NOAA releases draft proposal to expand Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary

June 14, 2013

Just below the surface of Lake Huron, a diver photographs the German freighter Nordmeer, which ran aground in 1966 and eventually sank in 40 feet of water. The relatively shallow depth of the wreck site provides divers more time to explore the twisted steel hull.

Download here (Credit: NOAA, Thunder Bay NMS.)

NOAA today released for public comment a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) and proposed rule for expanding the boundaries of Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Lake Huron from its current 448 square miles to 4,300 square miles.

The proposed expansion is based on several years of research by NOAA and its scientific partners as well as public input, and would include protection of an additional 47 known historic shipwrecks.

During the process to review the sanctuary’s management plan in 2006, NOAA received comments expressing interest in expanding the sanctuary’s boundary to include the waters adjacent to Alcona and Presque Isle counties in Michigan. Specifically, several local government and non-governmental organizations passed resolutions or submitted written letters of support for boundary expansion.

Additionally, in 2007, the Thunder Bay Sanctuary Advisory Council adopted a resolution supporting expanded boundaries. NOAA held three public scoping meetings on this topic in April 2012.

“The proposal to expand the sanctuary is the result of a collaborative effort that involved considerable input from all sectors of the local community,” said Jeff Gray, sanctuary superintendent. “We welcome further public review and comment as we go forward with the important job of managing this special place which is important to the regional economy and protects world-class historical and recreational shipwreck sites.”

With its heavy-duty windlass still on deck and anchor chains and rudder still in place, the E.B. Allen presents a vivid image of a typical nineteenth-century Great Lakes schooner. The Allen sank in 1871 after a collision with another vessel.

Download here (Credit:NOAA, Thunder Bay NMS)

The sanctuary’s Great Lakes Visitor Center has become a major tourist destination and economic stimulant in the region. According to a 2005 study on total visitor spending in the region, the sanctuary impacts $92 million in sales, $35.8 million in personal income to residents, and 1,704 jobs.

One of 14 sites managed by NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, Thunder Bay sanctuary currently protects 45 nationally significant shipwrecks. Research indicates that as many 100 shipwreck sites are yet to be discovered in northern Lake Huron. Through increased tourism and related business development, the sanctuary is working with various partners to encourage sustainable tourism in the region, and foster a broader awareness of the Great Lakes and their rich maritime heritage.

The DEIS and proposed rule are available for download at thunderbay.noaa.gov. All comments must be received by August 13. Written comments should be sent by mail to: Jeff Gray, Sanctuary Superintendent, Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, 500 West Fletcher Street, Alpena MI 49707.

Comments may also be submitted electronically via the Federal eRulemaking Portal http://www.regulations.gov. Under document type, select “Proposed Rule,” under Keyword or ID, type in NOAA-NOS-2012-0077. The documents are also available for review at the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary’s headquarters office in Alpena.

Public hearings will be held at the following locations:

July 15, Presque Isle District Library, Rogers City Location, 181 East Erie Street, Rogers City, Mich.July 16, Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center, 500 W. Fletcher Street, Alpena, Mich.July 17, Alcona County Library, Harrisville Branch, 312 W. Main, Harrisville, Mich.

Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, designated in 2000, spans 448 square miles in northern Lake Huron. Jointly managed by NOAA and the state of Michigan, the sanctuary’s mission is to preserve nationally-significant shipwrecks and other maritime heritage resources through resource protection, education and research. Well-preserved by Lake Huron’s cold, fresh water, these shipwrecks span 150 years of Great Lakes maritime history.

NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels.

View the original article here

Eleven marine debris removal projects to share $967,000 in NOAA grants

September 4, 2013

The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources will continue organizing cleanups to remove debris from beaches in Kaho'olawe.

High resolution (Credit: NOAA)

NOAA’s Marine Debris Program announced today that it provided $967,000 through NOAA’s Restoration Center to support locally driven, community-based marine debris prevention and removal projects. Eleven groups across the country received funding to remove derelict fishing nets, litter, lumber, tires and other harmful marine debris from shorelines and coastal waters.

“Marine debris plagues coastlines all over the country, and these communities have the expertise and motivation to address it,” said Nancy Wallace, Marine Debris Program director. “We are proud to support them as they work to mitigate impacts and address the damage marine debris has caused.”

The projects typically last for 24 months and create long-term ecological improvements for coastal habitat, waterways and wildlife, including migratory fish.

The projects were chosen from a pool of 46 applications submitted by non-governmental organizations, tribes, academia and local government agencies. The combined request from all applications totaled nearly $5 million, demonstrating the widespread need to address marine debris across the country. With this program, NOAA has funded 76 marine debris removal projects and removed more than 3,800 metric tons of marine debris from our oceans and Great Lakes since 2006.

