About The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary

The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS), established in 1992, is one of twelve marine sanctuaries nationwide within the Sanctuaries and Reserve Division (SRD) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Encompassing over 5,300 square miles of water, MBNMS stretches along the Central California Coast from Marin County near San Francisco southward to Cambria in San Luis Obispo County. The Sanctuary protects many habitats, ranging from sandy beaches and kelp forests to one of the largest underwater canyons on the west coast. Nutrient-rich currents nourish the area, supporting a productive and diverse marine ecosystem where countless species, many of them threatened or endangered, make their homes.

The mission of the National Marine Sanctuaries Program is to manage marine areas of special national significance so as to protect their ecological and cultural integrity for the benefit of current and future generations.

For more information on the Sanctuary, contact the Sanctuary office:

Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, 299
Foam Street, Suite D,
Monterey, CA 93940,
(408) 647-4201.
http://montereybay.nos.noaa.gov

McArthur Cruise: Combining Research and Education

For the second year in a row, a proposal by the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary for designated time aboard NOAA's 175-foot research vessel McArthur was accepted. While research was again the focus of this year's cruise (from May 20th to June 10th), the endeavor was enriched by the participation of an educator, Betty Moellenberg, participating through NOAA's "Teacher at Sea" program.

Betty

The Teacher at Sea program seeks to expand connections between the research and education communities by the teacher's direct participation in onboard scientific research, followed by the teacher sharing the experience with students and colleagues and disseminating her knowledge throughout the education community. Each year teachers from around the country participate on similar research vessels in places such as Hawaii, Alaska, the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico.

To encourage the dissemination of information gained, teachers must submit a report to the Teacher at Sea program detailing the cruise events and suggesting ways to implement the research into the classroom. They are also required to prepare an article for publication or conduct a presentation at an educators' conference. The Program is available to motivated teachers at any level from K-16.

Applications came in from across the country for the position onboard the McArthur. Moellenberg, who teaches science and music in grades 5-7 at Idalia School in rural Colorado, was the lucky applicant selected. Moellenberg explained her eagerness to participate in the program: "I really want to see the subject I teach actually in practice. That's why we teach &emdash; to prepare kids for the real world, and I need to be in touch with the scientific world if I teach about it."

The idea to include an educational component to the research cruise came from the Sanctuary's Education Coordinator, Liz Love. "Integrating education with scientific research is one of the Sanctuary's educational goals," explains Love. The members of the Sanctuary's Research Advisory Panel (RAP) embraced the idea, and the Teacher at Sea program provided the perfect method of putting Love's idea into practice.

The RAP reviewed proposals from local scientists for this year's research projects and helped MBNMS staff to coordinate the various projects to maximize the research time onboard the McArthur. Research projects on this cruise included the following:

1. Sea floor mapping with side scan sonar. This is used to show what the bottom topography is, and what it consists of (sand, rock, mud, etc). This project continued work toward the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) goal of having a completed map of the Sanctuary floor by the year 2000.

2. Using sonar to assess fish habitats in the Big Creek Research Reserve near Big Sur. Similar to the first study, but specifically in the Reserve, this study is correlating the sonar data with fish abundance. With biologists and geologists working together, the goal is a more integrated, habitat-specific angle on fish biology.

3. Monitoring currents with an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) and a Conductivity, Temperature and Depth (CTD) meter. This project monitors coastal upwellings, local eddies and current patterns. Moreover, the data will be used to develop new methods for similar work, using sound traveling from the ATOC transmitter outside the Sanctuary.

4. Plankton samples from marine mammal critical habitats within the Sanctuary. This research is directly linked to a Sanctuaries and Reserves Division study on critical habitats for marine mammals. Researchers are trying to learn what attracts the marine mammals to these areas. The plankton tells them what (and how much) food sources are available in the water.

5. Opportunistic meteorological observations. By releasing balloons from the ship's deck that send back meteorological data, researchers study daily and seasonal wind patterns.

Several of these studies, such as the sea floor mapping and the meteorological work, were the continuation of research begun on last year's cruise. "In large part, the research on the McArthur cruise has enhanced existing studies," says Andrew DeVogelaere, MBNMS Research Coordinator. "For example, the USGS has trouble getting time on big enough ships to map offshore areas in rough weather, so being able to get time on the McArthur, which is a fairly big ship, worked well for them. Also, the plankton study was a continuation of the critical habitat research, but the McArthur provided an opportunity for more study sites and day/night sampling schedules."

All the projects are designed to further the research goals of the Sanctuary. The onboard participation of a teacher who will share what she has learned with her students and colleagues created a way for the McArthur cruise to further the Sanctuary's education goals, too.

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