Mission Blue in the Gulf of Mexico: ocean exploration is no walk in the park

The ocean is an incredible laboratory for studying the complex intricacies of life itself. From the sea all life first came, so what better to place to learn. But it's not exactly a controlled environment where men and women in starched white lab coats can measure, test, and analyze in sterile, secure labs. No, out in the elements, it can be a challenging place where not all goes according to plan.

Dr. Sylvia Earle's Mission Blue organization knows this first hand as they have been attempting to study the after effects of the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill. It has been an expedition of successes and frustrations, but that is nothing new to anyone who has spent time on the seas.

There are many unanswered questions regarding the Gulf Oil Spill. Where has all of the millions of gallons of oil settled? Dissipated, evaporated, or consumed by bacteria and other microorganisms? Has it settled into the deep sea floor and is this having an impact on the many small bottom-dwelling forms of sealife that make an important foundation in the marine ecology. What of the many fish, like whale sharks and bluefin tuna, that migrate through the Gulf or use it as a primary breeding ground? Has there been an impact on them or their eggs or other larvae?

The list goes on and on.

"Speaking as a scientist," said Mission Blue researcher Eric Hoffmayer, "this oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico sort of caught us off guard. We don't know a lot about many of these animals. Whether it's whale sharks, tiger sharks, makos, whatever, we don't know what their habitat use is in the region. We don't have the baseline data. Without understanding how they use this environment, we don't know how the spill will affect them."

Ups and Downs
The Mission Blue expedition, supported by National Geographic, the Waitt Institute, and Dr. Earle's Hope Spots LLC, has been in the Gulf several times over the past few months. It has had great success in tracking down whale sharks that have been known to congregate in an area named Ewing Bank, off of Louisiana. This location is in relatively close proximity to the site of the spill. By tagging and tracking the sharks, in addition to studying the condition of the food sources that the sharks are living on as they pass through the area, researchers hope to gain some insight as to whether the oil has had an adverse impact on these huge filter feeders.

Mission Blue's latest expedition to the Gulf was planned as an opportunity to study marine life on the deep seafloor using the advanced ROV, Medusa, and travel throughout the water column, assessing the health of the openwater community using the two-man submersible, Deepworker. While the Medusa had several successful initial dives, using its red-lit video camera systems (red light, which fades quickly with depth, is less disturbing to deep water marine life as they are less sensitive to it), later dives were scrubbed due to rough seas.

Those wind-whipped seas continued to play havoc with a series of planned dives using the Deepworker submersible. A few dives were completed in shallow water, where Dr. Earle and Harte Research Institute director Larry McKinney had to contend with poor visibility - lots of phytoplankton to see up close but "big picture" views of the surrounding open water seascape were limited at best. As the expedition is drawing to a close, famed author and ecologist Dr. Carl Safina came aboard to share his experiences, having spent considerable time in the Gulf during the spill, and to hopefully get some dives in himself.



Perseverance in the face of challenging conditions is a fundamental requirement of ocean exploration. And if we are to understand the full ramifications of our actions on complex marine ecosystems with regards to oil drilling at sea, expeditions like that being undertaken by Mission Blue and other organizations will endure what nature throws their way and they will continue. The answers to so many questions must be found before we find ourselves faced with another environmental disaster; the result of our own ignorance.

Read about tracking whale sharks in the Gulf in NatGeo News Watch.
Read about Mission Blue's ROV and submersible in the SEA blog.

The Sargasso Sea: a famed Atlantic Ocean region is a gyre at risk

The Sargasso Sea - an area in the North Atlantic that is unique in several ways. It is a sea without shores, defined by aquatic borders made up of four open ocean currents: on the west by the Gulf Stream, to the north by the North Atlantic Current, on the east by the Canary Current, and on the south by the North Atlantic Equatorial Current. Collectively, this forms the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre - a rotating pool of water some 700 miles wide and 2,000 miles long.

The other unique feature of the Sargasso Sea is its namesake. Within this large body of water resides Sargassum seaweed. Sargassum is a floating seaweed and as such provides an oceanic haven for a variety of sea creatures from juvenile fish, to predators to coral larvae. Over the centuries, vast mats of Sargassum were seen and documented by sailors. But there has been a steady decline in the acreage of this vital seaweed, which serves as a barometer of the ocean's health.

Mission Blue, the new research and expedition arm of Dr. Sylvia Earle's Deep Search Foundation, has designated the Sargasso Sea as one of the organization's Hope Spots - an ocean area that deserves attention and study because of what it says about the state of the planet's oceans.

