WEBVTT - Ships of Life: Stowaways 0:00:00.000 --> 0:00:05.520 By Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how 0:00:05.559 --> 0:00:14.240 Stuff Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow 0:00:14.240 --> 0:00:16.599 your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb, and I'm Joe 0:00:16.680 --> 0:00:19.320 McCormick and Robert. You remember back in the day when 0:00:19.360 --> 0:00:23.840 we did that pair of episodes about urban evolution, about 0:00:23.840 --> 0:00:27.560 how certain animals and plants were adapting to the ways 0:00:27.680 --> 0:00:30.520 that humans are changing the landscape on the surface of 0:00:30.560 --> 0:00:33.680 the Earth, changing it to build cities, to build suburbs 0:00:33.720 --> 0:00:36.200 and all that. And and along with all this change 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:42.800 in the landscape come new ecological niches, new opportunities for nutrition, 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:47.199 new ways of surviving, new new incentives and disincentives, and 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:50.040 along with that you get this whole new brand of 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:53.040 evolution is the kinds of creatures that evolved to live 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:57.040 in environments that we've created. Now, of course, it's easy 0:00:57.080 --> 0:00:59.480 to think about ways that that might happen in in 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:02.560 city is on land, but you can also think about 0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:06.319 the fact that sometimes people refer to like aircraft carriers 0:01:06.360 --> 0:01:10.280 and large naval vessels as a city at sea, So 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:13.120 that starts to maybe make you wonder, is the same 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:17.080 thing happening with our large water craft? Are we creating 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:21.679 sort of urban marine environments in which in which all 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:24.840 new types of evolutionary niches are created. This is a 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:26.880 great question, and this is a question we're going to 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:30.600 dive into, uh in this at one point almost literally 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:33.800 right uh, in this two part exploration of stuff to 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:35.600 boil your mind. The first episode here is going to 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:40.080 focus on functional ships, ships at sea at large, and 0:01:40.120 --> 0:01:42.880 then we're going to talk in the second episode about 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:47.280 what very often happens to ships at sea. Eventually they 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:49.760 wind up at the bottom of the sea, right they 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:53.080 wind up at shipwrecks, and in in either case there 0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:56.720 are all these wonderful examples of how life adapts to 0:01:56.880 --> 0:02:01.560 this unnatural structure, this unnatural uh floating, be it a 0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:04.400 floating you know, city of floating, an aircraft carrier, or 0:02:04.440 --> 0:02:07.480 just a mere dinghy blister in barnacles. Am I so 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:10.400 excited to talk about this stuff today? Yes? Now, I 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:12.760 do want to throw in just a quick note, uh. 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:15.440 We are going to talk about some of the dire 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:19.360 consequences of ships, but we're not going to get into 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:21.760 some of the particulars. Some of these we've talked about 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:25.600 on the show, concerning say, ship strikes and propellor injuries 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:30.920 to uh. To various organisms or sonic distress that can 0:02:30.960 --> 0:02:35.000 occur just thanks to the sheer volume that just the 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:39.160 noise created by all of these large vessels let's see, 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:41.760 and some of the technologies they utilize. So not so 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:46.080 much the direct kinetic conflict between ships and wildlife, but 0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:50.240 more like the the adaptations. Right, look at the non 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:53.760 human organisms that managed to thrive on ships, even though 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:57.360 in some cases their their their ability to thrive manages 0:02:57.400 --> 0:03:00.520 to upset the balance of nature. Now, if I were 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:03.560 to start thinking about this topic, not knowing anything else, 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:06.440 the first organism that would come to my mind is 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:11.239 the barnacle. Yes, the barnacle. Uh. The barnacle is irresistible 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:14.720 because when you think of of ships, uh, you and 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:17.520 you try and focus in on organisms that are gaming 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:22.040 the system, the barnacle is just impossible to ignore. I'd say. 