Hi everyone. Welcome to the webinar for Living Shipwrecks 3D
Exploring North Carolina's World War II Heritage.
I'm Shannon Ricles the education and outreach coordinator for
Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, and and I will be your host today.
This webinar is brought to you by NOAA's Monitor National Marine Sanctuary
in collaboration with NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, Beaufort Lab.
Monitor is just one of 14 national
marine sanctuaries and two marine national monuments in the
National Marine Sanctuary System. The system encompasses more than
600,000 square miles of marine and Great Lakes waters from Washington
state to the Florida Keys and from Lake Huron to American Samoa.
Now during the presentation all attendees will be in listen only mode.
You are welcome to type questions for the presenters into the question box at
the bottom of the control panel on the right hand side of your screen.
This is the same area you can let us know
about any technical issues you may be having that we can help you with.
We'll be monitoring all incoming questions and technical issues, and we'll
respond just as soon as we can. We are recording this session and
will share the recording with registered participants via the webinar archive page.
A URL for this web page will be provided
at the end of the presentation.
Today, we welcome our three presenters from the NCCOS lab in Beaufort, North Carolina,
we have research ecologist Dr. Chris Taylor and
Dr. Avery Paxton, a research associate.
And joining us from Monitor National Marine Sanctuary is Tane Casserley, the resource protection and permit coordinator.
Now this presentation will highlight the
advanced technologies that Monitor and NCCOS utilize,
including acoustic surveys aboard the NOAA ship Nancy Foster
to document North Carolina's World War II shipwrecks and to create acoustic
fish visualizations of the surrounding marine life. Along
with collecting critical data to interpret this naval battlefield,
the project also demonstrates the significance of these shipwrecks
as both ecological and historical wonders.
This project is an example of NOAA offices collaborating to use their best
assets to document the incredible marine history
and marine life off North Carolina's shores.
Transition of screens. Video begins to play.
(Music Playing in Background) Robert Weagant Speaking: Just the same as it is to protect Gettysburg,
Just as it is to protect any of the other battlefields,
we owe it as a part of history. It should be a sanctuary
so that we have something to to teach the current generation
of the sacrifices that were made.
(Music Playing)
Earl Pushard Speaking: And we were told that the only way that we get
a winning group anywhere was through the merchant marine.
Robert Weagant Speaking: They have some of the worst storms and seas off Cape Hatteras and that's
where we've lost many ships. William Crozer Speaking: The German torpedo
boats were laying off the coast there. And there was no protection and the
silhouette, they were like shooting pigeons in a shooting gallery. (Music Playing)
Charles Mills Speaking: The closest calls we ever had in the convoy was where
two ships was torpedoed. You couldn't stop.
There were guys in the water and you couldn't stop to pick them up. You had to
keep going. So you never know what happened to any of them
Robert Weagant Speaking: We lost so many. They need recognition. (Music Playing)
David Holmes Speaking: The sanctuary would be a giant underwater memorial.
That would be the fitting for the men that died and are still down there.
Clarence Newcomer Speaking: I mean they should be honored. Their grave is in the water.
Earl Pushard Speaking: It's like any other battlefield that we had during the Civil War.
It should be protected.
Robert Weagant Speaking: Preserving these
battlefields I think gives us the means
of educating and teaching what happened in order to preserve
our country and its values.
(Music Playing)
Tane Casserely Speaking: Hi everyone today, and thank you for joining us. I'd like to
say hello to the nearly 350 people that are joining us from around the country today.
Thank you so much. And today is September 2, 2020- V-J Day
or Victory over Japan Day. Japan signed their ceremonial
surrender aboard the USS Missouri in 1945.
It marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II today.
So today we honor all the World War II veterans, and we remember the sacrifice
of the over 400,000 Americans and the tens of millions around the world
that died during this conflict. There is no other event in human history
that had such a profound effect on the geopolitical landscape as World War II.
And in honor of today, to tell this history,
we're going to start our story at the end.
So World War II was truly a global war that for the United States lasted from
December 7, 1941, through September 2, 1945.
This map shows the United States' European or Western Front and the
Pacific Front during World War II. This war was fought with battles
literally on the other side of the planet.
It was the most complex event ever undertaken by the United States,
and the shear logistics to move personnel and material around the world
is mind-boggling. And to complicate things even more
with the time zone differences, with Germany six hours ahead of the
United States Eastern Time Zone, and Japan, which is 13 hours ahead.
And depending on the time of day, it may be a day ahead of the United States.
So this could be confusing in terms of our historical narrative.
So we use the United States National Archives as a standard for all our dates
and times during this presentation.
Germany's two surrenders. Germany signed the unconditional surrender of its
forces on May 7, 1945, at the Supreme Headquarters
Allied Expeditionary Force in Reims, France,
to go into effect the next day on May 8th, but the Soviet Union didn't
like the terms and demanded a second, separate signing
ceremony in Berlin on May 8th, but the news announced
to Moscow May 9th. The formal surrendered documents
signed on May 8th or V-E Day, Victory in Europe Day, were written in
English, Russian, and German. Besides the addition that Germany
disarm completely, the formal surrender documents
signed in Berlin differed very little from those signed in France. Even here,
in a time of celebration, we can see the friction growing between the United States
and the Soviets, which evolved into the Cold War just a
few years later.
The Allies have now moved from a two-front war to the single front in the Pacific.
And they have two choices to end the war.
