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- [Woman] Oh boy.

- [Woman] Hey you mix the card.

- Yeah.

- [Woman] I'll take the

- Hi, everyone. Thank you for joining us tonight for After Dark Online, Under the Bay. My name is Kathleen Maguire and I'm part of the team that puts together our weekly After Dark series. Well, tonight's program was mostly filmed remotely. We want to acknowledge that the home of After Dark, the Exploratorium is located on the traditional lands of the Ramaytush Ohlone people. And we pay our respects to elders both past and present. Last week at the Exploratorium, we celebrated our annual Buoy Days and associated buoy cleaning. Anchored between piers 15 and 17 on the Exploratorium campus, rest of buoy on loan from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, that's NOAA. That collects data on water temperature and salinity and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and in the San Francisco Bay. That buoy cleaning as well as associated science stories and findings were documented in a longer webcast that was presented live and can still be found online. Tonight we'll be sharing some highlights from that longer webcast. In particular a look at the critters, especially oysters that colonize the buoy over the course of the year, and a discussion of what the buoys instruments and data reveal about the human impact on ocean's health. After that we'll hear from Priya Shukla, who is part of UC Davis's Bodega Bay Marine lab, in a conversation with my Exploratorium colleague, Mary Miller, who you'll also see during Buoy Days. Will dig into Priya's work, which looks towards ways farmed oysters could withstand the effects of temperature associated diseases caused by warming oceans. The program concludes with a trip way back in time as Madeleine Thompson, Director of the Library and Archives at the Wildlife Conservation Society and Sonia Epstein, Executive Editor and Associate Curator of Science and Film at the Museum of the Moving Image. Share historic recordings of ocean dives commenced by the Department of Tropical Research, Naturalist William Beebe, and that use a very rare ocean exploration technology, the bathysphere. Also rare is how early this underwater documentation was captured on film as these dives took place in 1934. First up though, we'll take a trip a little bit less far back in time to last week, and dig into Buoy Days.

- Hi, I'm Mary Miller, your host for this event today. Where we pull our ocean buoy out of the water, explore the animals and plants on it, swap out the instruments, give it a good cleaning, and put him back in the water for another year of service. The buoy is on loan to us from NOAA's Pacific Marine Environment lab in Seattle as part of a network of buoys in the Pacific ocean that is measuring something called ocean acidification. We'll talk more about that. Don't worry. Basically, it's the change in chemistry that has come about in the ocean because of the increased amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Okay, I think it's ready to get the show on the road. I want to introduce our Senior Facilities Manager, Chuck Mignacco.

- [Chuck] Hello. Hello.

- He's gonna talk about like what we are to do today and the operations part of this and introduce the buoy and everybody and made it possible.

- Okay.

- Thanks Chuck. I'm gonna get out of the way, cause I don't have a hard hat.

- There you go. So, Hello everybody. Yeah. Excited. So this is kind of those times where the group is mechanical and does operations for the Exploratorium, got Hadar, Angie, Jesse, driving the crane. These guys normal day to day is the maintenance and upkeep of the facility and keeps the whole building operating. Every once in a while, we get the opportunity to team up with the Bio and the Sciences group to do something with our big crane and with everything to help. And so the buoy that she's split, that Mary was just talking about, sits out in the bay all year long. It has anchors, floats, and if you're out in the bay this morning, we also have an office chair that we pulled out of the bay but... That's our big boat over there. That guy right there was about 2,500 pounds. It's all steel. We use that to regularly inspect all the under peer utilities, so all the sewer lines, water lines, and other structure of the buildings holding up over time. And it's also what we use to drop in this morning at 3:30 in the morning. So we can get the buoy all prepped in advance. So we get ready to film. So well that being said, we're gonna pull it out of the water right now and here we go. All right. Jesse fire it up. Okay guys, safety always here, right? How you getting out of the water?

- [Jesse] Bring it back. Okay yes. Oh yes, bring it. Your moving up, first?

- [Jesse] Moving it up.

- [Chuck] Okay. All right. That'll get you over the railing.

- [Jesse] I guess.

- [Chuck] Look at that. We're gonna go this way just a little bit. Okay. Okay. That's good. Okay, put it down slowly.

- What we're gonna to do now is actually look at the instruments that go on the buoy. The instruments you can't see are on the other side and inside the buoy. One of the interesting things about this buoy is that we have to put cage around it so that sea lions and seals don't lay on top of it. Because they can actually mess up the accuracy of the data. When they exhale, they exhale carbon dioxide. So we have a seal exclusion device. And then we're going to kinda go through a little bit, the instruments, what they measure, how they measure it. And I want to introduce Jim Pettigrew, who is a technician with a long history of working at San Francisco State University. And he helps us out every year. I think we've been doing this since 2013.