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:26.239 Barnacle is also a top five funny sounding word. Barnacle. Yeah, 0:03:26.400 --> 0:03:28.639 it kind of sounds like it's got that that K 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:33.360 sound that's always humorous in the in the English language, 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:36.800 and then it starts with like a barney sound. Um. 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:39.880 But as ridiculous as they sound, they can it gets 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:42.960 pretty serious at times. Well, so I only think of 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:46.080 barnacles as growing on ships, but that can't be the 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:48.920 only place they grow. So what does the natural home 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:51.360 of a barnacle. Well, you do have some species of 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:55.000 barnacle that thrive in other situations, such as the particular 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:58.760 variety of barnacle that is parasitic to a particular species 0:03:58.760 --> 0:04:03.720 of crab that grows up you know, under its it's plating. Yikes. Yeah, 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:05.360 it's pretty pretty nasty. I think this is the one 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:08.600 that essentially like castrates the male crabs in uh, in 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:13.160 its you know, parasitic manipulation, brutal, Yeah, but especially ironic 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:17.520 given the size of barnacle genitalia. Yeah, but which we'll 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:20.040 get to in a in a bit here. But but 0:04:20.080 --> 0:04:22.360 for the most part, when you're talking about barnacles, you're 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:27.880 talking about barnacles that cling to rocks, and then along 0:04:27.880 --> 0:04:30.679 comes the whole of a ship, and it often presents 0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:35.440 a very rock like surface on which it can attach. Yeah. Now, 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:38.640 the barnacle is a pretty interesting organism in its own right, 0:04:38.680 --> 0:04:42.280 without even getting into the complexity of ships. They're they're 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:45.719 they're a sessile suspension feeder, but they have two active 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:49.880 swimming larval stages, so that the final version. The the 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:53.960 you know, the adult mature barnacle is indeed that little 0:04:54.080 --> 0:04:56.840 crusty thing that's that's living on the rock around the 0:04:56.839 --> 0:04:58.800 whole of the ship. That's the full vult that's the 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:01.200 full vultron. Yes, there are two stages before that where 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:05.120 they're free, free swimming their marine arthropods related to crabs 0:05:05.120 --> 0:05:08.360 and lobsters. And they begin life as as these freshly 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:13.520 hatched larvae uh free moving plankton like creatures, and then 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:17.520 they developed through several mold stages into a a a 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:20.240 larva stage which seeks out a nice rock or a 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:22.560 rock like surface like the bottom of a ship to 0:05:22.600 --> 0:05:27.080 call home. It positions itself, it's secrete cell shell platings 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:29.440 around it, and then it just never moves. It depends 0:05:29.520 --> 0:05:32.080 on if it's attached to a rock. It's probably depending 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:34.839 on on the tides, for instance, to bring food close 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:39.280 enough for it to snatch up with its grasping sire sirie, 0:05:39.360 --> 0:05:44.080 how do you spell that? Ce i r r I siri? Nice? So, 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:48.200 So this is like the world's most lethargic full vultron. Yeah, 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:51.120 I mean basically they just set up shop and they 0:05:51.240 --> 0:05:55.279 depend upon you know, the cyclical nature of of the 0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:57.200 waters to bring them what they need to eat, and 0:05:57.200 --> 0:05:58.960 then they grab it. You know, there are actually a 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:01.320 lot of organisms this in the ocean, and we'll talk 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:04.039 about a couple of other ones throughout these episodes. But 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:07.120 what the barnacle has in common with several other of 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:10.039 these organisms is that, like he has multiple stages of life, 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:13.400 including a free moving stage of life, and then later 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:16.640 it settles down and becomes sessile or immobile and just 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:18.880 stays in one place and sort of reaches out for 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:22.200 food and mating opportunities. So I've read they were roughly 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:26.000 somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty different species of barnacle. 