|
|
June
26 to July 12, 2000
Track
the Monterey Bay expedition on this page. To learn
about planned education and research activities,
plus other interesting facts, select a background
essay of your choice. You can also follow
expedition logs and updates.
|
|
|
Congressman
Sam Farr with SSE Director Dr. Sylvia
Earle.
|
Welcome
Log Congressional Representative Sam Farr
welcomes
the Sustainable Seas
Expeditions
to the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
June 26 The Monterey Bay National Marine
Sanctuary welcomed the Sustainable Seas Expeditions
(SSE) in an evening
celebration
at the National Geographic Theatre, located in the
Hearst Castle State Park Visitor Center. More than
100 local residents were treated to a presentation
by Dr. Sylvia Earle and a special showing of "The
Living Sea."
|
|
|
Students
involved in the expedition with their
teacher.
|
June
28 Seven students, ranging from 6th graders to
college sophomores, boarded the NOAA vessel
McArthurtoday to witness
the Sustainable Seas Expeditions
first-hand.
They received a full tour of the ship, learned
about DeepWorker submersible operations as well as
tracking and organization, and visited the video
and photography editing studio. The research team
reports that Dr. Steve Webster is getting some
ribbing from the crew for being "Cleanup Man." He
used the manipulator arm on the DeepWorker to bring
up an old space heater (not a water heater) from
100 ft deep. Though visibility was only 10 ft
because of plankton blooms in the water, Dr.
Webster saw many squid eggs, and also brittle
stars, along the sandy bottom. Read
Dr. Webster's personal
account.
|
|
|
A
student from the Boys & Girls Clubs
checks out the plankton.
|
June
29 Teacher-in-the-Sea Mike Guardino is diving
at Pt. Lobos today. Dr. Sylvia Earle reports that
dive conditions are "picture perfect." The only
communications problem with the DeepWorker is Mike
having trouble wiping the smile off his face long
enough to talk. His dive today is supporting
research that he and his students have been
conducting over the past two years, which involves
studying the marine protected area at Pt. Lobos at
scuba depths. Meanwhile, a group of 4th through 6th
grade students are observing the mission from close
proximity aboard the charter boat
Sanctuary,as well as conducting hands-on
science and monitoring activities. Read
their log.
June 30 The wonders of live uplink
technology allowed Internet participants from
around the nation to interview Dr. Sylvia Earle,
and to chat with Teacher-in-the-Sea Mike Guardino
about his student-assisted research to determine
the effectiveness of "no-take" marine reserves.
Mike explained the project and their preliminary
findings of the presence of larger fish in the Pt.
Lobos marine reserve, versus in the surrounding
unprotected areas. Meanwhile, research operations
on the McArthurare temporarily "on hold" for
maintenance on the subs and the remotely operated
vehicle.
|
|
|
Mike
Guardino
descends in the DeepWorker
submersible.
|
July
2 Our Teacher-in-the-Sea, Mike Guardino, dove
to 150 ft for 3 hrs today. At times, thousands of
squid surrounded him in the midwater column.
Yesterday, the expedition located large patches of
squid eggs on the bottom. Squid have become one of
the most important fisheries off the coast of
California, but little is known about the
conditions necessary for spawning, or the migration
patterns of adults. Read
his account of the last few
days.
|
|
|
The
crew launches the Phantom ROV.
|
July
3 Dr. Baldo Marinovic of the University of
California, Santa Cruz, spent the night gathering
data
on krill,
using standard net-tow techniques. He found the
krill to be very abundant, and was planning to use
the DeepWorker to view and describe their
behavior. The wind picked up in the early morning,
however, creating conditions unsafe for sub
deployment. Instead, the crew launched a remotely
operated vehicle (ROV), attached by cable, that
filmed some krill behavior and jellyfish in the
midwater. The Phantom ROV descended to a depth of
350 ft.
July 4 DeepWorker pilot and underwater
photographer Kip
Evans was greeted to 4th of July underwater
fireworks
as he turned off the submersible lights at 1,000
ft. The krill used their own bioluminescence to
create dazzling sparks of light. The plan was to
locate krill with the ship's echosounder, sample
them with nets, then observe their behavior with
the DeepWorker. Kip accomplished all of these
objectives, first making a 300-ft dive, followed by
the 1,000-ft dive.
|
|
|
A
common species of krill found in the
sanctuary: Euphausia pacifica (max.
size 25 mm).
|
July
5 The DeepWorker explored the head of Monterey
Bay Canyon today. Diving between 300 and 550 ft,
the sub documented the vertical distribution
pattern of krill. Monterey Bay Canyon, one of the
largest underwater canyons on the West Coast of
North America, is a dominant feature of the
Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
View
a "fly-through" of the
canyon.
|
|
|
Dr.
Baldo Marinovic
conducts
krill research.
|
July
6 After completing the krill project early, the
ship returned to Pt. Lobos to finish fish and
invertebrate surveys for the marine protected area
education project. Read
the log.
Both Mike Guardino, our Teacher-in-the Sea, and Dr.
Steve Webster, Senior Marine Advisor of the
Monterey Bay Aquarium, completed their DeepWorker
dives. Read
Steve's log.
July 7 Today is a maintenance day for the
submersible. Crew members are taking advantage of
this break to spend some time onshore. While many
are receiving special tours of the Monterey Bay
Aquarium, others are shopping for the galley,
getting haircuts, and taking care of other personal
business.
|
|
|
Dr.
Sylvia Earle prepares to pilot the
DeepWorker submersible.
|
July
8 Dr. Sylvia Earle took some good footage of
krill in Monterey Canyon today, diving to a maximum
depth of 1,013 feet. Meanwhile, the crew has been
busy with maintenance on the sub. Read
an account of the last few days from Jennifer
Makowka,
a research intern at the sanctuary.
July 9 Rick Starr, marine advisor for the
University of California Sea Grant Extension
Program, made his DeepWorker checkout dives to 175
ft at Sur Canyon today. He filmed an assortment of
rockfish, including blue, black, yellowtail, olive,
and gopher rockfish. We believe this is the first
time that the Sur Canyon has been explored by a
submersible.
|
|
|
Rick
Starr in the DeepWorker.
|
July
10 Rick Starr piloted the DeepWorker to 625 ft
in Monterey Canyon today. He conducted a rockfish
survey to determine the range of this species.
July 11 Kim Reisenbichler, a scientist at
the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, made
a dive to 625 ft in the DeepWorker today. Kim
continued the rockfish survey in Monterey Canyon
and conducted some midwater exploration.
|
|
|
The
sun takes its nightly plunge as the
Monterey mission comes to a
close.
|
July
12 The Monterey mission came to a close today,
but not before Rick Starr made one last dive, to
750 ft, to conduct a rockfish survey at Big Creek
Reserve along the Big Sur coast. He estimated 20
different rockfish species in the area.
Read
the Summary Log.
The
NOAA ship McArthuris now heading south, to
the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, to
continue the Sustainable Seas Expeditions.
Follow
along . . .
|
|
|
View
the expedition dive maps.
|
View
a series of dive maps from the Monterey Bay
expedition.
|
|
