10 posts tagged “alaska”
It's hard to get a big smile out of Ken Lowyck, Greenpeace's capable Action Unit Coordinator (and sub pilot) based in Toronto. I snapped the photo to the right and captured Ken's pre-dive excitement last summer on August 1, just minutes before he was launched on the dive to 700 feet in Pribilof Canyon in the Bering Sea that resulted in one of the expedition's most important discoveries. I imagine the modest smile that appeared on his face has returned today as Greenpeace has announced that the tiny, unassuming white sponge he retrieved on that dive was never before documented by Homo sapiens, and may well herald future announcements of other new species from the expedition. The sponge was named Aaptos kanuux, the word
"kanuux" being the Aleut word for "heart," in honor of the
Bering Sea's canyons, considered to be the heart of the Bering Sea by the region's natives who depend on their font of life to sustain their way of life. It was also the
first time the genus Aaptos has ever been documented in the Bering Sea. The painstaking work of analyzing hours and hours of video and hundreds of retrieved samples continues and will likely continue for years, as science soldiers on. I'm certain we can expect more dramatic news as the effort continues.
I was reunited with one of my fellow sub pilots last week when I shared breakfast with John Hocevar, Greenpeace Senior Ocean Specialist. Though the restaurant wasn't pitching and rolling like Esperanza, it felt as though the expedition was very much still underway as we talked, that our collective voyage of discovery was far from its conclusion, and the latest news from John confirmed it. He told me that half of the 14 deep sea
corals documented during the expedition were never before seen in the Bering
Sea. Nor were two thirds of the 20 or so sponge species documented. And the
expedition provided the first record of black coral of any kind and the
first record of stony coral (also known as Scleractinians -- see the photo below right) in the Bering Sea. NOAA biologist Robert Stone
participated in the expedition and co-authored a recent paper with Greenpeace
scientist John Hocevar presented the new findings at the Alaska Marine Science
Symposium. You can see a copy of the report online.
The expedition was undertaken to collect information needed to inform conservation policies by the North Pacific Fisheries Council. The expedition team documented numerous examples of extensive damage to corals by fishing trawlers, which essentially clearcut the bottom with their nets. It's hard to express the scale of what we observed,
which, even in Hi-Def video, can't begin to convey the scale of destruction. It's almost comical to listen to the audio of the tape of one of my dives, where I excitedly radioed to the surface that I've landed at 1,000 feet in some sort of geological relief, a conclusion I drew when I saw what appeared to be a long ridge in front of me. After ascending a few feet to get a better perspective, the horror of what I was looking at set in -- I had landed squarely in the middle of a miles-long trawling scar, a scar that left virtually nothing living on the bottom and that left a swath nearly half the size of a New York city block of uplifted sediment...my so-called "ridge."
John also shared with me the challenge he's had in presenting these data at North Pacific Fishery Management Council. In late 2006, they claimed that they didn't have enough data to justify any special designation for the Bering Sea Canyons, areas they prioritized for research at the same meeting. This inspired the 2007 expedition undertaken by Greenpeace, but returning with compelling data, photos and video in hand has done little so far to advance any change in mindset by the Council. Failure to take action to protect natural resource on the basis of too little information is so 20th Century. Surely the best policies err on the side of conserving valuable resources when information about their status is scarce. I'm confident that the compelling results of this expedition will speak loudly on their own and science will guide humanity's hand accordingly.
So for now, I revel in the joy of discovery, and like Ken, I smile with the satisfaction of helping to advance humanity's knowledge about a mysterious and fantastic world below, and with the anticipation of the voyages ahead...
It's the fantasy of many a marine biologist and explorer. To catch a glimpse of the giant squid, alive, and in its natural habitat: The deep ocean. Giant squid have been scientifically documented at a size of up to an incredible 43 feet long based on specimens that have washed ashore. I've seen one such specimen at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. Laying there pickled and motionless in its sterile white display case, it was hard to imagine this animal rocketing about the dark depths, living up to its reputation as a formidable predator. During one of his talks when I first met oceanographer Bob Ballard, he compared trying to find the giant squid from a submersible to trying to find an F-15 jet racing by, on a mountain top, at night, in a driving rainstorm, with a flashlight. Yesterday I had second thoughts about looking for the giant squid when one of its cousins, less than 2% of its size, disabled my sub and aborted my dive as I was descending through 1,300 feet.
