Around the ocean in 80 sharks
SHOW NOTES
Helen has been lucky to have many ocean adventures, including breaching sperm whales in the Gulf of Mexico and, more recently, an octopus that held her hand [5.50]! But a real stand-out moment was a very special encounter with a manta ray, who found Helen on a dive in Palau. As it was the last dive of the trip, Helen was feeling a little grumpy, and had ended up at the back of her group. It was at this moment that the ray appeared, hovering next to her and watching. Mantas are thought to be one of the most intelligent animals in the sea, and as they both looked at each other Helen got a real sense that the manta was interested in her. This special moment lifted Helen out of her bad mood, and she says that now, whenever she feels down, she imagines a manta appearing to brighten her day!
Helen is a marine biologist by trade, and has a PhD from the University of Cambridge [10.48]. Her research was largely focussed on tropical fish ecology, specifically the trade in reef fishes. Species usually found on shallow coral reefs, like groupers and humphead wrasse, are taken from the wild and transported to restaurants, where they are kept live in aquariums for restaurant-goers to select for dinner. Helen sought to understand the impact of this trade on fish ecology and behaviour, especially as humphead wrasse aggregate to spawn at very selective times of the month. This predictable, aggregating behaviour made them very vulnerable to fishing. Helen then went on to specialise in international trade of endangered species, working for a number of different organisations and studying the trade of many species, including sharks.
It was while working on her PhD that Helen became “distracted” by science communication and storytelling [12.48]. She realised a passion for delivering presentations, which led her to participating in student radio and writing for the student newspaper. Helen had never considered science communication as a career before, but found that this line of work “really clicked”. In particular, Helen really enjoyed writing. Her goal became to write a book that would appeal to the general public, and the rest is history! Helen has now authored 11 books, with the 12th and 13th in the pipeline.
One of Helen’s more recent books is Around the Ocean in 80 Fish, which takes us on a journey around the world to meet 80 different species that represent each of the world’s oceans [18.00]. Each of these species have their own unique adaptations to survive and thrive in their individual niches. For example, pom-pom crabs have evolved to have hooks instead of pincers, which they use to pick up anemones. Aside from looking like a tiny underwater cheerleader, the crabs use the anemones to grab food, utilising their stinging cells to kill prey with minimal effort. We also learn that cleaner wrasse (small fish that clean the skin of other animals by picking at it with their mouths) are capable of identifying who they’re cleaning [20.40]. This is an advantage as it means they can gauge who to be wary of, and who they can be a little more ‘cheeky’ with and stay around for longer. How amazing is that?
And of course, there are many sharks featured in the book that have their own weird and wonderful adaptations [23.09]. From the lantern sharks who float around the deep sea with light-up bellies, to Greenland sharks in the arctic who have a kind of natural antifreeze in their blood and live for hundreds of years, to walking sharks on the other side of the world who couldn’t have a more different life. The walking shark, or epaulette shark, is found in the intertidal zone of Australia, Papa New Guinea and Indonesia. As the name suggests, this shark doesn’t exactly swim. It uses its front fins – the pectoral fins – to ‘walk’ across the seabed and climb across reefs. They are also capable of surviving extreme conditions. When the tide goes out, the places where the walking shark is hunting can be exposed, effectively stranding the shark – and its prey – for a number of hours. But this doesn’t bother the shark; they can cope with high temperatures and low oxygen, surviving for over an hour without water covering their gills.
Another element of Around the Ocean in 80 Fish is how these species have shaped our own lives and culture [28.20]. Sharks feature in folklore, religion and historical artefacts going back centuries. A prime example is the sawfish, a ray characterised by its elgonated, saw-like rostra, which has been immortalised in culture for millennia. The Aztecs would bury their dead with the rostra, and other ancient civilisations have connected sawfish with warriors, as a symbol of power and strength. In west Africa, sawfish represent a water spirit and people carve intricate masks that look like them. Other species of shark and ray appear throughout history as symbols or even deities. In the middle ages, people used to hang fossilised shark teeth around their neck as a good luck token, or even sew them into their clothes. They were even thought to be an antidote to snake venom!
