Last year saw the climax of a ten-year effort to discover as much as possible about life in the oceans. It was the first census of marine life but it was more than just a very big fish-counting effort. It was an amazingly ambitious endeavor which turned out a menagerie of species new to science, it unlocked lots of the oceans deepest secrets and also revealed just how little we know about this enormous, intangible realm.
But did you ever wonder how it all got started? Who was brave and/or stupid enough to come up with such a swaggeringly bold plan? Well, it was the brain child of two brilliant men and I got the chance to meet one of them.
Have a listen to Jesse Ausabel’s great story of how he and Fred Grassle cooked up the crazy, wonderful scheme of the Census of Marine Life.
There’s more about the census in this Naked Oceans podcast.
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