Israel’s Deep-Sea Discovery: Mysteries of the Ocean Floor

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Israeli Trailblazers show. This podcast doesn't tell you what to think. It shows you why Israel matters. And after listening, you won't just appreciate Israel, you will stand with it. Because Israel isn't just an ally, it's a friend worth having. And I'm your host, Jennifer Weissmann. So Israel isn't just about hummus and holy sites. And after years of living there, I'm now back in America and I see it very clearly.

[00:00:28] Israel is one of the most misunderstood countries on the planet. And it's out there changing the world and contributing to technology and medicine and agriculture, and you name it. And so much of the world has no idea. Israel is a nation that punches well above its weight and keeps the world moving forward. Did you know that Israel is at the cutting edge of deep sea research and they are sharing it with the world?

[00:00:58] Israel is a nation that's the deep sea. The deep sea is something that most people never consider. But understanding life at the bottom of the ocean helps us understand climate change, climate regulation, it discovers new medications, and develops new technologies. And really, it unlocks the secrets of surviving in extreme environments. No sunlight, crushing pressure, and somehow life is thriving under the sea. How does that happen?

[00:01:26] We're talking creatures living off methane gas and other sci-fi horror flick stuff, but it's actually real. My guest today, Maxim Rubin Blum, he went from a kid obsessed with marine life to scuba diving, to working at the University of Haifa and the Oceanography Institute in Israel.

[00:01:49] And the deep sea is really a source of present day and future resources, energy sources, maybe understanding the future and the present day chemicals that can felt in medicine and also other discoveries. And he's studying how deep sea life in a place that should be toxic is not. This one is going to blow your mind.

[00:02:19] As a kid, you were obsessed with the deep sea. At some point, I discovered how beautiful is the marine life. Many while doing scuba diving and swimming off the beautiful shoreline of Israel, there used to be very fascinating shows from BBC narrated by David Ettenborough. I called the Blue Planet.

[00:03:11] Gain energy and build their bodies. There is no light in the deep sea and there is no photosynthesis. So this makes deep sea very, very strange. And mostly the food in the deep sea is very limited because of the lack of the sunlight. But there are some amazing places where what's happening is a process called chemosynthesis where these chemicals emitted from the deep sea floor fuel, lice.

[00:03:39] What is the name of the process? It's called chemosynthesis. Chemo-synthesis. Yes. Chemo. Chemo-synthetic ecosystems are basically a fancy way of saying the places where life rises in extreme chemical-rich environments.

[00:03:55] What we have here is a unique laboratory to study marine life, marine functions, chemistry, marine processes, like brine pools or methane seeps, which we find here up to Israel. And this is one of the highlights of my research. Methane seeps. Okay, for the layperson, what is a methane seep? Natural gas escapes naturally from the seafloor.

[00:04:24] And these places are called methane or cold seeps. These are the places where this gas is bubbled from the seafloor, fueling this amazing, unique ecosystems. The ecosystems below the sea near these methane seeps are thriving. They're thriving, they're unique, and they're amazing. Thriving, unique, and amazing.

[00:04:49] What is it about these methane seeps that makes these animals thrive and grow? And what kind of animals are we talking about? We are talking about very special animals. The ones that we don't find outside on land. These kinds of animals include tube worms, muscles, other kinds of life. Most of these life forms are adapted to life in the deep sea due to symbiosis with unique bacteria.

[00:05:18] These kinds of bacteria that actually can use these compounds which are emitted from the seafloor and the seaps. These strange chemicals like methane. Methane is a very potent greenhouse gas. Which can cause climate change. And imagine these animals, they actually eat meat. That's amazing. The animals eat methane and that's how they live? They eat methane with the help of their little helpers.

[00:05:47] For example, we as humans, we will not be able to live in this kind of environment using this kind of food sources. We need always to eat something. These organisms, some of them, they even don't have a mouth. They don't eat. They only have these special organs. Not a very toxic compound to humans. If you breathe hydrogen sulfide, we basically die. But these animals make use of it. They grow and they grow really fast sometimes.

[00:06:14] So what can you learn from the sulfite-eating, methane-eating, non-mouth animal? First of all, we learn how life in extreme environments thrives. How life adapts to different places on Earth. We can learn about how life may live in other extreme environments. Maybe some extraterrestrial environments. We can think about fields like astrobiology.

