News
Young divers help with sea star research at Monterey Bay Sanctuary in California
Young members of the National Association of Black Scuba Divers received a wet introduction to the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary on Thursday – not principally for fun, but to contribute knowledge about a mysterious illness that is killing sea star fish.
“I saw a bat star that looked diseased, but also some healthy ones,” said J’ Darius Thomas, 17, from Atlanta.
Chelsea Prindle, education specialist with the marine sanctuary, said the organization hosted 25 youth ages 10 to 17 from across the country with the goal of developing future leaders in marine sciences. The sanctuary works under the federally-run National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“Each year the National Association of Black Scuba Divers holds a youth summit and visits a different marine sanctuary,” Prindle said. “This is their first time at Monterey Bay, and we’ve planned a weeklong summit for them. They’re learning about the sanctuary and its ecosystems.”
The program is a partnership between the sanctuary and the CSU Monterey Bay Camp Sea Lab program.
Prindle noted that six of the young students are already certified divers. She said the overall goal of the sanctuary is to protect and understand marine ecosystems.
Jimi Mack, an instructor with NABS and organizer of the group’s 11th Youth Educational Summit, has been diving since 1995 and lives in Dallas. She said the young divers were experiencing Monterey kelp for the first time.
“Sea stars are wasting away and dying, and we’re recording their numbers and observing their health,” she said. “Something is causing sea stars to disintegrate.”
Alexis Braden, 14, a ninth-grader from Tennessee, has already been diving for two years. She formerly took part in a coral restoration project on the East Coast and made dives in Texas at the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary.
She is currently working toward a master diver certification.
“I just love the beauty of the ocean,” she said.
Scott Kathey, the sanctuary’s federal regulatory coordinator, said everyone can contribute to ocean health by simply observing possible pollutants in the yard or street, the kind of things that might get sucked into drains and end up in the ocean. Oil from your car or dog feces on the ground are two possible contaminants.
“Water quality is paramount,” Kathey said. “Be careful what you put on the land.”
The students will spend a week in the Monterey area. They visited local tide pools and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and also monitored plankton health off the Santa Cruz Wharf. They also enjoyed whale watching and hiking. Friday, the group will visit Elkhorn Slough.
Aquarius Dive Shop supplied diving equipment and diver instructors for the project.
The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary extends from Marin to Cambria and encompasses 276 miles of the Central Coast.
Source: www.montereyherald.com
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