WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.880 --> 00:00:05.720 [Robert Schmieder] When we got to the bottom, I turned to my buddy and I went – 00:00:05.720 --> 00:00:09.660 Which is to say, "Do you believe what you're seeing?" 00:00:09.660 --> 00:00:11.460 And that's the way we felt. 00:00:11.460 --> 00:00:15.580 We just couldn't believe it. It was spectacular. 00:00:24.100 --> 00:00:29.320 [Narrator] Cordell Bank lay beneath the surface, unknown for millennia, 00:00:29.380 --> 00:00:35.060 while hundreds of mariners unsuspectingly passed over its uppermost pinnacles. 00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:39.380 The famed George Davidson had an up-and-coming hydrographer 00:00:39.380 --> 00:00:41.400 by the name of Edward Cordell 00:00:41.400 --> 00:00:44.540 who in the mid-1800s had assisted Henry Stellwagen 00:00:44.540 --> 00:00:47.820 in the discovery of a bank outside of Boston Harbor, 00:00:47.820 --> 00:00:52.120 now designated as Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. 00:00:54.120 --> 00:00:59.600 After gaining notoriety as an accomplished hydrographer, Davidson enlisted Cordell 00:00:59.600 --> 00:01:04.800 to search and conduct further surveys of the shoal west of Point Reyes, California, 00:01:04.800 --> 00:01:09.660 originally discovered by Davidson in 1853. 00:01:09.660 --> 00:01:15.460 Following birds and marine mammals, he located the shoal in 1869, 00:01:15.460 --> 00:01:20.580 determining the overall contours of this hidden biological oasis. 00:01:21.320 --> 00:01:26.040 The location and general contours were all that was known about Cordell Bank 00:01:26.040 --> 00:01:29.120 until a group of intrepid explorers' efforts, 00:01:29.120 --> 00:01:31.260 driven by raw curiosity, 00:01:31.260 --> 00:01:34.480 gave rise to the unimaginable discovery 00:01:34.480 --> 00:01:40.480 of what rose from the bottom 20 miles off Point Reyes, waiting to be discovered. 00:01:41.260 --> 00:01:44.780 [Schmieder] So I unrolled a chart, and I looked at it, 00:01:44.780 --> 00:01:48.340 to the north and slightly west of the Farallones 00:01:48.340 --> 00:01:54.940 I saw this place in darker color and it was labeled "Cordell Bank." 00:01:54.940 --> 00:01:59.940 Simple curiosity, I started asking, well, what do we know about Cordell Bank? 00:01:59.940 --> 00:02:02.740 Nobody knew anything. 00:02:02.740 --> 00:02:06.040 So the reaction in my part was reflexive. 00:02:06.040 --> 00:02:07.660 We have to go there and find out. 00:02:11.200 --> 00:02:15.240 [News announcer] In teams of twos and threes the divers splash into the ocean. 00:02:15.240 --> 00:02:19.560 They want to obtain a representative collection of the species that live there. 00:02:19.560 --> 00:02:23.460 A chance to dive to this place that is so worthy of federal protection. 00:02:23.460 --> 00:02:26.660 [Schmieder] I demurred for I think about two years. 00:02:26.660 --> 00:02:29.300 I said we need to do more work 00:02:29.300 --> 00:02:32.480 to increase the list of species. 00:02:32.480 --> 00:02:36.600 The sanctuary programs division of NOAA asked 00:02:36.600 --> 00:02:41.360 would it be appropriate to nominate Cordell Bank to be a sanctuary 00:02:41.360 --> 00:02:44.720 and then at the end of the roughly two years, 00:02:44.720 --> 00:02:47.280 of course my answer was absolutely yes. 00:02:47.280 --> 00:02:49.280 [News announcer] A bank of data has been gathered here 00:02:49.280 --> 00:02:51.900 thanks mainly to the efforts of Robert Schmieder, 00:02:51.900 --> 00:02:54.280 who now awaits federal government action, 00:02:54.280 --> 00:02:59.700 hoping marine sanctuary designation will be conferred to the Bay Area's underwater mountain. 00:03:03.160 --> 00:03:07.600 [Narrator] The understanding generated by Schmieder and his team at Cordell Expeditions 00:03:07.600 --> 00:03:13.660 over ten years of documentation illuminated the need for protection of Cordell Bank. 00:03:14.380 --> 00:03:22.160 NOAA announced the designation of Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary in May 1989. 00:03:22.160 --> 00:03:25.360 The bank sits at the edge of the continental shelf 00:03:25.360 --> 00:03:32.600 and rises abruptly from the soft sediments of the shelf to within 115 feet of the ocean surface. 00:03:32.600 --> 00:03:38.980 Years of research, education, resource protection, and community engagement 00:03:38.980 --> 00:03:43.150 led to the sanctuary expansion in June 2015. 