Summer
1999
Sustainable
Seas Expedition Voyages to Stellwagen Bank Sanctuary
Peering into the Microscopic World of the Sanctuary
A Fish's Eye View of the Deep Boulder Reefs
Seeing into the Sanctuary with Sound
Sanctuary Currents
A Day in Nature's Classroom
Research Briefs
No, It's Not a Jellyfish--Collecting & Studying Marine Debris
Diving into the Sanctuary Without Getting Wet
Education Digest
Sustainable
Seas Expedition Voyages to Stellwagen Bank Sanctuary
Submersibles,
hydrophones, whales, microscopes and a blimp were all part of the Sustainable
Seas Expedition to the Gerry E. Studds/ Stellwagen Bank National Marine
Sanctuary which began on July 4th. As Bostonians celebrated the holiday
with the traditional turnaround of the USS Constitution (aka "Old
Iron-sides"), the Boston Pops Concert, and a massive fireworks
display, the sanctuary and SSE team opened an exhibit tent at the New
England Aquarium and loaded the DeepWorker submersibles on the NOAA
research vessel FERREL. The following day, Assistant Secretary of Commerce
Terry Garcia introduced the media to the SSE program.
The
Sustainable Seas Expeditions is a project of the National Geographic
Society in partnership with NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration),
made possible by an initial grant of $5 million from the Richard and
Rhoda Goldman Fund. The three fundamental goals of the expeditions are
undersea exploration, scientific research, and education. The mission
to Stellwagen Bank looked at the wide ranging diversity of species in
the sanctuary and how they utilize their habitats. Noted marine explorer
Dr. Sylvia Earle completed the first dive, one of a series of dives
she is making to document the biodiversity of the nation’s marine
sanctuaries.
Sanctuary
research coordinator (and National Undersea Research Center-NURC science
director) Peter Auster and James Lindholm, the sanctuary’s two
DeepWorker pilots, focused on deep boulder reef fish communities; NURC
bioacoustician Peter Scheifele, two students from the American School
for the Deaf and the MIMI sailing vessel studied background noise and
whale behavior; while Virginia Edgcomb, Marine Biological Laboratory
and Michael Atkins, Woods Hole Oceano-graphic Institution peered into
the microscopic world of the waters and sediments of the sanctuary with
scopes loaned to the expedition by the Zeiss Company.
Peering
into the Microscopic World of the Sanctuary
Many people
think that bigger means better. But in an ocean ecosystem, the tiniest
creatures, many of them far too small to be seen with the naked eye,
perform some of the most important tasks. Cyanobacteria, or blue-green
algae, provide more oxygen to the earth through the process of photosynthesis
than all land plants combined. Likewise, marine bacteria take up massive
amounts of carbon from the atmosphere and fix it into mineral deposits,
virtually driving the earth’s carbon cycles.
"Microbes
are the true engines of the biosphere," said Virginia Edgcomb, a staff
scientist who studies highly intricate and interdependent communities
of microorganisms at the Josephine Bay Paul Center in Comparative Molecular
Biology and Evolution within the Marine Biological Laboratory at Wood's
Hole. "They essentially drive all processes that make life possible
for larger organisms."
Despite
their essential role in creating an inhabitable planet, little is known
about most of these algae, bacteria or other simple unicellular organisms.
Scientists estimate that, at most, five percent of all microbial species
have been described, leaving an abundance of work formicrobiologists.
"It's an incredible world out there on the ocean floor, just teaming
with life. There is almost no end to what we can study," said Edgcomb,
noting that each exploratory dive might yield another undiscovered species.
The Sustainable
Sea's Expedition of the Stellwagen Bank Sanctuary is no exception. For
two days of the expedition, Edgecomb and Mike Atkin of the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution took waters samples at about six to ten meters
depth to get a look at the planktonic community of the Stellwagen Bank.
After concentrating a water sample through a process of filtration,
they investigated the microscopic life it contained, using a microscope/camera
system donated by the Zeiss Company specifically for the expedition.
The researchers
noted that the planktonic community structure at this depth differed
over the course of the day. In the morning, various arthropods or copepod
species made up the largest percentage of the organisms in the sample.
But by about three o'clock in the afternoon, a larger dinoflagellate
called Ceratium dominated the planktonic community.