This year’s projects include:

Alabama: The Dauphin Island Sea Lab will remove derelict vessels and address habitat impairment in the Dog River Watershed in Mobile. ($99,766) Alaska: The Alaska Marine Stewardship Foundation will conduct marine debris cleanups in five communities in the Bering Sea: Port Heiden, Nelson Lagoon, Nikolski, St. George and Savoonga. ($210,000) The Sitka Sound Science Center will perform cleanups of tsunami debris from Japan that impacted Alaskan coastlines. ($120,000) California: The Wiyot Tribe of the Humboldt Bay region will remove large marine debris from the within bay and on Indian Island, a National Historic Landmark known for its importance as the site of the Wiyot World Renewal ceremony. ($125,000)Florida: The Coastal Cleanup Corporation will remove plastics, glass, Styrofoam, rubber and discarded fishing gear from sea turtle nesting sites within Biscayne National Park. ($16,953) Hawaii: The Hawaii Wildlife Fund will continue its work to remove marine debris from the shoreline of Big Island of Hawaii, focusing on the Ka‘u coast. ($45,000) The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources will remove debris from Kaho‘olawe. ($100,530) New York: Hofstra University will remove debris from one of the last remaining natural salt marshes in Nassau County, in collaboration with Long Beach School District and Town of Hempstead. ($75,000) North Carolina: The North Carolina Coastal Federation will implement a pilot program working with commercial fishermen to remove derelict crab pots and repurpose them as artificial oyster reefs. ($35,576)Puerto Rico: The Corporation for The Conservation of The San Juan Bay Estuary will remove litter from Condado Lagoon, one of two natural lagoons in Puerto Rico. ($40,000) Washington: The Northwest Straits Foundation will continue its longstanding efforts to remove derelict fishing nets from Puget Sound and surrounding marine waters. ($99,995)

NOAA’s Restoration Center is now accepting applications for the next funding cycle and applications are due November 1. For more information, visit http://www.habitat.noaa.gov/funding/marinedebris.html.

NOAA’s Marine Debris Program leads national efforts to research, prevent and reduce the impacts of marine debris. Its staff, which is positioned across the country, supports marine debris projects in partnership with state and local agencies, tribes, non-governmental organizations, academia and industry. The program also spearheads national research efforts and works to change behavior in the public through outreach and education initiatives. For more information, visit www.marinedebris.noaa.gov.

NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels.

View the original article here

Research reveals bottom feeding techniques of tagged humpback whales in Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary

Contact: Vernon Smith, 301-713-7248
Anne Smrcina, 781-545-8026 x204 Research reveals bottom feeding techniques of tagged humpback whales in Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary

New NOAA-led research on tagged humpback whales in Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary reveals a variety of previously unknown feeding techniques along the seafloor. Rather than a single bottom feeding behavior, the whales show three distinct feeding approaches: simple side-rolls, side-roll inversions, and repetitive scooping.

A recently published paper, in the journal Marine Mammal Science, indicates that bottom side-roll techniques are common in Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary and the Great South Channel study area, a deep-water passage between Nantucket, Mass. and Georges Bank-further southeast.

The study further states that the observed feeding behavior also leads to vulnerability to entanglement in bottom set fishing gear, an issue which is a major mortality factor for the species. This finding reaffirms a NOAA Fisheries regulation that mandates the use of sinking line between fishing traps used in the lobster fishery as a way of reducing entanglements.

The new findings follow earlier NOAA-led studies detailing so-called "bubble net" feeding behaviors near and at the surface. Bubble net feeding is a behavior in which humpback whales corral and contain fish into a small area by trapping them in nets of air bubbles so they can more efficiently scoop them up in their large filter-feeding mouths.The behaviors are used by individual animals and as part of coordinated feeding behaviors involving two or more animals.

"Tagging technology is allowing us to observe whales underwater, much as land-based biologists study animal subjects in their specific environments," said David Wiley, sanctuary research coordinator and a co-author on the paper. "The data have allowed us to detect new feeding techniques as well as nuances in those behaviors. We have determined that bottom feeding is a much more commonly used technique than the more well known bubble net behaviors."

Bottom side-rolling feeding was previously hypothesized from observations of scars on the jaws of humpback whales and from earlier tagging projects. In the recent studies, researchers showed that this behavior happens for extensive periods of time at or near the seafloor, that it occurs in the presence of concentrations of sand lance (a preferred prey fish), and that the behavior is accompanied by the expansion of the animal's ventral (throat) pleats.