0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:30.000 And among shore barnacles, their habitat comes down to not 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:33.359 only region, but also shore level. So you know, some 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:36.839 are gonna like different different levels of shade. For instance, 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:40.800 some cluster amid high energy shore waves, you know, where 0:06:40.800 --> 0:06:44.320 there's just a lot of circulation, a lot of crashing waves, 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:48.400 while others actually attached so far upshore that waters only 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:51.080 rise high enough for them to feed like a couple 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:54.000 of times a month. So you can already imagine that 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:56.680 there might be some like costs and benefits to that 0:06:56.760 --> 0:06:58.440 kind of lifestyle. Like if you're in one of those 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:01.600 high energy wave region, I bet it's like that's really 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:03.719 hard on you with the water hitting you all the time, 0:07:03.760 --> 0:07:06.640 but it probably also provides a lot more opportunities for 0:07:06.680 --> 0:07:10.360 food to reach you, if stuff's coming in a lot, right, Yeah, exactly. 0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:13.520 And of course, the main barnacle topic of interest here 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:17.160 today is the manner by which they attached to artificial structures. Um, 0:07:17.440 --> 0:07:21.440 they attached to wharfs, uh, any kind of structure that 0:07:21.480 --> 0:07:24.400 we have built and placed in the water, but particularly 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:27.600 UH they are infamous for attaching to the holes of ships. 0:07:27.920 --> 0:07:30.160 Now this may come as no surprise to our more 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:33.280 nautical listeners, anybody out there who has been any amount 0:07:33.280 --> 0:07:36.000 of time at sea or has you know, served in UH, 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:38.720 in the in the navy or whatnot. But barnacles are 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:42.320 a huge problem for ships, and they have been been 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:45.520 a problem for ships as long as we've had marine vessels. 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:50.360 Ancient seafaring people had to contend with the accumulation of barnacles. 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:53.400 And we do mean accumulation because we're not talking just 0:07:53.520 --> 0:07:57.880 a handful of organisms. We're talking in some cases tons 0:07:58.000 --> 0:08:00.920 of barnacles, literal tons of barn uncles, and they don't 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:04.720 just attach, They grow into the surface and formed dense 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:08.840 calcium deposits underneath the paint. And the technical name for 0:08:08.880 --> 0:08:14.480 this growth on ships is biofouling nice, which which is misleading, right, 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:17.160 because I mean they're the barnacles just doing what it 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:20.640 is evolved to do. You you could make the argument, 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:23.800 I mean we're kind of biofouling and they're just biofouling 0:08:23.840 --> 0:08:27.119 as well. Everybody's biofouling. Yeah, I mean, if we're really 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:30.480 tellying up biofouls, we should have biofouled out as a 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:33.080 species by now. Oh yes, And I think I think 0:08:33.080 --> 0:08:38.839 that that becomes obvious throughout these podcast episodes. So how 0:08:38.880 --> 0:08:42.000 did ancient people contend with barnacles? Well, there were two 0:08:42.400 --> 0:08:46.160 time tested methods here. The first and the most popular 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:49.160 option that is still practiced today is to just periodically 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:51.720 dry dock a vessel, bring it up out of the water, 0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:54.600 and just scrape all the barnacles off the hull and 0:08:54.600 --> 0:08:56.839 then repaint it because of course the they're gonna pull 0:08:56.880 --> 0:09:00.320 the paint away with them. That sounds difficult, Yes, yeah, 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:04.800 it's difficult. It's costly, especially with larger vessels, and it 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:07.760 takes your ship out of commission for a little bit. 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:12.359 Right now, Another uh tactic that they had at their disposal, 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:15.560 some had their disposal anyway, it was too periodically dock 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:19.520 your saltwater vessel in freshwater so as to kill off 0:09:19.720 --> 0:09:23.800 some barnacles. Because barnacles are a marine species, you don't 0:09:24.160 --> 0:09:27.160 they're not gonna thrive in freshwater. So it but it 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:30.200 depends on the species. Apparently it's four to six hours 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:33.280 that's enough freshwater to kill some species, while others require 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:37.120 upwards of fifty hours. And they're apparently reports of ships 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:40.280 retaining their barnacles after being docked in freshwater for something 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:43.719 like thirty