- Hello! And welcome to the virtual Get Into Your Sanctuary celebration.
Today, we'll take a trip to the Georgia coast to learn what Gray's Reef National
Marine Sanctuary has for its year-round visitors.
My name is Ben Prueitt, I'm the Outreach and Social Media Coordinator at Gray's
Reef National Marine Sanctuary. Today, we will help you make the most out
of your trip to Gray's Reef. We'll start with an overview of the
NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, take you out to Gray's Reef,
and lastly talk technology. And specifically, what technologies marine
scientists and fishermen use when they're visiting
Gray's Reef. If you have any questions throughout this interview we want to
hear them. on the chat feature. Our sanctuary staff
will be keeping an eye out for your questions
and comments throughout this interview. Don't be shy. Ask away. I'll be joined
shortly by our two panelists to talk about the technologies they use for
research and fishing, but let's first start with our
celebration of Get Into Your Sanctuary. Each year, Get Into Your Sanctuary
weekend encourages you to get out and enjoy the wonders of your oceans and
lakes. Since not everyone is able to get out and explore this year,
we're bringing the sanctuary to you. Each sanctuary does their Get Into Your
Sanctuary a little bit differently. At Gray's Reef, we encourage people to
explore the fishing, diving, or boating found at our
live-bottom reefs.
The National Marine Sanctuary System is a network of 14 National Marine
Sanctuaries and two Marine National Monuments. We
encompass over six-hundred-thousand square miles of marine waters in the United States.
These sanctuaries span all the way from the northwest and the Pacific,
to the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.
I wish we had more time to talk about each of these incredible sites,
but for now you'll have to visit sanctuaries.noaa.gov
As I mentioned, we'll be focusing today on the Gray's Reef National Marine
Sanctuary which was America's fourth National Marine Sanctuary
designated in 1981 to preserve the extraordinary
beauty of the area and protect the habitat
of diverse marine life. Gray's Reef is located ninteen miles off the coast of
Georgia, directly east of Sapelo Island. That's
the equivalent of 50 miles south of Savannah. The total area of the
sanctuary is twenty-two square miles and the average depth at Gray's Reef is
sixty-five feet.
Scientists have documented over two-hundred species of fish.
Visitors to Gray's Reef regularly swim with Atlantic Spadefish,
Black Sea Bass, many species of Grouper and Snapper,
Seaweed Blenny, Sheepshead, and other colorful inhabitants.
Sharks are also commonly sighted and can be seen at all levels of the water
column. Nine-hundred species of invertebrates also live
at Gray's Reef. Species like tunicates, commonly known as
"sea squirts", corals, urchins, and many species of
sponges make up the colorful life protected in the sanctuary.
The sanctuary is more than just the life found on the sea floor.
The waters and air above the bottom are studied and managed in various ways
to conserve the sanctuary for generations to come. The sanctuary plays
a role in supporting recreational fishing, diving
scientific research, and the protection of endangered species, like the North
Atlantic right whale and Loggerhead sea turtles.
I'll now introduce my guests for today. The opinions presented
here are those of the speakers and do not necessarily represent the opinions
of NOAA or those of the speaker's organizations.
First, I'll bring up Kevin Hunnicutt. Kevin Hunnicutt is the owner of Latitude
31 Dive Company. Kevin is a U.S. Coast Guard licensed
Captain qualified to carry passengers up to two-hundred miles offshore,
an experienced diesel technician, avid diver,
fisherman, and spearman. Kevin, welcome and thank you for joining us.
- Hey, thanks for having me. We're happy to be here and talk about some of the
technologies we use to go out to Gray's Reef
National Marine Sanctuary for fishing and SCUBA diving trips.
- Great! So what are some of the new technologies people
and fishermen are using out at Gray's Reef? - Yeah, so
first off, we started the planning stages of our trips using technology
such as the data from the Gray's Reef weather buoy.
So in planning our trips, we use data from the Gray's Reef National Marine
Sanctuary weather buoy to take interpretations of sea state. So
based off of this data, we're able to make decisions based on
the real-time data that the buoy is seeing on
wave height, wave period, wind speed, wind direction,
and that really helps us in the planning stages of being able to go out have a
safe trip to Gray's. And then beyond using data from the
weather buoy, our next technology we use to get to Gray's and get on the correct
spots is G.P.S. data. So G.P.S. is a system of coordinates laid
out across the earth based on latitude and longitude lines
and we use them in increments of degrees, minutes, and seconds.
And based on that coordinate system we're able to pinpoint locations at
Gray's Reef that we like to dive. So using G.P.S., we're able to go back
to the same spots that we see lots of life and dive those
spots with pinpoint accuracy down to the level a few feet.
So G.P.S. is a really strong tool that we use at Gray's
to to stay on the right spots and make our trips to enjoyable.