Information was collected through the use of DTAGs (synchronous motion and acoustic recording tags) and Crittercam™, National Geographic Society's underwater video and audio recording system.

Humpback whale with a scrape on its rostrum. Scientists say injuries such as this one are sometimes a result from bottom-feeding. (Credit: NOAA/Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary )"By visualizing the data with TrackPlot, we can actually see how the whale moves underwater and this enables us to discover different kinds of foraging behaviors," said lead author Colin Ware of the University of New Hampshire's Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping. TrackPlot is a custom software tool for DTAG data that produces a ribbon-like image in three dimensions. "With these 3-D visualizations, we can follow the path of the whale from surface to seafloor along with all of the pitch, roll and heading changes while underway. By adding Crittercam video, we now get a more complete understanding of these various bottom feeding techniques," Ware said.

A side-roll is defined as a roll of between 45 and 135 degrees from a normal orientation along the seafloor - the most common version uses a 90 degree roll with a downward head pitch of about 30 degrees, which matches favorably with earlier speculative sketches of bottom feeding. A side-roll inversion involves rolls that continue past the 135 degree orientation position. One humpback used a technique that employed a repetitive sequence of moves approximately every 20 feet during which the animal rolled from a 90 degree position to an inverted position, with some 10 to 17 of these "scoops" per dive.

The whale's body orientation during bottom side-roll feeding is depicted in this computer-generated image. (Credit: Colin Ware, University of New Hampshire Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping)Sand lance, also known as sand eels, tend to burrow into the sandy sediments at night or form nighttime horizontal schools close to the seafloor. In addition, Crittercam footage indicates that sand lance can form dense mats along the seabed during the day. The side roll feeding technique with extended pleats emphasizes width rather than height, resulting in more efficient feeding when encountering prey at or near the seafloor. Coordinated feeding may also help cluster prey or simply ensure that it does not escape. Crittercam footage also showed for the first time a head-to-head orientation for two animals that were side-rolling at the seafloor.

While this humpback bottom feeding behavior occurs at relatively slow speeds, it does involve the expansion of ventral pleats, which was once thought to require high speeds, as in lunging. The researchers theorize that humpback side rolls may be similar to the feeding technique of gray whales in the Pacific. The three types of bottom feeding techniques may be due to different prey distributions or may just reflect individual preferences between whales. In this 3D computer visualization, the roller coaster-like movement of a tagged humpback whale in Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary is captured over a nearly two-hour period. The whale traveled at depths ranging from 30 to 150 feet deep. The red and blue triangles along the ribbon show the whale's powerful fluke, or tail fin strokes that propel it through the water. The yellow sections along the ribbons indicate where bottom side-roll feeding occurs. (Credit: Colin Ware, University of New Hampshire Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping)

Funding and additional support came from NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, NOAA Office of Marine and Aviation Operations, NOAA-University of New Hampshire Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping, Office of Naval Research, National Oceanographic Partnership Program, Duke University Marine Laboratory, National Geographic Society, International Fund for Animal Welfare, Pacific Life Foundation and the Volgenau Foundation.

Designated in 1992, Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary encompasses 842 square miles of ocean, stretching between Cape Ann and Cape Cod offshore of Massachusetts. Renowned for its scenic beauty and remarkable productivity, the sanctuary supports a rich diversity of marine life including endangered great whales, seabirds, more than 60 species of fishes and hundreds of marine invertebrates.

NOAA's mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on
Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels.

View the original article here

Seeking public input on nomination process for potential new marine sanctuaries

June 28, 2013

A humpback whale feeds in Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary.

Download image here. (Credit: NOAA)

Pink coral at Rose Atoll in National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa.

Download image here. (Credit: NOAA)

Diver explores bow of E.B. Allen in Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

Download image here. (Credit: NOAA)

NOAA is seeking public input on a proposed process and associated criteria to evaluate potential new national marine sanctuaries in the nation’s marine and Great Lakes environments.

NOAA will finalize the proposed process and criteria upon receiving public comment. NOAA will then consider whether to begin accepting nominations for new sanctuaries.

The National Marine Sanctuaries Act in 1972 gave NOAA a mandate to identify, designate, and protect marine areas of special national significance. The public’s involvement in shaping the mechanisms used to nominate new sanctuaries will help NOAA in this mission.

“National marine sanctuaries support local economies by ensuring a healthy and productive ocean,” said Holly A. Bamford, Ph.D., assistant NOAA administrator for the National Ocean Service. “Our goal is to establish a process communities can use to recommend areas of the marine environment that could benefit from designation as a sanctuary, and we’re asking the public to tell us what they think that criteria should be.”