five months. So it doesn't it's not like 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:46.840 you just bring it into the freshwater and just watch 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:49.719 them all fall off necessarily. You've got a few tough 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:53.240 guys in there. Now some stats about why barnacles are bad, 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:55.840 just to really just drive home, like you know, why 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:57.960 you don't want to a ship's hole just encrusted with 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:00.560 these things and some of these stats. It's come from 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:04.520 a really insightful um but of course kind of jovial 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:09.640 April Edition article in addition of popular mechanics, does it 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:12.360 have puns. Um. I think it's gonna do a few 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:14.720 puns here and there, but these are mostly just the 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:18.040 facts here. This article pointed out that fifty to a 0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:21.200 hundred tons of barnacles they may be removed from a 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:25.520 single scraping from some larger vessels, while very large vessels 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:29.280 may produce two hundred to three hundred tons of barnacles. 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:32.959 So think about ship carrying that much extra weight. Think 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:35.920 about you yourself carrying that much extra weight or something 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:38.520 more proportional to the human body around with you just 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:43.240 didn't sheer, uh, you know, essentially parasite weight. So this 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:47.440 could be like over a hundred cars worth of barnacles. Yeah, 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:49.840 that is crazy to think about. I mean, look at 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:52.200 it this way. A really large vessel may have an 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:55.600 acre or more of space for barnacles if you just 0:10:55.679 --> 0:10:59.160 imagine it just folded out flat, like a field of barnacles, 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:02.679 the unsuccessful sequel to Field of dreams. Yes, and as 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:05.160 you can imagine, this sort of accumulation can impact the 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:10.480 effectiveness of a vessel. It increases the frictional resistance, requiring 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:13.960 from one fifth to one third more fuel to operate 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:17.120 and reducing speed by one fourth. To one third of 0:11:17.160 --> 0:11:21.080 its optimal like d barnacled speed. And then on top 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:23.640 of this, you know, especially by modern estimates, it can 0:11:23.640 --> 0:11:26.320 reduce the fuel economy of a vessel by up and 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:30.240 this increases c O two emissions. So uh, yeah, they're 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:33.000 all these additional effects that spill off from just having 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:37.400 to drag all these extra organisms around with you. Now 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:40.679 that you've been describing all this, the barnacle based torture 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:43.320 method idea starts to make a lot more sense. Oh, 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:45.520 you talk about keel hauling. Yeah, I don't know much 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:48.840 about it, but I know it involves barnacles, so you know, 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:50.640 we I feel like maybe we'd have to hand it 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:52.840 off probably to like ridiculous history for them to do, 0:11:53.000 --> 0:11:55.880 you know, proper history of kuel hauling, because it's one 0:11:55.880 --> 0:11:58.800 of these things that is that that everyone pretty pretty 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:00.880 much agreed with bar barring. But here's the basic idea. 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:03.440 You take a pirate or sailor whoever is on board 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:06.880 that you're just pleased with. Is this something pirates would do? 0:12:07.360 --> 0:12:09.560 There are accounts of pirates doing it, and there are 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:12.800 account they're also accounts of of it happening on naval vessels. 0:12:13.840 --> 0:12:17.760 But it you know, it was long seen is just 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:20.640 a barbaric thing that that was frowned upon in many 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:24.679 different naval traditions, but other places considered it a viable punishment. 