Operation Downfall - As early as 1943, American military planners had seen the
need to attack the two principal Japanese islands
in order to end the war. They expected stiff resistance
and some estimates of American casualties reached as high as one million.
With full knowledge of the potential costs, the Joint Chiefs of Staff approved
a directive on May 25, 1945, outlining the overall invasion of Japan.
The operation, code name "Downfall," would
consist of two phases. The invasion of Kyushu to the south was
termed "Olympic," while the assault on Honshu was known as "Coronet."
Estimates of the Allied force required
for the entire operation were some five million soldiers, all American, which
comprised 40 percent of all Americans in uniform at that time,
except for three British Empire divisions.
And the other choice is the Manhattan Project, the top secret race to create the first
atomic weapon. It was created in 1942 and inspired by
refugee scientists from Europe, including Albert Einstein.
With Dr. Robert Oppenheimer leading the scientific team,
the United states engaged in a secret race to produce an atomic weapon before Germany.
Under the Manhattan Project, the United States
military operated secret plants in Oak Ridge, Tennessee,
and Hanford, Washington, to produce the uranium and plutonium elements
necessary for a bomb. In isolated, in remote Los Alamos, New Mexico,
a team of physicists worked to create a viable detonation system.
The two billion dollar project employed over 125, 000
people across America, most of whom had no idea what they were working on,
and eventually led to the dramatic Trinity Atomic Tests in the New Mexico
desert in July of 1945, leaving the United States to face the
question, was the atomic bomb a sufficient enough weapon to bring
World War II to an end?
The Allies chose the Manhattan Project. On August 6, 1945,
the first atomic bomb, known as Little Boy, was dropped by the Boeing
B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay, six miles above Hiroshima, Japan.
Forty-three seconds later, it detonates high above the city.
With a single bomb, 40,000 men, women, and children
are obliterated in an instant. One hundred thousand more die within
days of burns and radiation. Another hundred thousand would succumb
to radiation poisoning over the next five years.
Despite this initial devastation on August 6, the Japanese still would not
accept the Allied surrender terms. Two days later on August 8th, the
Soviet Union declares war on Japan. The islands now face invasion on two fronts.
August 9th, second atomic bomb, the Fat Man type,
drops this time on Nagasaki. Some 40,000 more civilians die instantly.
In Tokyo, the Japanese Supreme Council for the Direction of the War
remains split between those still determined to fight on
and those willing finally to give up. That evening all six
members of the council call upon the Emperor, who breaks the deadlock.
August 10th, Japan requests conditional surrender terms, but is denied by the Allies.
And finally, after much negotiation, on August 15th,
Japan accepts the Allies' unconditional surrender terms.
At the time it was known as V-J Day or Victory over Japan Day. In some areas, it is
known as Victory in the Pacific Day, ending hostilities in World War II.
And the news breaks in the United States on August 14th,
due to the time zone differences. In the image here, a fantastic image of
hundreds of thousands of people in the public
crowding into Times Square, New York City in celebration.
The war is finally done.
And just over two weeks later on
August 30th, the Allied occupation of Japan begins.
This is a fantastic image showing the USS Missouri.
at the bottom left, the battleship there, and then we have flyovers here by F4Us and F6Fs
This is all happening on September 2, 1945,
when the Japanese signed the ceremonial surrender
aboard the USS Missouri. So this ceremony, which formerly brought an end to the
bloodiest conflict in human history, lasted a mere 23 minutes. It began at 9:02 am
with a brief opening speech by
General Douglas MacArthur, where the General called for justice, tolerance, and
the rebuilding of Japan. And after the speech,
Foreign Minister Shigemitsu, representing the Emperor of Japan, signed
the instrument of surrender. He was followed by the Chief of the Army
General Staff, General Umezu, who signed for the Japanese Army. After
this, General MacArthur signed the instrument of surrender as
the Supreme Allied Commander, and World War II
was finally over. In this image we can see MacArthur actually standing there
at the microphone and the Foreign Minister is signing the papers.
So what does this all mean for North Carolina? Well it brings us now to my
office, which is the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary
that protects and honors the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor, that lies 16 miles
off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
When we think of World War II, we think of it happening somewhere else.
It happened over there. Far from our shores.
But the shipwrecks of North Carolina tell another story.
This is where the war came home. So let's go back
to the start of World War II and see how and why Germany attacked our shores.
As we all know, it began for the United States
at 7:55 am on December 7, 1941, when the Imperial Japanese Navy attacks Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
The military and civilian casualties
totaled more than 3,400, including 2,300 killed, with nearly half
of those, at 1,177, aboard the battleship USS Arizona.
Four days later on December 11, 1941, the Axis powers declare war on the United States.
The United States in turn declares war
against Germany and Italy. Now even though Germany and Japan were
allies at the time, and they both knew at some point they
would be at war with the United States, they didn't always communicate. And the
Germans were actually caught unawares on December 7th, just like the United States was.
Hence, the four-day lag between the war being declared.
In a month after Germany declares war on America, the first wave of five U-boats
arrive off the United States East Coast. Known as Operation Drumbeat, this is the
first of many operations that continued for months as German
U-boats hunted merchant ships, which frequently sailed independently
and at night, easy targets in front of coastal city lights.
At the start of the war, the United States Navy had too few destroyers and
sub-chasers to patrol the coast, while also escorting
merchant troop ship convoys across the Atlantic,
which had devastating consequences for American coastal shipping.
