Deep Blue See

Down under the sea, far below the dolphins, way, way beyond the eerily undulating kelp forests of the Channel Islands is a world no human eyes have ever seen.

But starting next year, explorers will be able to plumb the pelagic depths of the sprawling Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary in two tiny one-person submarines.

And that is just one part of what scientists will be able to do, as part of a $6-million, five-year project to explore, document and provide scientific data on the United States’ 12 national marine sanctuaries.

“It’s very exciting, because nothing like this has ever been done before,” said Laura Francis, education coordinator of the Channel Islands sanctuary. “Many of the places we will visit have never been seen before.”

Scuba divers can go no deeper than 100 feet without risking narcotic side effects. But the Santa Cruz Canyon, south of Santa Cruz Island, is as deep as 3,000 feet.

There, scientists hope to find new species of plants and animals, sunken ships, Chumash artifacts, even fossils of pygmy mammoths.

The project will be known as the Sustainable Seas Expeditions. Locally it will be led by staff from the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary. It will use new technology to do pioneer deep exploration.

“This will give people a sense of another dimension,” said Ed Cassano, sanctuary manager. “People explore space and get excited about it. Well, we will explore inner space. Think how excited people are when we are on Mars with a little robotic car.”

In an effort to involve the local community, Cassano said the sanctuary intends to work with scientists, commercial fishermen, recreational divers, teachers and the general public to develop research and educational plans.

The project is funded through a $5-million grant from the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, a San Francisco-based philanthropic and environmental organization, and $775,000 from the National Geographic Society’s Exploration Council.

Starting in 1999, the Sustainable Seas Expeditions will visit each of the 12 national marine sanctuaries, which are administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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Marine parks were first established in 1972 to protect ecological, historical and aesthetic resources. The dozen that have been established spread from Fagatele Bay in American Samoa, to the wreckage of the Civil War ship Monitor off North Carolina, to parks near Massachusetts, Washington and the Florida Keys.

Four of the sanctuaries are off the California coast: Cordell Bank and Gulf of Farallones near San Francisco, Monterey Bay and the Channel Islands.

The local sanctuary comprises 1,658 square miles of ocean and near-shore habitat around the Channel Islands National Park, which is made up of San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Anacapa and Santa Barbara islands.

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Explorers are especially excited about the areas around the Channel Islands because here, off the coast of Ventura and Santa Barbara, the cold currents of the northern bio-region swirl into the warmer currents of the southern bio-region, giving rise to an area rich in marine life.

Most of the marine sanctuaries are largely unexplored below depths that scuba divers can reach.

“To begin serious, systematic studies of the unknowns of our oceans, it seemed to make sense to focus on the marine sanctuaries--places already recognized as special yet still largely unexplored,” said National Geographic explorer in residence Sylvia Earle, who is leading the expedition.

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To explore the depths, two special submarines--costing half a million dollars each--are being built in Canada.

Known as Deep Worker, the tiny subs--8 feet long and 4 1/2 feet high--can hold only one person. A clear acrylic dome fits over the pilot’s head. The miniature sub is powered by four thrusters.

The pilot drives the sub like an underwater car, using a computer touch-screen to maneuver and to control the vessel’s long mechanical arms. The arms can extend to 14 feet.

The sub can descend as deep as 2,000 feet. But Earle predicts that by the end of the five-year project, technology will have advanced so the vessels can go as deep as 4,000 feet.

Scientists expect such depths to be cold. And dark. No green or yellow light can reach deeper than 30 feet, so many animals there will be red, pink or white.

But deeper still, who knows?

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Those who go down will also probably see marine snow--bacterial microorganisms that drift snow-like to the bottom--as well as jellyfish and unusual snails.

Scientists expect the sub will make new discoveries.

“It is likely we will find new species,” said Francis of the Channel Islands sanctuary.

The underwater vehicle will also allow humans to investigate some of the more than 200 shipwrecks that have occurred around the Channel Islands since 1853. Most lie undisturbed because they are deeper than divers can reach.

“We’ve located approximately 20,” said Robert Schwemmer, the sanctuary’s cultural resources coordinator, “which means we have a lot of work ahead of us.”

One of those is the Watson A. West, bound for San Pedro Harbor with $30,000 in cargo when it sank off the western end of San Miguel Island in 1923. It was never found.

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Schwemmer said explorers also hope to find Chumash artifacts between the islands and mainland, and perhaps the remains of some pygmy mammoths. A nearly complete skeleton of a mammoth was unearthed on Santa Rosa Island in 1994.

But more than anything, scientists hope to shed light on the life beneath the sea.

“The most important thing is the compelling evidence everywhere we go that the seas are alive,” Earle said. “It’s not just rocks and water. This is truly exploratory.”

Francis added, “Most of the way we explore the deep sea is through what we dredge up in trawl nets. It gives us no idea of where these things came from. It is like having a spaceship tow through downtown New York, and pulling up cars and parking meters.”