In all the years I've been scuba diving, I've never been attacked by a sea creature. This, of course, excludes two unnerving but harmless remoras that simultaneously hitched a ride on my legs, or countless tiny dusky damsel fish that bit at my chest to defend their territory they felt I was invading, or stinging hydroids I accidentally brushed against. Never have I (knowingly) been mistaken for food while exploring the depths -- until now. On almost all of our sub dives here in the Bering Sea, starting at close to 1,000 feet, we've encountered the "squid layer," concentrations of 6-12" squid, Loligo opalescens, which go by the official common name of "Opalescent inshore squid" but are more commonly known on the west coast as "California market squid." My encounters with these mollusks have given me new respect for what I have come to recognize as sleek and skilled predatory missiles whose prey don't stand a chance.
Squid are truly jet-propelled. They swim faster than any other invertebrate by rapidly shooting water out of their mantle cavity into a jet stream nozzle they can steer, like a jet boat. Some squid have been clocked up to nearly 15 miles per hour. Underwater, that's practically light speed. Our subs clock in at about 3 miles per hour. Their blinding speed, coupled with their armament of two powerful tentacles (in addition to their 8 legs), barbed suckers and razor sharp beak, give them quite an edge over their prey, which include small fish, crustaceans, and mollusks, among others. Many of the squid's prey, like lanternfish, are bioluminescent, creating their own flashes of light. Squid are highly tuned to these bright flashes and are powerfully drawn to any source of light…like the lights of a descending submarine.
A massive triangle of light in the middle of the Sea of Japan is so brilliant it's visible from space. The source of light was a mystery until someone realized that the fleets of industrial fishing boats that pursue squid know well about the squid's lust for light. This triangle marks the position of the Japanese squid fishing fleet. Each vessel may have up to 50 lamps of up to 3,500 watts. The entire fleet may be using 200 megawatts to power these lights. That's nearly 20 percent of the generating capacity of Unit #3 of Southern California's San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, enough electricity for nearly 250,000 homes.
Squid are commercially fished around the world, including in the United States. And squid are also taken from the sea as bycatch, the unintentional catch of one species when fishing for another. This has been a serous problem here in the Bering Sea when fishing boats seeking Alaskan pollock were hauling up far more squid than pollock, necessitating fishing restrictions. The seemingly limitless bounty of squid, as with so many other animals in the sea, has turned out not to be so limitless after all. They are a critical part of the ecosystem, voracious predators themselves, and, in turn, serving as prey for all sorts of fish, porpoises, whales and seals. The fur seals we saw on St. Paul Island are just one of the species that depend on squid.
As I descended into Zhemchug Canyon yesterday past 1,300 feet yesterday, I reported to Mike at the navigation station on Esperanza that I had entered the "squid layer." My external lights were on, as were Michelle's in the other sub about 100 feet below me, so that we could maintain visual contact during the dive, a safety precaution at these depths. But to a squid, my lights meant a meal, and they pursued me with intent to consume. Ink was everywhere, they clung to the lights with their tentacles and attacked with their beaks. They torpedoed in all directions around me, leaving black clouds of ink hanging in their paths. So much ink accumulated it appeared that my lights were smoking. On the front of the sub was tied a mesh bag of styrofoam cups. Under pressure, the air in the styrofoam cups compresses, and the cups shrink to a fraction of their original size. The crew had creatively decorated the cups with clever slogans and artwork…a great souvenir. I noticed the squid were especially attracted to the white, reflective cups and grabbed onto the mesh bag, trying to reach the goodies inside.
I noticed something else -- squid parts. Some of the squid ended up as calamari, having taken the unfortunate route to my lights through the sub's thrusters. Suddenly, the thrusters sounded different, more faint. The sub was no longer descending and it began to spin. One of my vertical thrusters was offline. I tried powering the thruster circuit off and on again, reversing direction like you would on an outboard motor to clear debris, but to no avail. The sub did what it was supposed to do…it sacrificed a two dollar fuse to save a $15,000 thruster. I would not make it to the bottom, just another 400 feet below me. The topside team wisely instructed me to terminate my dive and prepare for recovery.
As I slowly made the ascent back to Esperanza, I realized my image of squid had changed forever. How different was my image of these agile, powerful animals from the my first sight of squid, compressed into a frozen block inside a cardboard box my father had pulled from the general store's freezer in Cape May Point, New Jersey as we were heading off to cast our rods into the Delaware Bay. That image of the giant squid laying at the Los Angeles County Museum suddenly had life and gave me pause about the wisdom of maintaining the fantasy of pursuing such a formidable creature in the dark depths. But a moment later, I came to my senses. I'll still take my chances for a fleeting glimpse of that magnificent animal. Later that day, I smiled when I read what one of the crew had written on one of the styrofoam cups: "No pressure, no diamond."