According
to Edgcomb, this might be evidence of some type of diurnal migration
in which Ceratium travels up and down the water column depending on
the activity of other organisms. One possibility, the scientists speculated,
is that the morning glut of copepods and other crustaceans feed on Ceratium,
and so the dinoflagellate escapes to lower waters to avoid predation.
More research will be necessary to develop a substantial hypothesis
as to why this intriguing change in community structure occurs,
Edgcomb
said. The research team also found a variety of plankton, bacteria,
diatoms and flagellates during the expedition, some of the more unusual
of which they've taken to their laboratory at Woods Hole for further
identification.
To gauge
the diversity of microbes on a deeper level, researchers at the Bay
Paul Center have embarked on studies that compare the DNA from a variety
of different organisms. The Marine Biological aboratory has become internationally
known for its efforts to map microbial genomes, including the genome
of giardia, the infamous protist that causes intestinal discomfort and
diarrhea in humans. The time required for mapping a microbe's genome
is steadily decreasing, said Edgcomb, and the genetic information gathered
from genomics can tell us a lot about the evolutionary origins of the
organisms. With the speed and accuracy of new DNA mapping techniques
combined with the power of new bioinformatics systems to store and process
biological data, Edgcomb said she believes knowledge about the microbial
world will grow by leaps and bounds in years to come. "It's an exciting
time to be an evolutionary biologist," she said.
Top
A
Fish’s Eye View of the Deep Boulder Reefs
Submersible
Scientist-Pilots Study Reef Ecology
The shallow,
crystalline waters of the Caribbean have attracted many a marine scientist
and wildlife enthusiast. For this reason, we know a great deal about
the role of coral reefs in these warm-water ecosystems. But unbeknownst
to many, Stellwagen Bank contains reefs that are just as important to
northern marine habitats as their tropical counterparts are to the equatorial
climes.
The
deep boulder reefs of the Stellwagen Bank sanctuary–areas where
glaciers dropped large piles of rocks some 14,000 years ago–are
home to a multitude of marine fish and crustaceans. Some of the most
economically important fish species in New England inhabit these rocky
depths. But because the turbid, chilly waters surrounding the boulder
reefs are inhospitable to researchers, relatively little is known about
these ecosystems.
"Most
people can envision tropical coral reef fish in action, but they have
only seen deep boulder fish from their dinner plate or from the deck
of a ship," said Peter Auster, science director for the National
Undersea Research Center for the North Atlantic and Great Lakes (NURC)
at the University of Connecticut and research coordinator for the Stellwagen
Bank National Marine Sanctuary. "The lives of boulder fish are
certainly as interesting. It’s just harder to study them."
The
one-person submersibles used in the Sustainable Seas Expedition this
July provided a new research platform for scientists to probe these
little understood regions of the sea. At depths of up to 300 feet, Auster,
along with NURC post-doctoral fellow James Lindholm, observed populations
of redfish, ocean pout, cunner, cusk, cod, haddock and other deep boulder
species, noting differences in behavior and distribution across reef
structures of varying complexity. By combining their fish population
and distribution observations with high resolution maps of the ocean
floor provided by Page Valentine of the U.S. Geological Survey in Woods
Hole, Mass., the researchers hope to gain an understanding of how changing
underwater landscapes effect fish behavior. "It is well-known that
tropical fish have a very structured response to changes in topography
or current, but it is unclear whether deep boulder reef fish have that
same response," said Lindholm. "Only by going under water,
using various manned and unmanned submersibles can we do the types of
studies that our counterparts in the tropics have done so well."
The
cornerstones of the North Atlantic ecosystem, deep boulder reefs provide
structure and shelter for a variety of ocean residents. Soft corals,
sponges and tunicates affix themselves to the rocky coves to become
a secondary layer of structure. Schools of groundfish often retreat
to the refuge of the crags and crevices of these bespeckled boulders,
escaping strong bottom currents or piscine predators. "It’s
a fish eat fish world out there," remarked Auster of the unforgiving
ocean food web.
Because
of the protective function of the rocky areas, understanding boulder
reef ecology could be the key to setting up a successful management
scheme for the sanctuary’s fisheries, according to Lindholm. Dramatic
declines in groundfish stocks over the last decade in the Gulf of Maine
and Stellwagen Bank have threatened the future of fishing in the sanctuary.
In 1998, the National Marine Fisheries Service closed some popular commercial
fishing areas due to fears that groundfish populations might collapse.
