The Marine Biologist Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Technical and general information from the podcast's RSS feed.

The Marine Biologist Podcast

The Marine Biological Association

Science

Frequency: 1 episode/87d. Total Eps: 20

The Marine Biologist Podcast brings you conversations about marine life with leading marine biologists. If you are fascinated by the sea and its inhabitants and want to go deeper, this is the podcast for you.

Each episode follows up on an article on cutting-edge science, conservation, or education that appeared in the most recent edition of The Marine Biologist magazine.

Visit the magazine website: https://www.mba.ac.uk/magazine/
Join the Marine Biological Association: https://www.mba.ac.uk/membership/

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Recent rankings

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Apple Podcasts

🇨🇦 Canada - lifeSciences
19/08/2026
#47
🇬🇧 Great Britain - lifeSciences
19/08/2026
#19
🇺🇸 USA - lifeSciences
19/08/2026
#55
🇫🇷 France - lifeSciences
19/08/2026
#12
🇨🇦 Canada - lifeSciences
18/08/2026
#33
🇬🇧 Great Britain - lifeSciences
18/08/2026
#18
🇺🇸 USA - lifeSciences
18/08/2026
#34
🇫🇷 France - lifeSciences
18/08/2026
#25
🇬🇧 Great Britain - lifeSciences
17/08/2026
#27
🇺🇸 USA - lifeSciences
17/08/2026
#52

Spotify

No recent rankings available

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

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https://www.mba.ac.uk/membership/
20 shares
https://www.mba.ac.uk/our-membership/
18 shares
https://www.worldstoughestrow.com/the-atlantic/
1 share

https://www.instagram.com/thembauk

RSS feed quality and score

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RSS feed quality

To improve

Score global : 27%

Publication history

Monthly episode publishing history over the past years.

Year

Latest published episodes

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The Power of Plankton

Season 5 · Episode 3

Tuesday, July 21, 2026 • Duration 25:30

Plankton are the foundation of life on Earth, evolving and shaping the planet over billions of years.

In this episode, Vincent Doumeizel, author of The Power of Plankton: How Plankton Made Life On Earth Possible and Why It’s Key To Our Future, talks about plankton and why it is fundamentally important for the survival of life on Earth as we know it.

We talk about some of the engaging stories in the book, for example, why did Alain Bombard cast himself adrift in the Atlantic Ocean in rubber dinghy with only a plankton net? Are we Martians? And why hope will play such an important role in the fight to protect ocean biodiversity.

The Power of Plankton, the new book from Vincent Doumeizel, bestselling author of The Seaweed Revolution, is published by The Book Social.

Thanks for listening!

Join the Marine Biological Association and receive four copies a year of The Marine Biologist, our prestigious and beautifully curated magazine. MBA membership comes with a host of other benefits.

www.facebook.com/thembauk

www.instagram.com/thembauk

@thembauk.bsky.social

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Microplastics in a changing environment

Monday, June 15, 2026 • Duration 33:08

Microplastics are present in the water we drink, the food we eat, and the air that we breathe. In this episode we meet Dr Alice Horton, Senior Research Fellow at the Marine Biological Association and an expert in aquatic microplastic pollution.

We have been leaking plastic into the environment for the last 60 or so years and the amount entering the ocean is predicted to triple by 2040. But, as Alice explains, we still understand little of the long-term implications for ecosystems and human health.

Alice's research at the MBA is specifically focusing on how microplastics interact with the diverse and complex mix of chemical and climate stressors and how different species will respond under changing global environmental conditions.

We also discuss what scientists and policy-makers are doing to tackle microplastics and what we as individuals can do to reduce our exposure.

MBA Members get exclusive early access to the video episode. Become a Member today to watch the full podcast first and unlock exclusive member-only benefits.

mba.ac.uk/membership

Text us your comments and feedback

Thanks for listening!

If you have any questions you can contact us at the Marine Biological Association here.

Join the Marine Biological Association and receive four copies a year of The Marine Biologist, our prestigious and beautifully curated magazine. MBA membership comes with a host of other benefits.

www.facebook.com/thembauk

www.instagram.com/thembauk

@thembauk.bsky.social

Inspiring women: crossing an ocean for the ocean

Monday, March 18, 2024 • Duration 35:37

We are joined in this episode by Noelle Helder, marine ecologist, and member of the four-woman Salty Science rowing team that crossed the Atlantic to make a positive contribution to inclusivity in marine science.

Representing three generations of marine scientists, Isabelle Côté, Chantale Begin, Lauren Shea, and Noelle rowed 3,000 miles across the Atlantic in an 8.5 m boat. Noelle describes how she and the team prepared for this epic of endurance, kept their morale high, and worked as a team under the most extreme conditions. They not only won the women's division and came 7th out of 37 boats that finished the race.

