Hey there, friends, and welcome to episode 224 of Just the Zoo of Us. This week, I got to go for an actual deep dive with a deep sea biologist who's here to review an animal that just might change the way you think about the creatures of the abyss. We discuss what it's like to be among the first humans to ever see a species,

life in the trenches, like the actual Mariana trench,

freedom from beauty norms, and justice for the blobfish,

slurping up meat-flavored jelly beans off the ocean floor,

and the adorable side of the Hidal Zone.

Just the Zoo of Us presents ethereal snailfish with Dr. Tom Lindley. Hi, everybody, it's Ellen Weatherford. I'm here with Just the Zoo of Us, your favorite animal review

podcast. I'm so excited to be bringing you a brand new friend for this week. This is Dr. Tom Linley. Say hi,

Tom. Hi, Tom. Hi, everyone. I'm so excited to talk to you, Little Starstruck, because we have a deep sea icon among us today.

This is very exciting to talk about a really cool, very mysterious creature from the darkest

depths of the ocean to quote the zoo books commercial that I know for heart for some reason.

But before we talk about our deep sea friend, let's talk about you. You have probably one of the

most fascinating careers that I think, like in the world. This is just the sort of thing that

like endlessly fascinates me. It's like being an astronaut on Earth, could you introduce

us for our friends listening to what it is that you do in the deep sea? Okay. I'm Dr. Tom Linley. I'm the curator of fishes

at the Museum of New Zealand, Tipapa Tongruera. And yeah, I like to explore the deep sea.

And not to be snobbish, but like the really deep sea. The really, really deep bits.

Because there's a lot of it. We decide that the deep sea kicks in at about 200 meters because that is kind of the edge of our countries and that's kind of the edge of the bits that we lay claim to and the bits that we can easily get to. So it starts at 200 meters and it goes down to almost 11,000 in some places. So it's like most of the planet. So it's hard to specialize in that, because there's a lot

going on. Is this past the point where it gets dark in the ocean? At what point does it get dark?

It would be dark to us, certainly. But if you have special magic fish eyes or a few other critters

with some amazing eyes down there, light gets to maybe 2,000 meters deep in some of the

clearer water places. And that's where you get all the stuff that people associate with the deep sea,

you know, the toothy, glowy, sparkly things. All the spooky guys. Yeah, all the spooky guys.

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