 --> 00:49:36,960
Speaker 1: the the humans enabling their journey. And I think the

883
00:49:37,000 --> 00:49:39,600
Speaker 1: answers is generally they could not. The humans would have

884
00:49:39,680 --> 00:49:41,719
Speaker 1: to help them, because they would. There are a few

885
00:49:41,719 --> 00:49:43,800
Speaker 1: cases like this where a monkey has swept out of

886
00:49:43,840 --> 00:49:47,600
Speaker 1: the rigging into the sea. I ran a car across

887
00:49:47,880 --> 00:49:51,520
Speaker 1: several accounts uh that were from an eighteen seventies six

888
00:49:51,600 --> 00:49:55,640
Speaker 1: Harper's Weekly article by Lady Vernie a. K. Francis Vernie

889
00:49:55,680 --> 00:49:59,400
Speaker 1: who lived eighteen nineteen through eighteen ninety. She mentions the

890
00:49:59,520 --> 00:50:03,719
Speaker 1: vessel on called the h MS You're Yalus and she

891
00:50:03,719 --> 00:50:06,000
Speaker 1: she writes that there was a monkey on the ship

892
00:50:06,040 --> 00:50:08,920
Speaker 1: that had allegedly gotten into the ship's rigging and there

893
00:50:09,000 --> 00:50:12,520
Speaker 1: was fear that it might wreck uh the chronometer. And indeed,

894
00:50:12,600 --> 00:50:14,759
Speaker 1: one day the monkey crept into the room where they

895
00:50:14,880 --> 00:50:17,759
Speaker 1: kept the chronometer uh and then carried it off into

896
00:50:17,800 --> 00:50:21,480
Speaker 1: the rigging. And the crew, especially like the master who

897
00:50:21,560 --> 00:50:24,440
Speaker 1: was in charge of looking after this instrument, they were

898
00:50:24,480 --> 00:50:26,480
Speaker 1: just chasing after the monkey, trying to get it back,

899
00:50:26,480 --> 00:50:29,120
Speaker 1: and finally the monkey throws it into the ocean before

900
00:50:29,120 --> 00:50:32,360
Speaker 1: they can stop him. Mice. She also writes of a

901
00:50:32,400 --> 00:50:36,000
Speaker 1: monkey on another ship that reportedly held up in the

902
00:50:36,080 --> 00:50:39,399
Speaker 1: rigging until bad weather spilled it overboard and the sea

903
00:50:39,480 --> 00:50:42,319
Speaker 1: was rough, and the captain was just like, good leave

904
00:50:42,400 --> 00:50:45,480
Speaker 1: it there. But the crew had become so attached to

905
00:50:45,640 --> 00:50:47,960
Speaker 1: the monkey it was like, you know, their mascot. At

906
00:50:48,000 --> 00:50:50,880
Speaker 1: that point they insisted, no, we're lowering a boat and

907
00:50:50,880 --> 00:50:54,520
Speaker 1: we're gonna save the monkey. They it kind of sounds

908
00:50:54,560 --> 00:50:57,359
Speaker 1: like yeah, they so he's he caves. He's like, all right,

909
00:50:57,400 --> 00:50:59,160
Speaker 1: we'll go look for the monkey. They go down in

910
00:50:59,200 --> 00:51:01,399
Speaker 1: the boat are looking around for it, and then they

911
00:51:01,440 --> 00:51:03,680
Speaker 1: look up and they see that the monkey has already

912
00:51:03,880 --> 00:51:06,959
Speaker 1: reboarded the vessel and is climbed back into the rigging. Yes,

913
00:51:07,160 --> 00:51:11,800
Speaker 1: I want to high five that monkey. Uh. There's another account,

914
00:51:11,840 --> 00:51:15,359
Speaker 1: she writes, of the monkey Jocko, who had earned its

915
00:51:15,400 --> 00:51:18,560
Speaker 1: place aboard a particular ship and was known for jealously

916
00:51:18,719 --> 00:51:24,719
Speaker 1: chucking a kitten overboard, and despite initial protest from from

917
00:51:24,800 --> 00:51:26,839
Speaker 1: from the dog from a mother dog on the ship,

918
00:51:27,280 --> 00:51:32,880
Speaker 1: it nursed a litter of puppies as well. But she

919
00:51:32,960 --> 00:51:35,960
Speaker 1: shares this quote from from one of the crew members

920
00:51:35,960 --> 00:51:39,800
Speaker 1: on this particular vessel, quote, Jocko was an abominable beast.

921
00:51:40,160 --> 00:51:42,680
Speaker 1: I could not bear him. He used to get drunk

922
00:51:42,719 --> 00:51:46,280
Speaker 1: and play underhanded tricks. Still, he was not altogether bad.

923
00:51:46,480 --> 00:51:51,000
Speaker 1: What Yeah, And and yet there's one more, she mentions,

924
00:51:51,320 --> 00:51:55,239
Speaker 1: without sighting a particular ship. Uh, an orangutan quote on

925
00:51:55,320 --> 00:51:58,160
Speaker 1: board a king's ship returning from India with a governor

926
00:51:58,239 --> 00:52:02,160
Speaker 1: general on board. Quote A most genteel person that put

927
00:52:02,200 --> 00:52:04,600
Speaker 1: on a flannel shawl every evening as soon as it

928
00:52:04,640 --> 00:52:09,080
Speaker 1: became cold. Crossing it tidily across its chest like a lady.

