Project Adds Depth To Ocean Research Mini-Subs Take Scientists To 2,000 Feet

Secretary of Commerce William M. Daley, in announcing the launch of a five-year, $12 million underwater research project, said it will allow scientists to travel “to the depths of our marine sanctuaries.”

“What this means is divers can go to depths we can only dream about,” Daley added in describing the Sustainable Seas Expedition, a major ocean exploration by his department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Geographic Society.

The expedition will include exploration of areas off the San Francisco and Marin County coasts.

Daley’s visit here Thursday was part of an Earth Day tour of the San Francisco Bay area, where he met with business and port officials at the Port of Oakland to discuss dredging and stopped by Fisherman’s Wharf to talk about revitalizing jobs.

Scuba divers normally cannot go below 100 or 150 feet, but once inside a tiny submarine called “DeepWorker 2000 - which resembles a mini Volkswagen bug with crab arms - they will be able to plunge as deep as 2,000 feet with a high level of maneuverability. The expedition will use more than one sub to explore 12 sanctuaries administered by NOAA. Four of them are in California.

Mike Guardino, a chemistry and physics teacher at Carmel High School, is one of about 60 scientists and teachers being trained to pilot the new mini-subs. He and other teachers said they see the opportunity to travel deep below the surface of the sea as a learning experience for his students. “These kids have already learned how to cite and identify more than 160 species of marine organisms in the (Monterey) Bay,” he said.

A number of organizations are financing the project, including the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, a San Francisco philanthropic and environmental group that provided $5 million; National Geographic Society ($1 million) and $5 million from NASA, NOAA and other federal agencies, said Dale Petroskey, a senior vice president with National Geographic.

The driving force behind the project has been Sylvia Earle, a marine biologist from Oakland, Calif., who is now explorer-in-residence at National Geographic Society.

Earle, who said the mini-sub was tested last weekend in Monterey, Calif., will help lead a team to explore California’s four marine sanctuaries - the Gulf of the Farallones, Cordell Bank near Point Reyes, Monterey Bay and the Channel Islands. The team will then head up to the coast off Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. The project will shift to the East Coast and down to the Florida Keys by August.

The researchers planning to pilot DeepWorker, built by Nuytco Research Ltd. of North Vancouver, B.C., said they were excited about what they might find.

Maria Brown, executive director of the Farallones Marine Sanctuary Association, said, “If people don’t know what’s down there, they won’t understand it and they won’t protect it. With knowing, comes caring.”