Science and the Sea Podcast

The University of Texas Marine Science Institute
  • 4.9 (15)
  • Natural Sciences
  • Updated Biweekly

The goal of Science and the Sea is to convey an understanding of the sea and its myriad life forms to everyone, so that they, too, can fully appreciate this amazing resource.

Episodes

  1. 2d ago

    Dueling Cyclones

    It’s hard to think of a Category-5 hurricane as a good thing. But in 2025, Hurricane Humberto helped save the East Coast from a direct hit by a smaller hurricane, Imelda. The deflection was an example of the Fujiwhara effect. It’s named for the Japanese scientist who first described the effect, in 1921. It’s an interaction between two or more storms that pass close together. It applies to both tropical and non-tropical cyclones. Such storms are big and powerful. But they’re influenced by the conditions around them. And the stronger the influence, the more the storms can change. As two storms approach each other, they can change direction, for example. They might move closer, with both of them spinning around a point between them. If there’s a big difference in the sizes of the storms, the bigger one might deflect the smaller one, or even absorb it. But if they’re about the same size, they might loop around each other, then be shot out in opposite directions. Tropical storms and hurricanes begin to interact at separations of about 900 miles. As they get closer, they may spin faster. And at less than 200 miles, they’re likely to merge. The exact process depends on the size and intensity of the storms and many other factors, so it’s tough to forecast. The Fujiwhara effect is seen more often in the Pacific Ocean. But it does play out in the Atlantic as well. The Humberto-Imelda interaction is the most recent—a dance of giant storms that helped coastal residents—this time. The post Dueling Cyclones appeared first on Marine Science Institute. The University of Texas at Austin.. ]]>

    2 min

  2. Jun 14

    Traveling Crocs

    The saltwater crocodile really gets around. It’s found throughout the Indian and western Pacific oceans. That makes it one of the most cosmopolitan reptiles on the planet. But it’s not quite as widely spread as it once was. Crocodiles that once inhabited the Seychelles islands were members of the same family. But they were exterminated by early settlers. The saltwater croc is the largest reptile on Earth. Adult males can reach 20 feet or longer and weigh more than a ton. They’re super-aggressive—they’ll eat anything they can catch, and they can catch almost anything—including people. When people first settled on the islands, in 1770, they found plenty of crocs. Within half a century, though, the settlers had wiped them out. That made the islanders safer. But it left modern-day science with a question: Were the crocodiles members of the saltwater family, or were they a separate species? With no living examples, the question has been hard to answer. In a recent study, though, scientists were able to extract DNA from parts of crocodiles preserved in museums. They compared the samples to those of modern saltwater crocs. And the samples matched—the Seychelles monsters were relatives of the crocodiles found across the region. The Seychelles are a long way from any major land mass—about 900 miles from Africa, and 1700 miles from India. So the crocs had to travel a long way to reach them—expanding the range of this cosmopolitan reptile. The post Traveling Crocs appeared first on Marine Science Institute. The University of Texas at Austin.. ]]>

    2 min

  3. Jun 7

    Turning the Tables

    Most of the time, life in the oceans works in one direction: the big guys eat the little guys. That passes nutrients up the food web. But sometimes, the little guys may turn the tables. Egged on by annual spawnings, they may poach the eggs of larger species. That passes nutrients down the food web. Of course, the big guys then gobble up some of the egg eaters, scrambling things up. Eggs are rich in essential fatty acids — compounds that are needed for normal development and body function. Eggs can supply a lot of the fatty acids in the animals that eat them. Researchers at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute suspected that smaller organisms were feeding on the eggs of larger species. They tested that idea in 2020 and ’21, around the annual spawning of red drum, a game fish on the Texas coast. A single female releases millions of eggs, so the coastal waters around Port Aransas are filled with them in the fall. The scientists collected several types of animals before, during, and after the fall spawning. They then tested the tissues of those organisms in the lab. The fatty acids in red-drum eggs have a unique chemical “fingerprint,” so the tests revealed which subjects had eaten the eggs. During and after the spawning season, high levels of those markers were seen in jellyfish and jellyfish-like organisms, as well as one small species of fish. The study confirmed that these organisms can scramble things up—turning the tables on the big guys. The post Turning the Tables appeared first on Marine Science Institute. The University of Texas at Austin.. ]]>