Two study sites for the sub dives were within the large Gulf of Maine
closed area which intersects the eastern section of the sanctuary.
These
closed areas now provide an opportunity for Auster and Lindholm to study
the relationship between bottom structures and fish populations. Over
time, the protected zones will be recolonized by corals, anemones and
other sessile organisms that had been removed by bottom-dragging gear.
The researchers are monitoring fish populations as the living structures
regenerate, and are forming some hypotheses about how fish associate
with their habitat. "Much more experimentation is needed, but we
have found some evidence that as the bottom cover grows, fish survivorship
increases," said Lindholm.
With
the Sustainable Seas Expedition, Auster and Lindholm will shed further
light on how fish behave in the deep, dark world of Stellwagen Bank’s
boulder reefs. In doing so, they hope to educate the public about this
critical ecosystem.
"Nowadays,
people can easily see how protecting coral reefs or kelp beds is important,"
Auster said. "But hopefully, with some more information, we can
help them see that protecting deep boulder reefs in areas like the Stellwagen
Bank National Marine Sanctuary is important, too."
Top
Seeing
into the Sanctuary with Sound
With
the help of imaging techniques that allow scientists to visualize sound,
some unlikely researchers joined the Sustainable Seas Expedition to
study bioacoustics in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary.
Two top-notch high-school students from the American School for the
Deaf in West Hartford, Conn., teamed up with a National Undersea Research
Center (NURC) researcher to gauge levels of noise pollution in the underwater
world off Massachusetts’ congested coast.
"Noise
pollution is insidious," said Peter Scheifele, director of marine
education programs and bioacoustic research at NURC/ North Atlantic
and Great Lakes who teaches marine science classes at the ASD. "You
can’t see it, touch it, or taste it, so most people just ignore
it until something catastrophic, such as deafness, results." But
he and students in ASD’s advanced placement physics class hope
to change that. For the last year, the class has learned about scientific
techniques that will allow them to measure sound levels underwater and
to distinguish natural sounds of waves or vocalizing sea animals, from
the anthropogenic noises of ships or low-flying airplanes.
"We
just don’t know how man-made noises effect the habitat of marine
animals like whales who depend on sound to communicate and survive.
Our research is a first-step toward solving that problem," said
Scheifele, a physicist who began teaching at ASD four years ago as a
part of NURC’s education outreach initiative called the Aquanaut
Program. Through this program high school students and teachers have
had the opportunity to actively participate in on-going research projects
using the Stellwagen Bank Sanctuary as a natural "laboratory."
Starting
on the 9th of July, the research team on board the MIMI sailing vessel
(famous from the nationally recognized video series and middle school
curriculum "The Voyage of the MIMI") gathered five days worth
of acoustic data from the bottom of Stellwagen Bank. To do this they
used a hydrophone, an underwater microphone that can pick up sounds
within a mile radius, which they lowered off the side of the ship to
measure sound at various depths. The hydrophone transmits sound signals
to a digital audio tape recorder. A spectrum analyzer and specialized
acoustic software allowed the operator to divide the sounds into their
component waves. These waves were displayed on monitors from the deck
of the ship, where the young scientists kept watch for changes in sound
patterns from day to night, and looked for recognizable vocalizations
of marine mammals.
They
identified the sounds produced by passing ships, and recorded a variety
of ocean background noise throughout the expedition. They also captured
on tape a new vocalization that humpback whales have been making in
recent years at the bottom of Stellwagen Bank. Approaching the ocean
floor, the whales give a loud low-frequency "shout" that some
scientists speculate may be an attempt to drive sand lance out of the
sand. "It could be a new adaptation in feeding behavior, but we
just don’t know," said Scheifele, adding that he hopes the
data collected during the Sustainable Seas Expedition will shed more
light on these new calls. Whale researcher Mason Weinrich of the Cetacean
Research Unit in Gloucester and Sanctuary Advisory Council, will provide
additional field observations of humpback activity from CRU’s research
vessel.
Answering
tough questions like these is only one goal of the acoustic monitoring
study. As importantly, the project will give the students some hands-on
experience in a field that has remained largely inaccessible to deaf
people.
"Science
is a career choice these students might not have had without this program,"
said Denise Monte, an audiologist at ASD who takes part in instructing
the class on sound science and who has helped to create a marine acoustics
curriculum for deaf students scheduled to go on-line at ASD next year.