- Yeah.

- Swap out the instruments. So Jim, why don't you take us on a tour of what we have here.

- Sure. So I'll start at the top of the buoy. There's an array of sensors that all feed into a central sort of mini laboratory to derive the CO2 content in seawater. And at the top of the buoy, there is an Iridium Antenna. Which communicates with a network of satellites for a telemetry of data to PML in Seattle. And also they can talk to the instrument to change sampling time and other testing parameters. The other instruments are inside the buoy. You really can't see them. Like you can see the end of the equlibrator. And this is the equlibrator will be swapping out after the buoys cleaned off. And what this module does is extracts a sample of sea water and air, and is also used to scrub the gas out of the seawater. So the collaborator is also connected to our mini lab, as well as span gas. This is a cylinder of CO2, very highly calibrated content. I think filling this tank alone cost $3,000. It was very accurately measured. And what you can sort of see, if you look really hard, is this instrument here, inside all of that, you can barely see it. If you can get a shot through right here. This is called the CTD and this measures the temperature and also the conductivity in the seawater. So to measure solidity and seawater, we derive that for measuring its electrical conductivity because the salt ions in solution relate to conductivity. So we derive the salinity measurement from that and in a similar fashion, the mini laboratory in here. So this tube contains flow sensors, fresh or seawater pumps, air pumps and carbon dioxide pumps and a computer brain. And it takes the variables of temperature and solidity to derive CO2 level of the seawater using the relationship between CO2 and the infrared and the electromagnetic spectrum. Much in the same way that the CTD works with salinity. Yes. Okay. Well, so that's... these are all the instruments that are gonna get swapped out as soon as our broadcast is over. And I do wanna show you some of the high tech devices that I'll be using, to scrape the buoy. So, yes

- Paint scrapers and all sorts of things. As soon as this is over, this whole buoy will get cleaned off, and instruments will get swapped over, and then it will get launched in the water next week.

- I wanna introduce my colleague Kate O'Donnell.

- Hello. We work very close together in the Environment group. And we're gonna kinda take a little tour of what's on here. First of all, I see a lot of muscles.

- A lot of muscles, some seaweed, some nice bryozoan here. This is the native Olympia oyster. And we actually collect these for an exhibit that we have in the Observatory, that you can see when we are open. And the history of these oysters in the Bay is goes back for thousands of years. They were, I mean food source for the indigenous people who have lived here for millennia. And we're also a big part along with muscles of creating shell mounds. And shell mounds are those ceremonial sites and burial sites as well. And when Spanish colonized, there were at least 425 shell mound sites around the Bay Area. And they got up to sometimes 30 feet. The one of the biggest shell mounds is in Emeryville that they destroyed when they put in the Bay Street Mall there. And that one was about 60 feet high. And this was also a way of being able to communicate to with each other, from a top these shell mounds as well, and let each other know if things like a red tide was coming, et cetera.

- Let's see.

- So give you that.

- Now the native oysters they're called Olympia oysters. They formed vast, vast beds in San Francisco Bay, and they actually perform a service in estuaries and base because they filter feed, which means they bring the water in, collect all the plankton as their food, but they also reduce toxins. They kinda purify and clean up. And so they're really important, but they became much more scarce.

- They did.

- So like many things they ended up getting over fished. There's not a lot of meat here, not a lot of land to say graze cattle, et cetera. And so oysters and shellfish were, especially in the kind of gold rush area. Really just had a surge in the amount that those were eating. It was sort of the hamburger of foods, not necessarily the super expensive or sort of Shishi Food that you might think of or is oysters today. And over the course of time in the 1880s, these as you can see by that shell, these oysters, the native ones are much smaller. They do taste very good But they are a lot smaller than the ones that people from the East Coast were typically used to eating. So some folks who are coming here from the East Coast brought over some of the larger oysters from there, and they ended up basically the South Pacific Railroad kind of took over. And by the 1880s, there was this big monopoly where what had been thought of as sort of a public area in the San Francisco Bay and sort of a public resource was now being taken over and controlled by private companies. And this was upsetting to a lot of people cause it meant that the price of oysters also went up a lot, and thus began oyster piracy, which was a thing. And basically people would guard their oyster beds during the day. And then at night oyster pirates would come in and take as many oysters as they could, and then go and sell them at the markets for much cheaper, in Oakland in the morning. And Jack London was actually one of the original oyster pirates and wrote about it a lot. And made I think a quite a lot more money from that than he did at his canning job that he had that.

- I am really, really pleased to introduce our next guest, Dana, who is been over there collecting some things and wrangling the microscope for us to get a closeup view of the animals that are too small to see with our naked eye. So Dana, why don't you take it away from here and tell us what you're looking at.

