Barbary Coast Divers Newsletter

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Camping Stillwater Cove, Sonoma

We have sites 22 and 23 for Saturday night at Stillwater cove campground in
Sonoma. Potluck as usual Sat night. Camping cost will be shared by those
present :

Next dive is a one day picnic and halibut dive June27 in Pacific grove near
lovers point detail will soon be coming your way.

OCEAN EXPLORER WEBSITE
Ocean Explorer is an educational website that provides access to current
information about the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's
scientific and educational explorations and activities in the marine
environment. The site enables users to follow explorations in
near-real-time, learn about exploration technologies, observe remote marine
flora and fauna, and access other resources. Topic areas include
Explorations, where visitors can follow a series of featured ocean
expeditions (including those of several Pew Marine Conservation Fellows);
Projects; Gallery; Technology, History, Library (which has some rare and
very old publications), and Education. Visit the website at:
http://www.oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/explorations.html

OCEAN FERTILIZATION WITH IRON TO SEQUESTER CO2 MAY NOT WORK WELL
Dumping iron in the ocean is known to spur the growth of plankton that
remove carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas, from the atmosphere, but new
studies indicate iron fertilization may not be the quick fix to climate
problems that some had hoped. Prior work suggested that in some ocean
regions, marine phytoplankton grow faster with the addition of iron, thus
taking up more carbon dioxide, but no one could accurately quantify how much
of the carbon in these plants is removed to the deep ocean. Results from the
largest ocean fertilization experiment to date were reported in three
related articles in the April 16 issue of the journal Science (Coale et al.,
Bishop et al., and Buesseler et al.). More than 100 scientists were involved
with the international effort. Results suggest that "there is a direct link
between iron fertilization and enhanced carbon flux and hence atmospheric
carbon dioxide levels, but that the quantities that can be removed are no
greater than natural plankton blooms and are not large enough to serve as a
quick fix to our climate problems."

First Implant of a Life History Transmitter Into a California Sea Lion
Tuesday the Marine Mammal Center will be doing it's first implant of a life history transmitter into a California sea lion, in collaboration with Drs Markus Horning from Texas A & M University, and Don Calkins and Pam Tuomi from the Alaska SeaLife Center.

Markus has designed a sensor that is implanted into the peritoneal cavity of a sea lion, and stays there until the animal dies and decomposes. At this point the transmitter is activated and bleeps to the satellite, and gives information on the animals' location as well as a lot of other information it has stored (animals temperature for example). This proposal was reviewed a few years ago by our IACUC, and I have attached the protocol to remind everyone. The transmitter was designed for Steller sea lions to investigate the causes of their mortality in the outer Alaskan islands, and thus the cause of the 70% population decline. The transmitter will be used on California sea lions first as the surgery can be done in controlled conditions at TMMC and the animal observed to ensure recivery is complete, something that cannot be done in the field in Alaska. Also, it will give us information on the success of our rehabilitation of sea lions after domoic acid intoxication. Tomorrow we will implant Rory, a sea lion that has an atrophied hippocampus presumably as a result of having seizures following domoic acid exposure. This type of surgery has been performed on hundreds of sea otters and appears safe in these animals that are much smaller than California sea lions.

The "Great Annual Fish Count" (GAFC) is an event coordinated by the Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF) that mobilizes and trains volunteer divers and snorkelers in established methodologies to identify and document fish diversity and population trends in marine sanctuaries and coastal areas.

This annual event takes place in the month of July and introduces and inspires recreational divers and snorkelers to: participate in REEF's year-round volunteer monitoring programs; raise awareness among both the diving community and public-at-large regarding marine habitats and trends in fish populations; and provide researchers, marine resource managers and policy makers with this useful information that would otherwise be unavailable.

GAFC's mission is to: educate; raise awareness about fish populations and the marine environment; generate information regarding trends in fish populations; and encourage the participation and involvement of divers and snorkelers in ongoing fish monitoring.

The GAFC is coordinated by REEF with support from the National Marine Sanctuary Program (NMSP), represented locally by the Channel Islands NMS, Monterey Bay NMS, Flower Garden Banks NMS, Florida Keys NMS, Gray's Reef NMS, Stellwagen Bank NMS, Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale NMS and the Olympic Coast NMS. These sanctuary partners, with the support of many commercial, educational and environmental organizations will continue to build on the legacy and past success of the GAFC. The partnership will also enable the program to grow and to support year-round volunteer monitoring.

In 2001, the GAFC became a true international event raising awareness on the importance of volunteers collecting fish survey throughout the entire Caribbean, Gulf of Californa, and in British Columbia. To invite all of REEF's partners to participate in the GAFC, the name changed from the Great American Fish Count to the Great Annual Fish Count in 2002.

Last year's event in 2003 boasted over 80 GAFC-related events in numerous countries. Additionally, over 2,000 surveys were generated for REEF's Fish Survey Project database contributing valuable information to marine conservation. The 2004 event - the 13th year of GAFC - promises to be bigger and better than ever!

To learn more including about how you or your dive club can take part in this massive effort, visit: http://www.fishcount.org

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updated 5/15/04