Scheifele, Monte and ASD science instructor Mary Laporta Hupper plan
to make the curriculum available to other deaf schools by the year 2002.
Along
with developing a curriculum, they hope to inspire necessary additions
to the somewhat limited non-verbal language of sign. As it stands, official
sign language vocabulary does not include signals for important scientific
terms such as "wavelength" or "amplitude," a shortcoming
that poses some significant problems for science teachers in deaf schools.
"Imagine
that you had to teach a physics class but you had to spell out every
other word," said Scheifele. "It can really slow you down."
Hupper
has developed a type of shorthand with her students to cope with the
problem, using unofficial signs that the class agrees upon to represent
certain scientific concepts or instruments. Hupper said it is a necessary
substitute for a more permanent solution. "Science is very specific,
so you need a specific vocabulary to talk about it," she said.
"At this point sign language doesn’t have that."
Together
the three educators will work with linguists in the deaf community to
develop official signs that will broaden the scope of sign language
to include scientific subjects.
For
now, all three strive to give deaf students access to a world long closed
to them; the world of sound. In doing so, they have broken through some
of the traditional boundaries of teaching, creating an environment where
the learning process occurs on both sides of the student-teacher relationship.
And
experiences like the Aquanaut Program and Sustainable Seas Expeditions
have helped. Peter Scheifele remembers well one of the first classes
he taught in which a deaf student asked him to describe the sound of
a calling whale. "I was stumped," he recalled. "I thought
‘How could I explain to a person who has never even heard her own
voice what a whale’s voice sounds like?"
"Now,
I know. I can just point to the images of sound waves on the computer
screen and sign, ‘It sounds like that.’"
Top
Sanctuary
Currents
Sanctuary
Research Coordinator Wins Pew Grant
Peter
Auster, science director of the National Undersea Research Center at
the University of Connecticut and research coordinator for the sancutary,
has been named one of 11 Pew Marine Conservation Fellows for 1999. The
award was announced on July 12 during the Sustainable Seas Expedition
into the sanctuary for which Mr. Auster served as one of the two scientist-pilots
and co-mission coordinator. He will use the fellowship to address the
problem of overexploitation of demersal species and habitat destruction
in subarctic, temperate and tropical outer continental shelf systems.
Using cost-effective underwater video techniques, he will document the
effects of fishing on the seafloor and collect biodiversity data to
support more sustainable fisheries management measures. In addition,
the funding will allow development and distribution of educational materials
to inform the public about the diversity of ocean habitats and their
importance in supporting healthy fish stocks. The Pew Fellowships are
a program of the Pew Charitable Trusts in partnership with the New England
Aquarium. The ten grants total $1.5 million, making it the world’s
largest award for marine conservation.
Stellwagen
Sanctuary Relocates to Scituate
The
administrative offices for the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary
moved to Scituate at the close of 1998. A need for additional office
and storage space was the motivating factor in seeking a new location.
The Coast Guard’s decision to move Station Scituate to smaller
quarters was fortuitous for the sanctuary, the station providing the
much needed space as well as docking facilities. At this time, the sanctuary
is leasing the space from the Coast Guard and sharing the spacious building
with the Coast Guard (while its new station is constructed across the
harbor), NOAA Office of Enforcement and Massachusetts Environmental
Police.
Information
on Hurricanes Available Through NOAA
Scientists
are predicting that residents along the western edge of the Atlantic
Ocean may once again see a greater than average number of hurricanes
this year. The official hurricane season began on June 1st and continues
through November 1, with the following names pre-selected for identification
of 1999 Atlantic storms: Arlene, Bret, Cindy, Dennis, Emily, Floyd,
Gert, Harvey, Irene, Jose, Katrina, Lenny, Maria, Nate, Ophelia, Philippe,
Rita, Stan, Tammy, Vince, and Wilma. Information on hurricanes and other
weather events can be accessed through theWeather Service web site at:
http://www.nws.noaa.gov.
Mandatory
Ship Reporting Program Initiated
A
new reporting system, proposed by the United States (with input from
the sanctuary) and approved by the International Maritime Organization,
may take some of the guess-work out of avoiding right whales in coastal
waters. Under the system developed by NOAA and the Coast Guard, which
started operating in July, 1999, all ships traveling through the northeast
right whale habitat (Great South Channel,Cape Cod Bay, and the Gerry
E. Studds/Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary) must report their
location, course, speed, and destination and in return receive automated
messages containing more specific information about whale sightings
in the area. These messages will also include some precautionary tactics
the ships can take to avoid potential collision with whales, such as
changes course and speed. A similar reporting system is in place for
the southern calving grounds off Florida and Georgia for the period
between November 15 and April 15.