- Hi everyone. So I'm a Marine Biologist and some of my favorite organisms are the organisms that we find fouling or also called benthic organisms. And they're also called invertebrates because they don't have a skeletal or spinal system. And today I wanna look at a few of my favorites, which are tunicates and bryozoans, both of them look like plants, but they're actually animals. And so we're gonna take a closeup look in the microscope and you'll be able to see more of an animal like structure and become a little more familiar with them. They're also extremely common and play an important role in the ecological system of the Bay. So the first thing that I wanna look at and it should be showing right now, is this orange flower like creature. And this is a tunicate. It's colonial. And it spends most of its time filtering seawater and just eating small particles. And then next to that, if you can see there's like a rest red colored animal, that is a bryozoan. So it has little black dots all over it. And those little black dots are called apaculums and they open up and then a feeding zoid that has many tentacles would come out. It's very small. And it also catches water in the water column and particles and it filters. So it helps to clean the bay and also many animals prey on them. So the fish and sea urchins and sea slugs all like to eat bryozoan. So they're an important part of the ecosystem. And right next to it is another bryozoan and it looks more like a bush and it is tan colored but you can, oops! Where's my... There we go. It's tan colored and bushy like, but you can see that there's also little openings where the feeding zoid will come out. They might not come out right now because of this water is actually quite warm because it's so sunny. So they're probably gonna stay tucked away. And then another organism I wanna look at, which was actually... Oh, there's a scale worm. It's gonna swim away. Is this cup coral. Oh, and that is caprellide, that's a skeleton shrimp. You can see it kinda, it likes to do like a sit up movement and those are found all over. But what I wanna look at... Oh, there's some more of the colonial tuna kits that are flower like. Let me see if I can get them a little better focus. They're just beautiful. And then one other thing I wanna look at in this dish is this a cup coral. I wanna see if it'll relax enough to put its tentacles out. The tips of its tentacles are clubbed tipped, and they are animals that live isolated. They're really beautiful little strawberry colored anatomies. But they might... There's another one. You can barely see the tips of its tentacles. And then we had one more down here, but these are kinda special. They're usually found a little bit deeper. They are found in the bay. It's not extremely unusual, but they're just not as colormen. So I was excited to see these today. And I'm probably gonna keep a couple and put them into our tidepool tank. Cause they should be able to live happily in there. And then there'll be on display for when visitors come back. So another organism I wanna look at that's in this dish is a sponge. There's a scale arm again. Doesn't like being in the light. So this is a sponge and it's not much to look at But it's also a water filtering animal. So it helps to clean the water and sponges don't really have a digestive system. They're kind of like they have specialized cells similar to an amoeba. That then just engulfs food particles. So they're very unusual creature. And just like they sound, they are very spongy and soft feeling. And they are all over that buoy. So they're really common to see as well.

- Hi, I'm Mary Miller from the Exploratorium. It's always fun when we do our buoy servicing, I hope you enjoyed exploring life on the buoy and learning about how human activities are impacting ocean ecosystems. We're going to continue that conversation now, with our next guest, Priya Shukla. Who was studying how climate change impacts ocean ecosystems and oysters. Priya is a PhD student in the Ted Rosenholtz lab at UC Davis. Works with oyster farmers on how ocean warming affects shellfish aquaculture. Priya is an Arctic Communicator about environmental change and social injustice and a contributor to Forbes writing about ocean science. She advocates for diversity, equity and inclusion and works within academia to increase the visibility of marginalized communities inside and outside of science. Priya, Thank you so much for joining us tonight to talk about your work.

- Mary, it is my pleasure to be here.

- Now, Priya, I understand you have a little special connection to the Exploratorium. Can you tell us?

- Yeah, I am very lucky to have grown up in the Bay Area and visited the Exploratorium on many field trips. But most importantly it is where my husband and I went on our first date. When the Exploratorium was still at the Palace of Fine Arts. So when I received the opportunity to talk a little bit about my work, for Exploratorium After Dark, which is one of our last date nights before we all went into quarantine, I couldn't help, but accept. I'm thrilled to be here. Everything is coming full circle. I'm stoked.

- Well, we just love hearing about love stories on the Exploratorium. So speaking of things that you love, tell us a little about your research on oysters at UC Davis. I understand you work at Bodega Marine Lab, but also a beautiful location on Tomales Bay.

- Yeah. So UC Davis has this amazing Marine lab in Bodega Bay, which is about an hour North of the Golden Gate Bridge. And so if you were to drive to Bodega Bay, what you might be driving next to you, if you were on highway one is Tomales Bay, and it's one of the central points of oyster farming in California. And so when we're talking about farming in the water, we use the term aquaculture. And so I get to work with the oyster growers in Tomales Bay. And specifically I'm addressing how ocean warming as a result of climate change is going to be affecting the oysters as they grow, especially how they respond to disease outbreaks in Tomales Bay.

