The Deep-Sea Podcast

Episode Summary
Here’s our fifth episode of The Deco-Stop; a deeper look into the humans behind deep-sea science and technology. We’ve done our science dive, and now it’s time to decompress, and discuss tales at sea, career paths and the social & political aspects of deep-sea science. We have gazed into the abyss, and now it's gazing back at us.

 

In this episode Thom gets his game on with the creative team behind two incredible Deep-Sea inspired and supportive board games: Finspan and Endeavor: Deep-Sea. Join us for this behind-the-scenes chat with the developers of some deeply authentic and enjoyable deep-sea-inspired board games.  

 

Check out our lovely new website where you can find more detailed notes, images and links to the wider reading.

In this episode…
Welcome back to the Deep-Sea Podcast, your punk take on all things deep sea! 

 

In our fifth instalment of the Deco Stop series, Thom gets his game on with the creative team behind two incredible Deep-Sea-inspired and supportive board games. We hear from Michael O'Connell, the co-designer of Finspan, who gives us an insider look into the development of this game for 'fish people' which features ocean zonation, the creation of your own personal eco-system and the midnight zone- filled with some of our favourite deep-sea cuties. Thom also talks with Jarratt and Carl, the creative duo behind Endeavor: Deep-Sea, an award-winning deep-sea inspired board game that uses real-life research and events to craft a deeply authentic gameplay akin to real deep-sea research team experiences.

 

 As one of our infrequent in-person interviews, this one hums with personal connection, bringing another heartwarming Deco-Stop Episode all about the human aspect of the deep-sea community to you, our much-appreciated listeners. 

Support the show
The podcast is self-sustaining (just) thanks to our lovely listeners. Thom and Alan take no money for the show. All money is put back into running it. Here’s a link to our page on how to support us, from the free options to becoming a patron of the show. Check out our podcast merch here!

 

Feel free to get in touch with us with questions or your own tales from the high seas on:

podcast@deepseapod.com

We’d love to actually play your voice, so feel free to record a short audio note on our brand new answerphone!

https://www.speakpipe.com/deepseapodvoicemail

Thanks again for tuning in; we’ll deep-see you next time!

 

Find out more
Social media
BlueSky: @deepseapod.com

https://bsky.app/profile/deepseapod.com

 

Twitter: @DeepSeaPod

https://twitter.com/DeepSeaPod

 

Instagram: @deepsea_podcast

https://www.instagram.com/deepsea_podcast/

 

Keep up with the team on social media
Twitter: 
Alan - @Hadalbloke

https://twitter.com/Hadalbloke

Thom - @ThomLinley 

https://twitter.com/ThomLinley

Instagram: 
Thom - @thom.linley 

https://www.instagram.com/thom.linley/

Inkfish - @inkfishexpeditions

https://www.instagram.com/inkfishexpeditions/

BlueSky:
Thom @thomaslinley.com

https://bsky.app/profile/thomaslinley.com

 Alan @hadalbloke

https://bsky.app/profile/hadalbloke.bsky.social

 

Reference list
Interview Links
Finspan
Finspan – Stonemaier Games

Sharks & Reefs Expansion - Finspan

Anarchytabletop.bsky.social

 

Endeavor Deep-Sea
Endeavor: Deep Sea, Standard Edition $59USD | Burnt Island Games

Endeavor Deep Sea: Uncharted Waters by Burnt Island Games — Kickstarter

Wellycon

Discoveries from the deep – the Bounty Trough expedition | Te Papa’s Blog

Credits
Theme: Going Home by Harvey Jones

C-C-C-C-CROSSOVER!
Ocean Trenches Explained with Professor Alan Jamieson. 
Join Professor Alan Jamieson, one of our venerated hosts, for a special cross over episode with our friends at Oceanography. This hadal trenches primer episode is a great overview for a first time deep-diver, taking you to the deepest parts of our favorite habitat. 

Ocean trenches are Earth’s deepest habitats—and they’re full of life. This episode is a guided dive into the hadal zone (6,000–11,000 meters), where tectonic plates create steep trenches that plunge toward the mantle. Learn what trenches are geologically, what conditions are like at full ocean depth (cold, pressure, darkness), and why the deep sea isn’t a single ecosystem—each trench is its own world. You’ll also get myth-busting on how “the abyss” shows up in pop culture, plus an inside look at the technology that makes trench science possible: multibeam mapping, baited landers, and human-occupied submersibles. Finally, we explore the big research questions scientists are asking about biodiversity, evolution, and connectivity across the deepest ocean.

 

Special thanks to the Monterey Bay Aquarium for sponsoring this episode.

