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Geared Up and Ready to Go
June 15, 2000
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Months of planning have come to this: A dozen scientists, educators, and technicians, a photographer and a writer, two deep-diving submersibles, and an ROV, ready to once again board the NOAA Ship McArthur to explore the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary.
Last year, the Sustainable Seas Expeditions (SSE) visited the Channel Islands in May, conducting preliminary site characterization work and testing out the utility of the DeepWorker subs in doing such research. It was the fourth site we’d explored, and the first in which weather conditions were calm enough to have full working days.
This year, we believe we’ll be able to accomplish much more. Weather conditions in June should allow us more freedom in where and when we can conduct dive operations. And where we were previously limited to shallower dives in the earlier model of DeepWorker, we can now conduct operations as deep as 2,000 feet.
The SSE subs have undergone many modifications since they were last used in the Flower Garden Banks in September 1999. New cameras, upgraded manipulators and lights, and other equipment will be used as we focus on site characterization, fish behavior, studies on the relationship between blue whales and krill, and other projects in the Channel Islands and Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuaries. USGS scientist Guy Cochrane’s research will emphasize ground truthing of sonar data, while Donna Schraeder’s will continue her research on local rockfish populations.
The McArthur arrives in Port Hueneme on June 2, and will depart on June 5, after loading the mountains of gear that will be required for the west coast missions. Over the next three weeks, scientists including Sarah Fangman, Steve Gittings, and I will be exploring the depths of the sanctuary and reporting back to you on what we find. As a part of SSE’s education program in the Channel Islands, Francesca Cava and Laura Francis will share information from their dives with students who will be following the expedition. A NASA-sponsored live uplink is planned for June 8.
At the end of June, we’ll move on to Monterey Bay, and then take the subs cross-country to explore the Florida Keys and Florida Middlegrounds. It’s shaping up to be a very interesting summer!
— Sylvia A. Earle
Project Director
Sustainable Seas Expeditions
[Note: nationalgeographic.com does not research or copyedit dispatches.]