And this coastal shipping is what supplied those Atlantic convoys that
were going to resupply the war in Europe. This coastal shipping was the lifeblood
for the Allied forces and Germany knew that by cutting that off,
off, they could strangle the Allies into submission.
And the reason why German U-boats focused so heavily on North Carolina
was because of the continental shelf's proximity to land off the Outer Banks.
So if we look at our map here, we can see North Carolina there in
the middle of the screen. The Outer Banks project out into the Atlantic Ocean.
And we could see how close that continental shelf comes to land at that point.
It's a choke point. So what the U-boats could do
is at night hide, oh excuse me, in daytime
they would hide in those deeper colder waters and at night they
would pop up into the shallows and attack the coastal shipping.
Now these shipping lanes were very well known.
They've been that way for hundreds of years.They're the same shipping lanes today.
So internationally, they knew exactly where to go. And what also happens off
the coast of North Carolina is that the shipping lanes compress.
So they tighten up because of that projection out into the ocean. So they
become even narrower. Again, an easy hunting ground for the Germans.
And when we overlay the known World War II shipwrecks off North Carolina,
they all fall in the shipping lanes. So the Germans knew exactly where to hit us.
So during World War II, a total of 90 vessels were lost off North Carolina
alone, with most of these occurring during
the first six months of the war. Now, we know where approximately half of
these are, and the other half are still yet to be found. They could be in deeper
water. We don't know. So that's part of the
allure of North Carolina, that these ships are still yet to be found to tell
their histories. But we know from the historic record
that there are 78 merchant ships, eight Allied naval ships, and four German
U-boats. In the image here you can actually see
the merchant tanker Dixie Arrow, which is burning
after being torpedoed by the U-71 on March 26 in 1942.
Eleven brave men died during this event.
Of the 1,657 total World War II casualties off the coast of North Carolina,
over 1,200 of these were merchant mariners.
Historians have called this America's second Pearl Harbor.
Except the difference here is that the enemy wasn't attacking another naval force.
The Germans weren't attacking trained warriors and squaring off
against battleships or aircraft carriers. They were attacking merchant ships with
civilian volunteer crews. The U.S Merchant Marine provided the
bulk of these sailors and many of the shipwrecks off North Carolina
are graves to these brave men. During World War II
one in 26 merchant mariners died in the line of duty,
suffering a greater percentage of war-related deaths than any other
United States uniformed service.
Now North Carolina may have been where
the Germans hit us the hardest off the U.S. mainland, but it's also where
we started pushing back. I think at the start of the war, when
President Roosevelt said, "History has recorded who fired the first shot.
In the long run, however, all that will matter is who fired
the last shot." North Carolina is where that road began
for the Atlantic war. This is where we had the first victories against the Germans.
So we have to think of the coastal
defense of the East Coast like a trident, where all three prongs had their first
successes against the U-boats off our shores.
So that would be the United States Navy, the United States Coast Guard,
and U.S. Army Air Force. The first of these was on
April 14th in 1942, when the U-85 was sunk by the USS Roper off North Carolina,
becoming the first U-boat sunk by the U.S. Navy off the American
East Coast. In this image here, we can see actually the remains of those sailors
from the U-85 being buried at night in the Hampton National Cemetery in Virginia.
The second was on May 9th, 1942, when the U-352 was sunk by the Coast Guard
Cutter Icarus, becoming the first U-boat sunk by the
U.S. Coast Guard off the American East Coast.
In the image here, these are the German sailors from the U-352
being processed by U.S. officials in Charleston, South Carolina,
after their capture.
And the third was on July 7th, 1942, when Lieutenant Harry Kane, Jr., who's in the
image here pointing above, and his A-29 Hudson airplane sank U-701
off North Carolina, becoming the first U-boat sunk by the U.S. Army Air Force
off the American East Coast.
And thankfully, by May of 1943, the U-boats were no longer a major threat to
Allied convoys. The now escorted coastal convoys,
updated tactics by the U.S. Navy, coastal blackouts that are finally going into
effect, and the sheer volume of American
shipping had now turned the tide against the U-boat threat.
And I truly believe that these first successes that we had off the coast of
North Carolina, pushing the U-boats back from our shores
and all the way across the Atlantic, made D-Day, the Allied invasion of
Europe, possible on June 6, 1944. If we hadn't had those
first successes when we did in 1942, we would never have had the freedom to move
the men and material necessary for one of the largest amphibious assaults in
history and ending the war nearly a year later.
So like Gettysburg and Antietam battlefields, we truly have a battlefield
sitting off the coast of North Carolina. This naval battlefield is where
World War II came home to America. These shipwrecks are grave sites.
They're memorials to heroes. They're fragile reminders of our past and
they're also so much more.
<Transition to Dr. Chris Taylor>
Chris Speaking: In the 75 years since these shipwrecks laid to rest on our sea floor, they've
become habitats, homes, and reefs that serve as
homes for a diverse array of marine life. Divers from around the world come and
visit these wrecks to enjoy and recognize the history that
these shipwrecks represent from our wartime past.
But also knowing that the ships hold a diverse array of marine life.
Fishers, both recreational and commercial fishermen, also visit these sites
regularly, making these shipwrecks very important
and significant contributors to the maritime and cultural economy
on and along our coast. These shipwrecks are alive with marine
life, and it really is quite remarkable when we dive there
how unique each of these shipwrecks are. The marine life they contain, ranging
from the bait fish of these shimmering schools
above the wreck, to the pelagic predators, like jacks,
groupers, and snappers. And even the sentinels of these reefs,
the sand tiger sharks with their iconic toothy grin.
