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Areas that will be explored during the Islands in
the Stream 2002 expedition.
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| | Mission Plan
In 2001, the National Marine
Sanctuary Program’s "Islands in the Stream" expedition explored
deep-water habitats from North Carolina to the coast of Belize.
Building on this work, the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration’s
"Islands in the Stream 2002: Exploring Underwater Oases" will host
four scientific investigations geared toward learning more about
high-relief areas along the continental shelf break and slope from
the eastern coast of Florida to North Carolina – an area known as
the South Atlantic Bight. These important and understudied habitats
peppered throughout the region provide critically important habitat
for a wide variety of marine organisms.
The expedition will
use the R/V
Seward
Johnson and the Johnson-Sea-Link
submersible, owned and operated by the Harbor Branch
Oceanographic Institution (HBOI), to provide researchers direct
access to this rarely seen underwater world. Investigators also will
use a variety of sampling techniques to complement the videotape and
still images collected by the submersible. By extending their
research into unknown areas, scientists and natural resource
managers will have the opportunity to gather information that will
be useful for developing new and innovative ideas for habitat and
resource protection.
Each project will be conducted by groups
of interdisciplinary investigators led by scientists from the South Carolina
Department of Natural Resources, North Carolina National
Estuarine Research Reserve, and the Harbor Branch Oceanographic
Institution (HBOI). Read on to learn more about each of these
projects.
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Reef fishes, such as this snowy grouper, often
use low-relief rock outcrops for food and
cover. |
| | Mission One
July
28-August 5
Characterization of Deep Reef Habitat, with
Particular Emphasis on Discovery, Exploration and Description of
Reef Fish Spawning Sites
Populations of economically valuable
reef fishes have been declining for at least two decades in the
South Atlantic Bight region, affecting the food chain from the top
predators down to the bottom-dwelling invertebrate communities. The
goal of this project is to discover and explore spawning locations
of reef fishes in the area, and to describe how underlying features
and oceanographic processes interact to provide habitat for
associated species.
Scientists will use a submersible to
collect video and still images of the shelf-edge reefs, as well as
samples of sediment, rocks, and marine organisms for further
analysis. Sidescan sonar will be used to determine characteristics
of bottom topography at scales larger than the submersible can
explore. In addition, traditional sampling methods such as towing
nets, measuring conductivity, temperature and density of water, and
grabbing sediment samples using instruments deployed from the deck
of the ship, will be used to help identify potential spawning
habitats and to further characterize these reefs. The results will
support protective management strategies to sustain the exploited
fish species that utilize these spawning locations.
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A deep water crab at home on a deep-water
Lophelia bank. |
| | Mission Two
August
5-15
Exploration of Outer Shelf and Slope Habitats off the
Carolinas.
The North Carolina Shelf consists of a wide range
of habitats, many of which are rarely, if ever, visited. The
existing data, however, indicate that the shelf includes numerous
high-relief outcrops, ancient reefs and shorelines, and potentially
extensive hard-bottom communities, all of which typically support a
variety of commercially important and unique fish species. Because
the data is scarce, scientists have a limited understanding of the
shelf's habitats, species distribution, and ecological
function.
Two adjacent but uniquely different habitats will
be studied. The first will be the outer shelf hardgrounds (80-200 m
deep) that are marked by a large number of high-relief reef
features. The second will be the middle-slope deep corals (400-500 m
deep), where Lophelia, a species of deep-water coral, forms
widespread reefs. Scientists will use the submersible to collect
videotape and still photographs of these areas, and samples will be
collected to assess the community structure and faunal interactions.
Scientist also will sample these areas by towing nets along the
bottom, through mid-water, and at the surface to determine the
overall ecology of these areas.
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Deep water bioluminescent organisms. Click image for larger view.
Photo:
HBOI |
| | Mission Three
August
18-31
Discovery of New Resources with Pharmaceutical
Potential
Natural products have always been a rich source of
medicinal drugs. Traditionally, such drugs have come from
terrestrial sources. It has been predicted that the marine
environment, however, may contain 80% of the world’s plant and
animal species. This huge potential for new medicines from our
oceans has already proven to be productive, as 12 natural marine
products are currently in advanced preclinical or clinical
evaluation.
This project seeks to explore currently untapped
sources of new drugs that may be applied in the long term to the
development of compounds used to study, diagnose or treat human
diseases, including cancer, infectious diseases, diseases of the
immune system, cardiovascular disease, and disorders of the central
nervous system. Related to this primary objective is the development
of alternative methods for the production of bioactive compounds
instead of harvesting them from nature.
Exploration of Vision
and Bioluminescence in the Deep-sea Benthos
Scientists have
observed that the eyes of highly mobile (pelagic) fish species tend
to get smaller in the deep ocean. This makes sense, as there is less
light further in the ocean, and therefore less need for big eyes. In
contrast, the eyes of bottom (benthic) dwelling species increase
with depth. Why would species living at the bottom of the ocean have
such big eyes when virtually no sunlight is capable of reaching
their home? What are these benthic animals
seeing?
Bioluminescence is light produced by a chemical
reaction within an organism. In deep-water ocean areas (below the
photic zone), it is the only source of light available. In order to
observe this phenomenon naturally, the science team plans to deploy
a special low-light camera from the submersible. The team also will
deploy baited "light-tight" traps to catch some of these benthic
species for further analysis, allowing them to be brought to the
surface without having their eyes damaged by the sun’s bright light.
Scientists will then be able to observe and dissect the intact
eyes.
Partnerships
The success of this
expedition depends on partnerships, which provide an opportunity for
scientists, natural resource managers, and educators from many
public and private agencies and institutions to collaborate to
fulfill a common set of goals and objectives. The following is a
list of some of the institutions engaged in this
endeavor:
NOAA, Office of Ocean Exploration
NOAA, National
Ocean Service, Special Projects Office
NOAA, National Ocean
Service, National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, Center for
Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research
NOAA,
Office of Ocean and Atmospheric Research, National Undersea Research
Program
United States Geological Survey
Harbor Branch
Oceanographic Institution
North Carolina National Estuarine
Research Reserve
North Carolina Division of Marine
Fisheries
North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
South
Carolina Department of Natural Resources
College of
Charleston
Charleston County School of the Arts
Coastal
Carolina University
South Carolina, Sandhills Intermediate
School
Southampton Oceanography Centre
Duke
University
Johns Hopkins University
University of
Florida
University of Lund, Sweden.
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