Episode Guest: Professor Alan Jamieson

Browse Professor Jamieson’s publications on Google Scholar

Visit the Hadal Zone Deep Sea Research Center and follow their work on Instagram

Episode Transcript  and more information on the Pine Forest Media website

Follow Pine Forest Media on Instagram @pineforestmedia

Hosted, produced, and edited by Clark Marchese 

Cover art by Jomiro Eming

Theme music by Nela Ruiz

C-C-C-C-CROSSOVER!
What is the Deep-Sea Even Like? With Dr. Thomas Linley
Join Dr. Thom Linley, one of our venerated hosts, for a special cross over episode with our friends at Oceanography. This deep-sea primer episode is a great overview for a first time deep-diver, taking you to the very heart of our favorite habitat. 

What is the deep sea — really? Deep-sea researcher Dr. Thom Linley (Curator of Fishes at Te Papa Tongarewa, National Museum of New Zealand) breaks down the deep ocean as a connected world with distinct zones, ecosystems, and rules — not one mysterious “blob.” From the bathyal and abyssal to the hadal trenches, this conversation maps what’s down there, how life survives crushing pressure and perpetual darkness, and why the deep sea functions as the engine under the hood of the entire planet.

This episode explores:

What counts as “deep sea” (and why the definition is changing)

The major deep-sea zones and how they blend into each other

Whale falls — the deep ocean’s sudden “feast events” and the strange life they power

Why trenches can be food-rich funnels (and why that matters)

How deep-sea animals adapt at the molecular level (cells, fats, enzymes)

The technology that makes deep-sea science possible: landers, traps, cameras, and autonomous systems

The reality of deep-sea pollution: plastic and “forever chemicals” showing up even at extreme depths

Why museum collections are time capsules for future ocean science

 

If you’re into thoughtful mythbusting, weird deep-ocean ecology, and the real logistics of studying a place humans can barely access — you’re in the right place.

Special thanks to the Monterey Bay Aquarium for sponsoring this episode.

Episode Guests: Dr. Thomas Linley

Browse Dr. Linley’s publications on Google Scholar

Episode Transcript  and more information on the Pine Forest Media website

Follow Pine Forest Media on Instagram @pineforestmedia

Hosted, produced, and edited by Clark Marchese 

Cover art by Jomiro Eming

Theme music by Nela Ruiz

Welcome to the PRESSURISED version of episode 69. Just the science, none of the chit-chat. 
Check out our lovely new website where you can find more detailed notes, images and links to the wider reading.

 
Episode Summary
This month on the Deep-Sea Podcast we are honored to host a 3 expert superfan session for one of our favorite little devils of the deep- Anglerfish. Join Thom as he chats with James Maclaine Senior fish curator at the Natural History Museum London and our own Andrew Stewart, curator of fishes at Te Papa, all about some of their favorite fishes, the ceratioid anglerfish (Ceratioidei) or deep-sea anglerfish. 

Check out our lovely new website where you can find more detailed notes, images and links to the wider reading.

In this episode…
Welcome back to the Deep-Sea Podcast, your punk take on all things deep sea! 

 

This month Alan has been working on getting a Nova Canton Trough organism menu prepared while Thom has been appearing on and hosting numerous podcast episodes while planning a workshop, fostering kittens and taking a good look at the newest snailfish. 

 

For our interview we are honored to host a three expert superfan session for one of our favorite little devils of the deep- Anglerfish. Join Thom as he chats with James Maclaine Senior fish curator at the Natural History Museum London and our own Andrew Stewart, curator of fishes at Te Papa get together  about some of their favorite fishes, the ceratioid anglerfish or deep-sea anglerfish. 

 

Listen-in to back-stage fish curator chat all about the wide variety of Anglerfish shapes and sizes, lures and lights, feeding preferences, reproduction habits, feminist archetypes, game show personalities, and a memorable experience of "pass the football fish". Including Vantablack, pharyngeal teeth, Dreamers, Wonderfish, sideways anuses, love bites, and an epic battle resulting in both combatants being “locked together in death”, this episode will scratch your Anglerfish itch in the most satisfying way. 

 

We also hear from friend of the show Kat Bolstad with her professional opinion on the recently released giant cretaceous octopus paper, and Kat gives a lovely reading from Prema Arasu’s new book of poetry titled Vampire Squid. 

 

In the news, get ready for updates on:

The largest sponge ever found

A thousand year coral crisis

Mystery of the golden orb revealed

Which fish is diving into the exit end of a manta-ray 

 Who is eating the English coast octopus bloom

 And real life Goblins

Discord update

Silk glands

Behind the scenes fish curator photos

Fossil hunts and Trawling adventures

Alvin Submersible internship

Wellington Board Game Festival in-person interview

Merch from our friends, terrible Ai photos, new tattoos and more! 