One of our goals in NOAA and the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science
is to understand how these shipwrecks form
habitats and are such prolific reefs. The best tools that we can use are to get
our eyes underwater. Divers and scuba divers carrying cameras
can capture some images that are just unbelievable.
And capture forever the way that the reefs are; how fish are associated with
the different habitat types including these shipwrecks.
When the shipwrecks are too deep, we use autonomous vehicles and remotely
operated vehicles. Again carrying cameras and capturing these
stunning images of how the fish are using these habitats.
What we're going to talk to you about today are some of the instruments that
we have mounted on our NOAA ships, such as the ship I'm reporting to you from
today, the NOAA ship Nancy Foster.
These instruments use sound that allow us to detect, map, and
study the way the fish are using the
shipwrecks. Simultaneously allowing us to characterize the
archaeological finds of these shipwrecks and the histories they hold on the seafloor.
<Transition to Dr. Avery Paxton>
Avery Speaking: One of the things that our collaborative team with
NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Sciences and
the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary has done over the past five years
is use the tools that Chris mentioned- the echo sounders, which use sound
to remotely sense the seafloor and the marine life.
And we have used those to get a broad glimpse over large swaths of the seafloor
including the shipwrecks. And this image
here is a still image of the U-701. It rests on its side, and you can see in
the right-hand side of the image a diver conducting a survey.
You can see another diver off to the left conducting some video work.
And you can see that these divers in the wreck structure are surrounded by a
massive school of these large fast-moving predators
called jacks. And one of the things we wanted to do with this research is to be
able to understand the unique fusion of the history and ecology that these
shipwrecks from the World War II time period represent.
And so as part of this, we wanted to be able to get
a much more solid picture of what the shipwrecks looked like in their current
state on the seafloor and how the marine life are using them.
And so we set out to not only map the shipwrecks in the
finest detail that we could using sound, but to also map the locations -
the exact locations - of the fish around these shipwrecks, so that we could
better understand how they are keeping our marine life and our
marine ecosystem healthy, and how they are being used by
recreational fishermen and divers as part of the coastal and
blue economy. And so what we did is we took our survey
vessel, like Chris has mentioned, the NOAA ship Nancy Foster, and on the
hull of the Nancy Foster, we have mounted a suite of instruments called
echo sounders. And these echo sounders, they emit pulses
of sound downward into the water column. And when
these sound pulses reach the seafloor or another hard
object or an object of different density than the surrounding water,
they bounce off and reflect back to the instrument on the hull of the ship,
where that signal is received. And using that signal that
is sent out and then received by these instruments -
This is a look at what they actually look like under the hull of the vessel.
There's one here in black. There's two here in orange and two in red. -
With that information, we're able to collect data streams that help us map
the shipwrecks and the fish around them. And there's three flavors of data that
we're getting out of these echo sounders. The first are really precise and
accurate maps of the shipwreck structures. You can see
clearly the bow and stern of this vessel, as well as the boilers.
And this type of data is what we call multibeam bathymetry,
and we'll circle back to that in a little bit. The other
flavor of data that we use is collected by a splitbeam echo sounder.
And these data allow us to map, and this is incredible, it maps the exact location
of individual fish in schools of fish relative to the
shipwreck. And then to push the envelope a little bit more, we actually use the
same sensor that we use to map the shipwrecks to look at the
extent of fish schools over much bigger areas
of the water column. And so with all three of these data
streams, we're able to start to (cough) excuse me,
we're able to start to develop these
high resolution maps. And so I'm now going to walk you
through each of these three flavors of sound data that I've talked about.
The first is the multibeam bathymetry. And in this video you see a survey
vessel and again on the hull of that vessel is this multibeam echo sounder.
And as it emits pulses of sound into the water column,
those sound waves insonify or paint a picture of what the seafloor
looks like. And I want to draw your attention to the
width of this beam. It is a broad beam of sound that is
being emitted in pulses. And so one way we can think of this is
like a big flashlight illuminating with sound the seafloor
with a really wide beam. You may also want to refer to it as a
floodlight, which is a good analogy. And so using
this imagery from the floodlight sensor, from the multibeam echo sounder,
we are then able to develop these really detailed maps of the shipwrecks
in their current state on the seafloor. And this project
included wrecks from World War II, but it also included
several of the wrecks that Tane has mentioned earlier
from other time periods. This particular one
is the USS Monitor, the iconic Civil War ironclad
that sank in the early 1860s. And the way you interpret this imagery
is that the warm colors, like the reds and the oranges,
those are shallow depths, and the cooler colors,
like the blues, those are deeper depths. And so in this one you can start to see
the iconic ship shape structure emerging off the screen from this imagery.
Some of the other vessels that we also
studied as part of this collaborative effort
include vessels from the World War I time period,
like the Proteus. And then, as for today, we're going to be focusing on
the World War II vessels, which include the Ashkhabad, the Russian
vessel depicted here, as well as multiple German
U-boats, like the U-352 that sank in 1942. And there also are several more
contemporary vessels, like the former USS Tarpon that sank in the late 50s, that
we examined. And so again to reiterate, we first used
this multibeam, this broad floodlight that allows us to <audio drops and is inaudible> map the shipwrecks
giving us colorful and high-resolution depictions of the seafloor and shipwrecks.
