Sanctuary Study Lets Public Get Its Feet Wet

Skies were sullen, the sea was flat and only fishermen and pelicans were awake at 7 a.m. as the research ship Ballena chugged out of Channel Islands Harbor on Thursday to join the Sustainable Seas Expeditions off Ventura County’s coast.

The destination was an outcrop of rock on the island’s north shore, where 30 high school students, dozens of scuba divers, scientists, a TV star and a deep-water submarine joined the exploration of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary.

It is the first coordinated study of the 1,658-square-mile sanctuary, from its deep water canyons to the kelp rafts on the surface. The $5-million project, organized by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Geographic Society, will survey all 12 of the nation’s marine sanctuaries during the next five years.

But on this trip, the main purpose was to build a constituency for the sea--among the public, schoolchildren and the news media, brought to the island by the boatload.

One hour out, Anacapa’s crags--streaked white with bird droppings--materialized out of fog. Participants jumped across to the 175-foot McArthur, a ship whose penchant for pitching earned it the nickname “McBarfer.”

Below deck, researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey and UC Santa Barbara scanned the sanctuary bottom for fish habitat, looking for rockfish and testing water samples for plankton and pollutants.

On the ship’s fantail was the one-person submarine DeepWorker 2000, the star of this trip. It’s about as cozy as a coach airline seat encased in steel, resembling a buoy stuck atop an air compressor. A pilot climbed in, a crane dropped it in the water and it headed for a rendezvous with divers to begin counting fish at the island.

As it sank into slate-gray waters, Sally Yozell, deputy assistant secretary for the oceanic and atmospheric administration said, “This is going to open up a great world of the unknown. Only 5% of the sea has been explored. We don’t have a clue what’s going on deep under the ocean because we’ve never been able to get there.

“Once people learn about it, can wrap their hands around it, see it, get a feel for it, they’ll get into the ocean and want to preserve it,” she added. “We want to teach this next generation of citizens to be good stewards of the environment.”

On the island, near a lighthouse that moaned intermittently, high school students from Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties participated in the fish search via live video feed. NASA has rigged an underwater microphone and camera via cable to monitors onshore so kids can see what the divers see.

Back on the mainland, people watched over the Internet, which received images from the island by a satellite feed routed through Cleveland and Mountain View. Soon, sheephead and opaleye swam across the screen and students identified abalone and urchins on the rocks.

“It was awesome. It was interesting to see all the interactions and everything. It was all so natural,” said Sarah Feuerborn, 16, from Camarillo High School.

“It opened my horizons. I saw a lot,” said Aubrey Demarest-Duemes, 17, of Paso Robles High School.

Back aboard a boat, youths crowded around Michael Newman of Pacific Palisades, a certified lifeguard, diver and star of TV’s “Baywatch,” for photos. Submarines, boat trips, ocean dives and video links are fine, but star power drives the message home.

“I’m trying to bring attention to the environment. It tickles me that the little celebrity power I have can make such an impact,” Newman said.