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August 20, 2005
Deep Water Coral Reef Ecosystems Studies Funding and Training
This from the CORAL-List:
Coral Reef Ecosystems Studies (CRES 2006) proposals are due September 1, 2005 at 3 pm EST.If you have ever thought of working on deep water hermatypic coral
ecosystems, but didn't have deep-water technology or SCUBA diving skills to get there, NOAA could help you obtain the necessary skills and provide operational support for your field operations. This opportunity is a part of the broader CRES 2006 announcement that includes core funding for research along with the operational support for the deep diving technology.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations Center for
Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research (NOAA/CSCOR) is encouraging research proposals that will address deep-water, hermatypic coral reef ecosystems (50 m to 100 m) within the U.S. EEZ. Key objectives of this research are to understand the processes that regulate deep hermatypic reef ecosystems and to assess their vulnerability to exploitation and human disturbance. This opportunity is available not only to scientists that already have SCUBA skills to dive to 100 m, but also to scientists that have shallow water SCUBA skills and are interested in learning to dive to 100 m to conduct research.NOAA/CSCOR has partnered with NOAAs Undersea Research Program (NURP) Centers to enable scientists the opportunity to obtain the proper training needed to SCUBA dive to 100 m (e.g. using tri-mix, close-circuit rebreathers). In addition to deep water SCUBA, the NURP Centers will also provide their expertise in administering appropriate technologies for field-based research to support your proposal such as remotely operated vehicles and shallow diving submersibles.. Applicants should include all operating costs for these specialized technologies and the necessary ship costs in their proposals. The full funding opportunity can be found here.
For more information, contact Mike Dowgiallo, NOAA/CSCOR, 301-713-3338 x161 or Michael.Dowgiallo@noaa.gov.
Note: this offer is only available to U.S. citizens or foreign nationals associated with a U.S. university.
Posted by Dida at 8:10 AM
August 14, 2005
WreckMap Britain Seeks Divers
WreckMap Britain 2005 is seeking volunteers to collect basic biological and archeological data while diving UK wrecks during 6th July to 31st August 2005. 
The collaborative project between Britain's Nautical Archeology Society (NAS) and Marine Conservation Society (MCS) is part of the SeaBritain 2005 celebrations.
The Wreckmap site provides a form for recording basic information about the wreck site. Divers are encouraged to accompany their written reports with photos or videos of the site.
As with REEF, any certified diver can participate in the surveys, and submitted data are available to anyone viewing the NAS website.
Posted by Dida at 6:04 PM
August 10, 2005
Wrecks as Bioclutter
When my sister and I were children, we collected shells from the bottom of the ocean in Kentucky: the Ordovician ocean. Thick masses of crinoids, bryozoans and brachiopods surface there, in reefs of half-billion-year old limestone. I now know that those animals represented a sudden departure (during the immediately preceding Cambrian period) from previous, much simpler forms. As a diver, I see their nieces and nephews on the ocean bottom today; and I'm a slightly more distant relation myself.
The seemingly infinite amounts of plastic and aluminum we produce, as well as the extinction of so many other species, are now forming a geological layer that will certainly bemuse intelligences a billion years hence, should any visit this planet. Our period may represent a similar dramatic explosion of paleontological forms, perhaps followed by some more measured further evolution.
Recently I had the opportunity to see a few of these fossils in the process of formation in California's Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary (CINMS), on a cruise to monitor archaeological resources aboard the R/V Shearwater. Trip leaders were Coastal Maritime Archaeology Resources (CMAR) President Mark Norder and CINMS Cultural Resources Coordinator Robert Schwemmer. We viewed 3 wrecks, of different states of age and preservation:fossils in the process of forming, or failing to form.
A Grumman Avenger, one of 2 torpedo bombers that collided and crashed on a training mission during WWII, lies at 125 feet depth in the channel. Careful work by Captain Terrence Shinn found a small bump by depth sounder. Mark and Robert dropped a line at the spot, and made the first dive on the wreck. They reported the airplane in good shape, though degraded from previous visits. With CINMS Research Coordinator Sarah Fangman, I dropped quickly down the marker line, then swam upcurrent along the trail that the anchor had dragged through the brittle stars in the sand. The light airplane's skin is peeling away as seawater dissolves the aluminum. In the brief time before our dive computers demanded that we ascend, we photographed and videoed the wreck. Something, probably a boat anchor, had torn off the canopy since the previous survey a year earlier. The engine had dropped deeper into the sand. This fossil seems unlikely to make it to its billionth birthday.