After we map the shipwrecks, we also use the sound to map the exact location
of fish around the shipwrecks. To map the fish, we use an instrument called a splitbeam echosounder
that you can think of like a narrow spotlight. <Audio resumes> And this
is a similar technology what we use to map the shipwrecks in the sense that it's emitting pulses of sound
downwards into the water column. You'll see the sound being emitted from
this orange echo sounder sensor here as a green
beam, just for visualization purposes. And when that sound pulse hits an object
like a fish or the sea floor that has a density that differs from the
surrounding seawater, that sound reflects off or bounces and
is then received by the instrument again on the ship, so
that we can turn that into information to map the fish
by identifying their exact locations and also allows us to estimate their length.
And so when we are on the ship, as Chris Taylor, who
spoke just a few minutes ago, is today actually collecting data just like this.
As we're on the ship, we're able to see the data come in in real time. And I want
you to get a feel for what this looks like.
So to orient you, you can see my mouse here, we're looking at the sea floor,
that is in this red area over here. We're starting to see
a structure of a part of a shipwreck emerge.
We're seeing fish signatures, as these orange, green, and blue dots. And we're
looking at the data as they come in. They're coming in in real time on the far
right of the screen. So we're marching in
space and we're marching in time. And so here we are, we're passing the
shipwreck. You can see massive schools of fish showing up in
our data stream, some above the shipwreck. And as we pass
those individual fish, we start to see them show up as
targets in this box here. And that enables us to
later figure out the exact location, the exact depth,
the exact location relative to the shipwreck of the individual fish.
And it helps us interpret their relative sizes.
And so when we start to go through the data,
and after we process them, remove some of the noise, this is what they begin to
look like. To orient you, we have a sandy seafloor here.
And then we come into the shipwreck
structure, which you see underneath this green line. It's
highlighted in red. So the way you interpret this is that
the super warm colors like the reds, those are harder objects like the
shipwreck or the seafloor. Whereas these signatures,
these represent fish. In individual fish are these banana-shaped squiggles.
And what we're able to do is then turn this information, this really colorful
echogram as we call it, of relatively raw data into visualizations
that really pop from the screen, and allow us
to start to put everything together. And so
this is the first one that I'm going to show you. This is one of the shipwrecks
that we studied as part of this project. You can see the habitat mapping data of
the shipwreck and the sand around it. And then superimposed on top of it, we
have placed these light blue dots. And each of these dots corresponds
to an individual fish detected with the splitbeam echo sounder.
And the size of the dots corresponds
to the size of the fish. So the bigger dots
are bigger fish, and the smaller dots are smaller fish.
And one of the things that I need to point out for you to fully understand
this is that unlike the multibeam echo sounder that
we used to map the shipwreck, which had a really broad beam as like a floodlight.
One of the differences with the splitbeam echo sounder is that the splitbeam
has a much narrower beam. So imagine a spotlight or a really narrow flashlight
beam that's able to detect fish only in its beam area,
which happens to be directly under the ship, our survey vessel as it
surveys. And so what happens is we are able to
detect fish underneath the survey vessel, which is
why we have a grid-like pattern. So the survey vessel was going in a
grid-like pattern over top of this shipwreck to sense the fish. As such, we
have the fish appearing in lines, kind of like a
tic-tac-toe board. And from the splitbeam echo sounder, we
are also able to detect schools of fish. This is a massive
school of fish right here. There's one also in the lower left. And
these are individual fish that are so tightly
packed that we can't identify individuals. And so rather we classify
them as a school. We're able to calculate information on
where the center of the school is, how long it is, how wide it is, etc.
And also superimpose it onto this visualization that we're building.
And so I'm showing you here a static visualization.
But towards the end of the presentation, we'll show you how we have made this
into a freely available, easily accessible, and intuitive
online application, where you can go and explore these data
in three dimensions. So one of the other things we did
is we used the multibeam echo sounder, the same instrument that we used to map
the seafloor, but this time we pushed the envelope so
that we were able to get information on the broader
extent of the fish schools. And we were able to do this because, if
you remember the multibeam echo sounder has a really
wide beam fan, so it's that floodlight analogy. It's able to survey a
big area of the seafloor and the water column.
And so this is what that area looks like. This is some of
the raw data. I'm going to orient you. Here we see this green line. This is
the sea floor. We then have the shipwreck and then the
sea floor extending to the right. And what we're able to do is pick up the
fish that are located in the water column above
the shipwreck. And we're able to do so in this really wide
area. And in comparison, the splitbeam that we looked at earlier with those
individual fish dots and the yellow schools, it's only able to
detect a small portion of the water column. So again remember the spotlight
of the splitbeam versus the floodlight that we're now
looking at with the multibeam. And these data are absolutely phenomenal
when they come in. This is what we see when we're on the ship. We see the sea floor.
We see the shipwreck starting to appear.
And we see the rest of the sea floor. Just to clarify,
the sea surface is up here. And so we're starting to see all of these
dots come in. All of these dots are representing
fish schools. And so because we're able to see a much bigger area of the water
column remotely using this sensor, it's able to
give us a much better understanding of how
extensive these schools that we picked up with the splitbeam
echo sounder actually are. And so how do we get
the information from these raw data into something that's usable and more easily
understood? Well, we identify the wreck. We
identify the fish school. Do some image processing
that allows us to highlight the school. And then focus in specifically on the
school, so that we're not accidentally detecting bubbles
close to the surface or detecting the shipwreck itself as a fish.