In 1995, the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries deactivated the previous process for nominating national marine sanctuaries. Since that time members of Congress, state officials, tribes, non-governmental organizations, and others have expressed interest in pursuing new national marine sanctuaries.

Reestablishing the nomination process will not affect the public’s current use of the marine environment. NOAA may implement regulations only when an area is designated as a national marine sanctuary – a process that is highly public and participatory and typically takes years to complete.

Comments can be submitted electronically via the Federal eRulemaking Portal http://www.regulations.gov. Under Keyword or ID, type in NOAA-NOS-2013-0091. Click the “Comment Now!” icon, complete the required fields and enter or attach your comments. To read the full Federal Register notice, visit: http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov

All comments must be received by August 27.

The Office of National Marine Sanctuaries serves as trustee for a system of 14 marine protected areas, encompassing more than 170,000 square miles of America’s ocean and Great Lakes waters. Through active research, management, and public engagement, national marine sanctuaries sustain healthy environments that are the foundation for thriving communities and stable economies.

NOAA's mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels.

View the original article here

Eleven marine debris removal projects to share $967,000 in NOAA grants

September 4, 2013

The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources will continue organizing cleanups to remove debris from beaches in Kaho'olawe.

High resolution (Credit: NOAA)

NOAA’s Marine Debris Program announced today that it provided $967,000 through NOAA’s Restoration Center to support locally driven, community-based marine debris prevention and removal projects. Eleven groups across the country received funding to remove derelict fishing nets, litter, lumber, tires and other harmful marine debris from shorelines and coastal waters.

“Marine debris plagues coastlines all over the country, and these communities have the expertise and motivation to address it,” said Nancy Wallace, Marine Debris Program director. “We are proud to support them as they work to mitigate impacts and address the damage marine debris has caused.”

The projects typically last for 24 months and create long-term ecological improvements for coastal habitat, waterways and wildlife, including migratory fish.

The projects were chosen from a pool of 46 applications submitted by non-governmental organizations, tribes, academia and local government agencies. The combined request from all applications totaled nearly $5 million, demonstrating the widespread need to address marine debris across the country. With this program, NOAA has funded 76 marine debris removal projects and removed more than 3,800 metric tons of marine debris from our oceans and Great Lakes since 2006.

This year’s projects include:

Alabama: The Dauphin Island Sea Lab will remove derelict vessels and address habitat impairment in the Dog River Watershed in Mobile. ($99,766) Alaska: The Alaska Marine Stewardship Foundation will conduct marine debris cleanups in five communities in the Bering Sea: Port Heiden, Nelson Lagoon, Nikolski, St. George and Savoonga. ($210,000) The Sitka Sound Science Center will perform cleanups of tsunami debris from Japan that impacted Alaskan coastlines. ($120,000) California: The Wiyot Tribe of the Humboldt Bay region will remove large marine debris from the within bay and on Indian Island, a National Historic Landmark known for its importance as the site of the Wiyot World Renewal ceremony. ($125,000)Florida: The Coastal Cleanup Corporation will remove plastics, glass, Styrofoam, rubber and discarded fishing gear from sea turtle nesting sites within Biscayne National Park. ($16,953) Hawaii: The Hawaii Wildlife Fund will continue its work to remove marine debris from the shoreline of Big Island of Hawaii, focusing on the Ka‘u coast. ($45,000) The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources will remove debris from Kaho‘olawe. ($100,530) New York: Hofstra University will remove debris from one of the last remaining natural salt marshes in Nassau County, in collaboration with Long Beach School District and Town of Hempstead. ($75,000) North Carolina: The North Carolina Coastal Federation will implement a pilot program working with commercial fishermen to remove derelict crab pots and repurpose them as artificial oyster reefs. ($35,576)Puerto Rico: The Corporation for The Conservation of The San Juan Bay Estuary will remove litter from Condado Lagoon, one of two natural lagoons in Puerto Rico. ($40,000) Washington: The Northwest Straits Foundation will continue its longstanding efforts to remove derelict fishing nets from Puget Sound and surrounding marine waters. ($99,995)

NOAA’s Restoration Center is now accepting applications for the next funding cycle and applications are due November 1. For more information, visit http://www.habitat.noaa.gov/funding/marinedebris.html.

NOAA’s Marine Debris Program leads national efforts to research, prevent and reduce the impacts of marine debris. Its staff, which is positioned across the country, supports marine debris projects in partnership with state and local agencies, tribes, non-governmental organizations, academia and industry. The program also spearheads national research efforts and works to change behavior in the public through outreach and education initiatives. For more information, visit www.marinedebris.noaa.gov.

NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels.

View the original article here