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Short Wave

Sea Camp: The Largest Daily Migration On Earth

Short Wave

NPR

Daily News, Nature, Life Sciences, Astronomy, Science, News

4.76K Ratings

🗓️ 28 July 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The twilight zone of the ocean is a mysterious place. At 200-1000 meters below the surface, it's a tough place to study. That's why, during World War II, people reading sonograms from this zone were perplexed when it looked as if the ocean floor was moving up. Every day. And then back down again before dawn. In this latest installment of Sea Camp, we explore what this historical mystery has to do with the Earth's ability to cycle and store carbon in the ocean's watery depths.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations and Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Family Foundation, working toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all.

0:11.5

On the web at theshmit.org.

0:14.9

You're listening to Shorewave from NPR.

0:20.1

Hey, Shorewaver, Regina Barber here.

0:22.3

And Emily Kwong.

0:23.5

Back with our next installment of the Seacamp series.

0:26.8

M, where are we going this week?

0:28.7

We are diving into the twilight zone of the ocean.

0:32.7

That's 200 to 1,000 meters below the surface,

0:36.1

are about 650 to more than 3,000 feet.

0:39.8

And it's where the sunlight is still present, but it's very dim.

0:43.4

The twilight zone. I love this name. It makes me think of one of my favorite TV shows.

0:48.3

Is it mysterious like the show is?

0:50.5

Do do do do do do do do do do. It is. It is. Noelel bolin the marine biologist of the national oceanic and

0:57.0

atmospheric administration who we met last week says we don't know a lot about the twilight zone

1:02.4

because of its depth which is also known as the mesopilagic zone it is hard for us to access it

1:08.9

as you can imagine it's there's great amounts of pressure.

1:11.8

There's not a lot of oxygen.

1:13.1

And it's deep.

1:14.3

So humans aren't exploring down there very often.

1:17.7

No.

1:18.3

However, during World War II,

...

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