- So we just had a segment of the impact of increased carbon on the oceans and how it might impact Marine animals, especially celled animals like oysters. From what you're saying, warming oceans is another threat that has come about through human actions. Can you talk a little bit about how warming effects organisms, ecosystems and what you're studying, oysters? How does warming impact them?

- Yeah, so in the same way that because we are emitting tons of fossil fuels and increasing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, and as a result of that seeing the ocean absorb those greenhouse gasses and become more acidic, the ocean has also absorbing more heat. And so the ocean is this huge sponge and it's part of the reason that we've been able to survive as a species, but also why we sometimes don't feel like we were actually feeling the effects of climate change, but the animals and the water, which sometimes are out of sight and out of mind are certainly feeling those effects. And so what that means for them, it's not only warmer summers, but it's warm water year round. And when we see warmer temperatures, both in air and in water, what we see is also an increased rate of disease transmission. And that's why for the oyster farmers, but also for ecosystems around the world, increased temperature means increased diseases and could mean further loss of biodiversity. But in the case of farming, it could also mean a loss in profits and a loss in our opportunities to eat these delicious animals.

- So you said an increase in disease. Are there diseases in particular that you're looking at with oysters? Cause I've heard about diseases with sea stars. The sea star wasting disease, which I think was linked to warming, but that's not what you're talking about is, what is particularly impacting oysters?

- Yeah. So sea stars are echinoderms and oysters are mollusks. So they're both invertebrates, but they're not very closely related. And so where the sea stars has were affected by wasting disease, the disease that I'm interested in is actually Ostreid to herpes virus. Ostreid means oysters. It's a version of malacco herpes and malacco comes from malacology which is a study of anything with a shell. And so these Ostreid herpes, this variety is a distant relative of the herpes that humans experience, and in the same way that for us oysters, Oh, excuse me, herpes is an irritation. It is also an irritation for the oyster growers. When their oysters get herpes. Because in the case of oyster herpes, it can be lethal. And I wanna be really clear, human beings cannot get herpes from oysters. Like I said, it is a very, very distant relative. So it's not something that will affect us. But in Tamales Bay we see mortality events of up to 50% when these herpes virus outbreaks happen. And in other parts of the world like France and Australia and New Zealand, you can see complete and total mortality of oyster stocks.

- Oh, that's--

- So it's a really devastating disease and a really big problem.

- Yeah. I mean, it would be like a farmer on land, losing a whole corn crop, you know, from some natural disaster--

- Yeah.

- It really affects livelihood. But also as a society, we really need to look at these sort of things to make sure that we're reducing fossil fuel consumption, as you said, and switching to renewable energy sources, but that may not be enough to help farmers, oyster farmers right now. What are you doing to help them deal with a herpes outbreak?

- Yeah. In this really a depth analogy that you just drew upon, right? You can sometimes if you lose an entire crop and it's not your fault, right, it's the fault of a natural disaster. You as a farmer might feel like things are happening that are out of your control. So as a scientist, I am trying to change that dynamic by bringing these things under our control. So the questions that I'm asking are specifically, how can we then prime these oysters so that they can become more tolerant of these disease outbreaks. And because herpes virus is really closely associated with temperature. Basically, we've seen that when the temperatures rise above 16°C, that's about 65° Fahrenheit. So your average deficit temperature, which may not seem that warm, but it's really warm for an oyster. We see an increase in herpes virus outbreaks. And so what I am exploring and seeing if we can prime these oysters to become more tolerant of warmer temperatures before they go out into Tamales Bay to grow up and become big fat and juicy. And by doing that, hopefully these oysters will become more tolerant of not only warming conditions, but also increases in the virus.

- And so this is a short term solution and we do need to think about the longer term because there's probably a limit to how much you can, you know, harden oysters to tolerate high temperatures, probably a threshold isn't there.

- Yeah, absolutely. That's a great point that there's probably a really small window within which you can condition oyster. Another option that might exist of course, is to create a genetic line of oysters that we observe are really tolerant of warming. But what we've seen in biology is that when you become really resistant and strong to withstand something, you become weaker in another way. So trying to figure out a type of oyster that is able to not only resist temperatures, but any other sort of environmental factor that, or even biological factor, like a predator that could make them more vulnerable to disease is really difficult. It's something that would probably take at least a decade to figure out. And so what you were saying about trying to figure out a more sustainable solution, something that just overall reduces the amount of warming, but also the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that we are emitting is really the way to address this.

