US, Indonesia Explore Uncharted Deep Sea

Jakarta Globe, Foster Klug, June 22, 2010

Scientists aboard the United States research vessel Okeanos Explorer, pictured, and their Indonesian counterparts on Thursday begin the first joint deep-sea exploration by both nations.

Washington. A deep-sea expedition by the United States and Indonesia sets off this week to explore one of the world's last frontiers, an adventure that researchers hope could lead to cures for diseases and help in predicting deadly tsunamis.

Scientists portray the trip to Indonesian waters as a throwback to a time when explorers blazed new trails into unknown territory.The expedition, which is set to begin Thursday and wrap up in early August, is the maiden voyage for a high-tech US science ship and the first joint deep-sea exploration by Indonesia and the United States.

Scientists will use a powerful sonar mapping system and a robotic vehicle equipped with high-definition video cameras to explore hundreds of square miles north of the Indonesian archipelago, providing an extraordinary glimpse of one of the globe's most diverse, complex and little-known marine ecosystems.

"The world's oceans are great mysteries to us, but there are few greater mysteries than this area in Indonesia that we're going to be exploring," Craig McLean, who oversees oceanic exploration for the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said in an interview.

Indeed, while a dozen men have been to the moon and back, only two have explored the deepest ocean and returned to tell the tale. This voyage won't be adding to that list; an unmanned, remote-controlled vessel will be exploring the deep sea.

Probing the ocean's depths is a potentially dangerous affair, with only a small number of countries and research centers investing in the effort. NOAA takes part in several international missions a year, but officials describe this one as its most complex.

A major goal is to create a high-resolution map of the ocean floor that will help scientists better understand how tsunamis form and make more accurate models to forecast the earthquake-spawned waves in the future. The region straddles a series of fault lines, making it very seismically active. In 2004, an earthquake off western Indonesia triggered tsunamis that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

Indonesia's Minister for Marine Affairs and Fisheries Fadel Muhammad said scientists also want to explore ecosystems living around underwater volcanoes, some of which remain active.

Oceans cover about 70 percent of the earth's surface, but little is known about the sea floor. And not just remote parts of the Pacific; US officials say they've only mapped a small part of the exclusive economic zone that extends into waters off the American shore.

"There actually is a reasonable degree of artistic fiction included in most world maps that portray the ocean," McLean said. "Our job, among many, is to fill in those blanks."

The exploration might even point the way to cures for human diseases. Though the mission is not primarily designed to snap up thousands of samples of plants and sea animals, Indonesian scientists will collect specimens that could have medicinal qualities, such as attacking harmful bacteria or fighting the spread of cancer cells. An example of such a compound is discodermolide, a potential cancer drug extracted from a deep-water sponge.

Scientists from both countries say this venture is mostly about exploration, meaning they will allow their curiosity to guide them.The United States will send scientists and a converted US Navy ship, the Okeanos Explorer, to Indonesian waters. Indonesia's contribution is a research vessel, the Baruna Jaya IV, which will collect specimens that, together with all rights for future use, will remain in the country. The United States hopes to join in collections at a future date.

The Okeanos comes equipped with a multi-beam sonar mapping system that can generate high-resolution, wide-angle images in very deep water.It also has a remote-controlled robotic vehicle, about as big as a small sports utility vehicle, that's attached to the ship by a cable and capable of operating at depths more than twice the mile-deep oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It has chemical sensors, movable arms, high-definition video cameras and a strong lighting system. Images will be transmitted to the ship by fiber-optic cables, beamed to a satellite and then sent to scientists on shore.

John McDonough, deputy director of the NOAA office of ocean exploration and research, said these scientists can contribute to the expedition by asking the pilot on the ship steering the robotic vehicle to pursue whatever strikes their fancy.

"The real objective here is to find something of interest that the science communities will want to come back to," McDonough said. "It's really establishing a sense of place." 

Associated Press

New Zealand: 125 pilot whales die on beaches

NDTV, Associated Press, Monday December 28, 2009, Coromandel peninsula, New Zealand

Some 125 pilot whales died in New Zealand after getting stranded on the beach over the weekend, but vacationers and conservation workers on Sunday managed to coax 43 others back out to sea.

Rescuers monitored the survivors as they swam away from Colville Beach on North Island's Coromandel peninsula, and by Monday morning they were reported well out to sea.

Department of Conservation workers and hundreds of volunteers helped re-float the 43 whales at high tide. The volunteers covered the stranded mammals in sheets and kept them wet through the day.