Once we've seen our data from the weather buoy we know it's safe to go
we've used our G.P.S. coordinates to get out offshore then we use
our radar to be able to get real-time data on
weather, other boats, where other boats are located on Gray's Reef
in relationship to where we are. The radar is a really awesome
technology that we use every day and rely on heavily. So
radar is a tool that sends out a energy pulse that reflects off of
weather, clouds, rain, other boats, buoys, any reflective material out there,
and sends a signal back to our radar receivers
and helps us to to stay safe, to know where the other boats are, to be able to
make decisions on which directions we want to go.
And radar technology has continued to improve.
Now with even on some of the lower level devices we have
doppler technology which can track targets show us which
direction they're going. It really helps us to make it
a safe and enjoyable trip out to Gray's which we rely on heavily.
So with those technologies are what we use to get there,
and then once we're on site at Gray's Reef we rely on our sonar technology.
Sonar works a lot like radar. It sends out an energy pulse, which reflects off
of the materials on the bottom, back to our receiver, and then our M.F.D.
interprets that data into bottom structure. So we use that data to see
whether we're over sand, or over Gray's Reef natural live-bottom,
and then we're also able to get good interpretations of fish
life and where exactly we need to be on the reef to where we drop our marker
buoy for our SCUBA divers, or our fishing lines for our fishermen.
So sonar is a technology that we use and
really rely on heavily all the time every time we're there.
Without it, it would be very difficult to know
that we're on the correct spots and that our divers are going to have the best
chance of seeing sea life.
A.I.S. is another technology that we have built into our boats M.F.D.
and V.H.F. systems. A.I.S. works off of signals from our V.H.F. radios.
Any A.I.S. vessel in our proximity
is received by our V.H.F. and then translated onto our M.F.D. to show
a vessel's speed, heading, course, position. It also has data
on how big a boat is and then if a boat is heading in our direction it
gives us data on how fast that boat's coming and how
long we have until that boat is has approached our location.
A.I.S. is another safety tool that we use on top of our radar to track targets
and make sure that our passengers and vessels stay safe.
While we're on Gray's, another fishing technology that is relatively new
and we really have got to using is fish descending devices.
These are a device that we use to greatly
improve a fish's survivability. When we pull a fish up from depth really fast
it causes barotrauma within the fish and it really,
really takes a toll on a fish and decreases their survivability if we
can't get them back down to a safe depth. So it's basically a device that is
spring-loaded, and clip it onto the fish with a weight
system, send the fish back down to the depths where we caught them at,
and it automatically releases allowing the fish to go back to its normal depth
and all the effects of barotrauma have been negated.
We've been using that a lot especially with our Red Snapper fishery.
Gray's Reef has a lot of Red Snapper on it and we'd like to go out,
see them, catch them, and we use this tool
to make sure the fish are there for our next line of SCUBA divers, for
fishermen to enjoy. And to make sure that we're not
accidentally killing fish that could have otherwise survived.
And so fish descending devices are a really good tool that
everybody should have and that we have started using ourselves at Latitude 31.
- Well, Kevin that's a lot of technology that you guys put in order to make a safe trip and an
enjoyable trip out to Gray's Reef.
One question I had is what do you think is next in line for these sorts of technologies?
Any predictions about the future? - Yeah, so the technologies are so great that we're using right now
it's almost hard for me to imagine new technologies
because there's so much that we use on our boats now,
especially if you have the latest and greatest electronics,
but my prediction is that the technologies that we currently have will continue getting better, cheaper, and more widely used
on all the vessels that go offshore
and to visit Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary.
I think that these technologies will make everybody's lives much easier, safer, and enjoyable.
- Well Kevin, thanks again for joining us
and maybe you'll see some new fishers out there at Gray's Reef.
You know we always enjoy partnering with folks like you
to make sure the people are out there
and enjoying their sanctuaries as much as they can.
- That's right. Thanks so much for having me.
We enjoy it. We love Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary
and, yeah, we continue to rely on these
technologies every day, day in and day out
to take people out to enjoy it.
- Well great. Hang on for a second
We'll say goodbye to everyone at the end
but now I'll switch over to Catherine Edwards.
So, as we're in transition.
So Catherine, good to see you. Welcome to the program!
Catherine Edwards is an Associate Professor at the
University of Georgia Skidaway Institute of Oceanography.
Catherine's research uses autonomous underwater robots and,
more specifically, ocean gliders to listen, map and monitor
waters off the Eastern Seaboard, including those at Gray's Reef
Catherine, welcome!
- Thanks so much for having me. I'm glad to be able to talk about Gray's Reef.
We love spending time there.
- Great! What are some of the new technologies you've been using at
Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary?