Mission Blue recently visited the Sargasso Sea, near it's Bermuda epicenter, and from the organization's blog came these comments from Dr. Earle, "No large mats of Sargassum but we snorkled around some small patches and had a great at sea rendezvous with the Bermuda Aquarium team who had a big tub of water on board their small boat and were able to show us a cross section of Sargassum's floating zoo -- some of the endemic crabs, shrimp and a miniature Sargassum fish as well as a little puffer, tiny jacks and other little critters."

Being a gyre, the Sargasso Sea is open to many of the same conditions that have grabbed attention in the Pacific Ocean with its Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Plastics, both in large floating pieces and in the degraded micro-particles, threaten the health of the Sargasso Sea and all of its inhabitants. Micro-particles of plastic form a deadly and sometimes toxic stew in the water which threatens everything from seabirds, turtles, pelagic fish (which are also at risk from swallowing larger pieces of plastic) all the way down to larval creatures that ingest the particles.

Disrupting the floating marine ecosystem and Sargassum seaweed that makes up the Sargasso Sea, through climate changes in surface temperature and pollution from plastics, puts this shoreless sea at risk of becoming a lifeless zone. Often written about in history as a thriving breeding ground and mysterious vast ocean forest floating across the surface of the water, the Sargasso Sea needs protection, lest it becomes just a footnote in our memories.

Visit the Mission Blue web site to learn more about the Sargasso Sea.

Misson Blue: new web site from the Sylvia Earle Foundation

A new web site was launched yesterday that I highly recommend you take a look at: Mission Blue. This new site is part of Dr. Sylvia Earle's foundation and provides a sharp focus on many of her recent expeditionary activities, including an ongoing expedition and ocean conference at the Galapagos Islands.

Ocean conservation can be a very broad and overwhelming issue to get one's arms around, so many organization devote their resources and energy to more specific topics of interest. Mission Blue accomplishes this by identifying Hope Spots - geographical marine areas of critical importance that can also serve to highlight specific marine issues or challenges. The web site allows you to select and learn more about a specific Hope Spot - ranging from the Seychelles off of Africa, to Antarctica's Ross Sea, to the Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez), and more.

There is a lot of great interactivity with the site, added by Dr. Earle's working relationship with Google, which provided map imagery and a handy version of Google Earth incorporated into the site. And then to round it off, there is a blog to keep readers updated with the activities of each expedition and other events with which Dr. Earle has been involved, such as the creative think tank organization, TED (technology, entertainment, design).

Mission Blue, another avenue for ocean conservation and enlightenment. Check it out.

State of the Oceans Forum II: important ocean conservation panel discussion

As a member of the Explorers Club, I have had the honor and opportunity to meet some amazing people involved in a variety of scientific endeavors and participate in some great events. One such event that is coming up this Monday, December 7th is the State of the Oceans Forum II, a follow-up to an earlier event held this year.

The event, hosted by renown oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle, will include presentations and panel discussions from distinguished scientists covering such subjects as ocean pollution, acidification, deep sea ocean conservation, and shaping effective ocean policy.

Is this a must see event? Well, let's put it this way, it's sold out and there's a lengthy waiting list. But never fear, there are options! I've been told that David Guggenheim of The Ocean Foundation and a participant in the forum, will be posting a podcast on the foundation's web site - 1planet1ocean.org.

1planet1ocean.org is a great web site to check out and you'll be able to get the podcast of the State of the Oceans Forum II as soon as it's available. I couldn't make the trip to New York, unfortunately, so I'll be anxiously waiting for the podcast myself.

The World Is Blue: review of Dr. Sylvia Earle's new book

THE WORLD IS BLUE

How Our Fate and the Ocean’s Are One

Dr. Sylvia Earle’s new book declares that conservation is promoting the wrong color

In her latest book, The World Is Blue, famed oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle makes a passionate and methodical argument for conserving the world’s oceans – not as one more item to be added to an ecological wish list, but as an issue that needs to be at the top of that list. The oceans need our undivided attention as it is these life-giving bodies of water that impact, regulate, and govern the environmental processes on land and in the air on which we depend.

“Even if you never have a chance to see or touch the ocean, the ocean touches you with every breath you take, every drop of water you drink, every bite you consume. Everyone, everywhere is inextricably connected to and utterly dependent upon the existence of the sea.”

At a time when going “green” is both necessary and trendy, Earle takes nothing away from our current terrestrial focus, but makes the strong case that the health of the oceans – the “blue” that makes up over 80% of the earth’s surface – must be of equal, if not primary, concern. Using facts gleamed from recognized scientific research and anecdotes from personal experience and those of other oceanographers, scientists and conservationists, she weaves a complex tapestry of interdependent marine processes that give us the majority of our air, the source of our weather, and the greatest diversity of life on the planet. But it is a fabric that is being torn to shreds through our historically misplaced belief that the ocean is ours for the taking.

