Friday, August 18, 2000

Key Largo, Florida - Life underwater for many coral reef organisms is getting tougher. Over harvesting, disease, and global warming are reducing population numbers and increasing stress on survivors. Scientists hope to quantify and document the condition of deep coral reefs in the Florida Keys during an intensive, underwater research mission this month that is best described as an "in-depth census."

During a 10-day underwater mission Aug. 14-23, they will live in Aquarius, the world's only undersea research laboratory. Aquarius is operated by the University of North Carolina at Wilmington (UNCW) for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA's National Undersea Research Program provides funding and administrative oversight to the Aquarius program. The underwater lab sits on the seafloor, 60 feet beneath the surface and 3.5 miles off shore near Key Largo, in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Led by Dr. Steven Miller, center director of NOAA's National Undersea Research Center, and Dr. Steve Gittings, chief scientist for NOAA's National Marine Sanctuary Program, the science team will conduct the most detailed reef census ever conducted in the Florida Keys. Dione Swanson, a Ph.D. candidate (U. of Miami) and Allison White, a research scientist at UNCW, round out the science team. Mark "Otter" Hulsbeck and Russ Lounsbury are the UNCW habitat technicians.

Coral reef communities are complex, productive, and diverse tropical ecosystems, but they are in decline in the Florida Keys - and at many other locations worldwide. Coral bleaching events are increasing in frequency and severity, and coral diseases are increasing in abundance and distribution. Water quality concerns are paramount where coral reefs are found in close proximity to large population centers. Over harvesting of fishes and selected invertebrates, like conch, lobster, and aquarium-trade species, are worldwide problems, even in the most remote locations. Importantly, the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary is taking the lead in the U.S. with a network of marine protected areas, called Sanctuary Preservation Areas, that stretch from south of Miami to Key West.

During the upcoming Aquarius mission, the scientist-aquanauts will evaluate community structure and coral condition at Conch Reef, a Research Only Area since 1997. The work complements ongoing Keys-wide "rapid assessment" studies that include 140 additional reef sites from south of Miami to the Dry Tortugas. However, none of these sites is nearly as deep as the reefs accessible from Aquarius. Deep coral reefs are important because they provide extensive habitat that supports important commercial and recreational fisheries, yet little is known about the condition of deep reefs compared to shallower waters.

There are two main objectives during this Aquarius mission. First, scientists will revisit permanent photographic monitoring stations that were established in 1994 and resampled in 1998 as part of Aquarius missions led by Dr. Gittings. Second, they will expand their "rapid assessment" monitoring program to multiple sites and depths at Conch Reef, focusing on deep reef habitats that are difficult to study using conventional scuba diving techniques. The rapid assessment program is "low tech" because pencils and slates are used to record data during dives, rather than by taking photographs or video. However, the approach is incredibly powerful because they use the world's most powerful computers and imaging systems - their brains and eyes. The sampling program is more detailed than any photograph or video can capture, and the statistical design of the program is innovative and robust.

During the mission, they will post summary statistics of their work from inside Aquarius (www.uncwil.edu/aquarius). This quick turn-around from collecting data to summarizing results is one of the advantages of the rapid assessment approach to coral reef monitoring. They will also conduct fish censuses to evaluate whether or not more and larger fish are found at the site after more than three years of protection. Combined, their efforts will produce the most detailed studies ever conducted of deep reefs in the Florida Keys.

For additional information please contact: Steven Miller, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Center for Marine Science, National Undersea Research Center, 515 Caribbean Drive, Key Largo, FL 33037 305-451-0233.