On the way they endured days of 20-foot waves, encountered sharks, tuna, and flying fish, and tried not to think about the consequences of a marlin strike.

Noelle’s description of the sometimes hair-raising journey is refreshingly deadpan – perhaps unsurprising for a self-confessed lover of ‘type II fun’. But beyond testing themselves in the open ocean, the reason the team took on the challenge was to raise support for marine conservation education, and support access for less privileged people to enter careers in marine science.

We hope you enjoy this episode as much as Lize and I did.

https://saltyscience.org/
https://www.worldstoughestrow.com/the-atlantic/

Text us your comments and feedback

Thanks for listening!

If you have any questions you can contact us at the Marine Biological Association here.

Join the Marine Biological Association and receive four copies a year of The Marine Biologist, our prestigious and beautifully curated magazine. MBA membership comes with a host of other benefits.

Exploration vs exploitation of the deep sea

Tuesday, January 9, 2024 • Duration 34:26

What is so special about the deep sea? What are the impacts of human activities there and which areas are particularly important?

In this episode, we are joined by deep-sea ecologist Dr Amelia Bridges. Following on from an article that Amelia wrote for the October edition of The Marine Biologist magazine, we will be discussing the pros and cons of exploration and exploitation in the deep sea.

Dr Amelia Bridges is a Research Fellow at the School of Biological and Marine Sciences (Faculty of Science and Engineering), University of Plymouth. She specializes in spatial ecology in the deep sea and how science can help policy-makers make informed decisions.
@Amelia_Bridges
https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/staff/amelia-bridges

Text us your comments and feedback

Thanks for listening!

If you have any questions you can contact us at the Marine Biological Association here.

Join the Marine Biological Association and receive four copies a year of The Marine Biologist, our prestigious and beautifully curated magazine. MBA membership comes with a host of other benefits.

www.facebook.com/thembauk

www.instagram.com/thembauk

@thembauk.bsky.social

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First to the feast - when open ocean hunters converge

Friday, October 20, 2023 • Duration 29:48

A shoal of sardines comes under attack from all sides as some of the ocean's most spectacular predators converge to take their fill.
But which species do best and how do they interact with their competitors? How can scientists even study such a dynamic and ephemeral event? Alicia Burns joins us to talk about the challenges and rewards of getting up close and personal with feeding aggregations in the clear waters off Baja California, Mexico.
The purpose of this exciting research is to understand the hunting success of individuals, specifically, of blue marlin and sea lions and other predators in open ocean multi-predator aggregations. Learning how resources are shared helps understand this extremely productive ecosystem and the threats it faces through exploitation and climate change.
Alicia is a behavioural biologist whose research interests include the mechanisms driving animals' social organization. She is part of an international and multi-disciplinary collaboration with scientsist from Departamento de Pesquerías y Biología Marina, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Marinas (CICIMAR-IPN), La Paz, Baja California Sur, 23096, Mexico led by Jens Krause, Head of the department of Fish Biology, Fisheries and Aquaculture at Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and
Inland Fisheries (IGB).

Text us your comments and feedback

Thanks for listening!

If you have any questions you can contact us at the Marine Biological Association here.

Join the Marine Biological Association and receive four copies a year of The Marine Biologist, our prestigious and beautifully curated magazine. MBA membership comes with a host of other benefits.

www.facebook.com/thembauk

www.instagram.com/thembauk

Why inspiration is the ocean's greatest untapped resource

Monday, July 24, 2023 • Duration 37:27

Ever since humans began making things, we have been looking to nature for inspiration: Leonardo Da Vinci designed flying machines inspired by birds, and burs (seeds covered in hooks) inspired the invention of velcro.

Marine natural compounds are three to four times more likely to yield successful drugs compared with terrestrial ones.
In 2022, there were over 17,000 new marine natural products discovered.

Leading marine biologist Robert Blasiak joins us to discuss the magical ingredients of marine biomimetics. With an emphasis firmly on learning from nature and extracting only ideas, Robert and colleagues from the Stockholm Resilience Centre take us on a fascinating exploration of the deep sea, how we must value it, and why the benefits of exploration may outweigh those of extraction.

With thanks to Robert, Tilde Krusberg (MSc student and Research Assistant), and Lova Schildt (MSc student).

Text us your comments and feedback

Thanks for listening!

If you have any questions you can contact us at the Marine Biological Association here.

Join the Marine Biological Association and receive four copies a year of The Marine Biologist, our prestigious and beautifully curated magazine. MBA membership comes with a host of other benefits.

www.facebook.com/thembauk

www.instagram.com/thembauk

@thembauk.bsky.social

Slow-motion speed dating and other shark matters with Professor David Sims

Friday, March 31, 2023 • Duration 54:11

What drives animals to go where they go?