And then we apply a formula to take these individual targets, we call them,
these individual signatures and identify them as fish
that are part of the school. And I know that still seems a little bit abstract,
but I think this next slide is really going to allow it to sink in.
Is that we take all of that information and we're now able to
look at the broad extent of the school. And so that's shown here with these
white dots. So each of these white dots is part of this fish school.
And one of the things that strikes me is that we're now able to get
this much broader view of where the fish are. We don't have those
gaps like we did in the splitbeam echo sounder because the multibeam echo
sounder is able to see so much further underwater.
And so we are so excited to announce today that we have compiled
all of these data streams and visualizations
into a website. It's called Living Shipwrecks 3D.
We are officially launching the website today. So you all are some of the first
to get to see it. And the reason I'm so excited about it,
and the rest of our team is so excited about it,
is it provides a really visually intuitive way
to get up close and personal with these data.
And so when you first go to the site. which Shannon has provided you with the
link to and she will again after the
presentation. When you first go to the site, you are
greeted by Living Shipwrecks 3D, a habitat map of one of the shipwrecks.
And then a little bit about the site. So the story that we've been telling
today, that while these shipwrecks represent our nation's rich maritime
history, they're also reefs for a diversity of
marine life. We paint that picture, and then
we get into, I'm going to scroll past some text,
the meat of the site. And this is the data viewer.
When you get there, you're looking at the coast of North Carolina.
So for reference this is where Chris and I are.
Actually Chris is out here on a ship today, but I'm right here.
So often times, we take the NOAA ship Nancy Foster
out of the inlet, and we travel to each of these black flags,
which represents a shipwreck. There's nearly two dozen shipwrecks that are a
part of this. And today I'm going to take you on a
tour of several of them that are World War II shipwrecks.
So as we zoom in, I'm just using my mouse quite simply like you would on Google Earth.
I want to first take you to the World War II
shipwreck the E.M. Clark. And when we arrive at the Clark,
I'm going to toggle a few things on and off so we can start at the base and work up.
When we arrive there, I can use my mouse
to pan around, zoom in, zoom out,
do whatever I want to do to explore this map of the shipwreck.
The Clark is a really interesting one because it rests upside down.
So we're looking here at the hull, and you can see that there's areas of scour
around it. You can see these beautiful sand ripples.
Some that are spaced far apart, and some that are much more close
together. And what we can do is we can then go in
and layer on the maps of the fish. And so first I'm going to turn on the
individual fish. These orange dots are the individual
fish detected with that splitbeam echo sounder, so that spotlight instrument.
And you can start to see that these fish, while they are in a grid-like pattern
reflecting our survey design of the survey vessel,
they are congregating in particular areas. And we can zoom in and see a
little bit more about how they may be using the bow
or the stern of the vessel. We can also toggle on schools of fish
from the splitbeam. And next I want to show you the
school extent from the multibeam. This one's,
you're seeing these little white dots. Each of these white dots are
representative of targets within this broader school.
And so what it's showing you is that there is a
massive cloud of fish that is over top of this vessel the
E.M. Clark. One of the other things that you can do
on this site is you can explore additional vessels.
You can zoom in and out to get to the new vessels,
as you would using Google Map, but we've also
allowed these hotlink slides at the bottom.
And so next, I want to take you on a tour of the German U-boat, the U-701.
And this vessel is an interesting one as it is partially
covered by sand oftentimes. And so you can see
the ship structure again. This is the shallower part of the ship
shown in red in the deeper parts of this map are
the blue and purples that you're starting to see.
And as you can see, this is an island of habitat
in a vast expanse of sand. And because of that, a tremendous number
of fish tend to congregate around this wreck
using it as their home. And so just to give you an idea, this is
a school of fish detected by the
multibeam echo sounder. What's really interesting is that school
tends to be located near one of the tallest
components of this wreck. And that's something that we're starting
to learn more about through these data, is how the fish are using different
portions and what affects their ability to use
these shipwrecks for home, for places where they can eat food, and more.
And so the other thing that we're really
excited about is that this site allows us to interact with
the data in a way that suits your needs. And so let's say that
somebody is very interested in shipwrecks from World War I.
They could click to explore World War I era shipwrecks.
Today though because we are focusing on and commemorating the 75th anniversary
of the end of World War II, we're gonna quickly explore a few
more World War II wrecks. It takes us to a page where we can then
pick which wreck we explore in more detail.
We can choose amongst the merchant ships, some of the Allied ships that we have
mapped, as well as some of the German U-boats.
And I quickly want to highlight the W.E. Hutton.
The W.E. Hutton is an oil tanker that sank in 1942.
And when you go look at this particular wreck, you're met with a data viewer that
is specific to the Hutton. You can again zoom in,
toggle around, you can look at the big schools
from the single splitbeam sensor. You can look at the schools from
the multibeam sensor. And you can look at the individual fish.
And what strikes me the most when I look at these is how
alive these wrecks are with marine life that we're able to detect remotely.
But one of the things that's a little bit hard to wrap our heads around
is that we're displaying these fish as dots.
And unfortunately, the remote sensing systems that we use, so using
sound to detect the fish, does not yet allow us to identify
which types of fish were seen. And so to help paint that picture,
we have coupled the data streams, the remote sensing data streams,
with videos and other still images.
So this, for example, is a video from this particular shipwreck
that our team took using a remotely operated vehicle on a different survey.
