BOEMRE, NOAA and USGS Launch Maritime Science Expedition
Off Mid-Atlantic Coast Aboard the Research Ship Nancy Foster
WASHINGTON — The Bureau of Ocean Energy, Regulation and
Enforcement (BOEMRE), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) today
announced that a multi-agency team of ocean scientists has launched
an expedition using sonar to map deepwater canyons, and to identify
sensitive biological habitats, coral communities and archeological
sites such as shipwrecks and other historically significant sites.
This cooperative effort to gather information for science-based
decision making is consistent with the National Policy for the
Stewardship of the Oceans, Our Coasts and Great Lakes, adopted by
President Obama in July 2010.
Through
a process called echo-sounding, technicians are using sonar aboard
the ship to generate 3-D bathymetric seafloor maps. These maps will
allow scientists to identify features on the seafloor to be
investigated over the next two years during follow-on expeditions.
Bathymetry refers to measuring the ocean's depths.
The team
sailed on June 4 from Charleston, S.C., aboard NOAA Ship Nancy
Foster to an area about 100 miles off the coast of Virginia and
Maryland where the canyons are located. The expedition ends on June
17, and is the first of several in a joint-agency partnership over
the next three years. Total funding for the three-year study is
approximately $9 million, shared equally among the three agencies.
The
expedition is conducted through an interagency agreement as part of
the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP). NOPP
involves BOEMRE, NOAA and USGS and maximizes the use of federal
resources, such as human capital, ships and equipment at reduced
costs, while meeting national priorities and advancing specific
scientific missions of the agencies in partnership.
BOEMRE’s Environmental Studies
Program provides the information needed to predict, assess and
manage impacts from Outer Continental Shelf offshore oil and gas,
marine minerals, and renewable energy exploration, development and
production activities on human, marine and coastal environments.
Commemorating 10 years of ocean
exploration, NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research uses
state-of-the-art technologies to explore the Earth's largely unknown
ocean in all its dimensions for the purpose of discovery and the
advancement of knowledge. NOAA’s mission is to understand and
predict changes in the Earth’s environment, from the depths of the
ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our
coastal and marine resources.
USGS involvement will lead to
discovery of timely, relevant, and impartial information about the
landscape, our natural resources, and the natural hazards that
threaten us, focusing on biology, geography, geology, geospatial
information, and water.
Follow the expedition at:
http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/11midatlantic/welcome.html.
Additional information about BOEMRE’s
Environmental Studies Program is available at
http://www.boemre.gov/eppd/sciences/esp/index.htm.
Further information about NOAA is available at:
http://www.noaa.gov.
Further information about USGS is
available at:
http://www.usgs.gov.
Contact: BOEMRE
Public Affairs