Scientists Shed Light on Ocean Floor, Creatures

Under the waves, under the kelp, on the rocky ocean floor near the south end of Santa Cruz Island is a world without light.

But recently a group of scientists, working aboard a ship called the McArthur, dropped a special lamp and video camera into the dark depths of the sea hoping to illuminate the mysteries that lie below.

Their mission: To survey undersea life and the environment around the Channel Islands off the Ventura County coast before establishing no-fishing zones intended to replenish dwindling fish stocks.

After a biological baseline is established, scientists say, they will be able to chart the success of the controversial regulatory program.

It’s a trip that is raising lots of questions--and excitement--among scientists.

“Nobody’s ever seen these places,” said Gary Davis, a senior scientist at Channel Islands National Park. “This is like the backside of the moon.”

Scientists say if the state Fish and Game Commission approves its first series of no-fishing zones in March, this area will eventually be teeming with marine life.

The commission is considering a recommendation to ban fishing in about 25% of the Channel Islands Marine Sanctuary, a 1,252-nautical-acre swath that surrounds the five northern Channel Islands--Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel and Santa Barbara.

No-take zones are highly controversial, particularly with sportfishermen who say scientists don’t have enough evidence to prove overfishing occurs. This is what the biologists are working to determine.

“It’s unbelievably difficult to get information about the deep ocean. It’s no wonder we don’t know a lot,” said Sarah Fangman, a scientist with the marine sanctuary who led this expedition. “We’re putting out a major effort to get those answers.”

And the questions run the gamut: What is the ocean floor in this area like? What species prefer which environments? How are they distributed? How big do they get?

“It’s like opening your eyes to an area you’ve never seen before,” said Konstantin Karpov, a state Department of Fish and Game biologist on the trip. “You’re not throwing your nets over and just seeing what comes up.”

Biologists from the marine sanctuary--with help from California Department of Fish and Game, national park biologists and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration--used a Navy remote-operated vehicle and video camera to search six sites around most of the islands over three days.

For the most part, biologists have been stuck doing research by sonar, or by diving themselves; the National Park Service alone does 5,000 to 7,000 dives a year. But divers are limited by how deep they can go. Last year biologists used a submarine to conduct deep-sea research, but such opportunities are rare.

The video monitor is an unwieldy yellow machine that resembles a large underwater lawn mower and plunges as deep as 2,000 feet. It’s heavy and difficult to navigate, and it takes an hour just to find its perch at 1,000 feet below on this particular day. The machine is self-propelled, with video cameras on the front and bottom, both tethered to the ship and operated by a joystick from above. A global-positioning system indicates exactly where it rolls. A video feed allows the scientists to tally what they see.

The area it searches now is a craggy bottom, occasionally with stretches of nothing but plankton, but also varieties of sponges, anemones, brittle stars and bright rockfish. The scientists “ooh” with delight. They debate what they see; later, in their labs, they will watch the videotape again.

They see a rockfish, but will have to check later to decide whether it has three spots next to the gill plate before determining what type it is. Now is the fun part.

The night before, they saw many juvenile whitefish, which had everyone intrigued.

“We’re not sure how to interpret it, but at least we know they’re still reproducing,” said Pete Haaker, a senior state Department of Fish and Game biologist.

They will spend two days at sea in research, and two months charting the data.

“I slept two hours last night. This is so exciting to me,” Fangman said.

‘Nobody’s ever seen these places. This is like the

backside of the moon.’