"Ancient groves of invertebrates are being clearcut by trawling just as quickly and surely as loggers felled groves of giant redwoods." -Callum Roberts, Ph.D.
Few people are aware that the continental shelf, slope, and canyons of California’s ocean are home to a diversity deep sea corals. Like redwoods, California’s deep sea corals can live to be hundreds to thousands of years old. Large corals like Hydrocorals, gorgonian corals, and black corals are found in high densities in the Channel Islands, Monterey Bay, the Gulf of the Farallones off San Francisco, and the continental slope off Northern California. Hydrocorals and gorgonian sea fans are commonly seen by divers in Southern California. Deep sea corals are one type of biogenic habitat, which also include living structures like sponges, kelp forests, anemones, tunicates, and crinoids. These biogenic habitats provide shelter for a variety of sea life, including rockfish, crabs, lingcod, garibaldi, and many others. Some of California’s corals may be older than the towering redwoods on the adjacent land.
- Christmas tree coral (Antipathes dendrochristos) with juvenile rockfish (left, M. Love) and in white form (right, M. Amend). Photos courtesy NOAA.
- Starry rockfish (Sebastes constellatus) resting among anemones, hydrocorals, sponges, and tunicates at Cordell Bank. Courtesy Cordell Bank NMS.
Scientists recently discovered a new species of deep-sea coral off the coast of Santa Barbara. They named the new species “Christmas tree coral” (Antipathes dendrochristos) since it grows over 6 feet tall and resembles pink, white, and red flocked Christmas trees. This discovery shows the importance of protecting areas that have not yet been trawled. Scientists have only explored less than one percent of California’s seafloor. Who knows what else scientists will discover as they venture to new, unexplored underwater frontiers off our coast! Click here to go to the article.
Trawlers up and down the coast are destroying California’s corals and sponges. Despite recent trawl closures to protect overfished rockfish, trawlers are free to move into new areas of the continental slope and shelf known to contain corals. Major trawl fisheries off California target flatfish, whiting, and rockfish. Deep boulder habitats like Cordell Bank provide a natural refuge for overfished species such as bocaccio (S. paucispinis), yelloweye rockfish (S. ruberrimus), vermilion rockfish (S. miniatus), and canary rockfish (S. pinniger) which are frequently observed in these areas. (http://cordellbank.noaa.gov/research/habitat.html).
- Blue rockfish school above a biogenic garden of hydrocorals, anemones, and other seafloor life at Big Sur Bank, Courtesy C. Bauder, www.metridium.com.
The Pacific Fishery Management Council is responsible for the management of bottom trawling and habitat protection in California. Along with a coalition of environmental and recreational fishing groups, Oceana has developed a comprehensive, collaborative proposal to protect important undersea habitats, while maintaining vibrant fisheries off the California Coast. The proposal is included in an Environmental Impact Statement as Alternative 12, and was selected by the Pacific Fishery Management Council as one of their “preliminary preferred alternatives”. The government will make its decision this summer 2005.
Off California, Alternative 12 protects Monterey Bay and Canyon, the Channel Islands, Cordell Bank, Eel River Canyon, and all major seamounts. In addition, new data from NOAA identified areas of sensitive hard bottom habitat and biogenic areas containing high densities of corals and sponges. It also prevents trawlers from venturing into previously untrawled areas where they have the potential to destroy coral beds before they are discovered. At the same time, the proposal identifies areas of high economic importance to the trawl industry that will remain open. Alternative 12 protects important habitats and prevents trawling from expanding into unexplored areas. The result is shown in the figure below, where white areas remain open and other areas are proposals for closure.
- Map of Alternative 12, showing open areas (white) and trawl closures (grey, purple, green, and orange). From Pacific EFH DEIS.
Previous success: In 2004, Oceana successfully worked with other conservation groups in California to promote and pass a state bill to protect marine life from bottom trawling. SB 1459, introduced by Senator Dede Alpert and signed by Gov. Schwarzenegger, established effective and precautionary procedures to help protect seafloor habitat in state waters from destructive bottom trawling.
