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Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Aboard the Okeanos Explorer, a NOAA research vessel homeported in R.I.

The ship’s remotely operated vehicle, the 9,200-pound Deep Discoverer,
is carefully lowered into the water. (Art Howard/for NOAA)
By PETER BAKER/ecoRI News contributor

Officials in the Mid-Atlantic region are considering much-needed protection for some 39,000 square miles of U.S. territory, an area larger than Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey combined. But it’s not a place many have visited. It’s part of the country’s ocean realm stretching 200 miles from shore, beyond shallow coastal waters.

Fortunately, the deep-sea explorations of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) vessel Okeanos Explorer and its unmanned submersible are bringing parts of this vast, largely unknown area into view.

Aaron Kornbluth, a staff member of The Pew Charitable Trusts, recently had a chance to participate in an Okeanos expedition to Norfolk Canyon, about 75 miles east of Virginia Beach. Kornbluth got a firsthand look at the challenges of studying the ocean bottom and the rewards of seeing what lives there.

He told me about the skill the crew needs to maneuver its undersea cameras in the pitch-black darkness and crushing pressure of the depths, where strong currents and overhanging cliffs threaten to rip the submersible from its nearly 26,000-foot-long cable.

“Imagine sending a $5 million, 9,200-pound remotely operated vehicle down there,” he said. “That would be one nerve-wracking experience, if you ask me.”

Yet the ship’s robotic submersible, Deep Discoverer, not only reaches those depths, but it also allows scientists on land to interact with the crew and to observe the dives in real time.

That collaboration came to life during the Norfolk Canyon dive as a deep-sea corals expert from Florida State University and a squid expert from the Smithsonian helped identify species when they appeared on the video feed. As Deep Discoverer descended from 1,600 to 2,300 feet on the southern slope of the canyon, bright-pink paragorgia — “bubble gum” — coral appeared from the gloom, some of the largest ever observed off the Atlantic Coast, according to experts.

Squids dive-bombed the ocean floor, causing plumes of silt and clay to cascade slowly down the steep canyon wall — behavior that a biologist said could be a mating ritual.

Kornbluth also saw how important these areas are as habitat for other animals, including swordfish, hake, cusk, red crab and sea stars. In one memorable moment, a monkfish ambushed some unsuspecting squids in front of the camera. The video capabilities allow the public to watch as the scientists make fresh discoveries.

“My 92-year-old grandmother was able to watch a live stream of the dive from her home in Vermont,” Kornbluth said. “This is the new age of ocean exploration.”

The Okeanos, which is homeported in Davisville, R.I., and other deep-sea exploration vessels are expanding our knowledge of these poorly understood, fragile and unique environments. Okeanos expeditions this year have also provided live images from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico and the canyons along the edges of the continental shelf of the Atlantic Coast, revealing a bizarre “asphalt volcano" and previously unknown gardens of deep-sea corals.

What starts out as video footage of the ocean bottom eventually winds up in species databases and spatial models of seafloor habitats that are being used to inform ocean management.

In fact, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council is using the information from the explorations as it considers protecting a vast swath of the seafloor and the deep-sea coral communities dwelling there. These areas constitute critical habitat for numerous species, including shrimp, squids, monkfish, hake, tilefish and flounder. They also contribute to marine biodiversity and to the overall integrity of ocean ecosystems.

Given their remoteness, ocean canyons such as Norfolk may seem to be immune to human influence, but there’s growing evidence of pollution and the impacts of deep-sea fishing, especially from bottom trawls. We have observed only a small fraction of America’s underwater landscape, and it should be protected as we continue to explore.


Peter Baker directs The Pew Charitable Trusts’ U.S. ocean conservation efforts in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.