03-22-06

Media Release

Experts Propose Major Mapping Program on Oregon Coast

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Researchers and officials from Oregon State University and other state agencies are proposing the most ambitious mapping effort ever done of the territorial seafloor off Oregon, a two-year, $5.6-million effort they say would have a huge range of long-term benefits for everything from fisheries management to tsunami planning and creation of marine reserves.

The Oregon Ocean Policy Advisory Council unanimously endorsed the proposal at a meeting on March 17, and organizers now plan to take the idea to the State Land Board, which consists of Oregon’s governor, secretary of state and state treasurer. Both state and federal support will ultimately be sought for the initiative.

The concept is to produce a highly detailed map using multi-beam sonar of the three-mile wide strip of ocean along Oregon’s coastline, an area of 950 square nautical miles of undersea terrain that is now only understood in crude terms. Without a more coordinated and focused research plan, the scientists say, it will take decades to completely map this area with the current fragmented and piecemeal approach.

The development of a “science consensus statement” was initiated by Mark Hixon, an OSU professor of zoology, and led by Chris Goldfinger, a professor of oceanic and atmospheric sciences, and Dawn Wright, professor of geosciences, who are experts in seafloor mapping, habitat characterization, and earthquakes and tsunamis. Wright noted that “there are very serious policy issues we face” in understanding and managing the nearshore areas off Oregon.

“At the pace of current efforts it would take nearly 50 years to completely map this zone, and we can’t afford to wait that long,” Goldfinger said. “Considering the wide range of uses for this data, the needed funding is actually very modest and it should provide a huge return on our investment.”

About 95 percent of the Oregon territorial sea is known only by crude depth charts and contours, experts say. The real picture of the seafloor that is readily available by modern technology – ridges, valleys, rockpiles, seafloor makeup, habitats, even the marine biology most likely associated with various areas – is known for only a tiny fraction of the area that is regulated by the state.

Mapping of the broader continental margin is presently under way through a variety of efforts, scientists said, but the nearshore areas are usually left out due to the difficulty of working in shallow waters and inadequate funding. Yet these nearshore areas are crucial to many ocean issues.

Costs could be kept down by using idled fishing vessels, proponents say, and advances in technology have also been made that could yield maps of exceptional detail that would once have been prohibitively expensive.

“Understanding the nature of Oregon’s Territorial Sea is critical to sustaining sport and commercial fisheries, coastal tourism, and a broad range of other ocean derived ecosystem services valued by Oregonians, in addition to addressing the threat posed by a major tsunami,” wrote 20 different OSU and state agency officials in the statement they signed.

One of the driving needs for this information, the group said, is the 20 percent probability that the Pacific Northwest will face a magnitude 9 subduction zone earthquake and tsunami within the next 50 years. Much of the understanding about tsunami run-up and the hazards faced by individual coastal towns depends on a comprehensive knowledge of sea floor terrain, which does not now exist.

The health and ecology of nearshore fisheries and other marine life are another critical issue, researchers say. Marine life is often dependent upon explicit, but limited habitat features, and a more sophisticated mapping of this area could provide data needed in fisheries management and development of marine sanctuaries, reserves or protected areas – a topic of considerable interest right now.

Sophisticated technology, of the type that OSU experts are using and continuing to develop, can provide detail not unlike an aerial photograph of the ocean floor. Advanced systems can even predict with some accuracy the fish and other marine life forms that would be associated with various areas.

Detail of that magnitude might also aid initiatives to develop wave energy, improve port security, enhance fisheries, respond to oil spill emergencies, increase recreational tourism or understand coastal erosion, said Wright, an international expert in the use of advanced technology to map ocean terrain.

OSU geoscientists, marine biologists and geophysicists have led this effort, but it is being supported by agency leaders from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries. The proposed initiative is consistent with state planning goals that call for stewardship and conservation of ocean resources in this area, officials said.