Brad
Barr Assumes National Role in Sanctuary Program
Brad
Barr, former manager of the Stellwagen Bank Sanctuary has been named
a senior policy analyst for the National Marine Sanctuary Program. He
is now based out of a newly established policy and planning office which
shares space with the U.S. Geological Survey in Woods Hole, Mass. Mr.
Barr’s responsibilities include the assessment of threats to the
marine resources in all 12 sanctuaries, development of national policies
to address those threats, and analytical/technical support in marine
protected area planning and management on both regional and national
projects.
MWRA
Outfall Permit Issued; Sanctuary Concerns Addressed
After
years of research, design and development, the plan for the discharge
of effluent from the massive Deer Island treatment plan has been permitted.
The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit (or NPDES)
was issued jointly by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Massachusetts
Department of Environmental Protection under federal and state Clean
Water Acts; it imposes rigorous ambient monitoring requirements, stringent
pollution prevention, water conservation, and best management practices.
This action marks a key milestone in the effort to address pollution
in Boston Harbor. After secondary treatment at Deer Island, the effluent
will travel through an ocean outfall tunnel 9.5 miles offshore into
Massachusetts Bay. The final permit requires that the Massachusetts
Water Resources Au-thority submit an annual report to the sanctuary
that includes all monitoring data related to the sanctuary and documents
any effects of the discharge on sanctuary resources and qualities over
the previous year.
Disaster
Relief Program for Fishermen Announced
The
Commerce Department will provide $5 million in disaster relief to commercial
fishermen who have suffered losses because of declining fish stocks
in the Gulf of Maine, Commerce Secretary William M. Daley announced.
The program requires eligible fishing permit holders and their crews
to provide a day of research for every day for which they received compensation.
If vessel owners are not asked to participate in at-sea research, they
will be required to supply socio-economic information, including tax
returns for five years, so managers will have more complete data regarding
the economics of commercial fishing.
A
Day in Nature’s Classroom
Ask any
classroom teacher and they will admit it: experience is the best instructor.
With this in mind, over twenty high school teachers, set out on July
12 aboard the EnviroLab III, a teaching vessel operated by Harbor Explorations
out of the University of Massachusetts, to witness first-hand the rich
and diverse marine resources within the Stellwagen Bank Marine Sanctuary.
Their journey was one part of the Sustainable Seas Expeditions (SSE)
education initiative.
As
the EnviroLab III left the dock at the University of Massachusetts,
no one could have foreseen just how memorable that day would be. About
an hour into the trip, the group sighted a trio of pilot whales traveling
toward Stellwagen Bank parallel to the ship’s track. A flock of
cormorants hovering just to the right soared and dipped above the surface
waters in pursuit of a mid-morning snack.
Once
the boat entered the sanctuary, a truly magnificent show unfurled. As
many as eight humpback whales surrounded the ship, spouting streams
of hot breath up to ten feet in the air with a low, hollow hiss. The
whales rested at the surface, with occasional dives to deeper regions,
revealing majestic flukes on the way down. A minke whale traveled along
in front of the boat, and a white-sided dolphint flew over the water
in a graceful arch then disappeared under the water only to reemerge
with a burst of speed moments later. A bobbing sunfish, or mola mola,
idled nearby unmistakable with its enormous dorsal fin. Then, in the
distance, more than 16 humpback whales breached within a time period
of about 20 minutes creating a rare and beautiful spectacle.
"Doesn’t
that look like the purest expression of joy?" one of the teachers
asked in a hushed voice that broke the awe-filled silence on deck as
one by one the giant animals spirited above the surface, then with both
fins outstretched, splashed back into the water.
After
exchanging cheerful salutations with the MIMI research vessel, the EnviroLab
began its own exploration of the Bank’s waters. With a glass jar
and some twine, the crew collected a sample of surface water that contained
a multitude of organisms. Using a microscope with a visual field that
fed directly to a computer display, Betsy Broughton, a fisheries biologist
from the National Marine Fisheries Service gave the teachers a crash-course
in plankton identification, pointing out various copepods, dinoflagellates
and larvae that inhabit the Sanctuary’s fertile waters.