 

Support the show
The podcast is self-sustaining (just) thanks to our lovely listeners. Thom and Alan take no money for the show. All money is put back into running it. Here’s a link to our page on how to support us, from the free options to becoming a patron of the show. We want to say a huge thank you to those patrons who have already pledged to support us:

Lain Null, Семен Приймаченко, Prof.Bob-o-lo-po-lis, Jamie Morgan, Brent S, Ayla

 

Check out our podcast merch here!

 

Feel free to get in touch with us with questions or your own tales from the high seas on:

podcast@deepseapod.com

We’d love to actually play your voice, so feel free to record a short audio note on our brand new answerphone!

https://www.speakpipe.com/deepseapodvoicemail

Thanks again for tuning in; we’ll deep-see you next time!

 

Find out more
Social media
BlueSky: @deepseapod.com

Twitter: @DeepSeaPod

Instagram: @deepsea_podcast

 

Keep up with the team on social media
Twitter: 
Alan - @Hadalbloke

Thom - @ThomLinley 

 

Instagram: 
Thom - @thom.linley 

Inkfish - @inkfishexpeditions

 
BlueSky:
Thom @thomaslinley.com

 Alan @hadalbloke

 

Credits
Image credit:

 

References
Appearances and Collaborations

Reef Chats: Ocean Art & Science Conversations | Moku Art Studio

Atacama Trench Snailfishes VS Abyssal Plains Assfishes! On Fish of the Week Podcast with Dr. Thom Linley

Guest Speaker Links

Giant, kraken-like octopuses may have ruled the Cretaceous deep

Earliest octopuses were giant top predators in Cretaceous oceans | Science

Vampire Squid - Fremantle Press

Deep-Sea News

Lost millennium of Galápagos deep-sea corals linked to major Pacific climate shift

A millennium of cold-water coral habitat loss in the East Pacific during low ENSO variability in the mid- to late Holocene | PNAS

Record-Breaking Deep-Sea ‘Ocean Monster’ the Size of a Car Stuns Scientists off Hawaii (Video)

Drapery and the secret history of painting

Scientists reveal identity of mysterious ‘golden orb’ collected during NOAA expedition | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Mitogenomics suggests a sister relationship of Relicanthus daphneae (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Hexacorallia: incerti ordinis) with Actiniaria | Scientific Reports

Mystery Marine Organism Classified as Sea Anemone | AMNH

Hiding in Plain Sight: Evidence of Echeneidae Cloacal and Gill Diving Behavior in Manta Ray Hosts - Yeager - 2026 - Ecology and Evolution - Wiley Online Library

Sucker fish are hiding in manta rays’ ‘butthole,’ new study reveals | Scientific American

Octopus influx keeping deep sea dolphins inshore for longer

Future rare octopus blooms 'likely' in UK seas

First in situ observations of the goblin shark Mitsukurina owstoni - Judah - Journal of Fish Biology - Wiley Online Library

 

Discord Updates

https://mateblog.unols.org/author/kencsukas/

Inside the Sub That Reached Earth's Deepest Point | Bathyscaphe Trieste

Support Skype a Scientist with the Squid Facts shop!

Through the Darkening Sea

Interview Links

Oceanic Anglerfishes: Extraordinary Diversity in the Deep Sea

Lasiognathus - Wikipedia

Caulophryne polynema - Wikipedia

Gigantactis - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_seadevil

 

Credits
Image credit

Logo image: Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Episode Summary
This month on the Deep-Sea Podcast we are honored to host a 3 expert superfan session for one of our favorite little devils of the deep- Anglerfish. Join Thom as he chats with James Maclaine Senior fish curator at the Natural History Museum London and our own Andrew Stewart, curator of fishes at Te Papa, all about some of their favorite fishes, the ceratioid anglerfish (Ceratioidei) or deep-sea anglerfish. 

Check out our lovely new website where you can find more detailed notes, images and links to the wider reading.

In this episode…
Welcome back to the Deep-Sea Podcast, your punk take on all things deep sea! 

 

This month Alan has been working on getting a Nova Canton Trough organism menu prepared while Thom has been appearing on and hosting numerous podcast episodes while planning a workshop, fostering kittens and taking a good look at the newest snailfish. 

 

For our interview we are honored to host a three expert superfan session for one of our favorite little devils of the deep- Anglerfish. Join Thom as he chats with James Maclaine Senior fish curator at the Natural History Museum London and our own Andrew Stewart, curator of fishes at Te Papa get together  about some of their favorite fishes, the ceratioid anglerfish or deep-sea anglerfish. 