They look strange, out of place…and they are. Because they're not from around here. The odd-shaped stones and boulders that pepper the flat, dark, silty bottom here at nearly 1,800 feet look like meteorites, each surrounded by a wide, shallow crater. They're not from outer space, but many have traveled a vast distance on Earth -- hundreds, perhaps thousands of miles, over millennia. And now my sub is face to face with one of three I'd encounter on our first dive in Zhemchug Canyon yesterday (Saturday) afternoon.
They're called "drop stones" and it's icebergs that do the dropping. As glaciers move across the land, rocks become incorporated into the glacial ice. Once the glaciers find the coast, they "calve" into ice bergs and travel vast distances floating upon the ocean, melting along the way and eventually, releasing their rocky payload.
One might think of a rock, even a hefty one, falling to the bottom of the vast Bering Sea as one of the more inconsequential events in the universe. But if you're tiny, living in a world that's flat and unprotected from the swift Arctic current ripping by, even a tiny pebble can mean the difference between survival or not. Corals, like the sublimely pink Swiftia pacifica we came across yesterday, appear to be growing right out of the brown silt. But a closer look reveals a small rock or pebble beneath the surface providing a holdfast against the current. If you're a tiny critter like a shrimp, your only option is to get down into a hole, if you can find one. But holes don't last forever -- the current will eventually sweep them away. You can also try to get yourself up against the downstream side of an object -- like a rock -- so you're not swept away with the current. Other than that, there aren't many options across the flat, nearly rockless landscape of the bottom of this neighborhood in Zhemchug Canyon.
So if one day a huge rock comes a-plummeting out of the sky, it's like a deluxe condominium suddenly appearing, and the shrimp don't waste a moment moving in. They covered the lee side of the drop stones I encountered, wall-to-wall. The penthouse was reserved for critters like basket stars, corals, anemones, sponges or hydroids that could attach themselves firmly, then grab prey as they float by in the current. Fish like rocks, too, especially, well…rockfish. The brightly orange-colored shortraker rockfish lay against one of the drop stones. A prehistoric-looking Giant grenadier, perhaps 4.5 feet long, with its long, eel-like tail gently waving in the current, nestled by another. And I encountered the aptly-named bigmouth sculpin by the third.
During my last dive at Pribilof Canyon, I noted flatfish depressions and the fact that they were full of shrimp. Same here at Zhemchug. I was even treated to a flatfish hole digging demonstration by a small halibut that I "encountered" (translation: terrified). He was quite upset at being awakened by a noisy metal object with bright lights pointed at his face, so he swam a few body lengths, then flapped his flat body furiously and kicked silt up onto the top of his flatness until he was (or at least thought he was) invisible. That process, repeated millions of times, means sanctuary for a critical part of the food chain, including the many shrimp I spied enjoying their stay in a flatfish hole. Not only does the hole allow them to relax and not have to fight the current, but NOAA scientist Bob Stone points out that little eddies forming as the current runs by cause food particles to drop out of the water column. So if you're a shrimp, you can kick back, not lift a claw, and let the food come to you. The current scours shallow craters around the drop stones, so shrimp living there not only get regular food deliveries, but also a high-rise view. I suppose that's the Bering Sea definition of the good life.
It's quite remarkable in nature how little things matter, like where a rock falls or where a flatfish rests. And there are big things in this world that threaten those little things, like taking too many fish from the sea, and global warming, which is already believed to be changing the patterns of the ice pack in this region, along with distant glaciers, and the would-be drop stones they encounter. It's important for us to think about what it takes -- even the seemingly little things -- to make an ecosystem work, especially one as wondrous and important as this one. Because if a rock falls in the Bering Sea, and no one is there to hear it, it's still someone's condo.
Yesterday (Thursday) morning, Michelle Ridgway and I descended in the twin subs for our expedition's penultimate dive on Pribilof Canyon. Michelle's lights shone as tiny pinpoints in the distant green as the light from above slowly vanished and the cold darkness of Pribilof Canyon enveloped us. I had a rare moment amid the descent's harried series of checks and radio transmissions to reflect on where I was, and Michelle's lights reminded me of how tiny we were, trying to comprehend an enormous, complex tapestry in the darkness armed with only a pen light. But on this dive, some of those complexities began to tell a story.
The welcoming committee of squid was there to greet us en masse, larger squid this time, more abundant, and more aggressive. They rocketed through the water faster than anything I've seen, passing millimeters from the front of the light, causing a startling bright flash against their light bodies, before deploying a cloud of brownish ink, spreading their tentacles to reveal a hungry beak, convinced that the light that had drawn them to the sub meant food was near. Some latched on a appeared to try to take a bite. Others gave a menacing dance, another blast of ink, and rocketed into the darkness. Still others appeared in pieces, casualties of my thrusters. It was squid madness, and it was fascinating, even comical to watch. But it also was a vivid reminder of the predatory prowess of these animals -- a small fish wouldn't stand a chance, but at least the end would come in the blink of an eye.