- So the Exploratorium, as you know, has a ongoing longterm relationship with UC Davis. And one thing I've always appreciated about the university is how their research is closely tied to human society. Things that humans care about, like agriculture, human, and animal health, even in knowledge and wine making. I love wine. Has direct application to society. As a scientist, what's it like working so closely with oyster farmers? That's not something every scientist gets to do.

- Yeah. I have to say it is such a privilege. One of the things about science that can be really frustrating sometimes, especially when you're like me and a student and you just watch to do the work and be acknowledged for it as quickly as possible. Is that not only does it take a long time to come up with your ideas and to execute them well, but then you have to publish that work. And that can be something that take several years, but because I'm working with these oyster cores really closely, I'm running my experiments on their leases, on the plots of coastal land, where they have out planted their oysters. I get to interact with them on a regular basis. And so one part of that is that they will ask me, "Oh, Priya, what are you seeing in the field right now?" And I get to quickly run my data and send them a graph. And that is a part of what influences their decision making. So traditionally as a scientist, I would have to wait years to be able to hand my work over to a decision maker. And now it's a matter of an email and it's happening on an monthly basis and it feels really fulfilling. But also as the millennial and somebody from the instant gratification generation, it feeds that impulse as well.

- I mean, it feels like a real partnership. What you're doing is directly helping them, but they're also helping you aren't they?

- Yeah, absolutely. This work is being funded by California Sea Grant. And it was only made possible because I went into this idea with their input and they have constantly informed the way that I approach my research so that whatever I find is in fact benefiting them. And it's not just something that I am doing to satisfy my ego.

- So, Priya, tell us a little bit about how you got into ocean science. Did you always know that you wanted to be a Marine biologist?

- Yeah, I wouldn't say that I always knew, but I always loved the ocean. I have this really fun memory of going to the tide pools in Monterey with my dad on a third grade field trip. And he was nerding out so hard and I was just like, "Oh my gosh, my dad is such a dork." "I cannot believe I let him chaperone this field trip." But I was lucky that I spent a lot of my childhood because I grew up in the Bay Area in Fremont and I visited Half Moon Bay all the time that I spent a lot of time around the tide pools. And a lot of time with my dad who just had really great natural sensibilities. And when I was 19, he passed suddenly. And that was really hard on me. And so I was looking for some direction and just something to ground me and maybe even keep me close to him. But I found this class in the course catalog and it was called "The Oceans" And within 10 minutes of sitting in that class, I was completely captivated. And the woman who taught that class, Tessa Hill, is still a mentor in my life. Now over a decade later, I am so lucky to have that connection with her, but also to be connected to my work in this way. And so I get to carry a piece of my dad and all of this, and probably one of the things that feels the most full circle about this is that my dad comes from a farming village, his whole family, a lot of whom live in the Bay Area actually, and have definitely been to the Exploratorium. Like they all come from this village where a lot of farming was done. And so now for my PhD work, to be able to work with farmers who are in the ocean, it's really fills my heart with a lot of joy and happiness.

- Oh, that's a beautiful story. Really does seem like you've come full circle. And you know, you mentioned that your dad is an immigrant, comes from a village in India--

- Yeah.

- You as a scientist you do your work, but you also advocate for diversity and inclusion, not just in science but society. I know you write for Forbes to reach beyond a traditional science audience. That's not what a lot of scientists do. You talk about your passion for this work, what drives you, and maybe if you have even some advice for other scientists about how to broaden the lens and reach different audiences.

- Yeah. I realized coming into my PhD, that's something that I really want to do with the science that I produced was to make sure that I didn't just stay in a publication, but was being put into the hands of the people that can use them and the partnership with Hog Island Oyster Company and Tomales Bay Oyster Company is one really strong example of that. But of course, including these practitioners who are using my science, there's only one way of expanding the lenghts of science and the way that science is done and perceived. And as an Indian woman in Marine science on the West Coast, that I'm kind of a rarity there aren't very many of us. And so I sought comradery in looking for people who look like me. And one of the ways I could do that was by communicating science. So of course there's outreach going into schools, but also being able to write. And I love writing a lot. I think it's not only just a creative endeavor, but as scientists, we are only as effective as our publications because that is the primary way that we communicate our work. And so I opted to start writing about science, but also the way that scientists can be better about sharing their work and making our enterprise more inclusive. And so one of the ways in which I do this is that I write for Forbes science on both ocean and climate issues. And I get to write about cutting edge, breaking new scientific studies. And oftentimes that people who are doing that work are not people who look like me and oftentimes do not represent the makeup of our society. And so in bringing in that work, I also get to bring in perspectives from people who are not well represented in STEM.

- So you of... It sounds like you just feel like you have a fuller responsibility than just doing a research question of publishing. You think maybe the role of scientists are changing in this society, especially maybe scientists who study climate change that really impacts all of society.

