@Sea - Fathoming the Gulf Stream

	FATHOMING THE GULF STREAM - Nature's Pharmacy and Eyes In The Sea Mission Specs: When: Aug 18, 2002 to Aug 31, 2002 Where: The Atlantic Gulf Stream - off the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida Who: HBOI Researchers: Dr. Tammy Frank, Dr. Shirley Pomponi, John Reed, Dr. Amy Wright, and Dr. Edith Widder What: A multi-disiplinary team studying Marine Biomedical Organisms, Visual Ecology, and Bioluminescence as part the NOAA funded Ocean Exploration initative, "Islands in the Stream - Exploring Underwater Oases". Summary In August, three HARBOR BRANCH research teams will be exploring for the first time ever a chain of deep-water coral reefs 150 miles off the southeast US coast. They will be searching for new chemical compounds that might ultimately be used as medicines and for clues that could help solve mysteries about life in the deep sea. The groups received funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) new Ocean Exploration program. This unique enterprise supports expeditions, exploration projects, and a number of related endeavors such as development of ocean technologies. The program was created in response to a report requested by then-President Clinton and released in October 2000 called "Discovering Earth's Final Frontier: A U.S. Strategy for Ocean Exploration." Dr. Shirley Pomponi, HARBOR BRANCH Vice-President and Director of Research, was part of the panel that produced it. Other members ranged from educators and marine archaeologists to leading scientists and notable oceanographers such as Dr. Robert Ballard and Dr. Sylvia Earle, both Explorers-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society. The report, the first of its kind by any country, outlined an ambitious program for exploring the world's oceans, the overwhelming majority of which have never been seen or studied. Ocean Exploration (OE) activities at NOAA first began in 2001 and included an expedition with HBOI's R/V Seward Johnson and Clelia submersible. This mission, to the Oculina Banks deep-water coral reefs off Florida, involved HARBOR BRANCH researchers John Reed, Senior Research Specialist in the Division of Biomedical Marine Research (BMR), and Dr. Sandra Brooke, a Principal Biologist in the Division of Marine Science. This year the OE program is supporting a wide range of expeditions in waters around the country and beyond to the Arctic Ocean. The R/V Seward Johnson and the Johnson-Sea-Link will be a part of several missions in the southeast including a South Atlantic Bight Expedition. The third segment of this cruise, from August 18-31, will bring together three HBOI research teams to explore deep-sea coral reefs at four separate sites on the Blake Plateau off North and South Carolina, Georgia and north Florida (collectively known as "the South Atlantic Bight"). Dr. Amy Wright, Director of BMR, John Reed, and Dr. Shirley Pomponi will be leading one team in the search for new species of such organisms as sponges and soft corals and the microorganisms that live on them, using the JSL. Besides documenting the diversity of the marine life found, the team will prepare chemical extracts and test them to determine if they are effective in fighting cancer, infectious diseases or other maladies. The chances of discovering new and important products on the expedition are high because the South Atlantic Bight has never been explored for new medicines. Working alongside the BMR group during the expedition, from the Marine Science Division, will be visual ecologist Dr. Tammy Frank and Dr. Edie Widder, an expert in marine bioluminescence. They will be hunting for glimpses and samples of deep-sea organisms living on the seafloor that, like fireflies, produce their own light called bioluminescence. Their main goal is to solve the mystery of why so many deep seafloor animals have huge eyes even though they live beyond the reach of sunlight and bioluminescent animals give off so little light that they would be difficult to detect. Two possible explanations they will explore are that these animals have especially sensitive eyes or that there is more bioluminescence than researchers had realized in the deep-sea. This work will depend on two critical instruments built by HBOI's engineering division. The first, called Eye-in-the-Sea, is a specialized camera system developed by Dr. Widder. This device detects even tiny flashes of bioluminescent light and takes a picture automatically to give the team an idea of what species are present and possibly even glimpses of previously unknown animals. The second is a series of light-tight traps. Lights from submersibles or elsewhere typically damage deep-sea organisms' eyes when scientists collect them, but these traps will prevent that. This means Dr. Frank should be able to study these animals' eyes undamaged for the first time to discover how sensitive they are and other information about how they work. Education and outreach is a high priority for the OE program, so the expedition will be featured at the OE program's website (oceanexplorer.noaa.gov), as well as HBOI's @Sea site (www.at-sea.org), and will host a teacher-at-sea, Arte Roman of Olympia High School in Orlando, Florida, and other educators. HBOI's Brian Cousin will also be on board to document the work on video and to coordinate, with the help of HBOI's Media Lab team, daily website dispatches.