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September 27, 2008

Drill Elsewhere: Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Expanding

Harbor Seals, originally uploaded by perlgurl.org.

Drill, Baby Drill? Not in the Monterey Bay, it would seem.

These past few weeks have been a rollercoaster ride of bad news, especially when it comes to the environment. We've seen economic turmoil and the 25-year-old ban on offshore drilling expire in Congress, leading me to get very nervous about seeing oil rigs being built in the Monterey Bay.

Finally, a piece of good news from Washington. The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary is going to be expanded to include one of the country's largest underwater volcanoes with old-growth coral forests. These areas will be protected from overfishing, dumping and oil and gas exploration.

[President Bush] announced that the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, off the California coast, will be expanded by 585 square nautical miles to include the Davidson Seamount, an underwater mountain.

More At: MSNBC.com:Bush eyes more Pacific marine areas to protect

According to the Monterey Herald, the Davidson Seamount is located 80 miles southwest of Monterey, about 70 miles out to sea. It's 7,874 feet tall, with its peak still more than 4000 feet below the surface. Recent explorations by Monterey Bay Aquarium researchers uncovered ocean life found nowhere else in the world-many species are from the deep sea, where little light reaches and plants and animals grow and reproduce at very slow rates.

The sanctuary is not contiguous (see the new map at the Los Angeles Times), but covers several regions in the vicinity of the Monterey Bay, where giant kelp forests and a deep ocean canyon provide key habitats for a number of endangered species, like the Southern Sea Otter and the Great White Shark. The expansion is set to become official in the beginning of November.

Posted by sorsha at September 27, 2008 3:06 PM