I don’t feel my age, I certainly don’t act my age, and I’m delighted when people tell me I don’t look my age. But the 35,000 air miles I’ve logged since the beginning of the year have taken an unexpected toll that a younger me might have been able to simply shrug off. It’s in these circumstances that a Medical Doctor overrides an Ocean Doctor, and my orthopedic surgeon was clear with me that if I was going to be able to shed my wool suit for a wetsuit for our next Cuba expedition in June 2009, I would need to listen, obey, and lie still.

Though I wish I had a tall tale to tell, like single-handedly wrestling a giant squid, as a friend suggested, the rather serious injury to my left arm — that makes it painful to lift even a glass of water — is due to the deadly menace of the heavy carry-on bag and the countless overhead bins, taxis, curbs, rental cars, stairs, and elevators it has had to negotiate. My 50-year-old tendons are stubbornly refusing to reattach themselves to the bone without the intervention of my orthopedic surgeon. Thus, tomorrow at 10am I will submit to his knife and skill and begin a weeks-long recovery period.

Yes, this means the Ocean Doctor is grounded for at least a month. My sincere apologies to the many schools I had planned to visit this month which have had my visits postponed ’til late spring or fall. I’ll use the time to catch up on my correspondence, blog, and whatever else I can achieve with my right hand and a keyboard. I want to assure you that I remain committed to making all of the visits I’ve committed to and will make my appointed rounds as soon as I’m able. Meanwhile, your support for the Ocean Doctor’s 50 Years, 50 States, 50 Speeches Expedition has been incredibly heartwarming. It’s no wonder I don’t feel my age.

A Special ExpeditionCasts Presentation: Lessons from Ocean Explorers: Why Conservation Needs Exploration. Renowned ocean explorers and adventurers gathered at the Carnegie Institution for Science on March 7, 2009 to kick off the Blue Vision Summit, a project of the Blue Frontier Campaign. With stunning imagery and stories from the deep, this unique panel discusses the importance of ocean exploration, its future, and how exploration is vital to the advancement of the conservation of the oceans. (You can watch this video below or on your iPod or compatible MP3 player by subscribing free to ExpeditionCasts in iTunes.)

Introductions

David Helvarg (Executive Director, Blue Frontier Campaign)

Ralph Nader

Moderator: Dr. David E. Guggenheim (The “Ocean Doctor,” 1planet1ocean)

Panelists (in order of appearance):

Dr. Sylvia A. Earle (Deep Search Foundation; National Geographic Society)

Philippe Cousteau (EarthEcho International)

CAPT Philip G. Renaud (Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation)

Dr. Enric Sala (National Geographic Society)

Adam Ravetch (Arctic Bear Productions; “Arctic Tale”)

Roz Savage (Ocean Rower, Eco-Adventurer)

Wrapup

David Helvarg

Included in this Podcast are videos and visual materials produced by  Greenpeace, the National Geographic Society, Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, National Geographic Films/Arctic Bear Productions, and Roz Savage.

ExpeditionCasts are a project of 1planet1ocean. An Ocean Doctor production.

Subscribe (free) to ExpeditionCasts on iTunes

As I learn more and more about the diverse group of schools I’ll be visiting, I realize that I’ll be learning as much from them as they will from me. At first I had playfully called this an “expedition,” but in many ways, it really will be a voyage of discovery, in this case, to better understand what students around the country think and understand about our oceans. How many have never seen the oceans? How many are aware of the oceans’ problems? What are their career aspirations? The answers are bound to be different from Honolulu to Bellevue, Nebraska — or are they?

Years ago I taught marine biology at Seacamp/Newfound Harbor Marine Institute in the Florida Keys, and I suppose those roots are resurfacing now. I saw incredible transformations in the students we taught there. I remember teaching a Girl Scout program for five summers. On the first day of class I told the terrified girls that we’d be swimming with the (small) sharks in our holding pond on the last day of class a week later. And I remember well that last day of class when the girls were having so much fun swimming with the sharks that I couldn’t get them out!

I still believe in nature’s magic. Its beauty, wonders and mystery are potent and transformative, especially for a young student. I look forward to sharing my stories and adventures of the ocean with the thousands of students I visit during this project, to bring them a bit closer to that magic. And I eagerly anticipate the inspiration and enlightenment this incredibly diverse group of students — and their teachers — will bring to us.

Please accept my warmest wishes for an unscripted and very happy New Year!

