NOAA providing key research for Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary

Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary researchers are used to working with roughly 65 foot vessels, but this week NOAA brought it something much bigger.

“This year we were able to get 10 days of ship time on the 225 foot long NOAA ship Bell M Shimada so this gives us the opportunity to do sanctuary work that’s way off shore,” says research coordinator Andrew DeVogelaere.

The Bell M. Shimada costs about $30,000 to run each day, so researchers are making the most of their time.

This 10 day voyage is focusing on the Davidson Seamount. That’s an area about 80 miles southwest of Monterey and is rich with sea life.

“For this particular project we’re looking for prey availability for marine mammals and seabirds that’s primarily krill and fishes, so we’re looking to relay the amount of prey or food that’s out their with the number of mammals and seabirds we see on the surface,” says Chief Scientist Chad King.

To help look for the krill and other fish the Shimada is equipped with a rare device.

King says, “It’s using sonar it’s called an echo sounder EK60 and we primarily use this to look for layers of prey, they’ll actually produce a reflection of sound waves back to the boat.”

The team will also be looking for micro-plastics that have made it that far out to sea.

They will be done with their trip on Tuesday and dock back in San Francisco.

While the researchers come and go from the ship, the crew remains mostly the same.

Commanding Officer, Jesse Stark, says the most unique thing about working on this ship is the variety of projects they get to be a part of, “The last ship I was on, the Oscar Dyson was the sister ship to this, and we primarily did two projects. This ship, every project is different. Pretty much every time we pull into port were destining gear, scientific personal, getting to do a new project.”