- So, one of the systems that I use in my lab, you can see
three instances of them behind me, I use autonomous underwater vehicles called gliders
The one that's immediately behind me, her name is "Pelagia"
and then "Franklin" is one of the gliders on the rack back behind me.
These gliders are autonomous underwater vehicles
that use buoyancy and center of gravity to move.
By changing their buoyancy and center of gravity they're able to fly
using a super energy efficient method of propulsion that lets us have
these gliders flying at places like Gray's Reef for up to
weeks or even months on a single charge or one set of batteries.
They come up to the surface at regular intervals
in the slide here you see the the tail fin
of the glider that has an Iridium phone
built into it and the pancake on top is the part that talks to Iridium
satellites communicating data from the glider itself
to operators on shore. The pilots on shore talk with the glider,
find out what's its GPS coordinate, what is its current mission, and what is it doing
and then are able to command it using both commands that we give
hit by hand to the glider and then scripts that will say
'OK, send us some of the data you've been collecting',
maybe we can change your waypoints or then
maybe we can adapt some of your sampling based on
what we see. The gliders have a wide array of
instruments on them. Back behind me you can see the C.T.D
on this side of the glider - it's the silver tube
that lets water come in one side of the tube and then it measures the
conductivity and the temperature and the pressure that we use to
calculate salinity, depth, and then the water density.
So as the glider is flying around it's taking measurements of temperature
salinity and density every second which at a vertical speed
of ten centimeters a second means that you're collecting
you're collecting temperature, salinity, and density measurements
at ten centimeters resolution which is amazingly high resolution data and a
fantastic window into what's going on in the ocean
the gliders also have other sensors that measure how much dissolved oxygen
is in the water as well as a fluorometer that you can kind of see
peeking out of the current image underneath the wing there.
It's a round puck that shoots different wavelengths of light
that are tuned to basically bounce off of and excite
emissions from from marine algae from the chlorophyll pigment
that's incorporated into the cells.
- So, Catherine I'm going to play some videos and we have some slides
and if you wanted to explain some of the what's going on in
the background for our viewers that would be really helpful.
- So, in addition to the C.T.D, the gliders measure other in water variables.
So, just beneath the wing in the picture above
there's a little circular puck that has a three channel fluorometer in there.
Basically, that shoots light at different wavelengths
tuned to understand the concentration of phytoplankton,
how much marine algae is in the water,
how much color dissolved organic matter is in the water,
and then turbidity, so how much stuff scatters light
like air bubbles or sand or other particles.
So now we'll have the glider deployment.
You'll see the technician and student here are just
gently lifting the back of the glider and it just shoots off of its little
cart into the water. This is a test deployment so we've
attached a little buoy that we use as backup
because the gliders move by changing their buoyancy and center of gravity
it's really important to tune the glider so that its weight
and its distribution of weight is exactly perfect
so it's a form of ballasting to what we think the target density will be in the water
if we've gotten it way wrong and the glider is a lot heavier
than we think it will be it has no way of getting up to the
surface to communicate. So the first time we deploy it at each
deployment we've got a little buoy at the surface just as a fail safe
in case we've messed up.
Sure thing, one question I had is how does this research
and technology help inform decision making at Gray's Reef?
So, there's a lot of there's a lot of ways that gliders are helping to
inform decision making at Gray's Reef.
There's some indirect uses of of the glider data.
For example, the density data and the fluorometer data help us
understand what happens at Gray's Reef when we're not sampling.
You know, the nice thing about gliders is they can be offshore even when
Kevin Hunnicutt can't take the boat out and nobody can be diving.
And so those are times that you wouldn't be able to have a window
into the world there at Gray's Reef otherwise
and so it's really important to sample then.
We can also, for example, a storm comes by
we can see what the response to a storm is and look at what happens when the
water column gets mixed up, how do the phytoplankton, that base of the food web
at Gray's Reef, how does that change over time?
Fairly recently, this past Spring [2020], we noticed there was a lot of fresh water at the surface
from an extended deployment with the gliders and it turned out we
looked at the records from river data and were able to tie the surface low
salinity lens to a flooding event in north Georgia.
That ended up causing significant discharge out onto Gray's Reef through
the Altamaha [River]. So those those kinds of impacts that fresh river water
certainly carried with it a signature from the land including whatever else came
down that river and so with the glider we were able to
get a better picture of what might be happening underneath
that surface layer, how that might affect the ecology
and the goings on at Gray's Reef. One of the other neat tools we've been
able to use recently, and you'll see it in this picture here on top,
those two black tubes are externally mounted receivers that listen for the sound
of specifically tagged fish so fisheries managers at Gray's Reef and
other fisheries scientists all up and down the East Coast and
elsewhere can basically through a little fish surgery at sea, implant a
little tag that beeps at a given frequency
at regular intervals and so as the fish swims around
receivers that are moored in different parts of Gray's Reef listen for those fish
and Gray's Reef managers can track where the fish are,
how those fish are using the reef. The cool thing is we can also mount these
receivers on top of the glider so wherever the glider goes you get to hear
where fish might be instead of just relying on measurements that are taken from one
stationary place that really relies that the fish has to come
close to that receiver with the mobile
instruments on top of the glider we can listen wherever the glider is and go to
where the fish are. So we've been able to integrate
these receivers into the glider. Not only does this let
us have one instrument that's pointed up on top of
the glider and another pointed down that might help us see or hear fish that
are reef dwelling species versus the
different species that spend more time here at the surface.
