WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:12.540 --> 00:00:14.039 Hey I'm Adam from the band Guster and 00:00:14.039 --> 00:00:15.420 I'm here with Dave Wiley who's the 00:00:15.420 --> 00:00:17.640 research coordinator for Stellwagen Bank 00:00:17.640 --> 00:00:20.400 National Marine Sanctuary. It's home of 00:00:20.400 --> 00:00:22.110 some of the best whale watching in the 00:00:22.110 --> 00:00:24.130 world and it's right off the coast of Boston here. 00:00:25.560 --> 00:00:27.800 So what exactly is a national marine sanctuary? 00:00:28.080 --> 00:00:29.160 National marine sanctuaries 00:00:29.190 --> 00:00:30.660 you can think of as like most special 00:00:30.660 --> 00:00:33.239 places in the United States in the water 00:00:33.239 --> 00:00:34.829 environment. They're a network of underwater 00:00:34.829 --> 00:00:37.469 parks incorporating more than 170,000 00:00:37.469 --> 00:00:38.909 square miles of marine and Great Lakes waters. 00:00:38.909 --> 00:00:41.240 It's a network that includes 13 00:00:41.240 --> 00:00:43.780 national marine sanctuaries and two marine national monuments. 00:00:44.200 --> 00:00:46.400 The National Marine Sanctuary System protects America's most 00:00:46.400 --> 00:00:47.900 iconic natural and cultural marine resources. 00:00:49.240 --> 00:00:50.720 Stellwagen Bank is apparently 00:00:50.729 --> 00:00:51.809 one of the best places in the world 00:00:51.809 --> 00:00:54.089 to see whales? Yeah it really is. 00:00:54.089 --> 00:00:55.550 Humpback whales are probably the main one; 00:00:55.559 --> 00:00:57.089 you can come out here sometimes and 00:00:57.089 --> 00:00:59.579 see 30, 40, even 50 humpback whales 00:00:59.579 --> 00:01:01.079 feeding in a group, which is pretty 00:01:01.079 --> 00:01:03.839 spectacular. So it's a really great 00:01:03.839 --> 00:01:06.299 great spot to to look at marine life for sure. 00:01:06.299 --> 00:01:08.520 What about Stellwagen makes it such 00:01:08.520 --> 00:01:10.979 a draw for all this sea life? Food. 00:01:10.979 --> 00:01:13.740 It's like a gigantic restaurant. 00:01:13.740 --> 00:01:15.000 The main thing on the menu is this 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:17.369 little fish called the sand lance. They're maybe 00:01:17.369 --> 00:01:19.200 six inches long and about as big around as 00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:21.240 your thumb. And when they're here they're 00:01:21.240 --> 00:01:23.939 here by the millions and everybody's 00:01:23.939 --> 00:01:26.250 eating them. You know, the commercial fish, the 00:01:26.250 --> 00:01:28.259 recreational fish, the whales, the 00:01:28.259 --> 00:01:30.030 seabirds, everything's here to eat 00:01:30.030 --> 00:01:32.670 those guys. So what else happens in the 00:01:32.670 --> 00:01:33.960 Stellwagen Bank? 00:01:33.960 --> 00:01:38.009 Oh boy what does happen here? Actually a 00:01:38.009 --> 00:01:39.869 lot of stuff happens here. We've got a 00:01:39.869 --> 00:01:41.250 really active program of research and 00:01:41.250 --> 00:01:43.049 resource protection at Stellwagen Bank 00:01:43.049 --> 00:01:44.729 National Marine Sanctuary. 00:01:44.729 --> 00:01:46.710 We also run education and volunteer 00:01:46.710 --> 00:01:48.329 programs so we can get people involved with 00:01:48.329 --> 00:01:50.549 the sanctuary. We can actually go visit 00:01:50.549 --> 00:01:51.960 our education partner, the New England 00:01:51.960 --> 00:01:53.820 Aquarium, and see some of the exhibits 00:01:53.820 --> 00:01:55.469 they have that will give you an idea of what's going 00:01:55.469 --> 00:01:57.570 on in the sanctuary. Particularly, you can 00:01:57.570 --> 00:01:58.770 see what's going on the bottom of it, 00:01:58.770 --> 00:02:01.280 which is pretty hard to do. 00:02:03.260 --> 00:02:04.840 So this is the cold water tank 00:02:04.850 --> 00:02:07.010 at New England Aquarium. So this is 00:02:07.010 --> 00:02:10.050 basically a replica of what's going on at Stellwagen Bank? 00:02:10.480 --> 00:02:12.400 Right. If you're going to portions of the bank that have 00:02:12.410 --> 00:02:14.540 these big boulder reefs, just a bunch of 00:02:14.540 --> 00:02:16.520 rocks all piled on top of each other, and 00:02:16.520 --> 00:02:18.440 this is the type of assemblage of 00:02:18.440 --> 00:02:19.610 marine life you'd find there. 00:02:19.610 --> 00:02:21.800 So you're seeing a lot of soft bodied 00:02:21.800 --> 00:02:23.420 invertebrates such as these anemones 00:02:23.420 --> 00:02:25.550 and sea cucumbers and then these fish 00:02:25.550 --> 00:02:28.280 are redfish, which are in the rockfish family. 00:02:28.280 --> 00:02:30.709 We just had a really cool wolffish swim by 00:02:30.709 --> 00:02:32.450 a minute ago, and of course you've got 00:02:32.450 --> 00:02:34.519 this giant 15 pound lobster sitting here. 00:02:34.519 --> 00:02:36.800 So you'd find this in portions of the 00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:38.840 sanctuary, but then lots of the sanctuary 00:02:38.840 --> 00:02:40.489 is really covered by more of a sandy 00:02:40.489 --> 00:02:43.280 gravel mix of substrate. You find a very 00:02:43.280 --> 00:02:45.520 different assemblage of marine life hanging out there. 00:02:45.980 --> 00:02:48.640 And it's just teeming with all this life. This is crazy 00:02:48.640 --> 00:02:51.280 to see all this one place and that's what it's like out there, huh? 00:02:51.640 --> 00:02:53.780 That's what it's like in some parts but in other parts 00:02:53.780 --> 00:02:55.840 you can put a camera down and go for long distance 00:02:55.850 --> 00:02:57.650 without seeing much at all. But it is a 00:02:57.650 --> 00:03:00.080 hotspot for biodiversity. So if you look at 00:03:00.080 --> 00:03:01.970 all the Gulf of Maine, Stellwagen Bank 00:03:01.970 --> 00:03:05.550 kind of stands out as having lots and lots of life. 00:03:09.280 --> 00:03:11.110 So we all can visit our own national 00:03:11.110 --> 00:03:13.510 marine sanctuary, so check it out, go 00:03:13.510 --> 00:03:15.580 online, find out where the one is closest 00:03:15.580 --> 00:03:17.170 to you. They're all over the country, even 00:03:17.170 --> 00:03:18.819 in the Great Lakes and they're there for 00:03:18.819 --> 00:03:21.179 us to enjoy so let's take advantage.