Till 1978, no diver had explored the Cordell Bank. This extraordinary place is now a Nationwide Marine Sanctuary. There’s an attention-grabbing historical past behind how this a part of the ocean off the coast of California, northwest of San Francisco grew to become a sanctuary.
The bank was found by George Davidson whereas conducting surveys alongside California’s north coast in 1853. Sixteen years later, in 1869, a extra in depth survey was performed by Edward Cordell, after whom the bank was named. What follows is a number of the experiences shared by the primary divers to view the bank.
At 150 toes, air bubbles slide out of my regulator sounding like gravel being poured from a steel bucket. We’re 20 miles from the closest shore on a ridgetop of a big Pacific seamount named the Cordell Bank and the scene beneath is extremely shiny. Anemone, hydrocoral, sponges, and algae cowl every little thing in sight, in lots of locations rising on prime of one another.
Whereas accumulating a few of these organisms, we’re instantly flushed with a euphoric giddiness. We attempt to smile, however numb lips and the regulator make an effort that a lot sillier. Struggling to manage the narcosis, we preserve accumulating and exploring. All too quickly, nevertheless, my buddy waves a thumbs-up in entrance of my mask. Now, the place’s the ascent line? A flashing strobe catches my eye and I swim towards it. The road’s there, so we observe our bubbles – however to not the floor. At 10 toes, we each seize the regulators of full scuba tanks. The decompression wait appears everlasting as we are able to hardly wait to inform the others about our dive to the place nobody has been earlier than.
These experiences have been shared with the creator from Robert Schmeider, Ph.D., of Walnut Creek, California, who was obsessive about the exploration of Cordell Bank. In 1977, whereas learning a chart of northern California’s shoreline, this atomic physicist grew to become intrigued by Cordell Bank, which is 20 miles (32 km) due west of Level Reyes and to the northwest of San Francisco. The chart confirmed there was at the very least one shallow place with a depth of 20 fathoms or 120 toes (37 meters). It could possibly be dived utilizing common scuba tanks, so Schmeider assumed it had been. However when he requested just a few diving mates if they’d ever been there, he found none had. So he talked to individuals with the Coast Guard, the Navy, the California Academy of Sciences, the College of California at Berkeley, the Division Fish and Game, the Geological Survey, the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and others. After a few months, Bob realized to his amazement, nobody knew a lot in regards to the bank in any respect. The thought of exploring Cordell Bank quickly grew to become a critical aim.
However Bob anticipated many risks. Deep-diving can at all times be harmful, particularly with compressed air scuba diving as a consequence of the potential of nitrogen narcosis and decompression issues. Moreover, he knew the water was chilly, and a reasonably stiff present of 1 or two knots ran within the space. Two knots is almost unimaginable to do any work in. To make issues even worse he anticipated to come across numerous sharks, together with nice whites since Cordell Bank lies about halfway between Tomales Bay and the Farallon Islands, each locations the place nice whites are recognized to congregate.
The fisherman in Bodega Bay knew the Bank nicely as a superb fishing space, so Bob lined up a ship and skipper from there. After in depth discussions with a number of of his common diving companions, he introduced his plan to divers within the Sierra Membership’s Loma Prieta chapter from the San Francisco Bay space in October of 1977. He knew exploring the bank would require a big help group. At an organizational assembly held within the U.S. Geological Survey chambers in Menlo Park, the group elected a divemaster and all however one of many 40 individuals attending pitched in $40 a chunk to kick off Cordell Bank Expeditions.
After just a few apply dives at Monterey and on the Farallon Islands, Bob felt his group was able to go to Cordell Bank. Sadly, he bumped into quite a few difficulties. Most significantly, various divers had dropped out of the group, so Bob had hassle gathering sufficient divers for a visit. Lastly, on October 20, 1978, with simply 5 divers, Bob made it to Cordell Bank.
As Bob recollects, “What we saw on that day completely astonished us. We have been completely unprepared for the light stage. Not solely was it not darkish, it was extremely light. After I made the primary dive with a buddy, I advised the opposite drivers to not take their lights, as they merely wouldn’t want them. It was so light you might nearly learn. And we had been to a depth of near 150 toes.”
“There have been monumental aggregates of 12-inch (30 cm) fish swimming round above the head. To us, it appeared an unbelievable snowstorm of fish. After we lastly broke by way of the fish on our approach down, our total field of regard was simply crammed with this miraculous sight. We may see colours – reds and oranges and yellows – and the rocks have been coated, simply inundated, with organisms. Sponges, particularly Corynactics (Strawberry anemone), pink hydrocoral, hydroids, and lots of large-bladed algae. It seemed as if somebody had landscaped it. We have been simply overwhelmed.”
On the primary dive, they collected practically 50 species, together with at the very least one new genus of algae and one new species. By working intently with various skilled biologists on the College of California at Berkeley, the California Academy of Sciences, the Los Angeles County Museum, the Geological Survey, the Smithsonian, and different establishments, they sorted and recognized their new collections till the checklist included greater than 400 species.