    2 min

  4. May 31

    Drying Out

    The Panama Canal links the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean beyond. With all that water around it, it’s hard to imagine the canal running low. But that’s happened several times in recent years. And it could happen more often in the decades ahead—a result of our warming climate. The canal is crucial to the global economy. For ships traveling between the east and west coasts of the United States, it cuts the journey by about 9,000 miles and many days. On average, about 35 big ships pass through it every day. But in 2023 and ’24, the number was cut to as few as 24 per day. Ships were stacked up on both ends of the canal—stranded by historic drought conditions. Ships pass through a series of locks that lift them over higher ground in the middle of Panama. The locks are fed mainly by a large freshwater lake. Each passage uses tens of millions of gallons, most of which empties into the ocean. The drought was triggered in part by El Niño, which warms the eastern Pacific. It blocks rainfall over Panama, while increasing evaporation. As the climate warms, El Niño-like conditions may become more common. A recent study found that additional warming might make canal operations even tougher. And under a worst-case scenario, major droughts could become common—turning the Panama Canal into a major bottleneck. The canal’s operators are planning to build a new lake to boost the water supply—hedging their bets against warmer days ahead. The post Drying Out appeared first on Marine Science Institute. The University of Texas at Austin.. ]]>

    2 min

  5. May 24

    Social Swimmers

    If you go walking with a friend, the odds are that your preferred walking speeds won’t be the same. So the person who usually walks faster probably will slow down a little. That person might not hit their preferred heart rate, but being sociable is more important. And the same thing might apply to some fish. They appear to adjust their swimming speed to stick with others of their kind. That might not be their optimal speed, but it’s one that provides other benefits. Fish that migrate over great distances maintain a “Goldilocks” pace as they go. It’s fast enough to get them where they want to go in a reasonable time. But it’s not so fast that they’re worn out by the swim, or can’t mount a quick burst if they face danger. But fish that hang out close to shore and don’t migrate tend to vary their speed a lot, depending on what they’re doing. They might need to change pace to avoid obstacles on the sea floor, to catch prey, or to woo potential mates. And they might just want to hang around with others—a strategy that might make life safer or easier. Researchers recently studied a type of surfperch caught off the coast of Washington. They studied the swimming habits of the fish in the lab. They put pairs of fish in a contraption that’s the marine equivalent of a treadmill. And they found that if one member of a pair was faster than the other, it didn’t just pull away. Instead, it slowed down to stay with its companion—just keeping things sociable. The post Social Swimmers appeared first on Marine Science Institute. The University of Texas at Austin.. ]]>

    2 min

  6. May 17

    Whale Breath

    Sniffing a whale’s breath doesn’t sound all that appealing. But a recent study suggested that a good sniff could help scientists analyze a whale’s health. The study looked at North Atlantic right whales—among the most endangered of all whales. In fact, they’re called “right” whales because they were just right for whalers: they’re slow, they stay close to shore, and they have a lot of blubber, so they float after they’re killed and they yield a lot of oil. By the early 1900s, they’d been hunted to near extinction; the population might have dropped to just a hundred or so. Today, the population has rebounded to about four hundred. Scientists are trying to find ways to protect those whales and help the species grow. One way to do that is to keep a close eye on the health of the whales. And that’s what the study was all about. Scientists watched whales in Cape Cod Bay, in Massachusetts, during the spring foraging seasons from 2016 to 2024. Drones carrying petri dishes hovered above the whales’ blow holes. When a whale exhaled, the drone snagged a sample. Scientists then analyzed the microbes in the whale’s breath. They compared those samples to other measures of the whale’s health.             They found that healthier whales had higher levels of helpful bacteria in their breath. Less-healthy whales had higher levels of nasty bacteria. The study suggests that it might be possible to measure the health of a right whale just by sniffing its breath. The post Whale Breath appeared first on Marine Science Institute. The University of Texas at Austin.. ]]>

    2 min

  7. May 10

    Raindrops

    Listening to the rhythm of the falling rain is one of life’s simple pleasures—and an inspiration for music, poetry, and much more. And in recent years, it’s become a source of knowledge for scientists who study our changing climate. They’re listening to the rain as it falls on the ocean, providing a more complete picture of Earth’s water cycle. Water evaporates from the ocean surface. It forms clouds, which produce rainfall over land or other parts of the ocean. This cycle can be changed by Earth’s warming climate. Understanding just how it changes requires a detailed knowledge of ocean rainfall—where, how much, and how fast. But there aren’t many rain gauges in the open ocean, so rainfall is hard to track. Satellites provide some help, but they can’t see the entire ocean surface at once. So scientists have started listening to the rain. That reveals where the rain is falling, and the length of each storm or shower. It also reveals the intensity of the rain, because different rainfall rates and raindrop sizes produce their own distinctive sounds. Scientists have placed microphones on existing instrument packages. Some of them are anchored to the ocean floor. Others bob up and down through the water column, sampling conditions from the surface down to thousands of feet. Test runs have provided good results. So there are plans to expand the research to thousands of platforms—listening to the patter of raindrops throughout the world’s oceans. The post Raindrops appeared first on Marine Science Institute. The University of Texas at Austin.. ]]>