"We've been here probably about three and a half, four hours and we've been just listening to instructions and yeah, trying to keep them as wet as possible and comfortable," volunteer Deanna Pandy told New Zealand television.

Conservation officials said one of the whales may have been sick, or their sonar may have led them into the shallow harbour and they couldn't find their way out again.

On Monday, more than 20 whales were buried by local Coromandel Maori. Meanwhile on South Island, 105 long-finned pilot whales that stranded died on Saturday, conservation officials said on Monday.

Officials said they were discovered by a tourist plane pilot and only 30 were alive when conservation workers arrived. Because the site is part of a nature reserve, the 105 whale carcasses were left to decompose where they stranded, officials said.

Large numbers of whales become stranded on New Zealand's beaches each summer as they pass by on their way to breeding grounds from Antarctic waters. Scientists so far have been unable to explain why whales become stranded.

20 pilot whales die on New Zealand beach, 43 saved

The Jakarta Post, The Associated Press | Sun, 12/27/2009 3:12 PM | World

Twenty pilot whales died on a New Zealand beach after stranding bt holiday-makers and conservation workers Sunday managed to coax 43 others back out to sea.

Rescuers monitored the survivors as night fell as they swam away from Colville Beach on North Island's Coromandel peninsula, hoping they would not turn back to the beach.

Department of Conservation workers and hundreds of volunteers helped refloat the 43 whales at high tide. The volunteers covered the stranded mammals in sheets and kept them wet through the day.

"Some 63 pilot whales stranded ... but it looks pretty good, we've got 43 live ones," Department of Conservation ranger Steve Bolten said as the pod swam out to sea.

Bolten said one of the whales may have been sick, or their sonar may have led them into the shallow harbor and they couldn't find their way out again.

Camper Deanna Paddy and her family spent hours in the sea helping the whales, "trying to keep them as wet as possible and comfortable," she told Television New Zealand's One News.

One of the whales she helped died on the beach. "That's nature but we've still got others to try and help. We're just going to give them the best chance we can and hope for the best."

New Zealand has several mass whale strandings around its coastline each summer as they pass by on their way to breeding grounds from Antarctic waters. Scientists so far have been unable to explain why whales become stranded.

Moving toward marine based development

The Jakarta Post, Sukristijono Sukardjo, Jakarta | Thu, 12/24/2009 9:08 AM | Opinion

Few other nations should be more concerned about the ocean and oceanographic research than Indonesia. Being located in between two oceans, the Pacific and the Indian, the waters around 17,504 islands greatly influences the climate, economy and health of the people of this Republic.

The industrialization during late eighties brought in agriculture and financial services to reinforce an Indonesian economy entirely based up until then on forestry-cultivation and fun-filled beach-centered tourism. However, despite having a 2.7 million square kilometer Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), the ocean based economic activities contributing to the GNP of Indonesia have been unfortunately insignificant.

Considering the fact that Indonesia has one of the highest populations in the world with access to renewable and non-renewable resources, exploitation of oceanic resources will probably follow as the next phase of the nation’s industrial development. There is a great need for an integrated approach in scientific planning, formulation, implementation and overall management of ocean related activities in Indonesia.

The coastal zone is the prime frontier area to study, as it impacts the livelihood of 60 percent of Indonesians in one-way or another. Monitoring change in the 95,181 km shoreline is an important task for the concerned ministries and research institutions. A GIS-based mapping of the coastline using satellite, aerial photography and real-time ground-truthing is taken up to estimate coastal vulnerability against geological, climatological, biological, chemical and physical extremes.

There is a proposal to set-up a few time-series stations around some major islands and outer islands (e.g. Tual, Kai Kecil islands, etc.). Such marine research stations selected on strong scientific rationale would collect data on all possible oceanographic parameters at regular intervals over a stipulated period. Modeling such data would help develop strategies to effectively mitigate coastal problems.

The livelihoods of a large majority of the Indonesian people depend on fishing and the fisheries industry. Complete biomass evaluation and detailed maps of mangroves, seagrass beds, coral reef and fish stock are still insufficient, some not available.

Mangroves

To overcome this shortfall, efforts are now on to identify new fishing banks through bathymetric survey and satellite information. Construction of artificial reefs, mariculture and mangrove rehabilitation and/or restoration are encouraged.

Continuous monitoring of chlorophyll content, sea surface temperature and current pattern are studied to maximize the resource products. Setting up of an integrated coastal zone management framework involving impact assessment certification mechanism and an efficient hazard and crisis mitigation group are being actively considered.