The bottom arrived at 1,052 feet and I landed on what appeared to be some sort of geologic stratification -- unusual layers and grooves of sediment in parallel lines across my path. I then realized I was looking at a trawl "scar," the deep ridges in the bottom made by the wheels of a trawl net dragged across the bottom. A wide swath of bottom appeared as if it had been plowed like a cornfield, overturned sediment neatly piled along the long groove. I remembered that Michelle had told me some of the trawls used in these parts are as wide as a Boeing 737's wingspan.
We began our transect, but shortly thereafter I was told to hold position -- apparently the squid had won the last round against Michelle, causing one of her thrusters to blow a fuse. She surfaced for an early recovery while I continued the dive alone. I was excited to see a number of corals. The bottom was covered with tiny (an inch or two) white sea whips (Halipteris willemoesi), one of the corals we had seen elsewhere in Pribilof Canyon. But the sea whips we had seen elsewhere were much larger, 3 or 4 feet long. I only spied two or three that big in this location.
I moved along in the darkness, saw many snow crabs and flat fish, including the beautiful rex sole and equally dramatic sharp nose skate. I then spied a strange white ridge along the black horizon. As I approached I saw this ridge lay directly in my path, straight as an arrow. A geology professor of mine once gave our class a clue at identifying features in aerial photos by pointing out that straight lines are rare in nature. Sure enough, this was another trawl scar, larger than the first. I radioed to Sasha at the navigation station on the ship and asked that he note this location on his tracking computer. I continued and found many more linear features along my path, more trawling marks, no doubt, perhaps older ones.
As I continued ahead, some of the pieces I had been seeing in the tapestry during the week started to merge and suggest a pattern. Most of the tiny sea whips I had seen were roughly the same size, suggesting that they're roughly the same age and most likely regrowth after a major disturbance, such as one that might be caused by dragging a massive object over the bottom...like a trawl. It's gratifying to see an ecosystem demonstrating resiliency -- little sea whips pushing up and trying to make a go of it. But knowing how important corals are to the health of marine ecosystems, it's troubling to see such widespread impacts.
Continuing the transect, I enjoyed seeing the sole, halibut, skates and other flat fish. I've always been fond of these strange looking creatures and never appreciated the role they played in the tapestry until this dive. Shallow flat-fish-sized depressions cratered the soft bottom. But as I passed over these "flat fish holes," the lights from the sub reflected off of hundreds of tiny eye balls looking back at me. These little depressions were teeming with little shrimp and other critters -- colorful micro ecosystems moving in where a flat fish moved out.
This was an area of high current -- maneuvering the sub was difficult -- and I saw that these depressions offered the shrimp refuge out of the current on a silty bottom that was virtually devoid of rocks or other relief. I realized my flat fish friends were ecosystem engineers. The simple act of burying themselves in the silt and leaving a depression behind meant habitat for countless other creatures. NOAA scientist Bob Stone, aboard Esperanza for this expedition, smiled when I later mentioned this to him -- he's published a paper on the topic. I've seen a similar pattern in the Gulf of Mexico, where grouper dig enormous swimming pool-sized holes in the soft bottom sediment, exposing hard substrate for corals and sponges to grow and attracting many fish and invertebrates. So it's troubling to me when we think of fish essentially as crops that we can simply harvest from the sea. Such a perspective ignores the critical point that fish themselves are part of the ecosystem and have important, often critical roles, in maintaining the health of the ecosystem. Removing fish from the ecosystem changes the ecosystem.
The call from Sasha came too soon, as it always does, "DeepWorker 6, at this time prepare the cabin for recovery." As I ascended through the darkness, alone this time, I turned my lights off to gaze upon Pribilof Canyon in its true state and pondered how much of our planet's life lives in complete darkness. My tiny sub had illuminated but a few new corners of this vast place. There lies so much more to see and discover, but with each tantalizing glimpse come new insights and a little more of the story the tapestry tells.
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Earlier in this blog I've confessed my darkest secret as a marine scientist: I get seasick. So my biggest fear of the Bering Sea is what the Bering Sea is fond of doing often -- getting rough with the boats that dare to ply its waters. Yesterday, things got a bit rough for the Esperanza. A major front pushed through and seas kicked up from nearly flat to a confused sea state -- wind-driven waves 4-5 feet heading one direction, a much larger swell, Penny the boatswain noting swells up to 12 feet, heading at a 45 degree angle. The result made for a rough ride. Awakened at 4am, I dashed up to my hideout, the video editing room, to make sure that our precious data stored inside several hard drives, were secured. I added some bungee to keep things from sliding. I tried to return to sleep, but it was fitful.
