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Underwater volcano off California’s Central Coast given national protection

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 21, 2008 at 5:27 am

From the San Jose Mercury News:

Its slopes are thick with coral forests that grow 10 feet high. Fields of colorful sponges cover its rocky outcroppings. And marine mammals that until recently had never been seen by scientists teem all around it. On Thursday, a giant underwater volcano off California’s Central Coast that some have compared to an aquatic “Lost World,” was given national protection.

Davidson Seamount stands 7,546 feet above the ocean floor, in pitch black waters about 80 miles southwest of Monterey. Until eight years ago, almost nothing was known about it, largely because its summit sits 4,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean.

But as marine biologists began to send unmanned submarines to explore it, they found a pristine environment rich with life, from red crabs with spindle legs to anemones that close like Venus flytraps.

“We were astounded to discover the variety of life, and particularly the size of the animals,” said Dave Clague, a geologist with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) in Moss Landing. “Some of the corals are truly huge. The big pink bubble gum corals get at least 10 feet tall. And they are hundreds of years old. We’d never seen anything like that.”

On Thursday, the Bush administration published final regulations to expand the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary by 14 percent to include Davidson Seamount. The first such expansion since Congress and President Bush’s father established the sanctuary in 1992, the newly protected waters total 775 square miles — an area more than half the size of Yosemite National Park.

Read more from the San Jose Mercury News by clicking here.

November 21, 2008 · Filed Under Other Oceans & Beaches Stories

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