And you're seeing hundreds of sand tiger sharks aggregating around this wreck structure.
We have another video that displays
incredible schooling fish behavior, some predation,
and some other remarkable behavior of fish actually rubbing against the sea
floor and kind of running into it that you'll see here in a second.
And so what I want you all to take home
from this today is that first of all, we invite you to
explore this website that our team has built,
that really helps bring these wrecks to life in their current
state on the sea floor. And the last thing
that I want to emphasize is that each of these shipwrecks is a unique
habitat. It's forming a really prolific reef. And each of these
reefs, we're starting to learn, have ecological functions. And so what
our team is using these data that we've shared with you today
for is to understand more about how these shipwrecks
are actually functioning as reefs. How they're supporting the fish
that the recreational divers come from all over the world to see,
mixed with this fusion of history on the shipwrecks.
And each time we sense these wrecks with sound or sonar,
we are discovering something new that keeps their legacy alive
ecologically after the great tragedy and rich maritime history
that they have had.
Tane Speaking: Outstanding. Thank you so much Avery. So as you just saw with these incredible
images, these shipwrecks are living habitat and
they're also incredible historic resources.
And it's a story, as an archaeologist, we can use this advanced sonar imagery to
document the shipwrecks better than ever before.
And we hope to better educate the public and honor these shipwrecks and
the battlefield that surrounds them. So NOAA's goal is to work with our
partners like NCCOS, like North Carolina's Office of State Archaeology,
to help protect these fragile historic resources for future generations.
And to preserve the memory of the brave Allied servicemen and the
U.S. Merchant Mariners who fought to rid the world of tyranny.
And we have to remember today is about celebration.
So it's the celebration of the end of the war and our troops finally coming home.
And this is a fantastic image of the the British liner the Queen Mary,
manned by merchant mariners by the way, bringing our troops home
from Europe, on June 20, 1945. So this is just one example of how this
full story is coming back home again with the Merchant Marine,
our troops, everybody bringing those men and material back home again.
And today, we celebrate the greatest generation that made America a military
and industrial leader and the world's most powerful economy.
Our troops came home, they got jobs, they started families,
and created the baby boom generation. These veterans helped create a time of
prosperity never seen before in history.
And at the close, we will never forget all those that gave the greatest sacrifice,
so we could have our tomorrows. We honor
their service, and we honor their legacy. And here at
the close, we invite everybody here listening, if
you'd like to learn more what NOAA is doing to help honor
this history, these shipwrecks in this battlefield, please visit our website
at https://monitor.noaa.gov.
Shannon Speaking: All right, well it is time for questions, and we have quite a few of them.
The first question that came in - Is echo sensor the same as echo location that
dolphins use to find their prey?
Avery Speaking: Chris would you like to answer that one or you want me to? Chris Speaking: Go ahead.
Avery Speaking: That's a really great question. So the question was are the echo sounders that
we use, using a similar technology to, well
I guess technology isn't really
the correct word, but a similar principle to what dolphins use
with echolocation, and the answer is yes. So the sound pulses that are emitted by
our sensor are able to bounce off of objects like fish
and the seafloor to give us those
beautiful visualizations that we've shared
with you today. And it's a very similar principle to what dolphins do with
echolocation, as well as bats actually, where they're
able to emit those pulses of sound to help, in some cases,
identify prey and other things that they need for part of their life history. So
that's a really great question. Similar principle for both in air
and in water. Shannon Speaking: Okay thank you. Next question may be for Tane, it says
- Are any of the ships discharging contaminants, such as oil,
fuel, or other chemicals today? And if so, how are the discharges monitored?
Tane Speaking: Well, it's a good question. You know
these were modern vessels. You know at the time they're only 75 years old and
technology doesn't change that much. So they're running on
diesel fuel. They were carrying oil. So they were at the time, you know we have
to remember that a lot of these ships burned ferociously with their crews
sacrificing themselves to save their other crew mates and they burned
really hard. So a lot of that has been burned off, but you know, there may be
a little tiny bit of that sort of the oil or
that material left. But so far. we haven't really seen any
major leakages at all, and a lot of that really truly has burned up.
But there are active programs with the United States Coast Guard
that monitors all these type of vessels, modern and historic,
for these type of leaks. And NOAA has programs as well,
like the Office of Response and Restoration.
Well, they deal directly with the Coast Guard,
and they actually act as the scientific advisors for them.
Shannon Speaking: Okay thank you Tane. Another question is - other than shipboard echo sounding what
other technologies are being used to map and observe the shipwrecks and
surrounding environments?
Chris Speaking: Yeah, I'll take that one since I'm on the ship right now. Some of the other
tools that we're using on this mission that we're conducting is
similar. We're using the echo sounders to map the seabed,
and we're using the echo sounders to detect fish. But like Avery
said, we don't always know what type of habitat we're encountering with the
echo sounders, and we don't know what type of species there are.
And so we're using, simply put, drop cameras.
We're attaching GoPros and cameras on long wires and lowering them to the seabed to
get our eyes in the water again to provide that detail
and that interpretation of what the seabed holds and the fish
that are using that habitat. We typically deploy those small cameras from
one of the launches that are on board here, a 24 foot boat, it's
a center console that carries about three people at a time. And they actually
just returned from one of those expeditions just before we
started giving the seminar.
Shannon Speaking: Okay, thank you Chris. Another question is - when NOAA surveys a given wreck
how does it interact with the fishing and diving vessels that may also want to
be on the site?