Even in those first minutes face-to-face with a coral reef, the enormity of what I was witnessing was clear to me. I remember thinking, “There’s a whole living world going on down here, and we don’t know anything about it.” While I may have suspected in those moments that I would dedicate my career to something having to do with the oceans, I never would have dreamed that more than three decades later I would be literally immersed in some of the most important work of my life just 90 miles to the south of where I was seated beneath the waves.

Last week, as I departed Ft. Lauderdale and the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium, the world’s largest coral summit held every four years, the news was sobering. One-third of the world’s corals are well on their way to outright extinction, and the rest are threatened with, among other things, the indignant end of simply dissolving away, as increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from fossil fuel emissions enters the oceans, raising their acidity to the point where any ocean creature with a calcium carbonate shell — from corals to clams — succumbs to the acid waters. When my daughter was 15 and floated above that same reef I had experienced, it had become a pale shadow of the miracle of nature I had so delighted in. Nearly half the corals in the Florida Keys have died in my lifetime. Some are bleached bone white, others shackled in diseased bands of black. Many more lie smothered in broad blankets of algal slime which have robbed the reef of its rainbow of colors, leaving a lifeless green-gray skeleton where countless diversity once eeked from every imaginable crack and crevice. As I beheld this tragic image, little did I imagine that important clues to saving this reef and many more like it around the Caribbean and the world, might lie just 90 miles to the south.

I now sort through assorted dive gear, video equipment, and sunscreen preparing for my 37th visit to that magical place 90 miles to the south, to an island larger than all the other Caribbean islands combined, to an island whose coat of arms bears a key — “llave del golfo“, the key to the Gulf of Mexico — a subtropical nexus where the waters of the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean intertwine in a sublime undersea cocktail of diversity, color and mystery. Our fourth joint expedition of Proyecto Costa Noroccidental (Project of the Northwest Coast) — a project of the University of Havana’s Center for Marine Research (Centro de Investigaciones Marinas: CIM) and the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi — will continue our ongoing project to explore the most unknown corner of the Gulf of Mexico: Cuba’s northwest coastal waters.

A green sea turtle hatchling at Cuba's westernmost point, Guanahacabibes

It is often said that those 90 miles of open water south of the Florida Keys — the Straits of Florida — separate Cuba and the USA. Like a hand-drawn blue borderline, the Straits are often invoked as a symbol of the 50-year-old Cold War that has frozen our two countries so tantalizingly close, yet so tragically far apart. But to the sea turtles, sharks, lobster, whales and other sea life, those same 90 miles of blue unite our countries with racing blue currents, unseen underwater pathways, and a web of colorful life that defies the perceptions of so many of the Gulf of Mexico, who know it only as a hot, muddy cauldron that spawns hurricanes and oil platforms. Cuba, Mexico and the U.S. share the Gulf of Mexico and have a responsibility to work together to understand and protect it. Thankfully, despite debilitating restrictions, which are ever-changing in the cool winds of Cold War politics, we have worked for a solid eight years now with our Cuban colleagues, advancing our understanding of the Gulf of Mexico and providing research opportunities for Cuba’s next generation of marine scientists — nearly 20 have based their Masters and Ph.D. research on our joint projects.

Cuba's next generation of marine scientists participate in & learn from the project

Cuba’s northwest coast – the verdant Pinar del Rí­o province, home to Cuba’s legendary cigars — is the least-developed coastal region of Cuba. But as Cuba’s tourism trade continues to develop and as Cuba’s fledgling offshore oil development expands into the Gulf, we hope that the insights from our joint research help to guide the hand of such development so that some of Cuba’s most precious assets, its coral reefs, will be spared the all too common fate I’ve seen elsewhere in the Caribbean. And there is much at stake. As we dove during the second expedition, it was as if we had been transported decades backward in time, to the healthy, vibrant, towering reefs I remember from my mid-teens. The reefs I have seen in the Archepélago de Los Colorados, the barrier reef that runs along Cuba’s northwest coast, are the healthiest I have seen in my life. For that reason, and because of its unique history and geography, Cuba may hold important clues for coral reefs elsewhere in the Caribbean and perhaps around the world.

Good friend and colleague, Dr. Gaspar González-Sansón, titular professor at University of Havana, CIM, and co-principal investigator of Proyecto Costa Noroccidental, recently pointed to a number of possible reasons for the health of Cuba’s reefs when we spoke when I was recently in Havana:

• Cuba’s tourism industry did not begin until 1993, necessitated by the demise of the Soviet Union and its aid to the island. Though tourism has proceeded at a rapid pace, it is highly localized at specific resort areas on the coasts.
• The healthiest reefs also happen to be far from shore, such as Los Colorados to the north and Jardines de la Reina to the south, perhaps beyond the reach of harmful concentrations of coastal pollution.
• Cuba does have a commercial fishing fleet, but fishermen principally use hook and line, so unlike nets and trawls which result in catching just about everything, fishing in Cuba is highly selective. In contrast, more than 80 percent of what’s caught in U.S. Gulf of Mexico shrimp trawls is not shrimp — it’s small finfish and other creatures collectively known as “bycatch” that represent the unforgivable waste of this fishing practice. Cuba is now phasing out all bottom trawling on its continental shelf.
  

