March 31, 2006 — The newly released 2005 State of the Sanctuaries Report highlights recent efforts by NOAA, partner organizations and local communities to protect, study and educate the public about the National Marine Sanctuary System. Topics covered in the report (i.e., community involvement and partnerships, maritime heritage, education and outreach, resource protection and science and exploration) reflect key themes that have contributed to the success of the program over the last 34 years.

“For years, the National Marine Sanctuary Program has protected marine resources, managed marine education programs, encouraged the use of innovative technologies within sanctuary waters, supported research and exploration and fostered long-standing partnerships that support our work in so many ways,” said Daniel Basta, director of the NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Program. “This past year was no different. The 2005 State of the Sanctuaries Report, highlights many of the significant accomplishments that help connect the nation to its valuable marine resources and cultural heritage.”

Below are examples of some of the accomplishments from the report. There are also additional accomplishments for each theme and for individual sanctuaries available online.

Community Involvement and Partnerships
Local community volunteers and NOAA partners continued to play a critical role in the success of the NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Program in 2005:

• Volunteers Lead the Way in Ocean Stewardship: In the Florida Keys, volunteer divers played a key role in the newly launched Bleach Watch, an innovative effort to provide early warning and quick response to mass coral bleaching events. Partnering with the Mote Marine Laboratory, sanctuary staff integrated scientific and public input, while specially trained divers gauged reef susceptibility to bleaching and recorded their findings in an online database.
  
• Fishermen Provide Expert Knowledge on Sanctuary Issues: Sanctuary staff work closely with fishermen at several sites to support science needs and education programs. Sanctuary staff in California, for example, are working with the Pacific Fishery Management Council to both prohibit 1) the harvesting of krill (an important food source for many marine mammals, seabirds and fish species) in local waters and 2) fishing in waters below 3,000 feet over Davidson Seamount (an area being considered for inclusion in the Monterey Bay Sanctuary).
  
• Sanctuary Foundation Key Partner in Increasing Public Awareness: The National Marine Sanctuary Foundation is the non-profit partner that helps to connect the public and decision-makers to the importance of sanctuaries through its marine conservation/education, legislative, public awareness and outreach initiatives. Once again the foundation sponsored its annual Capitol Hill Oceans Week, in Washington, D.C., in June (2005) to inform the nation’s leaders about significant ocean and coastal issues. The foundation also supported major public education events as part of the anniversary celebrations at Channel Islands, Thunder Bay, Monitor and Florida Keys sanctuaries.

Maritime Heritage
Since the start of the NOAA Maritime Heritage Program in 2002, sanctuary and NOAA staff have been working with numerous partners to locate, document and preserve historically significant shipwrecks and artifacts from the nation's past. Highlights from 2005 include: continuing efforts by The Mariner's Museum to preserve artifacts from the USS Monitor; the opening of the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center in Michigan; and additional detective work in the hunt for the Navy's first submarine, the Civil War era USS Alligator. Other related efforts in 2005 include:

• Exploring Thunder Bay's Shipwrecks: In August of 2005, Thunder Bay Sanctuary staff mounted an expedition to document deepwater shipwrecks within the sanctuary. The expedition focused primarily on two sites: an unidentified two-masted schooner located by Robert Ballard's Institute for Exploration in 2001 and the wooden passenger steamer Pewabic, which sank in 1865. Field projects like this enable sanctuary staff to better manage shipwrecks that are becoming increasingly popular sites for technical divers. The dramatic visual products from the project are also being used for exhibits in NOAA's new Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center. Funding for the project was provided by the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration.
  
• Expedition to the USS Macon: Dirigibles, or rigid airships, were an important development in the history of aviation, but unfortunately, only a few relics remain today. The remains of one of them — the USS Macon, the last Navy built airship — can be found underwater in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The Macon crashed when it encountered severe weather off the California coast in 1935 and was later discovered in the sanctuary in1990. In 2005, sanctuary staff completed Phase I of a scientific expedition to the Macon. A side-scan sonar survey of the wreck site identified its remains and a new uncharted debris field. In Phase II, scheduled for September 2006, archaeologists will conduct a systematic visual survey of these sites and record high definition video and still images of the wreck's features. Information from these expeditions will be used as a management tool to document changes since its discovery and for educational projects.
  
• Oldest Shipwrecks in Hawai'i Found at Pearl and Hermes Atoll: Evidence suggests that two wrecks discovered in 2005 off the coast of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are the lost British whaling ships Pearl and Hermes (for which the atoll has been named). Both were sailing together near Honolulu in 1822 when they sank in treacherous and uncharted island waters. If confirmed, they would be the oldest shipwrecks ever discovered in the Hawaiian Islands.

Education and Outreach
National marine sanctuaries are living classrooms where people can see, touch and learn about the nation's marine life and maritime history. Whether offering professional development for educators, hands-on field studies or hosting film festivals, the NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Program strives to bring oceans into the nation's homes and classrooms while instilling a sense of proper ocean etiquette. Below are a few education and outreach examples from 2005:

• Bringing Oceans into Classrooms: Approximately 3,500 students in five of the nation’s national marine sanctuaries along the west coast are involved with the collection of rocky intertidal and sandy beach environmental observation data as part of the Long-term Monitoring Program and Experiential Training for Students network. Students participating in LiMPETS learn to appreciate the marine environment, as well as understand the importance of science and environmental monitoring efforts. The information gathered by the students was put into an online database and will be used to track the health of these habitats.
  