- Yeah, absolutely. I think one of the really powerful aspects of this position that I hold as being a scientist, but also a contributor for Forbes is that I get to be this arbiter of what is good science and sharing that. And so in doing that work and then, and also getting to be on my own cutting edge of science, I am helping us navigate along this precipice where we are seeing that climate change is happening at a rate that is much faster than the scientific cycle normally allows for. And scientists we have a responsibility to share those findings and share their perspective about this. There's not enough out there, I think about the pain and the grief that scientists feel and how that manifests. And I think leadership and communication is one way that I channel those really complex feelings. And I hope that scientists who are also trying to figure out how to get their work out there, will use those really complex feelings to also share their work with society and with communities around them. Because as you said, climate change is something that's affecting all of us. And all of the work that we do is in some way impacted by this systemic problem.

- So going from the big global issues back down to oysters.

- Yes.

- One of the reasons why people love oysters is because they're delicious.

- I guess.

- Maybe not for that reason, but just for themselves it sounds like. Tell us what makes oysters so cool.

- Yeah. So I am vegetarian. I spent a year trying to eat meat, trying to eat seafood. It did not go well. So I can not enjoy these a wonderful, delicious little creatures, but as a trendy collegist, I am fascinated by their really complex life history. So that species that I study, the Pacific oyster is not native to California. It's actually from Japan, but they can grow to be dinner plate size within 18 to 30 months. So that's pretty fast. But the reason we farm those oysters is because prior to this, we had a native oyster that we also love eating. That was also delicious. It still exists but it's really threatened. And that's the Olympia oyster, it's named after Olympia up in Washington State. And whereas the Pacific oyster has a male and a female that produce eggs and sperm that meet in the water and then produce little larval oysters. The Olympia oyster, what it does is that the female oyster actually roots it's young, and that protection that oyster provides it's very paternalistic. It really makes me think about the way that I am leveraging my science, where I think about using it to protect future generations. I have no kids of my own, but I still think about what the generation coming after me might experience and what I can do right now to benefit them. But these oysters that do go out into the water, they live a pretty wild life, right? They go wherever the currents, take them and they eat whatever they can find, and they probably have a few adventures that are kind of Neumo-Like where they encounter a predator, but eventually they come across some sort of a signal in the water. It's not always clear to us what it is, but it's something chemical, It is something physical from the way the waves are moving. But what we do know is that often that signal is related to a nearby aggregation of oysters and they have this homecoming. So it feels like they are these little Amish oysters who as tutors are released out into the world for a few months just to experience the wild. Because they aren't out there for very long. It's only a few weeks before they then come home and realize that's where they be. That's where they need to be. And then they basically lay down this adhesive and they settled there for life. Before repeating the cycle all over again.

- So what describing about the wildlife of larval oysters is like the rum spring of that Amish.

- Yes.

- Is where they send their teenagers out to experience life, but come back, settle down and be a good oyster--

- Yes.

- For the rest of your life.

- Right? Exactly, exactly. A good productive oyster who contributes to our community by producing more oysters.

- Yeah. So God, that story about the native Olympia oysters brooding they're young just makes me love them more. Of course, we have a oyster exhibit at the Exploratorium. Our buoy grows oysters. So we you know, we talked about in the previous segment about how they are actually forming living shorelines protection against sea level rise. And they're just the most amazing animals. I love them too. But when you talk about those drifting larval stages where there's a lot of danger, that's when the oysters are especially vulnerable as well to ocean acidification, just when they're developing their shells, that can protect them from predators, they're running into problems. Can you describe a little bit about what that is, how that works?

- Yeah, that's absolutely right. So what we are seeing so, lemme take a step back and talk about how this relates to my research for a second. So, I'm thinking about how we already have a greenhouse gas emissions and warming within the ocean that is causing these oysters to be stressed out. And then with the warming, we get disease increases that also further stress up the oysters. But of course, with these increases in greenhouse gas emissions, we are also seeing changes in seawater chemistry. And so that is adding another layer of stress onto these oysters. And the way that the seawater chemistry affects them is that when we add CO2 to the water, it actually makes the water more acidic. And these oyster shells and any sort of animal that builds a shell is made of calcium carbonate. The same thing that makes up our bones, but because the water is becoming more acidic, it's actually causing those shelves to dissolve. And the summer months where we're seeing these increases in seawater temperature, we also get these periodic pulses of deep water coming up in an event called upwelling. Where winds blow the surface waters off shore and these cooler, deeper waters that are also more acidic bubble up to the top, and these oysters get bathed in that. And so that can cause their shells dissolve. And actually in 2004 an oyster company up in Oregon saw that they had mass mortality of these earlier juvenile oysters and these larval oysters, which have the teeniest tiniest of shells. And so because of that, they're the most vulnerable to upwelling and to increases in, excuse me. They're the most vulnerable to acidic water that happens when the water upwells, but also to increasing acidity from climate change.

