Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,

where we bring evidence, experience, and perspective to make sense of today's leading health challenges.

If you have questions or ideas for us, please send an email to public health question at jh.h.

That's public health question at jh.g.u.edu for future podcast episodes.

It's Lindsay Smith Rogers. And today, something a little different. We go to the deepest part of the ocean to talk about deep sea mining.

Dr. Andrew Thaler, a deep sea ecologist and ocean educator, tells me all about what's happening

in the field of deep sea mining, including what we're looking for, how it works, and the

potential environmental impacts.

We also discuss the law of the sea,

a set of international laws that governs the use of marine resources.

Let's listen.

Andrew Thaler, thank you so much for joining us on public health on call.

How are you doing today?

I am doing just great.

Great.

Well, tell us a little bit about yourself and your work and what you're doing.

So I am a deep sea ecologist. My work orbits around how humans use and misuse technology

to explore and exploit the deepest parts of the ocean. And so through that, I do a variety

of different kinds of research programs, most of them surrounding deep sea mining,

as well as microplastics in the deep sea.

And I also run an environmental consulting firm where I consult on high seas policy,

a deep sea ecology, conservation technology, and education.

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