We are proud to welcome shark expert Professor David Sims for a conversation about basking shark speed dating and much more.

David is a behavioural ecologist specialising in tracking the movements and behaviour of ocean predators to understand how they will respond to natural and human-induced change. In this podcast he talks about the detailed study of basking shark circling behaviour that he led off the West coast of Ireland.

This podcast builds on David's article, 'Basking shark circles' that appeared in the January edition of The Marine Biologist, the magazine for members of the Marine Biological Association.

It's always a pleasure to listen to David share his decades of knowledge about how and why sharks do what they do. So tune in, sit back and come away knowing a lot more about the lives of these magnificent predators.

Professor David Sims is a Senior Research Fellow at the MBA where he leads the Movement Ecology and Conservation of Ocean Predators research group.

Text us your comments and feedback

Thanks for listening!

If you have any questions you can contact us at the Marine Biological Association here.

Join the Marine Biological Association and receive four copies a year of The Marine Biologist, our prestigious and beautifully curated magazine. MBA membership comes with a host of other benefits.

www.facebook.com/thembauk

www.instagram.com/thembauk

Time to talk about Marine Protected Areas

Wednesday, December 21, 2022 • Duration 44:29

Trawling in marine protected areas? What's that all about? Join us as we learn from experts why protecting areas of the sea is an essential tool for marine conservation, what some of the pitfalls are, and how MPAs help tackle the climate and biodiversity crisis.

This is a huge topic to tackle but we are in safe hands. We are joined in this episode by Dan Laffoley who held the global honorary role as Marine Vice Chair for the World Commission on Protected Areas for 17 years and by Daniela Sturm, who wrote the article on large-scale marine protected areas which featured in the October edition of The Marine Biologist magazine.

Text us your comments and feedback

Thanks for listening!

If you have any questions you can contact us at the Marine Biological Association here.

Join the Marine Biological Association and receive four copies a year of The Marine Biologist, our prestigious and beautifully curated magazine. MBA membership comes with a host of other benefits.

www.facebook.com/thembauk

www.instagram.com/thembauk

@thembauk.bsky.social

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Meet the gene genies! The Darwin Tree of Life project

Thursday, September 22, 2022 • Duration 43:39

You have probably heard of Charles Darwin (he got there first with his theory of evolution by natural selection) and DNA. But few of us can explain what a genome is and why genomes are so important.

In this podcast we ask Kes Scott-Somme, a Marine Biological Association scientist who works on the marine part of the Darwin Tree of Life project (DToL), why so many people are interested in the genomes of marine organisms, and what is a genome, anyway?

As part of a global drive to describe the genetic make-up of life on Earth, DToL is cataloguing the genomes of 70,000 species in Britain and Ireland.

Kes also gets around to talking about careers in marine biology, taxonomy, and the importance of natural history.

Join this engaging discussion and find out how building a vast catalogue of genomes is relevant to human health, and dealing with the climate and biodiversity crisis.

Text us your comments and feedback

Thanks for listening!

If you have any questions you can contact us at the Marine Biological Association here.

Join the Marine Biological Association and receive four copies a year of The Marine Biologist, our prestigious and beautifully curated magazine. MBA membership comes with a host of other benefits.

www.facebook.com/thembauk

www.instagram.com/thembauk

The fall of the great ocean farmers: blue and fin whales in the Southern Ocean

Friday, May 27, 2022 • Duration 51:46

The Antarctic blue whale is the biggest animal that has ever lived. In the 20th century, humans harvested 99 per cent of them.

In this episode we welcome Matthew Savoca and Conor Ryan. Matt is interested in how animals might teach us about human impacts on the environment, and how we might reverse those impacts. Conor is a cetacean expert and photographer who describes the Southern Ocean as "the oceanic heartbeat of the planet". Both are hugely knowledgeable about how the Southern Ocean ecosystem works.

If you ever wondered how many blue and fin whales there are now, how many were lost to whaling, and how that impacts us, listen on!

This is a fascinating conversation with two young and engaging scientists.

Text us your comments and feedback

Thanks for listening!

If you have any questions you can contact us at the Marine Biological Association here.

Join the Marine Biological Association and receive four copies a year of The Marine Biologist, our prestigious and beautifully curated magazine. MBA membership comes with a host of other benefits.

www.facebook.com/thembauk

www.instagram.com/thembauk

@thembauk.bsky.social

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The Marine Biologist Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

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Apple Podcasts

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The Marine Biologist Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

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Other24

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Publication history

Latest published episodes

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Apple Podcasts

Spotify

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