0:12:25.080 --> 0:12:28.280 But the ideas that you would you would rope somebody up, 0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:30.640 throw them over the front of the vessel, and then 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:34.160 they would be dragged banged under the hole and then 0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:35.760 come up on the other side. I would come up 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:37.680 in the back of the vessel, and of course that 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:42.000 whole is covered in yield barnacles. Yeah, so although the 0:12:42.679 --> 0:12:46.679 shell scraping into your body, lacerating you on top of you, 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:50.080 you just you know, slamming into the whole of the ship. Uh, 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:52.360 that that alone could be enough to kill you. And 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:56.400 then of course the drowning risk the cold waters in 0:12:56.440 --> 0:12:59.680 many cases. So yeah, it's a pretty pretty grotesque thing 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:03.640 due to somebody. Uh, but it certainly becomes more grotesque 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:07.120 when you consider acres of barnacles. That is awful. Now, 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:09.959 you mentioned earlier ancient sailors dealing with the problem of 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:14.600 barnacles and coming up with solutions. One particularly effective solution 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:18.320 was copper. Oh copper, I mean, copper is a metal 0:13:18.360 --> 0:13:20.640 we had access to for a long time, even before 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:23.640 we had bronze, we had copper. Yeah, so you saw 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:27.319 the ancient Greeks and the Romans, for instance, using copper 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:31.000 nails on the whole of their vessels. Uh. Later in 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:34.560 the eighteenth century, the British Navy sheathed its wooden holes 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:37.920 and copper um in part to deal with the barnacles, 0:13:37.920 --> 0:13:40.720 but also to deal with shipworms, which we'll we'll touch 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:43.120 on later. Now you're probably wondering why copper, Why does 0:13:43.160 --> 0:13:45.719 copper work? You know, because just it's not that it's 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:49.360 a metal alone, because we have steel holes that's still 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:53.440 become covered with barnacles. Well, the reason is because in 0:13:53.480 --> 0:13:57.080 the water a toxic film forms on copper that repels 0:13:57.160 --> 0:14:00.640 barnacle larvae and this is even them inside. It as 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:03.800 a potential factor in the superiority of the British Navy 0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:07.120 at the time they had the copper plated holes, and 0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:10.520 so the ships were just that much more efficient than 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:14.120 all of the competing vessels because they had just far 0:14:14.240 --> 0:14:17.160 fewer literal hangars on on the holes. Now do you 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:19.760 know if they were coated in copper specifically for this 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:22.840 reason intentionally or was that just a happy accident. Now 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:25.640 it was it was to deal with barnacles and shipworms. 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:28.680 But of course the age of the wooden warship came 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:31.400 to an end in favor of steel, and in this 0:14:31.560 --> 0:14:34.640 you end up losing your copper advantage. Now you can 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:38.280 use copper laced paints, but these particles leach out, and 0:14:38.360 --> 0:14:40.920 in doing so they end up hurting vulnerable organisms that 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:44.680 aren't attaching to your hole, like salmon and oysters, meanwhile 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:46.760 depleting the paint of its protective power, so you end 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:50.040 up having to deal with the barnacles again. Anyway, then 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:53.240 there have been other poison based methods as well, So 0:14:53.960 --> 0:14:58.359 lacing your whole paint with arsenic mercury strict nine cyanide 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:02.440 tin apparently pretty effective, but you end up with the 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:06.600 same consequences, just killing sea life wherever the ship goes, 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:10.080 because it's just raining down death, just poisoning the ocean. Yeah, 0:15:10.280 --> 0:15:14.360 apparently the since that, the synthetic drug metatomadine has proven 0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:17.760 pretty effective. According to a two thousand eleven article in 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:21.840 Popular Science by Joshua Saul, the drug quote activates the 0:15:21.960 --> 0:15:26.240 octopamine receptor, is similar to adrenaline receptors in barnacle larvae, 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:28.600 causing them to flee. So in other words, it just 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:32.640 like cranks them up on barnacle math and so that 0:15:32.680 --> 0:15:35.640 they can't settle in. Then they end up swimming off. 