After that first dive, made doable by the Sierra Membership divers and by grants from such organizations because the San Francisco Basis and the Nationwide Geographic Society, the Cordell Bank Expeditions advanced right into a member-supported, systematic, data-gathering group that purchased its personal analysis vessel, the Cordell Explorer, which was retired in 2014. They purchased a LORAN-C receiver and carried out depth surveys backwards and forwards throughout sure areas, measuring depths and recording positions. From that information, they have been in a position to generate their very own set of charts. These charts grew to become a significant assist in finishing up extra profitable dives, as they may extra reliably discover the pinnacles and ridges they wished to dive. In the summertime of 1985, Bob and a colleague have been in a position to receive state-of-the-art hydrographic survey information on the Bank on account of a venture performed by the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). That survey coated the 200-mile Unique Financial Zone (EEZ) off the coast that the U.S. claims management over. Cordell Bank might be the best-surveyed characteristic off the coast of North America.
Except for accumulating specimens and surveying, the expedition additionally used 35-millimeter photography, plus Tremendous 8-millimeter, 16-millimeter, and videotape cinematography. A few of their pictures have been helpful in figuring out species that did not present up of their collections and in displaying bodily options the divers might not have observed throughout their dives.
They’ve discovered this seamount is roughly elliptical and, on the 50-fathom depth, it’s 9-1/2 miles lengthy by 4-½ miles large (15.3 x 7.25 km). It lies proper on the sting of the continental shelf and is the northernmost such shallow place all the best way to Canada. The bank is a definite plateau with its flat prime rising to the 30- to 35-fathom depth. Atop this plateau, at the very least 4 cliffy ridge methods, two within the north and two within the south, and a number of other pinnacles attain to diveable depths. In reality, the shallowest level the expedition has discovered is about 19 fathoms (114 toes or 35 meters) and is a part of a ridge system within the northeast. Geologically, it’s thought of a chunk of the traditional Sierra Nevada that was sheared off by the Pacific Plate, thus explaining its granite composition.
Rising on this 19-fathom peak is a dense, whitish cap of barnacles and crimson algae. Beneath this, from 20 to 25 fathoms (36.6 to 45.7 meters), the sessile group grades to almost foot-thick piles of sponges, anemones, together with the frequent Strawberry Anemone Corynactis californica, California Hydrocoral Allopora californica, hydroids, and tunicates. House is the limiting issue. The organisms are very brightly coloured with reds, yellow, white, and pinks. At 30 fathoms (55 meters), the group thins to some giant, extensively spaced creatures, primarily sponges, urchins, and anemone. By 35 fathoms (64 meters), naked rock dominates the scene. Round 200 toes in numerous locations, good white sediments of just about 100% shell fragments accumulate.
The Cordell Bank group could be very wholesome displaying little proof of illness or loss of life as a result of the California Present brings clean, clear, chilly (50 to 55 levels F. or 10 to 13 levels C.) water, with a excessive nutrient content material, upwelling to the comparatively shallow bank. When the disruptive El Niño present happens off California’s coast, the water temperatures on the bank rise to over 60 levels F. or 15.6 levels C. The solar’s rays penetrate this water so deeply divers can take pictures utilizing out there light at 150 toes (46 meters). Visibility is typically nearly as good as 100 toes (30.5 meters). Due to the water’s readability and nutrient load, photosynthesizing organisms help an enormous and complicated meals chain as much as giant fish, birds, and mammals.
Cordell Bank has lengthy been referred to as an excellent fishing space. Teams of rockfish congregate across the pinnacles, generally so thickly, divers report whiteout circumstances. In addition to rockfish, sport fishermen commonly catch lingcod, yellowtail, salmon, albacore, and shark. Oddly sufficient, the divers have but to see nice white sharks, regardless of the truth that the good white’s favourite prey, seals and sea lions, are on the bank. They’ve, nevertheless, seen blue and mako sharks.
Like rockfish, seabirds usually congregate across the pinnacles, and it was simply such gatherings that enabled the expedition to initially home in on shallow factors to dive. On surveying and diving journeys since 1978, volunteer observers from the California Marine Mammal Heart and San Francisco State College have recorded many sightings of seabirds and mammals at or close to Cordell Bank. They’ve seen 33 species of seabirds together with black-footed albatross, northern fulmar, surf scoter, south polar skua, frequent murre, pigeon guillemot, tufted puffin, and brown pelican. The beforehand endangered brown pelican was notably noteworthy as a result of it was sighted on about two-thirds of the journeys.
The observers additionally recorded fourteen sorts of marine mammals. Of particular curiosity have been two endangered cetaceans, the humpback and blue whales. Each species feed on the bank. The group’s most enjoyable encounter with blues occurred on October 10, 1982, when a pair approached from off the port bow, surfaced 30 yards away, visibly swam underneath the ship, and surfaced once more a number of hundred yards astern. Marc Webber and Steven Cooper, reporting for the group, felt the variety of blue whale sightings “represents a considerable variety of information for this species over the continental shelf within the Cordell Bank space, and together with possible statement of feeding recommend this space is a vital autumn habitat for this species.” Additionally of specific curiosity have been sightings of northern elephant seals whose pelagic habits have solely not too long ago change into higher understood. Different noticed mammal species have been Minke whale, Dall’s porpoise, harbor porpoise, orca, Pacific white-sided dolphin, Risso’s dolphin, Northern proper whale dolphin, California sea lion, Steller sea lion, northern fur seal, and harbor seal. These have all been autumnal observations. The expedition has restricted their journeys to the autumn as a result of the climate is most predictable at the moment and since the California and Davidson currents kind of cancel one another out, which makes diving extra sensible.