  The NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Program has also been reaching out to Spanish speaking residents and visitors in California through MERITO, a multicultural program offered by Monterey Bay sanctuary staff to involve the entire community in ocean conservation. Recently, the program expanded to the Channel Islands region.
  
  In 2005, the NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Program released an online field guide that provides photos, streaming video and important biological information for more than 100 marine species from each sanctuary. The “Encyclopedia of the Sanctuaries” is part of a continuing NOAA effort to enhance public awareness, understanding and appreciation of the marine environment.
  
• Connecting With the Public Through Film: Several sanctuaries (i.e., Grey’s Reef and the Gulf of Farallones sanctuaries) are now working with local communities to host ocean film festivals, that allow sanctuaries to reach communities that do not have first hand access these sites.
  
  More than three million Americans will learn about sanctuaries for the first time in 2006 when Jean-Michel Cousteau debuts his new six-part high definition television “Ocean Adventures” series on PBS. Throughout 2005, Jean-Michel and his team have been visiting and filming in sanctuaries for a two-hour “America's Underwater Treasures” film.

Resource Protection
Protecting marine species and their habitats is fundamental to the NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Program. Throughout the sanctuaries, NOAA and its partners host mock oil spill and other related drills that test the nation’s capabilities and readiness to respond to natural or human-caused disasters and accidents in a sanctuary. The sanctuary program also works to protect and restore sensitive habitats such as coral reefs, seagrass meadows and rocky reefs that provide homes and food for sanctuary animals. To follow are some highlights of NOAA’s recent resource protection efforts:

• No-Take Reserve Contains More and Bigger Lobster: In the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, different types of marine zones have been established to both protect marine life and provide areas for recreation. To determine how effective the zones are at protecting marine life, a monitoring program was established as part of a comprehensive effort to gauge the effects of the sanctuary’s network of 24 no-take areas. As part of this effort, Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute scientists have been documenting the success of the Western Sambo Ecological Reserve in protecting spiny lobster since the reserve was established in 1997. Fortunately, scientists have observed a steady increase in the numbers of large males and adult females inside the reserve.
  
• Rare Seabird Showing Signs of Recovery: Xantus's murrelets are one of the rarest in the world. Anacapa Island is one of only 12 islands where these birds are known to breed, but the survival of this important colony had been threatened by predatory non-native black rats. The rats were eradicated in 2002 as part of the Anacapa Island Restoration Program in hopes that this bird colony would rebound. In 2005, biologists completed the sixth year of Xantus's murrelet nest monitoring on Anacapa. Overall, the number of murrelet nests found increased 81 percent in 2003-2005 and no murrelet nests have been destroyed by rats since 2002.
  
• Proposed Shifting of Shipping Lanes to Protect Whales: The Boston shipping lanes cross the southern half of the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary in an area where endangered humpback, finback and right whales are often observed. NOAA has recommended a 10-degree northward rotation of the shipping lanes, which would dramatically reduce the threat of ship strikes to whales in the sanctuary by an estimated 68 percent. The northward adjustment would place the lanes over a more gravelly sea floor, as opposed to the sandy areas where the whales like to feed.

Science and Exploration
Science and exploration are fundamental to the sanctuary program's mission to protect and manage many of the world's most complex ecosystems. Throughout 2005, sanctuary staff and its partners mounted numerous scientific expeditions to previously unexplored regions of the sea. The information gained from these scientific endeavors was subsequently shared with sanctuary communities and others in an effort to strengthen marine resources protection nationwide. To follow are a few recent examples of the types of science conducted in sanctuaries.

• Mapping for Science: Much like biologists create color-coded maps of the Earth's different habitats, sanctuary staff have undertaken a similar effort underwater. These “habitat characterization” maps give sanctuary managers information about seafloor characteristics, the different types of animals that live there and potential impacts from natural or human influences. In the Flower Garden Banks Sanctuary, for example, mapping expeditions revealed that some reefs may be connected to other banks in the northern Gulf of Mexico through low reef ridges previously unknown. These "habitat highways" likely provide protection and foraging grounds for animals traveling between the various banks.
  
• Monitoring System Installed to Detect Biotoxins: Olympic Coast Sanctuary staff deployed a network of ocean monitoring buoys at five sites in the sanctuary. When these conditions are right, the buoy systems can detect harmful algal blooms as they move toward shore. Once these algal blooms reach the coast, the biotoxins within the algae contaminate shellfish consumed by people and marine wildlife. Data from this sanctuary will be combined with information from four other west coast sanctuaries to better forecast toxic blooms and protect human health.
  
• Advanced Technology Helps Humpback Whale Studies: By applying a new technique that uses a special recording device/tag attached to a whale using suction cups, researchers are now able to study whale behavior when the animals are submerged underwater. For example, researchers from the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary attached these recording devices, known as D-Tags, on the backs of several humpback whales. After retrieving the tags, the researchers were able to analyze the whale movement, sound and depth data with an innovative software program developed at the University of New Hampshire. The analysis produced a pseudo-track of the whales' movements and revealed that feeding humpbacks, dive to the bottom, turn onto their sides and forage along the seafloor. These actions may increase their susceptibility to entanglement in gillnets and lobster gear. In the future, scientists hope to use this technology to learn more about how whale behavior changes in the presence of vessels; the types of seafloor habitats whales foraging over; and whale communication.

Relevant Web Sites
NOAA Ocean Service

NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Program

2005 State of the Sanctuaries Report

THE NOAA NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY PROGRAM (NOAA Magazine article)

Media Contact:
Ben Sherman, NOAA Ocean Service, (301) 713-3066 ext. 178