Earle takes you through the current state of the ocean step by step. First, she examines the taking of ocean wildlife, from mammals to fish to shellfish, and our belief in the ocean’s limitless bounty as personified in the concept of Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) – which drove much of our fishery management policies since the 1930s by assuming that a sealife population, when heavily fished, will respond with maximum reproductive efficiency, thereby producing a surplus that will sustain the population. Great plan, but no one remembered to tell the fish, and so, by the mid-70’s, MSY was unsustainable as were many commercial fisheries as a result.

From there the book takes the reader through the other major issues threatening the seas today. Plastics and their consequences on sealife and fundamental chemical processes in the ocean; the loss of biodiversity – from minute phytoplankton to some of the ocean’s largest animals; drilling, mining, and shipping; and the controversial topic of today: climate change.

“It has taken about four billion years for living systems, mostly in the sea, to transform the lifeless ingredients of early Earth into the Eden that makes our lives possible, and less than a century for us to destabilize those ancient rhythms. Present climate change policies focus on the atmosphere, largely neglecting the ocean, despite ample evidence that the ocean drives and regulates planetary climate, weather, temperature, and chemistry.”

Policies. This is a key word as the book moves into an overview of the opportunities and solutions that can make a difference. Whether discussing the need for ocean exploration, reviewing the potentials and pitfalls of commercial aquaculture, or promoting the importance of Marine Protected Areas (a proven idea which currently only covers less than one percent of the total area of the sea), Earle’s experience in the federal and international arena comes through.

As a former chief scientist for the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and, currently, explorer-in-residence at the National Geographic Society, leader of the Sustainable Seas Expeditions, and active participant in a long list of policy-making organizations and marine think tanks, Earle brings a subtle political perspective that you do not find in many other books on the subject. Personal involvement is important and she has plenty of suggestions for each of us to consider. But the book is peppered with indications as to what is being done in the decision-making circles, which kept reminding me of the need for making our elected officials accountable.

“Knowing is the key to caring, and with caring there is hope that people will be motivated to take positive actions. They might not care even if they know, but they can’t care if they are unaware.”

The World Is Blue is an extremely accessible book, one that would provide a conservationist with logical arguments and reassurance while providing enlightenment and a new way of thinking for the yet unconverted. This is not a tome to doom and gloom. Yes, it pulls no punches and lays out the consequences if we choose not to act, but what makes this book an uplifting call to arms rather than a scolding is Earle’s enthusiasm and sense of wonder with the ocean. It’s obvious to the ear at her many speaking engagements and when I have been fortunate to chat with her one-on-one – and it comes through loud and clear in The World Is Blue. This is someone who truly loves the sea and loves life and knows how they are forever intertwined. A must read.

Richard Theiss
RTSea Productions
RTSea Blog: keeping an eye on Nature
Copyright 2009 RTSea

Dr. Sylvia Earle: discussing the limits of the ocean's bounty

At last month's BLUE Ocean Film Festival, I had the opportunity to videotape an interview with Dr. Sylvia Earle on behalf of planSEA.com, an organization dedicated to teaching ocean conservation to the next generation: the children.

Dr. Earle is one of the leading figures of ocean exploration and conservation and we touched on a great many subjects in our interview. Here is a segment that addressed the need for education and also an important perspective regarding the taking of seafood.



I found her viewpoint in comparing seafood to "bushmeat" very enlightening. I've always said we rely on raising cattle and poultry as a way to feed the masses and Sylvia backs that up with the idea that we long ago realized that simply taking wild terrestrial animals (bushmeat) would not work, that it could not be sustained.

But that is exactly what we do with the ocean's bounty - and it is a very limited bounty, limited in the sense that it was never meant to feed the human population. That is why I have always been a supporter of aquaculture or aquafarming, recognizing that there are significant challenges that need to be addressed regarding the practice but convinced that the ultimate future of seafood harvesting will need to come from these controlled methods.

I have had the pleasure of meeting with Dr. Earle and her staff on several occasions and let me tell you, she is one busy person. As explorer-in-residence with the National Geographic Society, she works 24/7 with major ocean conservation organizations and with the prominent decision-makers to help shape the future of our oceans.

It must be frustrating at times because the bureaucratic wheels can seem to turn so slowly. But I take heart in something I read recently in TIME magazine regarding political decision-making and the control of power. In an article about FDR, David Kennedy wrote,

"As the historian Henry Adams wrote, the greatest fear 'was power; not merely power in the hands of a president or a prince, of one assembly or several, of many citizens or a few, but power in the abstract, wherever it existed and under whatever form it was known.' That's why the framers of the Constitution constructed a political order based on 'checks and balances.' That arrangement has conspicuous virtues, but it also designs a measure of paralysis into the American political system. It impedes swift adjustment to changing economic and social realities. It sustains a chronic deadlock in which trauma and shock become necessary preconditions for effective political action. To a degree not found in other political cultures, it forges a perverse partnership between danger and opportunity."

