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Click on an audio format for a sound bite from Bobby:
AIFF | WAV
Dateline: Under the Sea with Bobby the Bearded Worm
Wendell: We're standing on the ocean floor nearly a mile and half down in the Pacific
Ocean. It's an eery dark place. The water is very warm - around 23 degrees Celsius! It
bubbles out of huge natural rock-like chimneys (some over 30 feet tall) that seem to grow out of
the earth. And, quite frankly, it stinks. It smells like rotten eggs. We're here to talk with
Bobby, a bearded worm, or what scientists call a "pogonophore," who thrives in this strange and
bizarre place.
Wendell: Bobby, you're a very unusual looking worm, wouldn't you say? You have a red
beard!
Bobby: Yeah, I suppose. I'm ten feet tall, red, and have a number of bright red
tentacles that make up my beard.
200,000 Tentacles Under the Sea
Wendell: I'd say more than a number....How many exactly?
Bobby: 200,000.
Wendell: Yow!
Bobby: Now understand me -- not all of my relatives have so many tentacles. Some may
only have a couple but it is true we're the only worms with beards.
Wendell: You're also unusual in other ways. You grow from both ends, for example. And
you don't have a digestive system. You don't even have a mouth, which makes it even more remarkable
that you're down here talking with us. But more importantly, how do you eat?
Bobby: We have tiny living things called bacteria that live inside us. That's how we
get our nourishment. It means we don't have to go far for food. That may be one of the reasons
we're the fastest growing worms in the world!
Life in a Vent
Wendell: Tell me about your home. It looks like a sci fi movie set.
Bobby: This place is an undersea vent -- an opening in the ocean floor. The big
chimneys are made of the hardened lava from a volcanic eruption just four years ago. They're called
"black smokers." The water shooting out of them was warmed by the hot rocks deep in the earth's
cracks. I admit it's an out-of-the-way location. I think that's why it took until the 20th century
for scientists to discover we existed.
Four years ago, this place was charred and empty. Now it's teeming with life. I love it down
here. So do all the other tube worms, spaghetti worms, huge clams, crabs, shrimp and bacteria who
also call it home.
Wendell: I can see why. Thanks, Bobby. This has been Wendell Worm reporting from the
ocean floor.
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Bearded worm, underwater
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