At breakfast, I ate light and looked forward to a productive day of catch up on this blog, web site, data analysis, etc. since dives of any kind were out of the question. Esperanza headed in to St. George Island to pick up Andy Malavansky, head of the St. George Ecological Office, along with fur seal ecologist, Steve Insley. I felt remarkably well given the rockin' and rollin', but as the day wore on, I felt more and more exhausted, as did my peers. The constant movement of the ship makes simple tasks much more difficult. For me, working on the computer was especially tough, here in my windowless station, and trying to drop files into the right folder with the mouse became an exercise in eye-hand coordination like playing a video game. Ultimately it took its toll, and I started to feel a bit green. I then had a choice: Take a pill and endure the side-effect of sleepiness, or do nothing and probably lose my lunch.
I had added a new medication to my arsenal of Dramamine and Bonine: Stugeron, recommended by many aboard Esperanza. The directions said to take two initially then one every 8 hours. I took one pill. Initially, I felt great and got back to work. A bit later, I couldn't keep my eyes open. Nap number one. I awoke for a few hours, stumbled around a bit, then took nap number two. I was so out of it that Timo had to awaken me when I was 30 minutes late to dinner.
After dinner we gave a brief presentation to the crew of our findings so far -- eyes were riveted on the monitor. Ken Lowyck, Greenpeace Action Unit Coordinator in Toronto and I showed a number of clips from our tandem dive to 1,071 feet the previous day where we landed in a beautiful, rich coral habitat. Afterwards I stumbled back into my cabin, and for the first time on the expedition, was in my bunk before my bunkmate, Ruud, who has the 4am-8pm shift. When I awoke for pre-dive this morning, so much sleep made me euphoric, especially with much calmer seas to greet me.
Still photographer Todd Warshaw and I donned our drysuits, along with Dive Master (and fellow sub pilot) Ken Lowyck to capture the deepworker launch from in the water -- I'd be shooting HD video. The dive went reasonably well, though my weight belt was somewhat uncooperative, so I left it behind and filmed from the surface. I remembered all my zippers and my dive was comfortable, warm and dry!
As I write this, John and Michelle at about 1,000 feet -- I hear the echo of the sonar tracking system from the bridge deck above. I heard John's voice over the in-water comms indicate he's made some good collections. And I'm back in my little video editing hole, feeling good, alert, and hungry. But, more bad weather expected on Friday. Not sure if I'll choose the little white pill again this time...
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When I used to teach marine science at Seacamp, a wonderful marine science camp in the Florida Keys, I always tried to impress upon my students (especially the ones reluctant to get into the water) that I always saw something new every time I went diving or snorkeling. This axiom has held true my entire life, but with a submarine and the deep waters it reaches, it seems that I see something new every 5 minutes.
On Saturday, thanks to my uncharacteristic good luck in a random drawing with my fellow pilots, my name came out of the coffee mug first, meaning I had the honor of piloting the first dive of the expedition. I later found out from my peers that this also meant being the first human being to descend in a sub into Pribilof Canyon.
I was surprised to still see light above as I descended past 600 feet…a beautiful disc of deep aqua floating high above the dark blue. Shortly thereafter, it was completely dark, my HMI lights providing the sole illumination for the journey. I anticipated bottom at 1,150 feet, but as I descended past 900 feet, I suddenly saw what appeared to be a thick cloud of brown sediment at eye level. Thinking I was kicking up sediment from the approaching bottom, I quickly slowed my descent, but the bottom didn't come. I then realized I was not seeing bottom sediment at all. Hundreds of pencil-sized squid were inking me! Attracted by the light, these squid would rocket toward the lights, pause for a moment, appear to freak out, then squirt their ink and dash away into the black. The ink appears reddish brown under the bright lights.
I touched down at 1,003 feet, excited to be glimpsing a tiny portion of this huge underwater canyon. I encountered numerous cod, perch, along with small sole, halibut and skates as I proceeded with my transect. As a scientist who has spent most of his years in the subtropics and tropics of the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean, my worst enemy was the microphone hanging below my mouth, into which I
was supposed to utter brilliant annotation to go with the video we were shooting. I knew some local species, but many others were a mystery to me, so I resorted to comedy. The beautiful and enormous anenome Liponema brevicornis appears on my recording as the Hostess Snowball. NOAA scientist Bob Stone was forgiving. He encouraged such names as long as we were consistent. And so I was. Like with the "mystery pink thing," etc.