The majority of our dives were on the Winfield Scott. This passenger vessel, originally built to carry 49ers to the California goldfields, plowed into Anacapa Island in a thick fog in 1853. The crew and passengers all survived, as did the valuable cargo including gold bullion. Most of the passengers had to stay in Frenchy's cove several days while the rescue ship dropped the gold off in San Francisco before returning for them. Despite the age of the wreck, a surprising amount has survived. Big sections of the paddle wheels have become encrusted with coralline algae. The line "of his bones are coral made" drifted through my head. With Ranger Ian Williams of the National Park Service, I tested the reliability of underwater surveys, by repeated measurements. I found it an exhausting and disorienting task to swim the tape between benchmarks, like some schoolyard game gone too far. A huge piston lies on the sea floor: the ship's engine developed a pressure of only 17 inches of water, so gigantic pistons were needed to yield useful power. Development of stronger steel has already relegated these anatomical features to evolutionary history. But, aided by the coralline algae, the bones of this creature may survive at least a few more centuries.
On a Sunday of perfect weather we dived on the Aggi, a sailing ship that survived into the age of steam and steel, as a low-cost, low-speed transport. While the Aggi was being towed to Panama in 1915, a severe storm forced the tow rope to be cut. The Aggi drifted ashore at Talcott Shoals on Santa Rosa, where she became the object of battles over salvage, and a convenient set for films with nautical themes. Robert Schwemmer might smile and call the thick growth of kelp "bioclutter." Underneath, much of the wreck remains. Her structure forms much of the bottom in that particular area, with occasionally recognizable parts of masts or engines.
Already at an evolutionary dead end during her life, she has a good chance for a long afterlife.
Posted by Carl Gwinn at 4:01 PM | Comments (1)
August 9, 2005
Report from the ChanneI Islands, S. Calif: Tending the Eelgrass Garden
(first posted Feb. 2005) After the pounding 2-hour trip across the Channel on the 26-ft "Magic," we anchor at Frenchy's Cove and quickly don scuba gear. The water is so clear we see the gray silty bottom and, yes, even a float at one end of the transect Jessie Altstatt set up 2 years ago. Jessie, Penny Owens, Brian Hall and I are here to check on eelgrass that Jessie and many Santa Barbara Channelkeeper volunteers have replanted here. Once, the bottom of this cove was covered with eelgrass, but a freak boom in white sea urchins in the mid 1980's wiped it out. Seeking to restore the eelgrass bed, Chanelkeeper first set plants here in spring of 2002 and has been returning nearly every month since to check on them.
Eelgrass beds may be important nurseries for fish and other marine
creatures, and in fact are protected by law as Essential Fish Habitat. Eelgrass is not an alga, but is a flowering plant (one of only 4 marine plant species in our region); as you might imagine, pollination is difficult underwater and seeds rarely germinate. Like mint or iris, eelgrass spreads via rhizomes: tough roots from which genetically-identical individual shoots and leaves sprout. Eelgrass may spread to other areas via individual plants torn up by storms, a few of which might land in favorable habitat.
Last year, with the plan to create a new patch of eelgrass, we drove the Magic to Smuggler's Cove on Santa Cruz and (with permission from several agencies including Fish and Game and the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary) uprooted 100 plants. Using dive knives, we cut plants with as much rhizome as possible from the dense mat of rhizomes under the sand. We shoved the plants into goody bags before they could float off. The hard work reminded me of how I'd strained my back tearing up mint roots in a home herb garden. We then drove to Frenchy's and replanted them on the next dive, fastening them to the seabed with inverted U's of coathanger (actually, baling wire). Over the years, Channelkeeper volunteers tried different planting patterns: a long row (marked by the transect and floats), open circles, and dense patches. For this new bed, we spaced the plants evenly about a foot apart in a grid.
Now, a year later, we roll off the Magic. Jessie and Penny carry bags of plastic spoons, Brian and I cameras. At 35 ft the bottom is beige silt, covered with brittle stars. Curious pikeblennies peer from empty worm tubes. It's rare to see these Orangethroat Pikeblennies north of Mexican waters, and it was a special treat on this dive. We find 3 lonely eelgrass plants, now sagging under the weight of brittle stars, the only remnant of the hundreds planted along the transect. Brian and I shoot photos and then follow Jessie and Penny toward shallower water.
In 20 ft the replanted eelgrass is flourishing. Some of the denser beds now have several times the 100 individuals originally planted. New patches are springing up nearby. Jessie and Penny count them by placing a spoon next to each plant, then gathering the spoons and arranging them in rows: mathematics is harder under water and every little bit helps! They run out of spoons: too many plants to count exactly. I see a juvenile giant kelpfish in one small clump, with another trying to drive it away. A third juvenile keeps watch from a nearby clump. Brian counts seven sarcastic fringeheads; perhaps objecting to the spoon Penny placed nearby, one bites her thumb and won't let go. Predatory crabs lurk in the shade. Tiny snails cover many blades: they are microcarnivores, cleaning the blades of bryozoans and other life growing on them. The replanted eelgrass is flourishing, and creating a welcome home for a host of young marine creatures.
Channelkeeper is again accepting applications for volunteer divers- email jessie @ sbck.org if you are interested.
Posted by Carl Gwinn at 6:45 AM