  Cuban commercial fishing vessel in the Gulf of Mexico

• In the early days of the revolution, President Fidel Castro declared, “Not one drop of water to the sea,” a call to action to dam rivers and streams in order to divert water for use in agriculture and population centers. Reducing fresh water input upset the delicate balance of fresh and salt water in Cuba’s estuaries, resulting in the disappearance of populations intolerant to the saltier waters, such as the white shrimp. In another way, however, this policy may have inadvertently served to help reefs by reducing the transport of fertilizers and pesticides to the reefs.
• Use of fertilizers and pesticides has dropped dramatically since the withdrawal of the Soviet Union. Given that nutrient pollution is a key factor in the growth of coral-smothering algae, this may also be an important factor.

Sunset on Cuba's Gulf of Mexico

In countless ways, the island of Cuba is unique. And when it comes to coral reefs, Cuba is again, unique. Here an island of thriving corals flourishes amid a world of corals dying and disappearing. In this mysterious corner of the Gulf of Mexico where time seems to have stopped, I find hope. Hope that the rich ecosystems of this beautiful island will endure. And I find hope that Cuba’s coral reefs might share some of their tantalizing secrets, secrets that can offer clues to protecting and restoring coral reefs elsewhere, including a special place I still remember in the Florida Keys, just 90 miles to the north.

The Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies (HRI) at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and the University of Havana’s Center for Marine Research (CIM) [Centro de Investigaciones Marinas] are leading a collaborative effort, Proyecto Costa Noroccidental [Project of the Northwest Coast], a comprehensive multi-year research and conservation program for Cuba’s Gulf of Mexico coast. Dr. David E. Guggenheim, president of 1planet1ocean, is a member of HRI’s Advisory Council and also serves as HRI’s Cuba Programs Manager and is co-principal investigator of the project with Dr. Gaspar González Sansón of CIM.

Proyecto Costa Noroccidental is assessing northwestern Cuba’s marine habitats, identifying and describing the principal human uses and threats, providing recommendations for the conservation of the region’s ecosystems, and establishing a framework for long-term cooperative research and monitoring. The project is designed to provide fundamental data on this understudied region of Cuba while also providing new insights regarding biological connectivity and conservation in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean. The project is expected to help secure science-based conservation policies in advance of the inevitable wave of development in the region.

Proyecto Costa Noroccidental is the first comprehensive study of Cuba’s Gulf of Mexico region

Cuba’s northwest coast has not been comprehensively studied, and the results of this project are providing an important advance to the natural sciences in Cuba and conservation of costal ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico. This research is gaining attention and participation from numerous Cuban institutions and is providing the basis for the research theses and dissertations for 16 students at the project’s lead Cuban institution, the University of Havana’s Centro de Investigaciones Marinas (CIM) [Center for Marine Research], the only Cuban institution where marine scientists are trained. Our understanding of the Gulf increasingly points toward a vast web of linkages throughout the ecosystem, linkages that span international borders. Collaborative scientific research is a permitted activity under the long-standing United States’ economic embargo of Cuba.

CIM researcher prepares samples for reference collection during second expedition

Up until now, Cuba’s northwest coast has not experienced the levels of coastal development seen elsewhere on the island, but as the country is now among the world’s fastest growing tourist destinations, there are growing pressures of tourism in the region, accompanied by accelerating impacts from fishing, agriculture, and now, offshore petroleum development.

The project is collecting data on corals and invertebrates, fish populations, and water quality. Ecotoxicological analysis is also being conducted to assess land-based pollution impacts. In 2007, a shark research component will be incorporated, including a planned October 2007 shark tagging expedition. Northwest Cuba has seen a ten-fold reduction in shark landings since the 1960s.

CIM researcher measures green sea turtle nesting at Guanahacabibes, Cuba

The project also includes a comprehensive sea turtle research and conservation component focused at Cuba’s westernmost point, Guanahacabibes. Through strong community involvement and education, it has dramatically reduced turtle poaching.

In 2007, in collaboration with several Mexican institutions, the project will include a genetic analysis of Cuban sea turtle populations in order to gain new insight into population dynamics. Also planned for 2007 is a broadening dialogue with Cuban policymakers to make use of the data obtained from this project.

