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Monitoring program surveys marine ecosystems

April 29, 2010

The California Ocean Protection Council has awarded $4 million, some of it going to a CSU Monterey Bay professor, to monitor North Central Coast marine protected areas.

Funding was provided for 11 projects that will target marine life and habitats for up to three years, studying the organisms inside and outside the protected areas to establish a picture of marine ecosystems and human activities.

The region being studied ranges from Alder Creek in Mendocino County south to Pigeon Point in San Mateo County.

"I'm very excited about what the baseline project will deliver; it will be right on target with determining how these areas are performing," Cheri Recchia of the Ocean Protection Council told the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

The baseline program is a collaboration among California Sea Grant, the Ocean Protection Council, California Department of Fish and Game, Ocean Science Trust and Marine Protection Area Monitoring Enterprise.

Dr. James Lindholm, Rote Professor of Marine Science and Policy at CSUMB, is collaborating with a scientist from Marine Applied Research and Exploration of Oakland on one of the projects. They will use a remotely operated vehicle to survey soft and rocky deep-water habitats along the North Central Coast.

The ROV will sample subtidal habitats in the protected areas, ranging in depth from 20 to 119 meters. The ROV will "fly" just above the seafloor to collect photographs and video imagery of biological communities inside and outside eight of the new marine protected areas.

The project will employ undergraduate and graduate students in the university's Institute for Applied Marine Ecology.

"This is an exceptional opportunity for our students to participate in science that is directly informing the management of the marine environment here in California," Dr Lindholm said.

For more information, visit the California Sea Grant website at www.csgc.ucsd.edu.

Photo is an image taken by a remotely operated vehicle of a deep-water rockfish and a basket star. Credit: James Lindholm