Greenpeace seeks to protect underwater canyons

Bay Area conservationists are back from a dramatic deep sea expedition to research and protect huge underwater canyons in Alaska. The area is the heart of the state's $1 billion-a-year fishing industry and the canyons may be a vital link in the lifecycle of fish that you eat.

San Francisco-based Jackie Dragon with the conservation group Greenpeace is one of several staff members trained to pilot a submersible, deep into two mysterious underwater canyons off the coast of Alaska.

"They are the largest underwater canyons in the world, larger than the Grand Canyon," Dragon said.

Greenpeace shot video of the expedition with high definition cameras and lights that revealed canyon walls covered with life and patches of deep sea sponges and coral no human eyes have seen before.

The submersible has robotic arms to pick up samples and lasers are used to determine the size of each exotic creature. The team found surprises right from the start.

"On my first dive we encountered a huge skate nursery, an area as large as a football field, covered in piles of leathery skate egg casings," Dragon said.

The canyons are in the Bering Sea, along the continental shelf off the coast of Alaska. The area is so full of fish and nutrients that it's known as "The Greenbelt".

This is one of the most productive ecosystems in the world, generating more than half the seafood sold in the United States.

If you eat fish sticks, fish fillet sandwiches, even imitation crab in sushi, odds are you're eating fish from the Bering Sea.

Greenpeace and other conservation groups believe many of those fish depend on the canyons for essential food and shelter at some time during their lifecycle.

"This is really important because if we want to continue to have fish sustaining us for the future, we need to make sure that we protect the habitat," Dragon said.

Conservationists have been working for a decade to get government protection for the canyons. That could mean a ban on fishing in some areas.

However, the fishing industry has consistently said there's not enough scientific evidence.

So Greenpeace is trying to get more data. This is actually their second expedition into the canyons. They're working with a biologist from UC Santa Barbara's Marine Science Institute. He's still analyzing the video, but says the canyons do have ecological importance.

"We found much higher abundances of corals in the canyons than had been found in most other deep water habitats that have been looked at. And we also found that the fish in the canyons were using the corals as habitat," UC Santa Barbara biologist Robert Miller said.

So how could all this affect you and your fish sticks? Well, at least one major retailer believes saving the canyons could be good for the long term future of commercial fisheries.

Safeway is one of the nation's largest seafood buyers. Safeway would not talk to ABC7 News on camera, but sent a letter to the Fishery Management Council urging them to investigate options to protect the canyons because as Safeway said there's too much at stake to take risks.

Commercial fishermen are watching closely. The majority of Alaska's fishing industry backs a group called the Marine Conservation Alliance and they've got their own expert from Washington State University analyzing the Greenpeace data.

The group's executive director told ABC7 News that the fishing industry is dedicated to keeping the Bering Sea healthy.

"We have a process and a scientific standard that has really been used as a model for the rest of the world," Marine Conservation Alliance executive director Merrick Burden said.

In the next few months, researchers for both Greenpeace and the fishing industry will submit their findings to government scientists.

The next move will be up to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, which has ordered a review of the research and has the power to enact protections for the canyons.

If you'd like to see more of the underwater canyon video, Greenpeace has an interactive video online.

Written and produced by Jennifer Olney

(Copyright ©2012 KGO-TV/DT.

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Proposals aim to protect whales from ship collisions

  SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The shipping industry has tentatively agreed to some groundbreaking proposals to protect whales outside the Golden Gate.

The number of huge cargo ships hitting whales has been rising, which isn't good for the whales or the ships. But a cooperative effort is helping to turn things around.

The Bay Area coastline is perfect whale habitat. "We actually have one of the highest concentrations of blue whales and humpback whales in the world, right here in our backyard," said Maria Brown of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary.

The whales come to the Bay Area for food. The water is full of spectacular life. The area is considered so critical there are three marine sanctuaries with special environmental protection.

But San Francisco is also one of the busiest ports in the country, and the shipping lanes run right through the sanctuaries.

It's a deadly combination.

"In recent years we have had more incidents of whales getting struck by ships and have had dead whales unfortunately wash up on the beach," Brown said.

Now after more than a year of discussion, a working group has agreed on recommendations to keep boats and whales apart. The group includes the shipping industry, scientists and government and environmental organizations.

Greenpeace's Jackie Dragon is co-chair of the working group. "We've come up with recommendations that are safest for whales at the least cost to the industry," Dragon said.

Up until now, ship owners have been reluctant to slow down or change routes in order to avoid whales. An industry spokesperson said that's because there's been a lack of solid information about where the whales really are.

John Berge of the Pacific Marine Shipping Association said, "A lot of the efforts that have been done in the past were based on where whales might be historically at a certain point in time."

The new recommendations call for observers on the ships themselves. There have to be trained spotters on board or crew members have to train themselves to spot whales and report where those locations are, Berge said.

That information would be combined with other reports from airplanes, whale watching tours and local researchers, and then warnings would go out.

"When a significant number of whales are present in the shipping lanes, it would be considered whale sensitive and at that point, ships would have the option of routing to a different lane or of slowing down to 10 knots to proceed at a safer speed," Dragon said.

That could make a big difference because whales don't seem to understand the danger created by ships.

One member of the working group is John Calambokidis, a top whale researcher at Cascadia Research. "Even when we have documented blue whales very, very close to being struck by a ship, we have not seen them take an avoidance response," he said.

Part of the problem may be underwater noise from ships, which can be dramatic. "There are some indications that that is affecting whales and their ability to communicate," said Calambokidis.

The working group is also proposing that underwater noise in the sanctuaries be recorded and studied for possible future action. They've also suggested some changes in the location of the shipping lanes themselves. The Coast Guard has already sent some of those ideas to an international panel for review.

The recommendations will be considered Thursday at a meeting of sanctuary advisors. Final action is up to the sanctuary superintendents.The proposal is for the new plan to be voluntary, but if it doesn't work, mandatory rules may come later.

Written and produced by Jennifer Olney

(Copyright ©2012 KGO-TV/DT.

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