"People
who are familiar with tropical water are always amazed when they see
how abundant these critters are in the North Atlantic," said Broughton
in response to the many oohs and ahhs at the variety of microorganisms.
"Our
waters are a lot more nutrient-rich than the warmer waters and can support
more life. Even scientists are often shocked the first time they see
North Atlantic water under high magnification."
As
the EnviroLab made its way back to its dock, the participants gathered
on deck to go over the curriculum, swap activity ideas and relax in
the rays of a fierce afternoon sun.
"The
great part about this trip is that we can get some exposure to the open
ocean within the context of education," said Derek Wiberg, an environmental
sciences teacher from Framingham High School. "The whole trip is
about the joy of learning."
by Rebecca
Pollard, associate editor
Boston
University Program in Science Journalism
Top
Research
Briefs
Airship
Fleet Provides Platforms for
Studying Sanctuary Whales
The
summer of 1999 will see the flight of several of the nation’s airships
(blimps) over the sanctuary in the name of science. This year’s
flights started with the H.P. Hood blimp during the Sustainable Seas
Expedition. Sightings of feeding whales were relayed to the MIMI sailing
vessel to coordinate acoustic and visual studies of behavior. The Sanyo
airship completed a sanctuary overflight in late July. The research
flights are being coordinated by Dr. James Hain of Associated Scientists
of Woods Hole who has found the blimps to be silent, stable platforms
for these sorts of field observations.
Summer
Research Cruises in the Sanctuary
The
waters of the sanctuary will be busy this summer with a variety of research
cruises. The U. S. Geological Survey will be continuing its program
mapping sea floor environments and biological habitats using video and
photo imagery and collection of bottom sediments. These images and sediment
samples are required to groundtruth earlier multibeam sonar images acquired
in past surveys. This cruise will occur in middle to late July.
The
National Undersea Research Center brings its Aquanaut Program to the
sanctuary for acoustics and habitat fieldstudy in July and August. The
program is designed for high school teachers and students who are motivated
and interested in science. Prior to their visit to the sanctuary, the
teachers and students will have undergone a rigorous curriculum that
covers scientific methodologies, development of hypotheses, use of statistics
to validate or reject hypotheses, and effective methods to present results.
A select group of students are chosen to particpate in the summer fieldwork.
The
National Undersea Research Center and Stellwagen Bank Sanctuary will
support a series of one-day research cruises looking at fish habitat
utilization, using a drop camera system.
Numerous
cetacean researchers will be using the whalewatch fleet as a platform
for whale behavior studies. The Center for Coastal Studies is continuing
work on humpback whale genetics with which they are tracing family trees.
The skin and blubber samples are being sent to scientists elsewhere
for studies of levels of toxic contaminants.
No,
It’s Not a Jellyfish — Collecting & Studying Marine Debris
Throughout
the summer months a project called Marine Debris Survey and Collection
will be conducted aboard the NOAA vessel HAWK within and around the
Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary . The objective of this project
is to collect floating debris and document the type and location of
this solid pollution. Data will be mapped to discover patterns which
can then be used in management plans to limit pollution in the sanctuary.
Katrina Kibner, a student at the University of Connecitcut, will be
responsible for both the data collection and the report summarizing
the findings of the project.
Marine
debris is a persistent and ubiquitous problem in the world’s oceans,
appearing in such out-of-the-way locations as Antarctica as well as
such highly travelled waters as New York Harbor, according to reports
from the Center for Marine Conservation and statistics generated by
CMC’s annual coastal cleanup program.
"Data
collected along Massachusetts’ shores, with its dense population
and high visitation rates, indicate that this region is no exception,"
notes Anne Smrcina, education coordinator of the Sanctuary and formerly
Coastsweep Coordinator for the Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management
Office. Among the items commonly found along our shores and itemized
in the annual cleanups are cigarette butts, plastic pieces, glass pieces,
plastic food bags, styrofoam pieces, paper, straws, rope, caps and lids,
and cans. In addition, balloons make up a significant portion of both
the beach litter and solid pollution found in the Stellwagen Bank area.
The
majority of these balloons were filled with helium, some intentionally
and others accidentally released. However, all balloons regardless of
how they got in the air return to the earth. As the surface area of
the earth is primarily covered with water, a vast number of these balloons
fall into the world’s oceans.