- Those poor little oysters.

- Yeah.

- So Priya as somebody who loves oysters on the half shell and in the wild, I really appreciate you coming here and talking about your work and just wish you the best of luck. Thank you.

- Thank you so much, Mary. This has been such a joy and I really appreciate the opportunity to talk about my work. I'm looking forward to coming back to the Exploratorium in person.

- Thank you, Mary and Priya for a fascinating and fun conversation. I encourage you to check out more of Priya writing, which can be found on her website up. Up next, we'll be hearing from Madeleine Thompson and Sonya Epstein about the Department of Tropical Research William Beebe and the bathysphere. Tonight, Madeleine and Sonia will share the story behind and then screen selections from rare archival films that showcase the bathysphere, and document an underwater expedition from the 1930s. Madeline Thompson is the Director of the Library and Archives at the Wildlife Conservation Society, where she works to preserve and share the organization's rich and extended history. Sonia Epstein is Executive Editor and Associate Curator of Science and Film at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York city. Sonya produces all content for the museum's fantastic online publications, science and film.org. She also curates their ongoing film series, "Science on Screen" which pairs rarely seen films with conversations between scientists and filmmakers that offer new perspectives on both film and scientific subject matter. So here's Madeleine and Sonia.

- Hello everyone. My name is Sonia Epstein and I work at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York City where I run all of our science related activities. So my title is Associate Curator of Science and Film, and I run our website and screening series related to science.

- And Hi everyone. I'm Madeleine Thompson and I'm the Director for the Wildlife Conservation Society Library and Archives, and the Wildlife Conservation Society is headquartered at the Bronx Zoo. And I'll say a little bit more about that later on too.

- We are both very excited to be here, Maddie and I at first met a number of years ago when the drawing center, which is a museum in New York, had a show called the "Department of Tropical Research" which I visited and really fell in love with is a show of amazing drawings, and then in the back, there was a little film reel that was playing, and I got very curious about that. And so followed up with Maddie, who kindly invited me to the Wildlife Conservation Society headquarters. And that's when we first, so what we'll be seeing today is still related to that first, what brought us together at the start. So yeah, I think Maddie talk a little bit now about what that is.

- Yes so I'll just get right into it. So we're gonna be seeing some film footage related to some record setting dives that were done in the 1930s in a submersible called the Bay Area. But before we talk about the Bay Area, we have to talk about the Department of Tropical Research and William Beebe and who they all were. So William Beebe was born in Brooklyn in 1877, and he was hired as the first Curator of Ornithology for the Bronx Zoo when it opened in 1899. And this was actually before he had even completed his university degree. The Bronx Zoo was operated by the New York Zoological Society, which is known today as the Wildlife Conservation Society. And WCS continues to run the Bronx Zoo, the New York Aquarium and the Queens Prospect and Central Park Zoos, as well as a large international field conservation program. And it's where I happen to work as well. So Beebe is living at a time when most biologists who wanted to study animals were doing so through specimens in museums. So these were mostly from animals that had been collected in other places and killed and brought back to museums for study. And this was the typical way of studying animals at the time, but he becomes increasingly interested in understanding wildlife, living wildlife in its natural habitats and in understanding how species really interact with each other and interact with the places in which they're living. So he convinces the New York Zoological Society in the 19teens to begin the Department of Tropical Research with him as its Director. To conduct these pioneering ecological expeditions. They start in the 19teens in what was then British Guyana. And then for the next 50 years, really, they kinda bounce around to various tropical regions. Exploring both terrestrial and marine species. And this is the, you know, this is the era when someone could be a naturalist and just kind of not specialize in anything in particular, but really take this very general generalized approach to their studies. So after Beebe death in 1962, the department is folded into another one within the New York Zoological Society. And it's a direct precursor to today's global conservation program at the Wildlife Conservation Society. So it's really setting the stage for the intensive sustained observation. That's the basis of conservation field work. There are so many interesting things to say about the Department of Tropical Research, and I could go on and on about them, but as a lead into this footage, I'm just gonna say a little bit about one particular subject. And that's the influence that the Department of Tropical Research or the DTR had in shaping Westerners concepts of tropical regions and the wildlife within it. The DTR was certainly looking to advance science. You know, they saw themselves as serious scientists and they were certainly sharing their findings with scholarly and technical audiences, but they also made extraordinary efforts to reach the general public. So they were really popularizers of this science as well. And this was helped in part by the fact that Beebe was something of a celebrity scientist in his era. Most people today don't know his name, but at the time he was a household name and the DTRs activities were covered by major news outlets. And Beebe himself wrote several bestselling books about the expeditions. The DTR was made up not only of scientists, but also of artists and photographers and cinematographers who were there to help document the work. And this was shared with public audiences through magazines and news reels and public lectures and outlets like that. And certainly what attracts the most attention are the dives that Beebe does in the 1930s off the coast of Bermuda in the bathysphere, which is an approximately four and a half feet steel, a spiritual submersible. So Beebe undertakes these dives in the bathysphere with the bathysphere engineer, Otis Barton, and this is all done in the name of ecology in the name of science, of understanding these deep sea animals, which had never been seen before in the places where they actually live. But these dives also ended up becoming really sensationalized because they're setting these incredible records. They're diving deeper into the sea than anyone ever has before. And they finally set their greatest record in 1934 when they dive to over 3000 feet under water. There's so little knowledge about the deep sea at this time. It's such a foreign place that this is practically like traveling to outer space at the time. And thankfully for us, they documented much of the work that they were doing at the time, which we now hold in the Wildlife Conservation Society Archives. So we hold field notes and illustrations, photographs and this film as well, which Sonya is going to talk about.