A substantial part of the protein needs of Indonesia come from the sea through captured fisheries — 2,500 fish species have been identified and some of these of commercial value worldwide. A good demand for filleted and other value-added forms of fish should excite the fishing industry and home industry.

Biotechnology and sea ranching mechanism can ensure high food quality and add value to the product. Grounds for deep-water shrimp trawling and possibilities to develop technology for better fish preservation are now explored. The seafood technology arena, in particular, can create a lot of job opportunities. Extracts from marine organisms can also contribute a substantial part of the country’s drug needs.

Indonesia is insisting on well-equipped laboratories and trained human resources to capture the intellectual property rights and other commercial possibilities in the field of bio-prospecting. Indonesian marine invertebrate biotechnology products have a potential value of US$340-780 million per year, and would constitute 5 percent of the world’s total output.

As a fundamental measure, the vast EEZ and the Sunda and Sahul shelf need to be explored in detail to complete geological, chemical, biological and physical mapping. Understanding the submarine landslides, sea floor tectonics and its effect on stability of islands coastlines are of great significance.

Indonesia straddles the ring of fire, has vast continental shelves, and in consonance with Article 76 of the Unclos Convention, geological and geophysical data is necessary for demarcate extension of legal continental shelves. An intensive exploration to identify maritime resources within the EEZ for hydrocarbon potential, seamount cobalt rich crust and phosphorus, hydrothermal metal deposits of the mid-oceanic ridge and associated bioactive compounds is necessary.

Another area in which Indonesia is interested to harvest renewable energy from wind, waves, currents, tides, and from large temperature difference that exist in the water le-vels within a short distance from the shore. The Indian Ocean, stretching from east of Sumatera to south of Java going to West part of Indonesia holds great promise.

Indonesia is lucky to have the Wallace Line which runs from Lombok strait between Borneo and Sulawesi to the Sulu Sea in the Philippines, marking the boundary between the Asian and Australasian faunas of Laurasian and Gondwanan ancestry. Marine creatures (e.g. Coelacanth fish) and pelagic fish e.g. Spermonde islands, are phenomenal to science. Understanding the processes of generation of new oceanic crust at the Central Indian Ridge would be interesting to obtain fundamental information on mantle melt behavior and high-grade sulphide metal deposits.

A host of worms and colorful tubes amazingly occur at this extremely hot (>200o C) deep-sea environment. The genetic adaptations of these organisms biologically in the laboratory may prove commercially potential and academically significant. Studying various dimensions and dynamics of the Central Indian Ridge-Indian Oceans should prove rewarding e.g. the discovery of giant, deep-sea -volcano in the offshore Bengkulu. Oceans regulates climate by absorbing much of the atmospheric carbon.

Hence understanding the biogeochemical environment that controls and relates oceanic productivity and atmospheric composition can help climate prediction. Increased research on air-sea interaction processes and stimulation of ocean-atmosphere coupling would contribute substantially to enhance weather and climate prediction ability.

To this end, Indonesia is now integrated with an international campaign to understand the above delicate aspects. WOC2009 is the milestone of Indonesian contribution to ocean-climate change issues.

By deploying argo floats, data-buoys, tide gauges and sediment traps, Indonesia is poised to generate a wealth of information from her waters. It is proposed to study the Sunda and Sahul shelf and Wallace’s Line seas in detail as the oceanographic parameters of this area greatly influence the tropical climate, the two oceans: Pacific and Indian, and the resultant economy.

From social points also, Indonesian waters are expected to have a wealth of history submerged, myth and legendary. Scientific investigation to catalogue marine archaeological sites of Indonesian waters and trace maritime history through research may bring out unsung pages of culture and commerce in the past.

In order to make use of the ocean in a sustainable way, ministries and institutions in Indonesia should take much interest on the issue, said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the address on the Coral Triangle Initiative Summit 2009. Dewan Kelautan Indonesia (The Indonesian Maritime Council), as a national coordination committee in ocean sciences is being set up by presidential decree for this purpose. Being a responsible contributor to global ocean research campaigns (e.g. Manado Ocean Declaration 2009), Indonesia is on the cusp of qualifying as a hub of marine research activities in the Indonesia waters, between Indian and Pacific oceans.

It is believed that only through visible, rational and responsible marine scientific activities; Indonesia can take advantage of her enormous geographical and strategic potential. If approached judiciously, oceanic activities could become a pillar of Indonesia economy in near future, following the success of Japan, Australia, South Korea, Maldives, and Mauritius that use ocean life to fuel their economy.

The writer is a Professor of Mangrove Ecology at the Center for Oceanological Research and Development, Indonesian Institute of Science (LIPI).

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