EXPEDITION: ISLANDS IN THE STREAM - SOUTH ATLANTIC BIGHT

OVERVIEW
From August 29 to September 30, 2001, the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries will be conducting the Islands in the Stream-South Atlantic Bight mission in collaboration with the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution (HBOI). Islands in the Stream-South Atlantic Bight will be using HBOI's R/V SEWARD JOHNSON II, equipped with the CLELIA submersible (Aug. 30-Sept. 17) and the JOHNSON-SEA-LINK submersible (Sept. 17-30).

The Islands in the Stream-South Atlantic Bight will explore protected and non-protected coral and hard bottom communities of the Oculina Habitat of Particular Concern (OHPAC), Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary, Charleston Bump, Cape Fear region, and the Cape Hatteras/Point region, as well as the currents that connect these habitats. Community characteristics including underlying geology, biology, and ecology will be studied. In addition, the current patterns that function as pathways for dispersal of invertebrate larvae and the migratory routes of marine ammmals, fish species, and sea turtles will be assessed. Oceanographic measurements will help researchers assess water quality conditions entering and exiting marine protected areas. Both deep and shallow water habitats will be examined. Additionally, the expedition will assist in the archaoelogical documentation of the Civil War ironclad, USS Monitor.

This expedition will allow scientists to investigate areas for possible selection as Marine Protected Area sites and conduct deep-sea exploration activities. Partners in the Islands in the Stream-South Atlantic Bight mission include: NOAA's National Ocean Service/Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, NASA, NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration, and the National Undersea Research Center at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington.

Expedition coverage can be viewed on NOAA's Ocean Explorer website. The expedition culminates with an ocean exploration educational festival in Charleston, South Carolina.

EXPEDITION SCHEDULE
Oculina leg - August 29-September 5, 2001
Gray's Reef leg - September 5-9, 2001
Monitor leg - September 9-17, 2001
N. Carolina Shelf leg - September 19-26, 2001
Charleston Bump leg - September 26-29, 2001
Ocean Exploration Festival, Charleston, SC - October 1, 2001

OCULINA HABITAT OF PARTICULAR CONCERN (OHOPC)
The deep Oculina reef habitat exists nowhere in the world except the short tract of shelf edge between Fort Pierce and Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Ivory Tree coral, Oculina varicosa, thrives in the fast cold, currents cold off Florida's Atlantic coast. In the shallows it forms stout wave resistant colonies that are colored golden brown by the tiny algal symbionts that live in their tissues. Progressing deeper along the continental shelf, these branching colonies become more fragile and pale as their symbionts are starved for light.

At 100m on the shelf edge, the corals blossom into giant thickets of delicate white branches. These tangled reefs are home to hundreds of different kinds of invertebrates and provide essential habitat for many commercial fisheries species. A small area of the reef system has been under protected status since 1984 when it was designated a Habitat of Particular Concern; but most of the reefs have been subject to destructive forces, which have reduced these ancient systems to rubble. With the loss of their food and shelter, the inhabitants of the reefs have either died or moved away, leaving behind a barren wasteland.

In 1996 a restoration effort was initiated to try and bring back some of this important habitat, but without information on how and when the corals reproduce, or how far the larvae can travel, we are merely guessing at the best way to regenerate the reef. Since 1998, we have been conducting research into the reproductive ecology of both the deep and shallow forms of the coral.

- by Sandra Brooke - Principal Biologist
Larval Ecology Department, Division of Marine Science
Harbor Branch Oceanographic

SCIENCE PERSONNEL
HBOI
John Reed - Senior Research Specialist in HBOI's Division of Biomedical Marine Research
Sandra Brooke - Principal Biologist, Larval Ecology Department, HBOI's Division of Marine Science

Dr Chris Koenig - Florida State University & National Marine Fisheries Service
Dr. R. Grant Gilmore - Dynamac Corporation, Kennedy Space Center

RELEVANT LINKS

Oculina @Sea

Partners

    • NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminstration - National Ocean Service/Office of National Marine Sanctuaries

    • NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

    • NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration

    • NURP - National Undersea Research Center at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington.

USS Monitor

Live Web Chat on Marine Protected Areas (Sept. 10)