The Boy in the Submarine

Puffer fish are actually a whole family of fish with somewhere between 120 and 200 species. They are famous for their ability to blow themselves up like a balloon to scare off predators, but that’s not their only defence! Puffer fish are very poisonous and anything that eats them is in serious trouble. Many of them have spines on their body as well. They need all the defences they can get, because they are slow and clumsy swimmers. Puffer fish scrape algae from rocks, or use the “beak” made up of their fused-together front teeth to crack open the shells of snails, crabs, and shellfish. They can be found anywhere the water is warm, and live both in salt and fresh water.

The remora is a fish that sticks to the underbelly of bigger creatures. They eat the food that the creature they are riding misses, and helps keep them clean: a perfect picture of symbiosis!

Blue Whales are the largest animal that has ever lived! They get to 30.5 meters, and can be as heavy as 181,000kg (400 tons). They have tongues the size of an elephant, hearts as big as a car, and blood vessels a kid could crawl in. For such a big creature their food is very small: they eat krill, plankton, and shrimp: as much as 3,600kg (8000lbs) every day by sucking them into their huge mouths, then spitting the water back out so that their food gets caught on the back of the baleen they have instead of teeth. They then lick their food off the back of their teeth. Not are they the biggest creature in the world, they are the second loudest, too. Only the Sperm Whale gets louder. Blue Whales swim up and down every Ocean except the Arctic following the plankton and krill that they eat through the seasons, They dive to catch their food, and can hold their breath for 90 minutes, while diving as deep as 500m. (1600 feet) although they prefer to dive 100m deep or less.

Bigfin Reef Squid image CC-BY-SA “Rhododendrites“ Bigfin Reef Squid is the name of a tiny squid close to Owen’s heart… or so we thought! These sneaky, sparkling squid turned out to be a cryptospecies complex: several different kind of squid that all look so much alike that scientists couldn’t tell them apart until they studied their DNA. That’s okay – owen loves them all. Bigfin reef squid are one of the only kind(s) of squid that can hear, and they are one of the most social, they know and stick close to their families. They sparkle because of special cells in their body called scinitillophores. Some important fish we eat like swordfish and tuna live on these little guys, and we eat lots of them, too. They are very important to us!

Crown of Thorns Starfish Image CC-BY Joi Ito The Crown of Thorns Starfish is an very unusual species of Sea-Star. It has a round-flat body with a much bigger central body and stomach than most sea stars, and is symmetrical with an even number of arms, while most sea stars have odd numbers. It is called a “crown of thorns” starfish because of the rings of sharp spikes growing on the top of its body. The Crown of Thorns Starfish is toxic. Eating it or getting pricked by it can cause pain like a bee sting and cause a stomach upset that can last over a week. Only a few types of sea creatures have the body chemistry to be able to eat them. The Crown of Thorns Starfish likes spots where the air in the water is a bit thinner like crevices and nooks. Where water has become polluted, they seem to be thriving these days. They like eating invertebrates that make calcium crusts around itself like sea anemones and especially coral. They are a big contributor right now to the disappearance of our world’s coral reef.

People long thought that the Portuguese Man O’War was long thought to be a strange jellyfish that evolved to float on the surface. It wasn’t until we saw other Siphonophores deep underwater that we figured out it was a type of Siphohophore, too! The Portuguese Man O’War, sometimes called the Man O’War, Box Jellyfish, or Bluebottle Jellyfish is in fact a siphonophore made up of seven different kinds of creatures: the big bubble with the sail on the back that lets it float on the surface and catch wind with its sail is a creature called a pneumatophore. It’s tentacles are creatures called Tentacular Zooids, that work just like jellyfish tentacles: they sting and paralyze prey, then bring it up to two other kinds of creatures that work together to eat and digest prey, then feed it to the others. Another creature helps push the Man ‘O’War through the water. The seventh one is a mystery: we don’t know what it’s job is yet. The Man O’War is famous for its deadly sting. In reality, most people get a welt that hurts for 3 hours or so, but if its venom goes to the wrong place in your body it can kill you. Portuguese The Man O’War paralyzes and eats small fish as it sails the warm seas in most of the oceans. It can be found almost anywhere where the water is warm. They are eaten by few other creatures, but are a favourite food for some kinds of sea slugs and nudibranches.

Cuttlefish are clever tricksters of the ocean. Like their cephalopod cousins the squid and octopus, they can squirt ink, but the tricky cuttlefish can also make a balloon out of mucus and fill it with ink to make a decoy cuttlefish. They can also change their shape and colour to make themselves appear to be rocks, plants, bits of coral, or other objects found nearby. They are very smart and use these abilities with creativity and to help them explore their environment because they are both shy and very curious at the same time. Cuttlefish are loners: they only spend time together when mating. Otherwise, they spend their time alone hunting small fish, shrimp, worms, and crabs. Some cuttlefish will eat other kinds of cuttlefish, too. There are 120 types of cuttlefish that we know of!

Coconut Octopus image, CC-BY Christian Gloor The Coconut Octopus is the cleverest species of cephalopod. They collect coconut shells, clam shells, or other objects they can squeeze into and hold closed. They use these tools to hide from predators and to sneak up on prey. They even carry handy hiding places around by using their arms to walk along the floor. We have seen Coconut Octopi watch other creatures to figure out how alert they are. When they know prey isn’t paying attention, they shoot out of their hiding place, bite with their beak, and inject a powerful poison. They also change color to blend into their environment and show their feelings.

“We played a sound that we think means ‘Hello’ to the [humpback whale named] Twain… and Twain said ‘Hello’ back!” Owen Today we are updating two of our episodes with follow-up information. Both about how intelligent whales really are, because we are getting closer and closer to talking to them. In 2021 a team of marine biologists including Josie Hubbard approached a humpback whale that marine biologists have nicknamed Twain, and played a recording that they believed was a greeting, like “hello”. Twain answered with the same sound back, not once, but many times over a half an hour, seemingly as excited to talk to us as we were to talk with him. Here’s an article my dad shared with me! But earlier this month, using computers, marine biologists working with Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative) identified recognizable repeated patterns in sperm whale clicking that are used like an alphabet or words over and over again. We might soon be able to use computers to figure out what they are talking about! This is the last episode of season 1 of Boy in the Submarine, and I have really enjoyed creating this for my friends and family, and all you listeners out there. Let me know if there are things you would like me to learn about sea creatures to give me ideas for a season 2 some time soon!

Orca are really smart! They can be taught to do tricks like sing songs and count, if they are trained well! Owen Orca, sometimes called “Killer Whales” are a really large Dolphin: they are one of the Oceans’ apex predators. They work in packs to take down large prey. Humans have trained them to do all kinds of amazing things, because Orca love to learn. Family is very important to Orcas. Every family has its own patterns and markings, and they often come up with new tricks, games, and even fashions that they will keep repeating for years just for fun. These can be as weird as funny backwards swimming and wearing dead fish as hats, to the frightening, such as tipping sailboats. But they don’t mean to hurt people: they are curious about us, and sometimes cause trouble by accident.