Basket Stars on Paragorgia coral (left) and Basket Stars on a sea sponge (right). NOAA/MBARI
The Deep, the Dark and the Weird
Symposium highlights local marine research with worldwide impacts.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
It’s blindingly dark and close to freezing in the Davidson Seamount, a gaping chasm 4,000 to 11,500 feet below the surface of Monterey Bay. Thanks to the photo-snapping, deep-diving robots engineered by scientists at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, terrestrial creatures can grok the 8-foot pink corals, mushroom-like sponges and undulating octopi that thrive even there. (Visit www.mcweekly.com for photos.)
The Sanctuary Currents Symposium, now in its 25th year, will feature a presentation on the seamount by Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Research Coordinator Andrew DeVogelaere, along with talks on white sharks, Humboldt squid and giant kelp, the technology that helps us study them, and the ocean management policies that impact them. Local researchers will also interpret posters of their latest findings.
This year’s public symposium—sponsored by the Sanctuary, Monterey Bay Aquarium, CSU-Monterey Bay, National Marine Fisheries Service and Save the Earth Foundation—is themed “Ripple Effects,” and focuses on the international impacts of marine research performed by local institutions.
“The broader Monterey Bay area has the highest density of marine institutions in the world,” DeVogelaere says. “When we do research here, the science and technology are spread throughout the nation and internationally.”
“Ripple Effects” happens Saturday, April 9, 9am-3:15pm, at CSUMB’s University Center, 6th Avenue and B Street, Seaside. Free. www.montereybay.noaa.com, 647-4255.
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