We produce quite a lot of data that's immediately available to the public and
with some immediate information returns. For instance, in this Canyon
cruise, we've identified sensitive coral habitats that were not known before and
located them accurately, which was not known before. We've identified a methane
coal seep which we thought was in this canyon but now we know it is for sure. We
will, my colleague and I, Dr. Brooke, will go back after this cruise and draw boxes
around these areas and propose to the management councils that these areas be
protected and we'll have information to back that up.
What I do for the most part
is provide scientific information to our policy department, so that the policy
amendments that they are requesting from Congress are scientifically defensible.
I also hold the conservation seat for the Olympic Coast National Marine
Sanctuary Advisory Council and I work with the fisheries management councils
to advocate for and provide scientific information for protection,
primarily of deep coral habitats, but also other vulnerable ecosystems.
The councils are very receptive to this kind of information and have used our data
like this before, so that is of an immediate benefit to the public.
Quite often in this kind of work, the sorts of things that we collect, and
this diverse team collects, appear to be esoteric and not useful. But, it's amazing
how in the future people look back on these kinds of collections and say,
"Oh I'm really glad they collected that, we didn't know that was useful but now it's
is of vital importance."