Other
balloons are used as floats by fishermen fishing for Atlantic bluefin
tuna on Stellwagen Bank, a prime summer habitat. At times, hundreds
of vessels may be plying the waters in their search for this commercially
important fish, a giant tuna selling for tens of thousands of dollars.
Typically, three to five balloons are deployed from each vessel during
these trolling operations. At times balloons break off and float in
the upper layers of the oceanic water column.
The
nearby shoreline and waters within and around the sanctuary are heavily
trafficked by people throughout much of the year. With these people
come a large amount of garbage including aluminum cans, six-pack rings,
plastic wrappings from manufactured products and other non-bio-degradable
items. "To fish and turtles that prey on jellyfish, the floating
balloons and other plastic articles of pollution appear to be natural
food. In some animals the plastic may not pass through their digestive
systems, leading to fatal results," said Ms Kibner. "Clearly,
the motive behind such a project would be to aid in the prevention of
such needless deaths of marine organisms," she added.
The
procedure for this summer’s debris survey will require recording
of starting position and starting speed at time of departure. The methods
of detecting solid pollution include laser range finders, GPS, and manual
visual scanning. The time and position of when and where debris is found
will be entered on the appropriate track lines and calculations of daily
coverage will be made.
Along
with the data collection, the HAWK’s crew will be collecting the
debris whenever possible. "We will have the satisfaction of knowing
that each piece of debris we recover from the ocean is one less piece
that had the potential to kill or injure a marine organism such as a
turtle, whale or fish," said Ms Kibner.
The
results of the project may also have implications for marine resource
management. Better information on debris movement and type may lead
to more effective public awareness programs that target particular groups
that use the waters in and around the Stellwagen Bank National Marine
Sanctuary.
Top
Diving
into the Sanctuary Without Getting Wet
Few people
have an opportunity to visit the deepest recesses of the Stellwagen
Bank National Marine Sanctuary to explore the pavilion of encrusting
invertebrates found there, or to watch solitary skates and an array
of armored crabs meander across the cobble. Until recently, only marine
scientists and the occasional deep water diver could witness the awe-inspiring
underwater world hundreds of feet below the surface waters.
Now,
a new exhibit at the New England Aquarium can take even the most insistent
land-lover to the bottom of the Stellwagen Bank Sanctuary with the help
of digital animation technology.
The
Immersive Theater, the nation’s first interactive digital animation
exhibit, allows participants to virtually probe the vast and hidden
wilderness of Stellwagen Bank with the help of fictional miniature diving
cameras, or "probies." Images of a mother humpback whale and
her calf, or flounders fluttering along the sanctuary bottom fill the
three viewing screens as the probies purportedly relay "real-time"
video from the Sanctuary’s waters. Former Congressman Gerry E.
Studds, co-author of the 1992 Act of Congress that created the Stellwagen
Bank National Marine Sanctuary, provides the recorded narration.
The
exhibit is more than a simple 15 minute ocean tour. The theater is designed
to emulate a control room where participants can make important decisions
regarding the future of the Stellwagen Bank Sanctuary, and at the same
time, receive a crash-course in marine protected areas management.
"The
point is to give people an idea of what goes on in the Stellwagen Bank
ecosystem and to illustrate just how much decisions we make now can
impact the future of the sanctuary," said Dr. William Spitzer,
Director of Education at the Aquarium.
Located
on the top floor of the Aquarium’s exhibition ship "Discovery,"
the Immersive Theater control room contains 25 individual computer consoles,
in addition to the large viewing screen. At these consoles, participants
can view relayed footage from the probies, answer brief pop-quizzes
on sanctuary trivia or zoom-in for a closer look at what is appearing
on the big-screen. For instance, as a large cetacean appears on the
screen, a curious participant might click on the whale at their console
to open a fact window that contains more information, such as a whale’s
average life expectancy, its trophic level, or its average size at maturity.
That way, each participant can tailor their immersive experience to
their own curiosity and education level.
"The
beauty of the theater is that each visitor can take their own journey,
but, in the end, their collective decisions will be what affects the
ecosystem at Stellwagen Bank," said Spitzer. "It’s a
good model of how a society functions in general."
As
visitors explore the sanctuary, they will learn about various external
forces that shape the environment. The newly designated "managers"
can watch as storms come and go, or see fishing vessels arrive and disappear,
casting their nets along the ocean floor in search of bottom-dwelling
fishes.