00:03:43.880 --> 00:03:49.700 This added nearly 900 square miles of critically important deep-water habitats 00:03:49.700 --> 00:03:51.360 surrounding the bank. 00:03:51.740 --> 00:03:55.480 The prevailing offshore near-surface California Current 00:03:55.489 --> 00:03:57.900 flows southward towards the equator 00:03:57.900 --> 00:04:01.720 and the upwelling of nutrient-rich deep ocean water 00:04:01.720 --> 00:04:10.500 supports the sanctuary's dense biological community of fish, invertebrates, marine mammals, and seabirds. 00:04:10.500 --> 00:04:14.790 July 2019 marked the 30th anniversary 00:04:14.790 --> 00:04:21.020 of the designation of this biodiversity hotspot as a national marine sanctuary. 00:04:21.340 --> 00:04:23.620 [Scientist] Wow. This really is something. 00:04:23.620 --> 00:04:26.740 [Jenny Stock] It really was when we started getting some of the high-resolution imagery, 00:04:26.740 --> 00:04:29.360 the video footage, that I started realizing 00:04:29.360 --> 00:04:32.180 what an amazing place it was 00:04:32.180 --> 00:04:34.360 and it seemed to be untouched by humans. 00:04:34.360 --> 00:04:37.420 [Tessa Hill] The sanctuary is important to me for a variety of different reasons. 00:04:37.420 --> 00:04:44.200 One is that is protects this really interesting and important and also pretty unexplored habitat. 00:04:44.200 --> 00:04:46.160 The ocean is changing very fast 00:04:46.160 --> 00:04:47.960 and one of the things the sanctuary does is 00:04:47.960 --> 00:04:51.340 protects areas that we're still trying to understand. 00:04:51.340 --> 00:04:53.620 We know they're important and we want to know more 00:04:53.620 --> 00:04:56.820 and that's certainly the case for Cordell Bank. 00:04:56.820 --> 00:05:02.000 [Schmieder] The public has a chance to see something that they couldn't see. 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:04.960 I had to go to a lot of work to see this 00:05:04.960 --> 00:05:10.200 and it actually resulted in something that a member of the general public 00:05:10.200 --> 00:05:17.200 can appreciate through exhibits, through website, and so on. 00:05:17.200 --> 00:05:20.600 [Hill] In particular when I think about 30 years from now, 00:05:20.600 --> 00:05:24.540 I think about Cordell Bank as being a place that was protected 00:05:24.540 --> 00:05:29.340 and carefully managed by stakeholders during a time when the ocean was changing a lot. 00:05:29.340 --> 00:05:33.520 And so it becomes more and more important as we go forward in the future. 00:05:34.540 --> 00:05:37.320 [Stock] One of the things that I've loved about this place is that 00:05:37.320 --> 00:05:41.340 just of our coast we have in this incredible slice of biodiversity 00:05:41.340 --> 00:05:45.320 that is really hard to match in other parts of the world 00:05:45.320 --> 00:05:50.560 from the abundance of life and the diversity of species, 00:05:50.560 --> 00:05:53.600 the fact that species travel from all around the Pacific 00:05:53.600 --> 00:05:56.720 to come eat here, it's really just this hot spot. 00:05:56.720 --> 00:06:01.280 And I really hope that as we move forward 30 years from now that it stays 00:06:01.280 --> 00:06:05.300 as biodiverse and as exciting and abundant as it is right now. 00:06:06.800 --> 00:06:11.760 [Caryl Hart] I can't think of anything more important right now in today's world 00:06:11.760 --> 00:06:15.740 than to let people know the importance of areas like this in the oceans. 00:06:17.420 --> 00:06:20.080 [John Largier] It's really an interesting place to be because 00:06:20.080 --> 00:06:23.540 we have so many different perspectives on the sanctuary 00:06:23.540 --> 00:06:28.640 yet gathered around this common purpose of making the sanctuary as good as it can be. 00:06:29.040 --> 00:06:33.860 [Dan Howard] Cordell Bank is due west of us about six miles completely offshore, 00:06:33.860 --> 00:06:39.160 and so if you look right out there, this is your national marine sanctuary. 00:06:43.420 --> 00:06:46.180 [Schmieder] Whenever I get a chance to mention Cordell Bank 00:06:46.180 --> 00:06:49.080 it's with a lot of pride and appreciation 00:06:49.080 --> 00:06:52.790 to the sanctuary programs division of NOAA 00:06:52.790 --> 00:06:54.280 and the staff of NOAA, 00:06:54.280 --> 00:06:58.340 and the staff that has shepherded Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary 00:06:58.340 --> 00:07:04.200 since it was established in just a wonderful exemplary fashion.