Sasha Barbagat

So can you, you say a few thousand feet deep, can you put that, because I'm not so good at maths and, and, you know, measurements and things like that.

How many like tall buildings is that?

Like, are we talking, you know, can you quantify it for us to give us a picture of just how deep we are talking?

Wow.

What are the conditions like in ocean that deep?

Now, we are going to talk about the ocean census, but first I kind of want to get a sense of what we do know and what we have already discovered previous to this research of the deep sea.

Can you paint a picture of the sort of creatures and undersea flora, I suppose, that exists in those extremely deep places?

Sure.

Now, let's talk about the Nippon Foundation Nekton Ocean Census.

It's the full name, and it recently teamed up with the CSIRO, where you work.

And as part of that work, more than 1,100 new species were discovered over a 12-month period.

Now, you were part of those expeditions that were discovering some of those new species.

Tell us how those expeditions unfolded and how you did your work.

Yeah, and you are credited with the biggest discovery of that project.

Tell us about the ghost shark.

Communicate to those of us not in kind of the science world and doing this sort of work where you're literally discovering a new species.

What is the excitement level like?

What happens when that moment clicks and you go, hang on, I think I found something new here?

no doubt something called the ghost shark is going to generate some headlines and interest, but you're right, there's so much more to it and so many other species that maybe aren't as sexy, but that are just as important.

When you said before that you have further examination to do in the lab, I'm curious to know what that means.