The best mysteries Bob and his divers have encountered are various giant, cylindrical holes that lie proper on the sharpest, highest components of the area. Some holes look like man-made, however others look pure. Rumour has it the holes have been made by the U.S. Navy through the 1960’s in a venture associated to submarine detection. Bob’s expedition was as soon as adopted for practically an hour by an unidentified submarine. Regardless of his safety clearance, Bob has been completely unsuccessful in studying something from the Navy about any of this.
Cordell Bank is now a nationwide marine sanctuary. The Sanctuary Applications Division (SPD) of NOAA, which is in command of the sanctuaries program held its first informational listening to on the bank in San Francisco on April 25, 1984, and revealed a draft Environmental Influence Assertion and different paperwork.
Bob is optimistic about Cordell Bank’s future. He believes, “It is incumbent upon these of us who want to protect sure areas of the environment like museums, to arrange the laws to protect these areas. We do not give any thought in any way to commercially creating Yosemite as a result of it is change into a part of our nationwide setting, our cultural heritage. And our marine sanctuaries will change into the identical approach. I hope and imagine that fifty or 100 years from now, areas like Cordell Bank, which had lengthy since been designated marine sanctuaries, will likely be a part of our nationwide heritage and will likely be thought of inviolate 효성cms.”
Making a Marine Sanctuary
The federal marine sanctuaries program was established by Title III of the Marine Safety, Analysis, and Sanctuaries Act of 1972. This regulation offers that areas within the ocean as far out as the sting of the continental shelf and within the Nice Lakes could also be protected.
Throughout its first 5 years, this system crawled slowly alongside, as a result of no funds have been appropriated. By 1977, solely two marine sanctuaries had been designated. The primary was a six sq. mile website off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, to protect the wreck of the usS. Monitor, and the second was Key Largo Coral Reef Marine Sanctuary adjoining to John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park within the Florida Keys, which covers 100 sq. miles. In that 12 months, 1977, President Carter, in an environmental message to Congress, expressed help for this system and boosted funding. In distinction to the regulation’s authentic intent, Carter was attempting to protect areas threatened, on this case, by offshore oil development. Because it turned out, one in every of Carter’s final official acts was the designation of three new sanctuaries: Looe Key in Florida, Grey’s Reef in Georgia, and the Gulf of the Farallones off California. (Cordell Bank neighbors this sanctuary.) As soon as once more, this system was slowed by restricted funding underneath the Reagan Administration.
The slowness of the marine sanctuaries program was particularly disheartening as a result of all of the land is underneath state or federal management already and does not require acquisition funds. Cash was wanted just for evaluating potential websites, managing a website after it turns into a sanctuary, and implementing the protecting legal guidelines.
The marine sanctuaries program works within the following approach. Any group or member of the general public might ship nominations to the Sanctuary Applications Division (SPD) within the Commerce Division’s Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for consideration. The thought of nominating a spot needn’t be intimidating. As Bob Schmeider discovered, “the nomination itself does not must be very particular in any respect. In fact, if the (SPD) already is aware of a few website, which they’d already recognized about Cordell Bank from info I had given them nicely earlier than the nomination, (then) the precise nominating step was merely a letter from me to them saying I wish to nominate Cordell Bank. If a website is completely unknown and also you’re making ready a nomination, then it’s worthwhile to embody some particulars and a few info, in order that they’ll have some data of it. That is all.”
Previously, a nomination was routinely positioned on a Listing of Really helpful Areas, however this has been changed by a Website Analysis Listing (SEL) that features nominated websites assembly sure preliminary standards. After evaluation by the SPD workers, the SPD can promote the world to lively candidacy. At that time, they will produce draft paperwork, together with a management plan, environmental impression assertion (EIS), and a designation doc. These will likely be circulated amongst people, organizations, and governmental companies. They will additionally schedule public hearings within the communities nearest the candidate website to get extra enter. From that, they will produce closing paperwork and flow into these and maintain extra hearings. Congress has the chance to evaluation a website’s candidacy and maintain their very own hearings. Cordell Bank was the primary marine sanctuary candidate to obtain such scrutiny. If the location is inside state jurisdiction, then that state’s governor might veto the designation, however this would possibly not essentially cancel a website’s candidacy altogether. (Cordell Bank wasn’t in state waters.) In any case of those steps, the Secretary of Commerce can signal the designation doc and the location will change into a nationwide marine sanctuary.
Cordell Bank was established as a marine sanctuary in 1989 and expanded in 2015 to cowl 1286 sq. miles.
The official authorities website for Cordell Bank is at: http://www.cordellbank.noaa.gov, whereas the Cordell Bank Expeditions web website is at: http://www.cordell.org.