Deep sea corals live in every part of the world, from the tropics to poles. Often, corals form reefs-three-dimensional structures built by the corals. Like shallow tropical reefs, deep sea coral reefs are rainforests in the sea and especially important places for fish like snapper and grouper to hide, reproduce and feed.

	Tropical coral reefs rely on sunlight to sustain lush reef communities. (D. Kesling)
	Gag grouper are overfished stock that rely on healthy reefs as essential fish habitat. (A. Hulbert)

The ivory tree coral, Oculina varicosa, is a delicately branching stony coral that lives off the southeast U.S. The most extensive area is deeper than 200 feet off the east coast of Florida. That is where we are today, on the Oculina Banks.

	Sample of ivory tree coral, Oculina varicosa, with shrimp on branch. (J. Reed)
	Angelfish on an Oculina bush in the reserve area. (D. Liberatore)

The Oculina Banks extend over 150 miles from Daytona to Fort Pierce FL. The highest abundance of reefs is from Cape Canaveral to Fort Pierce and this area has been recently closed to all bottom fishing. It is the only offshore marine protected area closed to fishing from Cape Cod, Massachusetts to Miami, Florida.

Oculina Banks chart

The habitat area is not only home to reef fish like snappers and groupers, it is also home for other organisms like shrimp and scallops that are captured by dragging nets over the bottom, a practice that has destroyed many of the Oculina reefs. We estimate that less than 10% of former live reefs are left on the Banks.

	Rock Shrimp trawler near the Oculina Banks reserve. (J. Reed)
	Oculina rubble field with evidence of trawl tracks inside the reserve from 2001 sub dives. (D. Liberatore)

This expedition is supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, more commonly know as NOAA. Our mission is to explore the Oculina protected area and determine the condition of the reefs and to census fish populations. We need to know if the closed area is helping to restore declining coral and fish populations.

Grouper on Oculina Reef (C. Grimes)

Our mother ship on this expedition is the M/V Liberty Star owned by NASA and operated by the United Space Alliance. It is normally used to recover the shuttle booster rockets that are shed into the Atlantic on lift-off.

NASA's booster rocket recovery vessel, Liberty Star, will support operations.

We will be using the University of North Carolina at Wilmington's underwater robot to dive on unexplored reefs that we identified from a very detailed seafloor map created just last Fall. The robot or remotely operated vehicle (ROV) has high quality video and digital still cameras, and a sampling arm for taking a few small coral samples. The seafloor map will be integrated with the dive data into a database that can be linked to, along with daily logs from the mission, at the expedition Web site created by the College of Charleston's Project Oceanica-http://oceanica.cofc.edu/oculina.

	Uncharted wreck mapped during 2002 Oculina Banks multi-beam survey, likely sunk by German U-boat.
	Remotely operated vehicle (ROV) will deploy mechanical arm to collect coral samples and cameras to document fish and coral habitat. (S. Van Meter)

During the last days of the cruise, we will be testing an underwater sound system developed by NASA for monitoring shuttle launch noise in the Kennedy Space Center lagoons. We would like to see if it can be used to detect spawning fish and vessel traffic in the closed area.

Passive Acoustic Monitoring System (PAMS) developed by NASA to monitor sound levels in waters of the Kennedy space center, will be tested for detecting fish and vessels offshore.

Our sincere hope is that the data we collect will help managers understand the dire situation that the corals face, and prompt them to increase enforcement efforts in keeping the Oculina Banks protected. If closure can be achieved, then our data will help managers assess the value of marine protected areas in restoring the rainforests and fisheries of the sea.

Coral habitat restoration structure (reef ball) on rubble field.