- Yeah, Thanks Maddy we're really excited to share with you guys a small part of the amazing holdings that WCS has. They have over 3000 film reels in their collection, which I've only seen a part of, but they're really super fascinating and include a lot of surprising camera techniques and innovative work. So what we'll be seeing today as Maddie was saying was primarily filmed on a Department of Tropical Research expedition to Bermuda in the 1930s. You will also see some underwater footage, which we believe was filmed in the late 1920s in Haiti, but the first footage that you'll see has a lot of footage of the bathysphere itself, which I just wanna know it is currently on view at the New York Aquarium and Coney Island. If any of you can never make it there, it's pretty amazing to see that there were these two very tall men, William Beebe and Otis Barton crouched inside of, yeah, what looks like a four and a half foot diameter steel ball. One of the things that they were doing that you'll see in the films as they went down was there was a direct telephone line that Beebe had in the bathysphere to... some of his crew mates who were on the boats, including Gloria Hollister, who I believe is in some of the footage. The DTR was a really eclectic mix of people, including men and women, scientists and artists, which was, you know, pretty unique and is still unique. And part of what made that group, I think. Have such character and be so well known in the time as they were. So you'll see Beebe on the phone and what he's doing is he's describing what he's seeing, you know, 3,000 feet deep and people on the surface are drawing from his descriptions, the deep sea creatures that he was looking at. One thing that film could lend to the DTR, that drawing that's still images and would still photographs couldn't is the observation of movement. So as Maddie was saying, you know, one of the things that the DTR was interested in was, you know, exploring the Marine ecology, they were looking at coral, they were looking at wildlife, fish, algae, you know, all sorts of things. And, you know, as ecologists or as behaviorists, as people who were studying living things, one of the things that's really important to living things is movement and film is a really unique medium in that it captures movement. So that was one reason why they took films. The other was that they would often tour around the country, as Mandy said, Beebe was, you know, a big fan of popularizing science of sharing it with the general public. And these films were often used to accompany lectures that they did. They have a look to them that is surprisingly cinematic, if you will. There's a really beautiful flow of movement, you know, interplay of light and shadow, and I was really curious, you know, who it was that was filming this, particularly the underwater footage and also how, because if you think about it, this is the late 1920s. You know, it's not like they had waterproof cameras. Cameras were also very big and heavy, so this, you know, it was not an easy endeavor by any means. And it turns out that the cinematographer for the underwater footage was a man named Floyd Crosby, who was in his late 20s at the time, but became very well known for being the cinematographer on a lot of Robert Flaherty films and Roger Corman films, winning an Academy award. Also music fans might be familiar with his last name, Crosby, because he is actually the father of David Crosby of Crosby, Stills and Nash, which is a funny connection. Which I've actually talked to David about, and he has, you know, there are a lot of water theme songs in his repertoire. You know, his dad was a big, remainder lifelong fan of the sea. So Floyd Crosby, you know, this was really his first job as a summit cinematographer for the DTR. And he with the help of other members constructed a camera specifically for the purpose of filming underwater. So it was a camera that was contained within a brass box. We have a photo here that you can see, and then they would set that on a weighted tripod so that they could, you know, sink down. And it was really remarkable at the time, I found a bunch of, you know, newspapers and places, cinema magazines, where this was written up, where it was, you know, regarded as a technical achievement, what they were able to do. So, yeah, we're very excited to share the footage that you're gonna see of the bathysphere of the Department of Tropical Research of Beebe and other members of his crew exploring in the deep sea. And so, yeah, we hope you enjoy.