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:38.520 It wears when it wears off, but they end up 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:40.920 you know, they don't fix themselves to the whole. They're 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:43.440 like Jason, stay them in that movie exactly. You're not 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:46.040 gonna You're not gonna see Jason stay them in those 0:15:46.040 --> 0:15:48.720 cranked movies, like settle down anywhere. No, he's gonna be 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:52.440 in constant motion. Uh. Now some other solutions have also 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:55.800 been presented UH many in recent years, such as the 0:15:55.920 --> 0:15:59.920 use of a robotic whole bio mimetic underwater grooming system 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:03.280 or whole bug. So that'd be sort of like a 0:16:03.360 --> 0:16:06.760 Remora fish for your for your shift, go along and 0:16:06.800 --> 0:16:10.000 clean a whole room, but if you will, okay um. 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:13.680 There also have been new chemical approaches that depend on 0:16:14.000 --> 0:16:16.120 in some cases, you know, on natural chemicals that have 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:20.440 been found in um in other organisms, bio mimetic approaches 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:23.840 that are based on say, shark skin or other uh 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:29.080 surfaces or structures skin, other skin inspired whole hydro gels. 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:32.640 And then there's been some some research concerning bacterial solutions 0:16:32.680 --> 0:16:37.960 as well. UH but barnacles remain a problem. They've they've 0:16:38.080 --> 0:16:41.360 performed exceedingly well and they continue to do so. Some 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:43.320 of the ships they grow on stick to a very 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:46.720 small geographic area. Uh, some don't move at all, especially 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:48.480 if they say, you know, sink to the bottom of 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:50.680 the sea, as we'll get to in their second episode. 0:16:50.960 --> 0:16:53.120 But one interesting byproduct of all of this is that 0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:56.360 it's enabled barnacles to travel in ways that they never 0:16:56.480 --> 0:17:00.000 did in pre modern or even pre human time. Well. Yeah, 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:03.200 especially in their their later stages of life. Barnacles are 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:05.080 not light footed. You know, they're not going to be 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:08.560 hiking around unless they happen to end up on something 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:11.760 that travels with them. Right. And then, remember, you know, 0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:15.320 even though this is the endpoint, barnacles do breed. The 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:17.560 cycle of life is going to continue, and it's going 0:17:17.560 --> 0:17:22.719 to continue with those plankton like um mobile larvae. And 0:17:22.720 --> 0:17:25.040 while we're on the subject of barnacle breeding, if you've 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:29.040 never looked up barnacle penises, that's worth of google. Well. 0:17:29.080 --> 0:17:32.119 The barnacle penises, i think are just one of either 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:36.080 the largest or one of the largest like penis to 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:41.119 body size ratio in in the entire animal kingdom because 0:17:41.520 --> 0:17:44.200 obviously they can't like move around to find a mate, 0:17:44.200 --> 0:17:46.920 so they essentially have to reach to find a mate, 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:49.639 and so there isn't a very strong incentive to have 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:53.360 a ridiculously long penis, and that is what a lot 0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:55.840 of these little creatures have, so that they're not only 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:58.520 clinging to your whole, feeding from your whole, they're also 0:17:58.600 --> 0:18:01.919 breeding on the whole of your ship up. So this 0:18:02.040 --> 0:18:05.240 scenario with the you know, the ships encrusted with barnacles, 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:09.840 and then the ships moving around, uh sometimes across the 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:12.600 surface of the globe. This has led to the spread 0:18:12.680 --> 0:18:17.639 of various invasive barnacle species linking coastal inco ecosystems that 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:20.159 would have never come into contact with with one another, 0:18:20.200 --> 0:18:24.760 otherwise threatening to biodiversity in the process. And certainly barnacles 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:27.240 are just one part of the problem. But even in 0:18:27.280 --> 0:18:30.240 two thousand and eight, according to Assessing the Global Threat 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:34.040 of Invasive Species to marine biodiversity by Muhlner at All 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:37.440 published in Frontiers and Ecology and the Environment, as few 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:41.640 as sixteen percent of marine ecosystems were unaffected by invaders, 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:43.720 and they stressed that these figures might be off due 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:47.000 just to under reporting. I mean previously, if you had 0:18:47.040 --> 0:18:52.000 asked me to think about the invasive species threats caused 0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:56.920 by ocean travel on boats, I primarily would have thought 0:18:56.920 --> 0:19:00.760 of terrestrial animals stowing away in car go