[00:06:44] We can also learn how to better exploit these processes for our own good. For example, engineering crops or any other sources of our future food. So we have a lot of things to find based on this life. And even just understanding how what lives there is exciting because we always find something new.

[00:07:09] Each time we go out to the sea, we discover some new life forms, new species, new forms of adaptation, new types of symbiosis. It's always super exciting. Tell me about the time that you went on a robotics deep-sea exploration with the amazing researcher who found the Titanic. Most of the deep-sea research now is done using deep-sea robotics.

[00:07:35] And this research in Israel started about 15 years ago now. The first expedition to explore the deep-sea happened here. It's actually really standing on the shoulders of giants. It was Robert Ballard, who is a really famous marine explorer. And together with Tzvi Benavram, who basically established this type of research in Israel. In that time, Bob Ballard, he actually the person who discovered the Titanic.

[00:08:04] And he was the first one to find the hydrothermal vents in the deep sea. This is another type of very fascinating chemosynthetic ecosystem. In the deep ocean floor. In 2010 and 2011, it was me and Ipce and Dibenavram. It was a huge privilege to be on this ship. How did it feel to be on this ship with this incredible explorer? It was fantastic. It was our first learning experience.

[00:08:35] We started to understand how to engage in deep-sea research. At that time, this was the first science of these kind of gas sieves, methane sieves here in Israel. Actually, very recently, in 2021, already using fully Israeli infrastructure, including the ship, the robotics, we did the most fascinating discoveries. As we found brine pools next to these gas sieves in the deep sea.

[00:09:01] And brine pools is where salty fluids come out of the seafloor. They are rich in methane and hydrogen sulfide, really toxic. And they formed this fascinating... It looked like a lake at the bottom of the sea. And what's growing down there? These deep sea lakes, they're surrounded by chemosynthetic life. We find amazing tube worms, muscles, all of them engage in chemosynthetic symbiosis.

[00:09:30] But also one, probably the most exciting discovery that we made here of sure is that these hot spots of life attract deep sea sharks. They attract deep sea sharks to lay eggs. So we found astonishing nurseries of deep sea sharks. Myriad of eggs, millions, millions of eggs, thousands of sharks all come together. And we just see like a carpet of eggs on the bottom. And this really makes the sieves unique.

[00:09:59] And being so unique, these sieves became a hotspot of even international interest. And now a lot of research is being done here by our group, but also in collaboration with other groups worldwide, trying to understand how these brine pools work and how these sharks... What actually, what do they do there? How they contribute to the ecology of these chemosynthetic ecosystems.

[00:10:26] Are there other places in the world that have similar brine pools? Yes, there are huge brine pools in the Gulf of Mexico. It's called the Gulf of America now. It's America now. You're right. Yeah, there are huge, huge brine pools. They've been explored quite a lot by American teams. And here in offshore Israel, we have also these brine pools. And basically, you know, Israel, although it has quite a short coastline compared to the Gulf of Mexico,

[00:10:56] it's a very beautiful coastline. But also, it has very unique conditions. For example, it's one of the fastest changing places, marine basins on Earth, because it's warming quite fast. It has been warm and very salty already. The bottom temperatures, for example, here is about 15 degrees Celsius. That's much warmer than most of deep seas around the world. So these mitten-seaps, they develop under very unique conditions.

[00:11:24] What we have here is a unique laboratory to study marine life, marine functions, chemistry, marine processes. How is Israel's research being extrapolated to other places in the world so that other researchers can learn too? What's going on with Texas and other coastlines around the world? So, first of all, we continuously collaborate with researchers from the United States, from other places.

[00:11:54] We continuously advance the knowledge of these habitats. First of all, again, it's a unique place, unique conditions. A lot of research is being done right now here in Israel to highlight what happens in these unique habitats. Why do you feel that what you're doing in Israel matters globally? First of all, we have a very unique marine system. It's different from what you find elsewhere.

[00:12:25] Why do you feel the Mediterranean Sea findings are so important to researchers in San Diego or other places on the globe? What is it about Israel's research that is important for the world?