I returned to Esperanza elated to have brought back our first glimpses of this magnificent canyon and lost track of the number of new things I saw on that dive. I feel like I'm at Seacamp again…seeing things I've never seen before, learning things I've never known before, and feeling young…like a wide-eyed child.
At 5:15 am, the rear suspension of the taxi to Washington, DC's National Airport groaned alarmingly under the weight of my five heavy pieces of luggage: A duffel of dive gear, a pelican case with an underwater video housing, a duffel of warm clothing, a backpack of video and camera gear, and a roll-aboard full of hard disks, cables and other geeky accessories. Alaska Airlines Flight #1 took me west across the country to Seattle, then north to Anchorage. As we pierced the clouds on our descent, the youngster seated behind me shrieked to his parents, "It looks like a big park!" Alaska was as I had remembered it: Big, wild, and beyond beautiful.
I made my way to the Peninsula Airways departures and rendezvoused with expedition photographer Todd Warshaw, who was traveling from San Diego. We later ran into Michelle Ridgway, an Alaskan marine ecological consultant and fellow sub pilot, along with Bob Stone, a NOAA scientist specializing in the cold water corals we hoped to study on the expedition. But we weren't supposed to see Michelle and Bob -- they were supposed to be in Dutch Harbor already. Their earlier flight had been cancelled, due to the notorious thick fog that occurs this time of year in Dutch Harbor. The earliest flight for which they could be confirmed was August 1 -- more than a week away. They discussed the possibility of missing the first week of the expedition and rendezvousing with us in St. George in the Pribilof islands, certainly less than an ideal situation.
Thankfully, Michelle returned from the podium with a grin -- they were on our flight…which was now delayed…and delayed… Finally, we were called and on our way. A three-hour flight along the Aleutian Island chain in a small Saab propeller plane, with a stop for fuel at aptly-named Cold Bay. We arrived at last to Dutch Harbor, met by Timo Marshall, retrieved (thankfully) all our bags, and drove a mile or so to the triple-parked M/V Esperanza. You couldn't have designed a more bizarre obstacle course for those carrying luggage. First, cross the gangway to the large barge, walk through the TV room where one of the crew was oblivious to our delegation, out the back door of the barge, down an external corridor, up a ladder, and around a huge dry dock structure, more twists, turns, chutes and ladders. Finally, Esperanza's gang way was in sight, only angled down to the deck from the dry dock structure with a sign indicating "Only One Person at a Time." Our heavy bags were roped and hauled up to the deck. My first hour in Dutch Harbor and I was overheated, sweaty and out of breath.
A nice reunion with the captain, crew, fellow sub pilots, and the incredible Nuytco crew who oversee all sub operations, and my 16 hours of travel had finally come to an end. Another 16 hours of travel from Dutch Harbor to Pribilof Canyon would begin the next day, but I'd sleep through most of it.
As a young teenager, I finally got my wish: Scuba lessons for my 15th birthday! My lessons were in a moldy YMCA pool in suburban Philadelphia, and my first open water dive -- my checkout dive -- was in a quarry in Reading, Pennsylvania in the balmy month of December. Air temperature 36 degrees F, water temperature 40 degrees. My wetsuit was too big, was full of holes, and to this day I don't think I've ever been so cold. In those primitive days of the early 70s, we didn't use buoyancy compensators (BCs), vests that you can fill with air from your tank to keep you afloat at the surface or keep you neutrally buoyant at depth. Rather, we used "horse collar" safety vests -- virtually identical to what the flight attendant demonstrates the use of for the "unlikely event of a water landing." To put air into your vest, you had to grip the tip of the inflator tube with your teeth, push it in and blow until it was full. There were also two CO2 cartridges which would inflate the vest as a backup, but we were warned not to use them unless it was an absolute emergency since replacing the cartridges was expensive.