Then,
working together, participants tackle the toughest management issues
of the sanctuary, such as how to prioritize water quality issues, mitigate
the effects of land-based pollution, or set workable restrictions on
fishing to maintain sustainable stocks.
After
creating a new management plan, the visitors take a virtual tour of
the sanctuary ten years into the future to find out how just how well
the plan has worked.
"In
the end, they’ll get to see just what can result from the decisions
they’ve made as managers," said Spitzer. "If they managed
for water quality but not for habitat, the water may look great. But
the ocean floor will look like a parking lot."
The
purpose of the immersive theater is to educate as much as it is to entertain
the public. A host of scientific advisors, headed up by the Aquarium’s
marine scientist Carolyn Levi, have ensured that the exhibit’s
content accurately reflects the current scientific understanding of
marine systems. And digital technology from Immersion Studios, a private
animation company based in Toronto, renders a very realistic viewing
experience.
The
Immersive Theater will remain open throughout the end of this year,
and according to Spitzer, may mark the beginning of a new trend in interactive
exhibits.
"As
we are planning our own extensions, this exhibit will act as a test
to see what kind of role high-tech simulation technologies will have
in future exhibits," said Spitzer. "Who knows? This may be
the future of eco-tourism."
Education
Digest
Sanctuary
Contributes to Top Education Web Site
Journey
North, an online project that immerses more than 200,000 K-12 students
in environmental science has been named the top education site on
the Web by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences on
March
18th. The Webby Awards (www.webbyawards.com) known as the "Oscars
of the Internet," recognize the best sites on the Web. Journey
North (www.learner.org/jnorth)
involves 4,000-plus teachers and their students throughout
North America who track the coming of spring through the migration
patterns of butterflies, birds, and land and marine mammals, the
budding of plants, changing daylight, and other clues in their local
environment.
In cases where students can’t provide sighting data, experts
in the field submit regular reports. For
the past four years, the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary’s
education coordinator, Anne Smrcina, has served as the Journey North
Humpback and Right Whale correspondent. "I call upon a network
of experts
in the field," notes Ms. Smrcina, "including whalewatching
companies
in the Dominican Republic and researchers working off the coast
of Florida. These reports can give students an up-to-date reading on
the whales’ migrations, something they are not able to observe
personally
as they can with butterflies and songbirds." The
Stellwagen Bank Sanctuary reports have also included information about
whale migrations in other sanctuaries, including Hawaiian Islands Humpback
Whale Sanctuary, Monterey Bay, Channel Islands and Gulf of the
Farallones. Gray whale migrations have spun off into a separatereporting
track for Journey North. Journey
North is a free site funded by the Annenberg/CPB Math and Science
Project. "By sharing field observations with each other through
Journey
North, students come to see their own backyards as part of a global
ecological system," explained Journey North’s project director,
Elizabeth
Howard. The "backyards" of these Journey North participants
range
from Alaska to Florida, and from New Brunswick, Canada to Michoacan,
Mexico, plus ten other countries across the globe. "The Stellwagen
Bank Sanctuary is proud to be associated with this outstanding
educational initiative which brings students in contact with real
world programs," said Ms. Smrcina.
Sustainable
Seas Curriculum Book and Web Site Available
The
Sustainable Seas Expeditions Teacher Resource Book, designed to complement
high school marine science curriculums is now available from the Stellwagen
Bank Sanctuary office, NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries headquarters
in Silver Spring, Maryland, or through any of the other 11 sanctuaries.
The book
features sections on the sanctuaries and DeepWorker, designing a submersible,
neutral buoyancy, air purification, planning a mission, and special
"explorations" of two sanctuaries -- Monterey Bay and Stellwagen
Bank. The project is a cooperative effort of: NOAA/National Marine Sanctuaries,
National Science Teachers Association, National Geographic Society,
and Learning in Motion. Although materials in the book are intended
for grades 9-12, materials can be adapted for middle school science
programs. The Sanctuary is planning on offering several teacher workshops
during the upcoming school year based on the materials and information
generated during this summer’s expedition. Contact the sanctuary
at (781) 545-8026 for more information. As
an additional educational tool NOAA Special Projects Office, in cooperation
of NGS and input from each of the sanctuaries, has developed an excellent
SSE/Sanctuaries web site, with impressive photo galleries, eloquent
essays, and comprehensive background materials. Location of this site
is: http://www.sustainableseas.noaa.gov.
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