Chris Speaking: And I'll take that one too. Yeah, we attempt to communicate with
with fishers using our channels to the Coast Guard and our
friends at the dive shops as soon as possible or when we're around the site.
We always give way to any of the fishing vessels or charter dive vessels
that are approaching these sites and communicate with them regularly to make
sure that we're all sharing what appears to be a
very large ocean, but can be a very small space when you're all trying to
encounter one of the tiny shipwrecks.
We're learning a great deal about these wrecks and sites from our friends in the dive
community, the fishing community. We're learning about new areas to conduct our
research. And we feel that that network we've built between the dive and
fishing communities is critical to how we are conducting our
future research. Shannon Speaking: Okay, and another question is
- any signs of marine mammals utilizing the shipwrecks?
Chris Speaking: Not as often do we see marine mammals around the shipwrecks. We haven't.
We do see marine mammals while we're out here conducting our missions.
More often though we encounter sea turtles and it's
very interesting when as a diver encountering a sea turtle on a shipwreck
because the sea turtles appear to both feed on the encrusting organisms,
but then wedge themselves underneath the shipwrecks,
as a resting spot. And so oftentimes you'll see,
encounter a sea turtle, either on the shipwreck or maybe surfacing above it,
And a surfacing sea turtle sometimes indicates an important and interesting
habitat down below. Shannon Speaking: Okay, great. So another question that came
in, it says, - if we lose coral reefs and kelp
reefs due to climate change, pollution, and
other issues, is intentionally sinking old ships a
viable option to maintain reefs artificially? Avery Speaking: That's a really good
question as well. You guys are on point with these questions.
So that's something that quite frankly we don't yet know the answer to.
Our team has conducted a lot of research on shipwrecks as well as
intentionally deployed artificial reefs that sometimes take the form of ships or
concrete structures. And one of the things that we've learned
is that these artificial structures can host really high numbers of tropical
fish, as well as predators. And so
we don't yet know if it could be advantageous or beneficial to
strategically deploy some of these structures as stepping stones for some
of these animals that may need additional habitat. But it's
something that we're actively working to figure out.
So I think my best answer on that one is really interesting thought,
and we'll have to get you to stay tuned for that answer.
Shannon Speaking: Okay and last question because we're almost out of time.
This one would probably be for Tane. Could you clarify the historical data
that distinguishes the Hutton, Papoose, and Ario?
Tane Speaking: (laughs) I don't have the data actually in front of me,
but you know, we have to look at the historic record sometimes,
and we find through the 'fog of war' that you have to look at a last known
location where a vessel was reported. And sometimes
if some of the men are able to escape the vessel when it goes down,
they don't bring the log book, so it can be spotty. So you have to do a bit of
detective work to figure it out. So I can't tell you right off the bat
exactly what happened right now, just because we've been doing so many
things. But it is on our website. But a lot of it can be pointed to the
'fog of war' and oftentimes if you know you're
looking for a shipwreck site, and say you wanted it to be a tanker and it had
a particular kind of engine, you're like 'oh, well look it's
this size, it's got that, well maybe it is.' But then we discover, we
spend a little more time looking at the shipwreck itself, and
really looking at the historic record, and then you try to mate the two. So then
you start looking at little details you know, 'is it the same deck
layout, is it the same position of the cranes?'
Sometimes we find a vessel is misidentified
because it has the wrong number of gudgeons on it, which is the
sort of the pivot point that a rudder attaches to the hull. So sometimes by
counting those, if that's different from what was in the
ship plan, she's like "ah" This raises a question,
maybe this is something else. And through the detective work,
you find other things that say, "Hey, we thought this was vessel X at the start,
it turns out it's actually vessel B." And that's okay.
You know that's part of the ongoing research, the ongoing
attraction that is North Carolina. There's so many stories to tell.
Even though you think you might know everything about a shipwreck, there's
more stories to tell there too. Shannon Speaking: Okay. Well I'm sure we didn't get to
everybody's questions today, because there's a lot more that came in.
But if you do have additional questions that you want to ask, or if we
did not get to your question, you can actually email them to the presenters.
Their email addresses are listed here
on the screen. Also be sure to visit the data viewer website
to explore all the shipwrecks. And for more information on the Monitor or the
Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, you can visit our website.
And once captioned, a video recording of this presentation will be available on
the webinar archives page that's found at the URL that is listed here. And you
will also receive a link to the recording in a follow-up email.
Now if you enjoyed this webinar be sure to check out others in the
National Marine Sanctuaries Webinar Series. Tomorrow, September 3rd, Tirrea Billings
will present "Using Film to Drive Social Change."
Hear how Tirrea brings her passion for storytelling to ensure
that marginalized communities have a space to share their life experiences.
And on September 10th, hear tales of undersea exploration including ongoing
projects in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary,
as Dr. James Lindholm presents "Into the Deep: Literally, Virtually, and Fictionally."
Lastly. as you exit the webinar, there is
a short five-question survey for formal and informal educators.
So if you are an educator, NOAA would really appreciate it if you would take a
minute or two to complete the survey. Your answers will help NOAA develop
future webinars to meet your needs. And your participation is voluntary and
your answers will be completely anonymous.
Now once again we want to thank Tane, Chris, and Avery for a really great
presentation. And thank you for taking the time to join us today.
Have a wonderful day and this concludes the presentation.
Bye everyone.