After surfacing following a visit to the highlight of the dive -- an overturned milk truck -- I realized I had too much weight on my weight belt and could barely tread water. So, I went to blow some air into my vest, but after so much time in the water, my lips were frozen and couldn't make a seal on the little inflator tube. Try as I did, the air simply escaped through my lips, making a horrific version of the sound children make to imitate propeller airplanes, so loud that it got the attention of some curious onlookers on shore. The combination of this ridiculous exercise, coupled with trying to tread water in an overweighted condition, exhausted me in no time. I feared the wrath of my instructor for my next decision, but I chose to live and "popped" my CO2 cartridges. In an instant was floating comfortably in a full vest, cold and exhausted, but euphoric. I remember the feeling finally coming back to my feet in a McDonald's nearly two hours after we left the quarry.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised that, with the exception of the years I lived in California, I've been almost exclusively a warm water diver in the nearly 35 years that have passed since that cold day at the quarry, spending 90 percent of my underwater moments in the tropics. But in preparation for this week's Bering Sea Expedition led by Greenpeace, the cold water -- really cold water -- awaits us, and while our expedition plan has us exploring from the comfortable, dry helm of small submarines, we will also be scuba diving during part of the trip at some of the shallower sites, and I will be serving as underwater videographer. This means wearing a drysuit, and for that I needed specialized training and a certification. Unlike a wetsuit, which does allow some water to come between you and your suit, a drysuit is completely sealed, keeping you warm and dry inside. The suit itself has little or no thermal properties -- you're kept warm by the thermal underwear you wear underneath. I was excited about finally getting my drysuit certification, but it meant two open water dives in my first quarry dive in nearly 35 years. The first of those dives was a humbling flashback to 1973.
Following the lecture by Technical Instructor, Brian E. McMillan from the top-notch dive shop, Adventure Scuba Company in Chantilly, Virginia, we suited up and walked down the ramp into the waters of Millbrook Quarry in Haymarket, Virginia, along with NAUI Dive Master Jeff McManus and two other students. As I entered the water, I was concerned to feel what felt like water rushing into my drysuit. Brian suggested that I might be feeling my sweat being chilled by the cool water, but it ultimately became clear that something was amiss. Now, if you find yourself putting on a drysuit, it's important to remember one minor detail: There are TWO zippers, and only the inner zipper seals the water out. In my haste to get into my suit, I had only zipped the outer zipper, so in the first minute of my dive, I managed to convert my drysuit into a very wet wetsuit, proving that even experienced divers are capable of really stupid acts. Jeff patiently zipped me up and we continued...for about 20 seconds. I was flashing back to 1973, unable to stay afloat on the surface. Air was screaming out of one of my BC valves, and even using the auto-inflator to pump air in resulted in nothing more than a geyser of bubbles. Yes, another self-inflicted act of stupidity. I had forgotten to replace an o-ring in my BC after cleaning it recently and hadn't fully tested it before leaving for the quarry. My BC was useless. Fortunately, since drysuits have some air in them, they can help you maintain buoyancy. Like a BC, they have an inflator hose, so at the push of a button, you can puff air into your suit. Brian and Jeff, ever patient (though I'm sure by now were really having some doubts about their problem student) suggested that I continue the dive using the drysuit to control my buoyancy.
So down we went to the underwater platform, where we worked on several drills, including buoyancy control, connecting and disconnecting the inflator hose (an important skill should the valve become stuck). We also practiced recovering from an inverted position where air in the feet of your suit causes you to hang upside down. All was fine, except that as the dive progressed, my weightbelt -- which, in keeping with tradition, was overweighted -- kept sliding further and further down, ending up at my knees. Try as I did, I couldn't secure it properly atop my bulky drysuit. It was about then that I noticed that my expensive dive computer had flooded. When the dive finally ended, walking back to the cars was slow as I was probably carrying an additional 50 pounds -- of water -- in my suit. My integrated booties looked like clown shoes, ballooning with water with each step.
After our surface interval, a burger, another lecture, and some sunshine to partially dry out my thermals, it was time for dive number two. The training of my first dive prepared me well: TWO ZIPPERS! I lightened my weightbelt, and Jeff outfitted my BC with a spare o-ring. I found the "sweet spot" for my weightbelt and it didn't budge. Everything worked perfectly. I was warm, dry, perfectly trimmed, and beyond happy. Now I understood the appeal of drysuit diving -- amazing how much different the experience is when everything works. The water at the bottom of the quarry was very chilly, but I stayed warm.
I expressed my gratitude to Brian and Jeff for their patience and assistance. These are two terrific and highly professional instructors. Both humbly replied, "that's what we're here for" and emphasized how important it is to learn to deal with these problems, and to do so in a quarry, not the Bering Sea. They're absolutely right, and on the drive home from the quarry yesterday, I caught myself thinking what for nearly 35 years would have been unthinkable. "I'd like to dive here again."
Last week, Mirriam-Webster' announced that it was adding the word, "ginormous," to its 2007 update of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition. This is great news and comes as a great relief, just in time for next week's kickoff of the Bering Sea Expedition. For ever since I first visited Alaska, I have found an utter deficit of adjectives to adequately convey the state's enormity -- er, ginormity.