    2 min

  8. May 3

    ‘Seeping’ Fish

    For most marine life, methane seeps are nasty. Toxic compounds bubble into the ocean from below the sea floor. But life always seems to find a way. Microscopic organisms thrive on the noxious brew. They feed a vibrant ecosystem. And research in recent years has found that the population includes fish that are popular on human dinner plates. Methane seeps occur where pockets of methane create mounds on the ocean floor. Cracks and pores allow some of the gas to escape. Microbes feed on the gas. Larger organisms eat the microbes and so on, building a complex food web. Among the main creatures around the seeps are tubeworms, which can form dense beds. And surveys have found several commercially important fish living in or near the beds. That includes a type of rockfish off the West Coast of the United States, and Chilean seabass off the Pacific coast of South America. The most recent addition is the red cusk eel. It’s not an actual eel, but it’s long and skinny like an eel. It’s popular in Chilean markets and restaurants. Fishers took more than 2,000 tons of the cusk eel in 2022.             An expedition in late 2024 found a large population of the fish at a seep about 10 miles off the coast of Chile. The fish were nestled in a large bed of tubeworms. They might have been using the beds to hide from predators. Or they might have been getting some grooming from snow crabs there. Whatever the reason, the fish were doing just fine in this nasty environment. The post ‘Seeping’ Fish appeared first on Marine Science Institute. The University of Texas at Austin.. ]]>

    2 min

  9. Apr 26

    Gassy Microbes

    Some microscopic organisms can live just about anywhere. They can survive extreme temperatures and pressures, total darkness, and environments that are infused with nasty chemicals. Some of them produce methane, which can have a big impact on the climate. And they can tell us a lot about the development of life. Examples include two species recently found in the Pacific Ocean. They’re types of archaea—descendants of some of the oldest life on Earth. The research team was led by a marine scientist at the University of Texas. The team examined sediments drilled from hundreds of feet below the sea floor. The deepest sediments were 1.7 million years old. The researchers studied the chemistry of the sediments, and they used genetics technology to suss out the types of organisms. The archaea survive by eating ancient organic matter in the sediments. They produce methane. In fact, much of the world’s methane has been made by similar organisms. Methane can form pockets below the ocean floor. The methane can seep out and bubble to the surface. It’s a potent greenhouse gas that traps heat, so once it’s in the atmosphere it can cause major climate changes. Studying these organisms can tell us more about how and where methane is produced, and about possible future climate impacts. Similar environments might exist on some of the moons in our own solar system. So a better understanding of the archaea on Earth could help us find signs of life on other worlds. The post Gassy Microbes appeared first on Marine Science Institute. The University of Texas at Austin.. ]]>

    2 min

  10. Apr 19

    Pacific Migration

    People have traveled far across the oceans in search of greener pastures. Polynesians journeyed thousands of miles, hopping from island to island as they expanded eastward. And one period of expansion might have been triggered by big changes in the Pacific Ocean. That period began about a thousand years ago. People were well entrenched in Western Polynesia—islands such as Tonga and Samoa. But they quickly turned up in Eastern Polynesia—Tahiti and surrounding islands—journeys of up to 1500 miles or longer across open ocean. A recent study looked at climate conditions across Polynesia at the time. Researchers gathered deep sediments from several locations. They used sophisticated lab techniques to analyze the fat in leaves preserved in the soil. That revealed how rainy the climate was at the time the plants were growing. The scientists combined that with other climate information, and ran it all through models of the climate at the time. They found that the rain began to dry up in Western Polynesia. But it got heavier in Eastern Polynesia. That probably was the result of a change in the South Pacific Convergence Zone—a wide region that produces heavy rains during the summer. Changes in ocean temperatures pushed the zone eastward. The change also would have made the winds more favorable for moving eastward. So the people of Western Polynesia could have headed out—looking for greener pastures far across the Pacific. The post Pacific Migration appeared first on Marine Science Institute. The University of Texas at Austin.. ]]>

    2 min
  • 10 Episodes

Ratings & Reviews

4.9
out of 5
15 Ratings

About

The goal of Science and the Sea is to convey an understanding of the sea and its myriad life forms to everyone, so that they, too, can fully appreciate this amazing resource.

Information

  • Creator
    The University of Texas Marine Science Institute
  • Years Active
    2015 - 2026
  • Episodes
    10
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026
  • Show Website
    Science and the Sea Podcast

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