At the December 2006 MARCuba conference in Havana (Cuba’s triennial marine research conference) a total of 22 presented papers and posters were based on the research outcomes of this project. Publication efforts will continue and intensify over the coming year.

Continued favorable weather and few mechanical problems means that the team aboard Esperanza has been able to complete 14 manned submersible dives at Pribilof Canyon. On Saturday (August 4), Esperanza arrived at Zhemchug Canyon to explore this, the largest undersea canyon in the world, much larger than the Grand Canyon. Within the first few minutes of the deepest ROV dive yet, more than 3,000 feet down, the team discovered corals, including pink “bubblegum” corals along with other soft corals.

Earlier, during the final dives at Pribilof Canyon, the team documented numerous corals, but also evidence of extensive trawling damage in the area. Read David Guggenheim’s account in his OceanDoctor blog.

The Esperanza is carrying two manned submersibles, a remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) and an international research team to the Bering Sea for a three week survey of Zhemchug and Pribilof Canyons,to map and document deepwater corals living at depths of more than 1,000 feet. The expedition was conceived of and is being led by Greenpeace.

Track the Bering Sea Expedition: Esperanza’s Current Location, Weather & Live Webcam

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.

Alaska Would Stretch from Jacksonville, Florida to San Francisco, California

It could take a lifetime to explore all of Alaska’s 571,951 square miles of landscape. By far the largest US state, its land area is more than twice that of its closest competitor, Texas. Add another 91,316 square miles of lakes, rivers, estuaries, etc., and Alaska’s total area represents 17.5 percent of the total area of the U.S. 50 states and the District of Columbia. How big is that? My Alaskan friends are fond of the map (left) that appeared in National Geographic in the early 90s showing how if superimposed at scale on the lower 48, it would stretch coast-to-coast, from Jacksonville, Florida to San Francisco, California. Alaska’s 6,640 miles of coastline represents 50.1 percent of the coastline of all U.S. states.

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.

The U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)

While Alaska’s total land area is about 17.5 percent of the 50 U.S. states, its 950,000 square nautical miles of ocean territory encompassing the EEZ represent a whopping 40.9 percent of the EEZ for the 50 states, greater than the U.S. waters of the East Coast, Gulf of Mexico and West Coast combined! When you add U.S. territories and protectorates, Alaska’s share is still an impressive 28.3 percent. Only Hawaii comes anywhere close at 20.7 percent.

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.”

The Sub Pilot Diet Stresses Pleasure

In the 100-degree heat here in Washington, DC, the daily weather reports from Dutch Harbor, Alaska showing highs of 50 degrees seem surreal, yet in just over two weeks, that’s where I’ll be as we kick off the Bering Sea Expedition aboard Greenpeace’s magnificent ship, M/V Esperanza. In recent years, virtually all of my time aboard ships on research expeditions has been in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean, so my wardrobe consisted of little more than a couple pairs of shorts and some thoughtfully-selected marine-themed T-shirts. But Alaska is different, and the Bering Sea is different still. The cool temperatures, wind, and damp chill of the fog combine to mean only one thing: Shopping.

Shopping in the name of science

Since returning from our preparations aboard Esperanza near Vancouver a couple of weeks ago, I’ve given the plastic quite a workout and have a whole new waterproof, thermal wardrobe that might even be convincing enough for “Deadliest Catch.” I’ve also had to purchase more than a terabyte of hard drive storage for the high-definition video we hope to capture during the 3-week expedition, along with a myriad of cables and assorted gadgets. Axiom: One can never have enough gadgets.

This past weekend, I decided that I needed to ramp up my sub pilot training. So journeyed to Wonderland with my daughter and rode the roller coaster — twice.

Motion Sickness Desensitivity Training

This, of course, is to prepare me for the rough seas and help desensitize me to motion sickness. It’s funny how many other marine biologists like myself I’ve met, who get seasick. How ironic. Fortunately after a day or two it’s gone, but it’s no fun, especially when there’s work to do. So I’ve got three different types of motion sickness medications and two roller coaster rides under my belt. After Wonderland, we ventured to Dairy Queen where I indulged in an enormous ice cream sundae, an essential part of a sub pilot’s pleasure-rich diet. I am in training after all.

Greenpeace Vessel M/V Esperanza

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.

Sub pilots for the Bering Sea Expedition (pictured with DeepWorker submarine) during preparations in British Columbia, Canada aboard M/V Esperanza (left to right): Clive, Kenneth, Danny, David, John, Michelle, Timo

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.