929
00:52:09,719 --> 00:52:12,719
Speaker 1: In this it was copying the Governor General's wife, who

930
00:52:12,800 --> 00:52:17,360
Speaker 1: was also on board. So so I guess the orangutang

931
00:52:17,480 --> 00:52:21,799
Speaker 1: was a you know, a pretty laid back passenger on

932
00:52:21,880 --> 00:52:26,320
Speaker 1: that voyage. But anyway, just a few um difficult to

933
00:52:26,360 --> 00:52:30,680
Speaker 1: substantiate stories of primates on the high seas well. Those

934
00:52:30,680 --> 00:52:34,680
Speaker 1: were a strange mix of horrifying and delightful, yes, which

935
00:52:34,760 --> 00:52:39,520
Speaker 1: I think kind of sums up human nautical adventures in general. Yeah,

936
00:52:39,680 --> 00:52:41,840
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess we're all primates on the waves.

937
00:52:43,040 --> 00:52:44,880
Speaker 1: That's true. Alright, Joe, I think it's time to go

938
00:52:44,880 --> 00:52:46,920
Speaker 1: ahead and sink this ship. To go ahead and end

939
00:52:46,920 --> 00:52:50,479
Speaker 1: this episode, to scuttle it so that in our next

940
00:52:50,520 --> 00:52:55,320
Speaker 1: episode we might discuss uh sunken ships and the habitats

941
00:52:55,400 --> 00:52:59,279
Speaker 1: they create for marine life forms. In the meantime, if

942
00:52:59,280 --> 00:53:01,040
Speaker 1: you want to check out other episodes of Stuff to

943
00:53:01,040 --> 00:53:02,640
Speaker 1: Blow your Mind, head on over to stuff to Blow

944
00:53:02,680 --> 00:53:04,600
Speaker 1: your Mind dot com. That's the mother ship. That's where

945
00:53:04,600 --> 00:53:08,000
Speaker 1: you find all the episodes. You'll find links out to

946
00:53:08,040 --> 00:53:10,120
Speaker 1: our social media accounts. You'll find a tab for our

947
00:53:10,280 --> 00:53:14,239
Speaker 1: store where you can get various shirt designs. Who knows,

948
00:53:14,280 --> 00:53:15,839
Speaker 1: we might be able to spend some sort of cool

949
00:53:15,880 --> 00:53:18,879
Speaker 1: shirt designs off of these episodes. And we didn't even

950
00:53:18,880 --> 00:53:21,120
Speaker 1: get into two squirrels. But of course we didn't even

951
00:53:21,160 --> 00:53:24,320
Speaker 1: get into squirrels here. But of course, uh, Benjamin Franklin

952
00:53:24,360 --> 00:53:26,279
Speaker 1: took one on the high Seas with him. Oh yeah,

953
00:53:26,320 --> 00:53:28,399
Speaker 1: he took it to England, only to have it get

954
00:53:28,440 --> 00:53:31,880
Speaker 1: killed by a dog, good old skug. Of course, you

955
00:53:31,880 --> 00:53:34,560
Speaker 1: can buy some shirts with squirrels on them in our store.

956
00:53:34,600 --> 00:53:35,880
Speaker 1: It's a great way to support the show. And if

957
00:53:35,880 --> 00:53:38,360
Speaker 1: you want to support our show without spending a dime,

958
00:53:38,640 --> 00:53:42,000
Speaker 1: just rate and review us wherever you get this podcast. Hey,

959
00:53:42,080 --> 00:53:44,120
Speaker 1: of course, if you haven't yet, you should check out

960
00:53:44,160 --> 00:53:49,080
Speaker 1: our other podcast, Invention, which is publishing every week on Monday. Seriously,

961
00:53:49,120 --> 00:53:51,560
Speaker 1: if you like this show, you'll probably like that show.

962
00:53:51,719 --> 00:53:54,080
Speaker 1: You should give it a listen and subscribe that that

963
00:53:54,120 --> 00:53:56,040
Speaker 1: would be another way to help us out immensely. But

964
00:53:56,120 --> 00:53:58,160
Speaker 1: we think you'll love it and you'll be glad you did.

965
00:53:58,719 --> 00:54:01,200
Speaker 1: As for the show, Huge banks, as always to our

966
00:54:01,239 --> 00:54:05,680
Speaker 1: excellent audio producers Alex Williams and Tori Harrison. If you

967
00:54:05,680 --> 00:54:08,400
Speaker 1: would like to get in touch with us directly with feedback,

968
00:54:08,440 --> 00:54:11,440
Speaker 1: on this episode or any other UH to suggest topic

969
00:54:11,480 --> 00:54:13,800
Speaker 1: for the future, or just to say hello send some

970
00:54:13,920 --> 00:54:17,200
Speaker 1: friendly greetings. You can email us at blow the Mind

971
00:54:17,400 --> 00:54:29,880
Speaker 1: at how stuff works dot com for more on this

972
00:54:30,080 --> 00:54:32,600
Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works

973
00:54:32,600 --> 00:54:40,560
Speaker 1: dot com. B