But since it's on the glider as it flies around,
we can tell when the glider detects a fish.
And that gives us an opportunity to potentially change the motion
of the glider to track a fish, to track a migration,
to change its strategy based on not just the environmental conditions,
but whether or not we hear the sounds of Snapper, Grouper, and other fish that
might have been tagged at Gray's Reef or elsewhere. - So would
fisherman like Kevin, would he be able to get
his hands on this technology to see exactly where the fish are? I'm sure he'd
love to have his job a lot easier than it is
now. - Yeah, follow that dinner bell, right?
That would be wonderful. Because these
technologies are used for fisheries research,
the real time publication of what these
fish are, I think you don't want to have somebody go
catch the Snapper that somebody tagged in Gray's Reef a month ago.
However, taking those data over time
and getting an understanding of when fish are more present and
what conditions they might be associated with,
so do you see Snapper at Gray's Reef when the freshwater lens
is above or not? Is that good fishing?
These are things and patterns
that we may be able to tie together with the glider with both
the fisheries detection data and the environmental data from
the CTD's and the fluorometers. That'll help Kevin and his charters
identify "okay what's going on at Gray's Reef?", not just when's the best wind to go
out, or what's the best temperature section
to do, but 'what's happening underneath the surface
of the water and how does that help people find the good vision?'.
- Wow, that's really impressive and we went through a lot today and I just had one
final question for you. What do you think is next for this
line of technologies, and any predictions for the future?
- Well, we are currently working on what I hope is
kind of the next generation of using these kinds of technologies.
I've been working on a couple different projects
funded by the National Science Foundation
to use not just one glider, not just one robot,
but teams of robots that are using acoustics.
The idea is that information you may be able to get from one that has the
ability to communicate to shore can be used to direct one or more
instruments that have complementary technologies.
So maybe we've got a glider flying around that has
a couple different kinds of acoustics measurements on it. What happens if we've
got it at the buoy nearby, and then a surface vehicle like a wave
glider that can move around, scoot around on the surface
taking complementary measurements - how can those two vehicles work together
to get the most amount of data for Gray's Reef?
We're also working with a team from Michigan State and Wright State
University as well as Georgia Tech where we're taking teams of gliders and
putting them together with schools of robotic
fish that are about three feet long. Their little tails move
in bio-inspired motions similar to real fish and they're also able to glide.
Now, each one of those would also have acoustic receivers in them,
but since they're smaller and may not want to come to the surface as often
we can use the glider to be able to provide information that's used to
direct the whole fleet of robotic fish as well. These are kinds
of strategies that we're developing through
artificial intelligence with the major goal being not just to do
things that are cool because robots are cool,
but to really get at the management goals for
places like Gray's Reef. It's fun to play with your robots
and do all of these collaborative robotics experiments, but ultimately what
are the scientific questions that guide Gray's Reef
and how can these tools directly address them?
These are the kinds of things that are in highly experimental and development
phases, but in time could become mature
technologies that sanctuaries like
Gray's Reef and other fisheries managers for the
state of Georgia and other areas can use
as a mature management tool. - Wow, that's a really exciting
future for these sorts of technologies and
I can't wait to hear in five years what
new things we have on the horizon. For now, I'm going to bring Kevin back in
and wrap up our brief program here.
So I just wanted to thank both Catherine and
Kevin for joining us. For those at home,
if you wanted to learn more about Gray's Reef you can visit
graysreef.noaa.gov. We also have a Twitter account
@GraysReefNMS and we have Facebook as well at
facebook.com/graysreefsanctuary. I wanted to again
thank our speakers. If there were any final words from
Catherine or Kevin about technologies or getting out at Gray's Reef,
let them be heard.
- Thanks so much for having me and Catherine and thanks for all the work you
guys are doing. It's really awesome all the technology, all
the research that goes into understanding what's going on at Gray's
Reef. - I hope we get to go out together at some point this summer. We can deploy
gliders together and it'll be a lot of fun. Can't wait. - For sure, we certainly
want everyone to get into their sanctuaries. So
thank you at home for everyone who tuned in
and we'll see you next time, maybe out at the reef.
[END]