ROPOS 2008: Exploring BC's Coral and Glass Sponge Beds from the Ocean Floor

During June and July 2008, Fisheries and Oceans Canada researchers from the Pacific Biological Research Station (PBS) in Nanaimo, British Columbia, led by Jim Boutillier, DFO Section Head for marine invertebrates and Greg Workman, DFO Section Head for groundfish, set out to explore deep sea coral and glass sponge reefs. They were joined by scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and a number of Canadian universities as part of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)-funded Canadian Healthy Oceans Network (CHONe) project.

Using ROPOS (Remotely Operated Platform for Ocean Science), the group spent two weeks obtaining data and remarkable video footage of the ocean floor in the waters around Dixon Entrance and in Juan de Fuca Canyon near the Washington/B.C. Border. The technology enabled the expedition, diving to depths exceeding 1,000 metres, to explore sea coral and glass sponge reefs in both non-commercial and commercial fishing areas.

The expedition, which is part of ongoing DFO research, enables scientists to better understand the role that sponges and corals play in the deep ocean ecosystem. The scientific data collected will assist DFO in developing coral and sponge conservation strategies and will help inform stakeholder consultations around the creation of an integrated ecosystem-based management framework for the waters off British Columbia.

Collaborative exploration and the processing of scientific data around coral is an ongoing process:

• DFO, along with the commercial fishing industry and their associations, annually conduct a number of fishery monitoring programs. The bottom-trawl fishery sector voluntarily undertakes species avoidance at the request of the Department, and long-term fishers share historic knowledge and ongoing details of coral areas and encounters;
• DFO is working with Simon Fraser University (SFU) and the commercial fishing industry through an NSERC-funded program to assess the impacts of fishing gear on the ocean floor;
• DFO scientist Greg Workman is participating in an upcoming “Finding Coral Expedition” with the Living Oceans Society, using two manned mini submarines, to explore deep sea corals in Hecate Strait and the Queen Charlotte Basin (June 2009;
• Work initially funded by the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), through SFU, to undertake predictive modelling of coral species distribution, is being continued by DFO scientists Jessica Finney, Jim Boutillier, Jake Schweigert and Janelle Curtis. This initial project is being expanded, using new information, to refine the predictive model for corals and other data-deficient invertebrates and pelagic fish like herring, eulachon and capelin;
• Jim Boutillier is continuing ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) work, in collaboration with Parks Canada, to validate the models used to predict the distribution of data-deficient organisms such as coral, sponges and even fish like sand lance. This work will be focussed in the Pacific North Coast Integrated Management Area (PNCIMA) and Gwaii Haanas regions and, weather permitting, will include a return to Learmonth Bank to capture data from the shallow water areas adjacent to the deep coral groves explored last year during ROPOS 2008.