Okay, in essence, it is saying that our political bureaucracy is structured to prevent the concentration of power and avoid knee-jerk reactions. And that's a good thing. Maddening, but a good thing. Particularly if we wait for environmental "trauma and shock" to elicit a political response, we know that it won't be an isolated event but a harbinger of many more, catastrophic events.

That's why we must persevere with both generating broader public awareness and motivating our leaders to act. Enough "events" have already occurred, there is enough evidence, enough data needed to act; we don't need to wait for the roof to cave in on us.

Dr. Sylvia Earle: inspiring ocean explorer and advocate

I recently had the opportunity to meet and spend some time speaking with Dr. Sylvia Earle, world renowned oceanographer and a leading advocate for marine conservation. Currently, an explorer in residence with the National Geographic Society, Dr. Earle carries a distinguished list of aquatic accomplishments to her credit. Here are just a few:

• She began her oceanic studies with botany, ultimately writing one of the definitive dissertations on aquatic plant life.
• While men walked the moon, Dr. Earle led an all-women expedition team aboard Tektite II, an undersea research platform, spending two-weeks at 50 feet underwater off the Virgin Islands.
• In 1979, she set a depth record for an untethered dive of 1,250 feet wearing the Jim Suit, a pressurized deep sea suit. Brought to the bottom sea floor off Oahu by the submersible Alvin, her 2-hour excursion remains a record unbroken to this day.
• Started several companies responsible for the design and development of some of the world's most advanced deep sea submersibles used throughout the world.
• A prodigious author of books on ocean exploration and a producer of documentaries with recognized filmmakers like Al Giddings.
• In the 90's, was chief scientist for NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Currently, Dr. Earle is the driving scientific force behind the latest version of Google Earth which now includes the oceans. And, with co-author Linda Glover, she has just completed an updated Ocean Atlas for National Geographic Publications, available in bookstores now. Like an aquatic Everyready bunny, she just keeps on going.

It was an obvious honor to meet such an accomplished individual, but what struck me most was her enthusiastic support for anyone doing anything to advance the cause of ocean education and enlightenment. My efforts to date regarding shark conservation or working with groups like InMER on climate change issues are small potatoes compared to what she has done, but you would never think it while you're in her presence. She wouldn't let you think it, encouraging you instead and egging you on to "get it done." A true inspirer comes not from what they have done, but from how they make you feel about what you can get done.

I have had the opportunity to meet several celebrities and accomplished individuals throughout my career. Some have been polite but curt, some have been major disappointments, and some have been people like Sylvia Earle - who make us feel good about our hopes and our dreams for a healthier ocean, a healthier planet.

RTSea Imagery in New Google Earth: work for InMER included in latest version 5.0

This past Monday in San Francisco, I had the honor and pleasure to attend the unveiling of the newest version of Google Earth - which now incorporates the oceans as well. I was invited to represent the marine education and research organization InMER as a contributing partner to Google Earth. RTSea had provided video and photographic services during InMER's 2007 expedition to the Northwest Passage, above the Arctic Circle, and the resulting footage and images have been incorporated into the new Google Earth. (Previous postings on InMER and the Arctic: click here, here, and here.)

The unveiling took place at San Francisco's California Academy of Sciences with an A-list of dignitaries on hand including former Vice President Al Gore, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and world-renowned oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle. Dr. Earle was the prominent champion and driving source of inspiration for this new version, having once teasingly described the original Google Earth to its creators as "Google Dirt, because you left out over 70% of the planet."

With the new version of Google Earth, users are able to zoom in on the Earth's seas and literally dip below the surface to see an incredible perspective of our water planet. Numerous icons appear that provide text, videos, images, and links to additional information. If you ever found yourself wandering the land and zooming in on details with the old Google Earth, this new version will really have you hooked. But it's more than just a gimmick. This new version represents a serious academic and research tool for both schools and scientists alike, with a variety of visual perspectives of the oceans and a tremendous amount of data that will continue to grow over time as new information is added.

I feel very fortunate to have some of my work available on such a broad worldwide information platform. I thank InMER's CEO and founder, Ed Cassano, and Google for the opportunity and I hope to be able to participate in future contributions to help advance the world's knowledge and appreciation of our oceans.

We need to understand and protect the planet's oceans. None of us would be here without them.