In 1991, I traveled to Glacier Bay with three friends from Southern California for a one-week sea kayaking trip among the glaciers. Though I had spent much of my life outdoors and on the water, I found myself fooled time and time again by the sheer scale of what I was seeing...I was comically inept at judging distance. From the stern of the kayak, I suggested to my friend, Jack, in the bow, "Why don't we stop for lunch at that next point? Looks like about a 45 minute paddle?" Three hours of paddling later, the point that seemed so close hadn't changed in size. The bigger-than-life landscape, combined with clear, dry air has played havoc with many a sailor to Alaska's shores.
Big, right? Sure, but now it's time to talk ginormous. Poke your head below Alaska's icy seas, and you're in for an even greater mind-bending exercise in scale. In 1983, President Ronald Regan extended the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) to 200 nautical miles, more than doubling the size of the United States. In fact, the ocean part of the U.S. is larger than the dry part.
Our expedition plans call for us to visit two of the largest underwater features in the Bering Sea where we will work to document deepwater corals: Pribilof Canyon and Zhemchug Canyon. The latter is a long trip, a 670 kilometer (km) journey to the northwest from our starting point at Dutch Harbor, Unalaska, which will put us only about 440 km from Russian waters and the International Date Line. Indeed, Zhemchug Canyon is far west. Head due south and you'll brush by Midway Island then pass far to the west of Honolulu which will lie 1,600 km to your east. Further south, with strong binoculars, you might make out the coast of Savai'i, the larger main island in the State of Samoa, which will be to your east around 45 km away. You'll cross the Tonga Trench, 35,702 feet at its deepest point, before coming within 135 km of New Zealand's Chatham Islands to the west.
Alaska's enormous seascape is full of mountains and canyons that continue underwater the great drama of those hugging its shores and nestled in its heartland. Our starting point, Dutch Harbor, is a point along the huge Aleutian Island arc, a chain of volcanoes, enormous seamounts rising up from thousands of feet below. Zhemchug Canyon is a massive underwater canyon, considered the largest canyon in the ocean, plunging to 2,600 meters (8,530 feet), making it much deeper than the Grand Canyon.
In our tiny submarines, we can only hope to glimpse a tiny fraction of these vibrant canyons, and I already imagine how the scale will be overwhelming to us. I hope the folks at Mirriam-Webster's get a chance to read this. I'm already thinking that "ginormous" might not cut it. With apologies to "Jaws" star Roy Scheider, "You're gonna need a bigger word."
Greetings from aboard the Greenpeace ship, M/V "Esperanza"!
We're anchored beneath a beautiful waterfall in one of British Columbia's magnificent "fjords" to prepare for this summer's intensive expedition to the Bering Sea.
Greenpeace's largest ship, the Esperanza, will be visiting the Bering Sea in Alaska for most of the summer.The expedition will be using manned submersibles and an ROV to survey Zhemchug and Pribilof Canyons, specifically to map and document deepwater corals living at depths of more than 1,000 feet. These corals, some hundreds of years old, are vital components of a healthy marine ecosystem. Unfortunately, these corals are at great risk, ending up in trawling nets as "bycatch." Many tons of corals have been destroyed by this indiscriminant fishing gear. It is our hope that the data collected on this expedition will help advance our scientific understanding of these deepwater coral communities and be helpful to policy makers as well, leading to more effective conservation measures. A Scientific Advisory Panel is advising the project, including representatives from Scripps, the Smithsonian, the St. George Island Ecosystem Office, MCBI, Oceana, Texas A&M, and Nova Southeastern. I've been asked to serve as a submersible pilot and scientific advisor.
We're using two DeepWorker submarines, 1-person mini-subs, untethered, that are capable of a depth of up to 2,000 feet. The sub is equipped with high-definition video, a manipulator arm for collecting samples, sonar for navigation and is always in contact with the surface using through water (acoustic) communications. DeepWorker uses CO2 scrubbers, similar to what's used in spacecraft, providing up to 80 hours of life support. A typical dive lasts 4-6 hours.
The expedition is scheduled to begin in Dutch Harbor, Alaska (in the Aleutian Island chain) in mid-July. We are spending this week aboard ship near Vancouver training additional pilots, planning the expedition, and preparing the ship and crew for work in the Bering Sea.
Thanks to a satellite uplink, I am able to access the Internet when there are no mountains blocking the ship's view of the satellite. The ship is very comfortable, excellent food, and my personal favorite amenity, an espresso machine.
Yesterday we practiced launch and recovery operations. Today we're working through emergency drills at shallow depth. Our ship is being guarded by a fleet of four Canada geese who dutifully orbit the vessel every 5 minutes. Lots of harbor seals are also checking us out. Spotted a double rainbow on Saturday -- this is considered very good luck, especially aboard a rainbow-adorned Greenpeace ship.
