NEWS CONFERENCE WILL HIGHLIGHT NOAA, HARBOR BRANCH AND "ISLANDS IN THE STREAM" EXPEDITION |
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FORT PIERCE, FL. - July 23, 2002 - Exploring the deep sea off the Southeastern U.S.
for new sources of potentially life-saving drugs and fascinating, never seen before
bioluminescent deep-sea creatures, are just two of the goals HARBOR BRANCH scientists
will have during a unique voyage of discovery that begins this summer.
A News Conference will be held Friday, July 26th, at 10am dockside at the main channel at HARBOR BRANCH Oceanographic Institution, to announce the major role HARBOR BRANCH marine scientists, along with the R/V Seward Johnson and the Johnson-Sea-Link Submersible, will have in the month-long expedition to the South Atlantic Bight, major funding for which is supplied by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). A unique new underwater camera system designed by Dr. Edith Widder, a world-renowned expert in marine bioluminescence, will be deployed during the HARBOR BRANCH leg of the cruise. This special camera can be deployed as deep as 1,000 meters, sitting quietly on the bottom until a flash of bioluminescence triggers it to capture frames to a computer disk. At the same time a beam of red light illuminates the source of the chemical light while a digital camera captures its image. Dr. Widder hopes the stealthy camera will capture images of deep-sea creatures never before seen by humans. Her colleague, Dr. Tamara Frank, an expert in the field of visual physiology, will be studying the enormous eyes of some of the creatures found in this environment, to determine if they're adapted for seeing these unknown sources of bioluminescence. Dr. Widder and Dr. Frank have been awarded a total of $159,000 for equipment and ship and submersible time to carry out this and other marine bioluminescence and visual ecology experiments. This cruise could also result in discoveries of new drugs that could be used in everything from fighting cancer and AIDS-related diseases to easing the pain of arthritis, just a few of the areas where compounds taken from marine organisms have already shown incredible promise. The HBOI Biomedical Marine Research team, made up of Principal Investigators Dr. Shirley Pomponi, Dr. Amy Wright, and John Reed, has been awarded $129,000 from NOAA to carry out their research, which will take them 150-miles off the coast of North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, where they will for the first time explore a chain of deep-water Lophelia coral reefs with pinnacles that shoot up from the ocean bottom by up to 500 feet in some locations. It's hoped that the unique habitats and the fact that the Gulf Stream moves through them will yield new organisms and new discoveries. This ambitious voyage of research and exploration is all part of NOAA'S Ocean Exploration "Islands in the Stream 2002: Exploring Underwater Oases" program which takes scientists from the Gulf of Mexico to the continental shelf in the South Atlantic Bight from Florida to North Carolina. The expedition gets underway Saturday, July 27th, from HARBOR BRANCH Oceanographic Institution, Fort Pierce. In addition to the HARBOR BRANCH research, scientists from NOAA and other organizations will study everything from deep-water coral reef ecology to marine biodiversity. The entire cruise highlights the unique capabilities of the HARBOR BRANCH fleet of research vessels, including the Johnson-Sea-Link submersibles, which are capable of taking four people - two in the unique transparent bubble in the front of the vessel, and two in an observation chamber - as deep as 3,000 feet for hours at a time. NEWS MEDIA MUST RSVP FOR THE NEWS CONFERENCE if they wish to tour the R/V Seward Johnson and observe and photograph ship's crew as they prepare to leave the next day. The Johnson-Sea-Link submersible will be on deck and available for photo opportunities as well. HARBOR BRANCH Scientists and crew as well as NOAA representatives will be available for interviews. For more information on NOAA or the Ocean Exploration program, visit www.oceanexplorer.noaa.gov and www.noaa.gov. Updates during the cruise will be available on a daily basis both at the NOAA web site and at www.at-sea.org. HARBOR BRANCH Oceanographic Institution, Inc., is one of the world's leading nonprofit oceanographic research organizations dedicated to exploration of the earth's oceans, estuaries and coastal regions for the benefit of mankind. |