We then move on from discussing the entire ocean to exploring a very specific part: the deep sea [33.44]. In 2021, Helen published The Brilliant Abyss, a book about the life of the deep ocean and the looming threats that endanger it. “It slowly dawned on me that there are two really important things happening in the deep ocean.” Says Helen. “One is how much we’re learning about what lives down there, and how extraordinary life is in the deep ocean…and then alongside of that was just this growing dread that I was personally feeling about the threats that are pushing into the deep ocean.” In particular, Helen is talking about plans to mine the seabed, a potentially new industry that brings unknown dangers to life we potentially haven’t discovered yet, or life that we are only just beginning to understand.
A common myth about the deep sea is that it is devoid of life, but in fact the opposite is true [39.45]. There are unique habitats that life all concentrates around. Hydrothermal vents, for example, are unlikely havens for life. These form at the edges of tectonic plates, where volcanic activity creates fissures in the earth’s crust from which super-heated water escapes under very high pressure. They are essentially extreme hot water springs, 7 miles beneath the surface. The combination of hot, hydrothermal fluids mixing with freezing cold seawater causes mineral deposits, forming towering chimneys. These are the last places you would expect life – no sunlight, temperatures of over 370 degrees Celsius (700 degrees Fahrenheit) and highly toxic chemicals pouring into the surrounding seawater. But miraculously, life doesn’t just exist, it thrives. Found in these hostile environments are microbes that can harvest energy from the minerals and compounds released by the vent, a process known as chemosynthesis. While the original compounds – which include hydrogen sulfide, ferrous iron and ammonia – would be highly toxic to other lifeforms, the microbes can ingest them and themselves release new compounds, which other species can use as nutrition. As a result, many other animals use these chemosynthetic organisms to allow them to survive on the vent. Yeti crabs are one of them. This comical looking crustacean is so-called because of it’s distinctly ‘hairy’ appearance. They use these hairs to grow and cultivate the microbes, which they then eat. Another species that has adapted to vent life is the scaly foot snail, which have shells made of iron that can draw toxins out of their body.
And while we don’t yet know if sharks exist on hydrothermal vents, we do know that they exist in the deep sea [48.01]. Lantern sharks are species found in the deep sea that are capable of producing their own light, using light-emitting photophores on their bellies to provide counter-illumination and disappear from sight when there is nowhere to hide! Kitefin sharks can also produce light, although it is thought they may also do this to light up the seafloor and hunt for tasty morsels.
And from the deep sea, to the future of our ocean [52.08]. Helen’s latest book, What the Wild Sea Can Be, is a hopeful outlook of what could happen if we dedicate ourselves to protecting and restoring the marine environment. An example that Helen uses is the angelshark. Angel sharks are one of the most threatened groups of sharks in the world, with most species now being classified as threatened with extinction by the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species. But, thanks to the concerted effort of scientists and conservationists, it looks like they are coming back from the brink.
This sentiment of hope is something that runs throughout the book. Helen says, “There is still so much to fight for in the ocean…there’s a lot of bad stuff going on, and it’s going to take a lot to turn that around. But we absolutely have reason to think things could be better. We don’t have to give up” [58.22].
You can order Helen’s new book, What the Wild Sea Can Be, here!
ABOUT OUR GUEST
DR HELEN SCALES
Dr Helen Scales is a marine biologist, writer and broadcaster. She is author of many books about the ocean including the Guardian bestseller Spirals in Time, New York Times top summer read The Brilliant Abyss and the global bestselling children’s picturebook What a Shell Can Tell. Her work has been adapted for screen and stage, and translated into 15 languages. She is a regular writer for National Geographic Magazine and the Guardian where she writes a long-standing series on ocean discoveries. She teaches at Cambridge University and is a storytelling ambassador for the Save Our Seas Foundation. Helen divides her time between Cambridge, England, and the wild Atlantic coast of France.
Find Helen on Twitter @helenscales and Instagram @drhelenscales, or on her website www.helenscales.com
