See new Bering Sea footage while cruising on the Potomac River in Washington, DC

To celebrate the Marine Fish Conservation Network’s 15th anniversary, Dr. David Guggenheim will be the featured speaker aboard a cruise along the Potomac River in Washington, DC on May 7, 2008. As the first human being to pilot a submarine into the Bering Sea’s two largest canyons he will show rare footage from Greenpeace’s recent scientific expedition to these extraordinarily beautiful and mysterious ocean depths. The Marine Fish Conservation Network is a coalition of over 190 national and regional environmental organizations, commercial and recreational fishing groups, aquariums, and marine science groups dedicated to conserving marine fish and to promoting their long-term sustainability. Download Invitation (PDF)

Read More About the Bering Sea Expedition…

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The brilliant pink coral, Swiftia pacifica, found at 1,300 feet in Pribilof Canyon, Bering Sea, Alaska (Photo by David E. Guggenheim)

BERING SEA, Alaska — This past summer, the Greenpeace ship M/V Esperanza carried 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 was led by Greenpeace. 1planet1ocean president David E. Guggenheim participated as a sub pilot and scientific consultant. Pribilof and Zhemchug Canyons revealed diverse and complex ecosystems, rich with corals, sponges, fish and other marine life. They also revealed striking human impacts from trawlers, damage that was documented during the expedition. More than a terabyte of video data and numerous biological specimens are now being analyzed and results are being shared with a range of decisionmakers and decisionmaking bodies, including the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council.

Before rough seas rolled in on Tuesday, the team aboard Esperanza was able to complete six manned submersible dives and three ROV dives at Zhemchug Canyon, considered the largest canyon in the ocean. The subs worked close to their maximum depth of 2,000 feet while the ROV worked at its deepest depth ever, around 3,000 feet. Numerous coral species were present and documented throughout the dives.

Zhemchug Canyon has also revealed an intricate ecosystem whose inhabitants depend upon small holes or rises in the otherwise flat, silty bottom, including “flatfish holes,” depressions made by halibut, flounder, sole and skates, and drop-stones, rocks and boulders that fall from melting icebergs above. Read more about this unique place on David Guggenheim’s OceanDoctor blog.

The Esperanza has also been searching for three reported pinnacles — summits of underwater mountains or seamounts — that reach as close to 20 feet from the surface. Reports of these pinnacles are decades old and position information is imprecise, so the search continues.

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

Thanks to great weather, state-of-the-art equipment and a top-notch crew, it has been a productive weekend for the team aboard Esperanza which arrived on site at Pribilof Canyon Saturday morning (July 28) when David Guggenheim and Michelle Ridgway made the first tandem dive in two DeepWorker submarines into Pribilof canyon to a depth of just over 1,000 feet and began to document a fascinating diversity of life, including a variety of corals, anenomes, sponges and fish. On Sunday, the ship visited a second site in Pribilof Canyon where John Hocevar and Timo Marshall completed a successful tandem dive, documenting more corals and successfully collecting a number of specimens with DeepWorker’s manipulator arm for analysis by scientists around the world.

John Hocevar (Greenpeace Senior Oceans Specialist) pilots DeepWorker at 1,100 feet in Pribilof Canyon (Video still by Timo Marshall – 29 July 2007)

Already, the Greenpeace-led team has accumulated nearly 16 hours of bottom time (8 hours per sub), more than all of the previous research done in this region combined. The subs’ high-definition video cameras have already collected over 120 Gb of data. The subs are performing linear transects which will then be analyzed on the video. Twin lasers spaced 20 cm apart allow accurate analysis of the size of organisms encountered.

The tumbling anenome, Liponema brevicornis, photographed here by David E. Guggenheim on Saturday, July 27 at a depth of 620 feet in Pribilof Canyon (The two red dots are from onboard lasers used to assist in estimating size. The lasers are 20 centimeters apart.)

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

The Expedition to the Bering Sea officially got under way as the M/V Esperanza departed Dutch Harbor, Alaska on Friday, July 27 at 4pm Alaska Daylight Time. The Esperanza will steam through the night — for roughly 15 hours — to its first destination, Pribolof Canyon near the Pribolof Islands in the Bering Sea. The first DeepWorker dives are scheduled for Saturday morning.

In June, an international team of researchers and conservation specialists recently completed a week of intensive training and preparations for this Greenpeace-led expedition to Alaska’s Bering sea. The Esperanza is carrying two manned submersibles, a remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) and the research team to the Bering Sea for a three week survey of Zhemchug and Pribilof Canyons, specifically to map and document deepwater corals living at depths of more than 1,000 feet.

Captain Peter Wilcox gently maneuvers M/V Esperanza away from her berth in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, kicking off the Bering Sea Expedition. (Photo by David E. Guggenheim)

These corals, some nearly two thousand years old, are vital components of the Bering Sea’s rich and unique ecosystem. Unfortunately, these corals are at great risk, ending up in fish trawling nets as “bycatch” or “incidental take,” the unintentional harvest of one species while fishing for another. Many tons of corals have been destroyed by indiscriminant trawling gear which scrapes the bottom and sides of seamounts — underwater mountains — for fish.

It is hoped that the data collected during 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. 1planet1ocean president David E. Guggenheim will be serving as a sub pilot and scientific advisor.

The expedition will be using two DeepWorker submarines, one-person mini-subs, untethered, that are capable of a depth of up to 2,000 feet. Each sub is equipped with a high-definition video camera, a manipulator arm for collecting samples, sonar for navigation and is always in contact with the surface using through-water (acoustic) communications.

DeepWorker’s cabin recirculates the air, using carbon dioxide scrubbers similar to what’s used in spacecraft, providing up to 80 hours of life support. A typical dive lasts 4-6 hours.

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.