[00:12:44] It's one of the most unique hotspots of life in the world because of the rapid change, the unique conditions, the connection to history. It was one of the ancient sheep roots and basically the ancient world was here. So it also provides a great platform for the research, history, archaeology, and this kind of knowledge.

[00:13:11] From our point of view, we are really at the forefront understanding how these ecosystems work. Do you find that researchers in other places in the world are interested in what is going on in Israel in terms of deep sea research? Researchers worldwide are very interested in what's happening here. It's because of collaborations and exchange of knowledge, but also because of understanding how unique these ecosystems are.

[00:13:37] For example, we have now a very large European project called Redress. And this project aims to preserve and restore marine ecosystems that have been damaged, especially those in the deep sea. And Israel has a unique place in this project.

[00:13:58] This is the only country which studies the cold seaps, as most of the other countries are involved mainly in preservation of cold water corals because of the uniqueness of such ecosystems. And all of these communities are really engaged and interested in what we are doing. Are you reasoning that essentially what's happening in Israel is the focus of international research?

[00:14:24] Because if animals and systems can thrive in such extreme conditions in your unique ecosystem, then maybe it's easier to fix a natural disaster on a coral reef or a gas leak. Can what you're doing in Israel help man-made crises at sea?

[00:14:45] I think so, because Israel is a very fast-developing area, fast-developing shoreline, fast-developing deep sea, but also changing rapidly because of other effects, not only human-made, but based on the climate change and these kinds of ideas. This area is warming quite fast. The temperatures are quite hot. The sea is different. And eventually, our discoveries are unique.

[00:15:14] We found very unique places here. They have not been seen in such densities or in such activity globally, especially those of sharks. That's a really amazing sight. Wow, there are some videos recorded. Please visit the website of my lab. What is the website of your lab? It's mrblab.org. mrblab.org. Yes.

[00:15:42] There is a video where you can see all of these amazing places. And you can, as excited as I am about these findings. It's amazing. You said you saw thousands of shark eggs? Yes. My key collaborator, Tick Makovsky, he had to eat his hat twice. He had to eat his hat? Yes. Because first, he didn't believe that we'll find brine pools of shark Israel.

[00:16:06] We already had some signs and some data which hinted at the brine pools, but he said no. And then second time, when we observed this shark eggs on the steepleur, he just couldn't believe that we are seeing so many shark eggs. He said that this could be something different. And then he had to eat his hat. He had to eat his hat. That must have been an uncomfortable meal for him. This is amazing. These methane seeps, these are all over the world?

[00:16:36] Or is that unique to Israel? So, these methane or gas seeps, also called cold seeps, they are present all over the world. They're found at the margins of land, of continents, in the sea. They're basically everywhere. They're very important ecosystems. They're supposed to emit huge amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas into atmosphere, but they don't.

[00:17:01] And that's because of this unique life, which is actually able to eat up this methane before it reaches the atmosphere. And that's on its own amazing. And it's super important to sustain life on Earth. These seeps are everywhere. And here we have a small foot spot, which we study in Israel, and hopefully contributing something important. I guess the deep sea is the last frontier, right? It's probably the least well-explored place on Earth.

[00:17:31] We likely know more about the surface of the Moon than we know about the deep sea. It's kind of a cliche, but it's still true. Although, more efforts on exploration of the deep sea are being made recently. And the deep sea is really a source of present day and future resources, energy sources, maybe understanding the future and the present day chemicals that can help in medicine.

[00:18:01] And also other discoveries. There is a huge place for discovery in the deep sea. That's amazing. I really appreciate your time today, Maxim. This was a very interesting episode. I didn't know really anything about the deep sea. And to hear what you've discovered in Israel and how you've extrapolated that to share it with the globe is absolutely amazing. It was a literal deep dive into the abyss.

[00:18:30] And Israel is definitely sharing all of their amazing research on how ecosystems thrive, where I guess life should be a toxic wasteland, but it's not. Exactly. So if you like this episode, don't keep it to yourself. Please share it, post it, and text it to your friends. Until next time, I'm your host, Jennifer Weissman, and this is the Israeli Trailblazers show. Thank you, Maxim.

[00:19:00] Thank you, Jennifer. Thank you, Jennifer. Thank you.