The Transect Line – May/June 2015

The recent oil spill at Refugio Beach north of Santa Barbara, California was a drop-in-the-bucket compared to the huge blowouts and repeated spills in Santa Barbara in 1969 – a reported 100,000 gallons this time versus 200 million then. Given that almost half a century has passed, and we have had several monster spills since 1969, one would expect that we would be well prepared to deal with such disasters.

Unfortunately, the response to the Refugio spill missed the boat in one important area. Clean-up crews were dispatched to clean up oil on the water surface using boats and booms, and by hand on the beach and rocks. Oiled birds were captured, treated and released. But the authorities were apparently unprepared for an on-shore gusher that would enter the sea in shallow water endangering near-shore marine ecosystems. More seriously, there was no system in place to allow government or non-government divers or ROVs to quickly examine the damage to the most sensitive ecosystem lying just beneath the water surface. Worse, non-government marine biologists who have the most experience at the site were barred from diving in the area for several weeks.

After the spill, Federal authorities quickly took over, but ignored the rocky reef and kelp ecosystems beneath the waves, despite repeated requests from both the State and experienced non-government dive teams to be allowed to carry out surveys.

Santa Barbara oil is only slightly less dense than seawater, and with the help of wave action, some oil from a surface slick can reach the reefs just a few feet below, while other fractions evaporate or dissolve in seawater where they can be highly toxic to marine larvae. Spring and early summer are peak reproductive seasons for many reef organisms. Whether dissolved or intact, some oil is likely to have reached Refugio’s famed kelp forest and rocky reef ecosystems potentially endangering some life stages of the many species of fish and shellfish there. Some marine organisms such as lobster and octopus washed up dead. By Friday, four days after the spill, our helicopter and drone surveys indicated that 95% of the surface oil slick had been washed out of the site by strong wind, waves and currents, with small patches of oil still attached to floating kelp at the surface. But what was going on underwater is now a mystery. Two weeks later, the reefs were still closed to divers, a serious mistake. Divers could have determined if visible blobs of oil were in direct contact with the reef and could have collected water samples next to the reefs that could have been tested for oil components. This could have all been documented with photos and video. Without this information it is more difficult to determine what really happened to the reef ecosystem immediately following the impact.

Reef Check is staffed by professional marine biologists who train divers to become “citizen scientists” so that they can carry out standard scientific surveys of rocky reef ecosystems in California (and coral reefs in 90 countries). All of our high quality data are publicly available on a Google Ocean database at http://data.reefcheck.us/.

We survey over 80 California sites per year from the Oregon border to Mexico. Our teams of citizen scientists, led by professional marine biologists, have been monitoring the Refugio reefs every year since 2006, providing the only standardized dataset available for this 9-year period. The data, photos, videos and personal observations will be used to assess the damage and monitor the recovery of those reefs.

Our data show that Refugio reefs support a relatively dense kelp forest compared to other sites along the Santa Barbara coast and northern Channel Islands. The rocky seafloor is covered in an understory of four species of brown algae that provide habitat for dozens of fish species such as cabezon, sheephead, surf perch and kelp bass. Red sea urchins, bat stars and red abalone are some of the invertebrates found at this site. Reef Check classified the biological community living on the Refugio reef as unique in southern California. Only one of the more than 30 southern California sites that we monitor along the mainland coast has a similar ecological community….

Comment on this article

Reef Check Malaysia (RCM) and Scuba Schools International (SSI) have announced a collaboration to raise awareness of coral reef conservation issues among student divers.

A five point Action Plan has been established to provide a framework for the collaboration. The focus of the Plan is to help instructors and dive schools to efficiently deliver specific information on good conservation habits to student divers. Dive instructors will be provided with easy-to-use tools designed to encourage reef-sensitive behavior.

Julian Hyde, General Manager of RCM said: “Divers are natural ambassadors for coral reefs. However, dive training currently focuses on technical skills and meeting performance requirements. Our goal is to improve the content of conservation-related materials at the initial training stage, to ensure that divers start off with the right attitude to reef conservation. We are hoping that this new approach will introduce a missing element: respect for the marine environment.”

Given that the materials will be used at the initial training stage, the SSI approach to training is ideal. According to Nick Khoo, SSI Director of Operations – Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei: “SSI encourages instructors to be creative and use additional materials to deliver appropriate messages. So this new collaboration fits with the existing training philosophy, increasing the chances of success.”

But it doesn’t end there. According to Hyde: “There are lots of certified divers out there who didn’t receive much information about reefs and conservation issues when they completed their training, so many are unaware of the impact – both positive and negative – that they can have. These new materials will therefore have the dual purpose of promoting better habits among certified divers, too.”

The Plan also provides for new initiatives in the future, such as RCM and SSI working to encourage divers to move beyond just entry level “conservation-related specialties”. Nick Khoo says: “SSI has an Ocean Ranger specialty course; we are hoping that once their interest is aroused, we can encourage divers to move on to the more detailed Reef Check EcoDiver course, to learn how to participate in reef monitoring and really make a difference.”

And according to Hyde, it doesn’t have to end with diving. “Why not encourage people to apply the same conservation and sustainability lessons to the rest of their lives? All of us can do more to reduce our personal impacts, whether it means leaving Nemo in peace while diving, or reducing water and electricity consumption in the home. Every little bit counts.”

Comment on this article