holds or 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:03.439 on boats and then getting moved from say, one island 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:07.800 to another. Yeah, I would not really have considered much 0:19:07.960 --> 0:19:12.000 the marine ecosystems that are brought along by the parts 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:14.680 of the boat that are underwater or maybe even filled 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:16.280 with water, which we can get to in a bit. 0:19:17.160 --> 0:19:18.920 But before we do that, first of all, we're gonna 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:22.360 take a break, and then we're going to discuss another 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:27.520 very notable infamous ship hopping organism. And this one resides 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:33.640 inside the hole a rascal with lungs. Thank alright, we're back. 0:19:34.400 --> 0:19:36.200 So what do you think it is? What's the other 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:38.240 big organism that comes to mind when you think about 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:42.280 about the ships at sea? Hyenas? That would be good. 0:19:42.280 --> 0:19:45.959 I didn't run across any any particular mention of hyenas. 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:48.440 Uh No, it's got to be the rat, right, it 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:51.840 has to be the rat, the rat man. What's the 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:55.040 most prominent religion with a rat god? Because I want 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:58.399 to join that one. I mean, rats are impressive. You 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:02.240 just gotta hand it to them. They know what's up. Well, 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:06.280 it does remind me that the Ganesha has a has 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:08.480 a rat as a vehicle, you know, and the rat 0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:13.680 does have have some importance in different corners of Hinduism. 0:20:13.720 --> 0:20:15.840 But but the idea of a of a rat is 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:17.920 a vehicle, a thing that would you know, that would 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:21.080 move you, that would move the remover of obstacles. Uh. 0:20:21.200 --> 0:20:24.040 That that fits perfectly what we know of the rat. 0:20:24.160 --> 0:20:27.520 Like the rat has gone everywhere that humans have gone. 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:31.280 It is our our our furry secretive shadow, I mean, 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:36.479 after like micro organisms that live inside our bodies. Is 0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:41.080 there anything more inherently linked to human civilization that we 0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:43.240 take with us everywhere we go to the extent of 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:45.720 a rat. I can't think of one. No, I mean, 0:20:45.920 --> 0:20:49.119 I guess maybe cockroaches are perhaps another example. But in 0:20:49.160 --> 0:20:51.800 both cases we're dealing with with animals that have been 0:20:51.840 --> 0:20:54.480 with us as long as we've had surplus food, you know, 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:57.320 as long as we've been growing enough to say, oh, 0:20:57.400 --> 0:21:00.600 I'll save this for later. The rats have been around 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:04.080 um and and so as long as we've been piling 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:08.680 some of the surplus uh material into ships or boats 0:21:09.080 --> 0:21:11.240 the rats have been willing to come on board and 0:21:11.240 --> 0:21:13.080 and find a place to hide if there is at 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:16.000 all room for them. Now, I wonder what makes a 0:21:16.080 --> 0:21:18.960 rat decide to join the navy, Like, not all rats 0:21:19.000 --> 0:21:21.200 do this. Some rats just hang out, but other ones 0:21:21.800 --> 0:21:24.520 they go into the boats. And they're the ones that 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:28.200 that settled the new rat frontiers. Do we know what 0:21:28.359 --> 0:21:31.080 makes one decide to do that? Well, I mean it's 0:21:31.080 --> 0:21:33.840 the available food. It's it's just but we're gonna get 0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:38.080 into like some slight differences here between the brown rat 0:21:38.119 --> 0:21:41.080 and the black rat as far as it's willingness to 0:21:41.119 --> 0:21:43.680 go to sea. Now, I should also point out that 0:21:43.720 --> 0:21:49.000 in addition to always having ship rats, we've also always 0:21:49.040 --> 0:21:52.480 had ship cats to deal with the problem. Like even 0:21:52.520 --> 0:21:56.640 even on like ancient Egyptian river boats, the cats were there. Um, 0:21:58.040 --> 0:22:00.880 if you go back into the vikings had ats for instance. 0:22:01.000 --> 0:22:03.280 I didn't know that, yeah uh. And then we'll have 0:22:03.320 --> 0:22:06.280 some examples later on of other know, some menagerie's living 0:22:06.280 --> 0:22:09.720 aboard sea going vessels. Um, But it's one of those 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:11.800 as with the cat in with the dog. You know, 0:22:11.840 --> 0:22:15.640 there's this mix of purpose and companionship, Like the cat 0:22:15.760 --> 0:22:18.600 is there, the cat is amusing you have a little 0:22:18.840 --> 0:22:22.399 antisocial but then it occasionally kills a rat or a 0:22:22.440 --> 0:22:25.200 mouse that would otherwise try and get into your provisions 0:22:25.280 --> 0:22:27.960 or your cargo. Okay, question just popped into my mind 0:22:28.040 --> 0:22:32.200