 

Listen-in to back-stage fish curator chat all about the wide variety of Anglerfish shapes and sizes, lures and lights, feeding preferences, reproduction habits, feminist archetypes, game show personalities, and a memorable experience of "pass the football fish". Including Vantablack, pharyngeal teeth, Dreamers, Wonderfish, sideways anuses, love bites, and an epic battle resulting in both combatants being “locked together in death”, this episode will scratch your Anglerfish itch in the most satisfying way. 

 

We also hear from friend of the show Kat Bolstad with her professional opinion on the recently released giant cretaceous octopus paper, and Kat gives a lovely reading from Prema Arasu’s new book of poetry titled Vampire Squid. 

 

In the news, get ready for updates on:

The largest sponge ever found

A thousand year coral crisis

Mystery of the golden orb revealed

Which fish is diving into the exit end of a manta-ray 

 Who is eating the English coast octopus bloom

 And real life Goblins

Discord update

Silk glands

Behind the scenes fish curator photos

Fossil hunts and Trawling adventures

Alvin Submersible internship

Wellington Board Game Festival in-person interview

Merch from our friends, terrible Ai photos, new tattoos and more! 

 

Support the show
The podcast is self-sustaining (just) thanks to our lovely listeners. Thom and Alan take no money for the show. All money is put back into running it. Here’s a link to our page on how to support us, from the free options to becoming a patron of the show. We want to say a huge thank you to those patrons who have already pledged to support us:

Lain Null, Семен Приймаченко, Prof.Bob-o-lo-po-lis, Jamie Morgan, Brent S, Ayla

 

Check out our podcast merch here!

 

Feel free to get in touch with us with questions or your own tales from the high seas on:

podcast@deepseapod.com

We’d love to actually play your voice, so feel free to record a short audio note on our brand new answerphone!

https://www.speakpipe.com/deepseapodvoicemail

Thanks again for tuning in; we’ll deep-see you next time!

 

Find out more
Social media
BlueSky: @deepseapod.com

Twitter: @DeepSeaPod

Instagram: @deepsea_podcast

 

Keep up with the team on social media
Twitter: 
Alan - @Hadalbloke

Thom - @ThomLinley 

 

Instagram: 
Thom - @thom.linley 

Inkfish - @inkfishexpeditions

 
BlueSky:
Thom @thomaslinley.com

 Alan @hadalbloke

 

Credits
Image credit:

 

References
Appearances and Collaborations

Reef Chats: Ocean Art & Science Conversations | Moku Art Studio

Atacama Trench Snailfishes VS Abyssal Plains Assfishes! On Fish of the Week Podcast with Dr. Thom Linley

Guest Speaker Links

Giant, kraken-like octopuses may have ruled the Cretaceous deep

Earliest octopuses were giant top predators in Cretaceous oceans | Science

Vampire Squid - Fremantle Press

Deep-Sea News

Lost millennium of Galápagos deep-sea corals linked to major Pacific climate shift

A millennium of cold-water coral habitat loss in the East Pacific during low ENSO variability in the mid- to late Holocene | PNAS

Record-Breaking Deep-Sea ‘Ocean Monster’ the Size of a Car Stuns Scientists off Hawaii (Video)

Drapery and the secret history of painting

Scientists reveal identity of mysterious ‘golden orb’ collected during NOAA expedition | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Mitogenomics suggests a sister relationship of Relicanthus daphneae (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Hexacorallia: incerti ordinis) with Actiniaria | Scientific Reports

Mystery Marine Organism Classified as Sea Anemone | AMNH

Hiding in Plain Sight: Evidence of Echeneidae Cloacal and Gill Diving Behavior in Manta Ray Hosts - Yeager - 2026 - Ecology and Evolution - Wiley Online Library

Sucker fish are hiding in manta rays’ ‘butthole,’ new study reveals | Scientific American

Octopus influx keeping deep sea dolphins inshore for longer

Future rare octopus blooms 'likely' in UK seas

First in situ observations of the goblin shark Mitsukurina owstoni - Judah - Journal of Fish Biology - Wiley Online Library

 

Discord Updates

https://mateblog.unols.org/author/kencsukas/

Inside the Sub That Reached Earth's Deepest Point | Bathyscaphe Trieste

Support Skype a Scientist with the Squid Facts shop!

Through the Darkening Sea

Interview Links

Oceanic Anglerfishes: Extraordinary Diversity in the Deep Sea

Lasiognathus - Wikipedia

Caulophryne polynema - Wikipedia

Gigantactis - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_seadevil

 

Credits
Image credit

Logo image: Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons