#seamounts

Today is International Mountain Day and we are celebrating our seamounts!

A benthic octopus on Davidson Seamount (credit: NOAA)

It took seven years of research, collaboration and public input to get Davidson Seamount protected as part of Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Now those protections could be weakened or removed due to April’s White House executive order calling for a review of national marine sanctuaries and monuments—potentially to open up these blue parks for offshore oil and gas drilling. Please let the administration know that the ocean needs more protection, not less.

How you can help:

Speak up for America’s protected waters by adding your comment to the official Federal Register

Check out our Conservation & Science blog post for suggested talking points about the benefits that national marine sanctuaries bring to people, wildlife and the economy

And read on to see what makes Davidson Seamount such an important place to protect (and geek out about!)...

What is Davidson Seamount? 

Davidson Seamount sits 70 nautical miles southwest of Monterey (Credit: NOAA)

Davidson Seamount is one of the largest seamounts in the world. Picture a volcano that's 23 nautical miles long, seven nautical miles wide and 7,480 feet tall. Now imagine that the top of that volcano is still 4,101 feet below the surface of the sea, and the whole place is home to countless fascinating deep sea creatures. That’s Davidson Seamount!

While Davidson Seamount was discovered in 1933, the first video images weren't produced until 2000, when our colleagues at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) teamed up for a joint survey of this vast undersea habitat. The images they brought back sparked national interest and a conversation about protecting the seamount began. NOAA, MBARI and other research partners set out to learn more about this place. What they discovered amazed them:

Researchers found vasts forests of corals including bubblegum coral, a deep sea species that can live hundreds of years, grow over eight feet tall and provides habitat for other organisms. (Credit: NOAA)

"We were blown away by the size, age, and diversity of deep-water corals we saw during the 2002 Davidson cruise. Indeed, the discoveries we made during that cruise prompted members of the public to propose Davidson Seamount be protected as part of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. We wanted to go back to learn why so many extraordinary corals thrive there and to determine their age and growth patterns." - Andrew DeVogelaere, chief scientist of the 2006 expedition

Venus flytrap anemone on Davidson Seamount (Credit: NOAA and MBARI)

Tiburonia granrojo jelly at Davidson Seamount (Credit: NOAA and MBARI) 

Researchers found that Davidson Seamount was a pristine “oasis of life” that provided habitat for numerous deep-sea creatures, including several previously undiscovered species found over the course of their explorations. The seamount also supports life above and around it, as the water above seamounts are productive feeding grounds for a wide variety of fishes, marine mammals, and seabirds.

A ghost shark (pointy-nosed blue chimaera) spotted near the summit of Davidson Seamount. 

Seven years after calls to protect Davidson Seamount were first proposed, Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary expanded to include this unique deep-water habitat. Achieving this took a careful, multi-year process that involved input from the public and evaluation from a working group of key stakeholders, including research scientists, educators, fishermen, marine conservation groups and ocean management agencies.

Today, Davidson Seamount and the amazing deep-sea creatures that call it home are protected. To help keep it that way, add your comment to the official Federal Register.

If you’d like dive into more of the life found on Davidson Seamount, our friends at MBARI have lots of great articles and videos from their explorations, like this:

As winter descends upon the Southern Hemisphere, humpback whales make their way up from their Antarctic feeding grounds to mate and give birth in the South Pacific. A fishermen in New Caledonia, located about 3,000 kilometers off the east coast of Australia, got to witness an incredible humpback show.

The New Caledonian Humpback Whales

While humpback whale populations are making recoveries across the world’s oceans, the New Caledonian population is still considered endangered. 

New Caledonia is home to one of the largest lagoons in the world, The New Caledonian lagoon, which is roughly 24,000 square kilometers. The warm and tranquil waters of this lagoon are a hotspot for humpback whales.

There are numerous seamounts in the New Caledonia region which scientists have discovered are an important pit stop for the whales. Using satellite data, scientists found that migrating humpback whales would ‘pause’ at these seamounts and stay for an average of 7-22 days. It is uncertain what they do at these seamounts but researchers suspect that these underwater mountains serve several important roles – likely as resting spots, supplemental feeding grounds, additional breeding spots, or as navigational landmarks or cues.

Since this population of humpback whales is still endangered, it is important to undertake further research to understand just how important seamounts are to these animals.

The reading describes seamounts. First, seamounts have great biodiversity, because of currents that flow up from the ocean floor and bring life-sustaining nutrients. Moreover, because of the nutrient rich waters around seamounts, a great variety of plants and fish make seamounts their home. Some of these fish are found only around seamounts. In addition, seamounts attract commercial fishing.