OCEAN CITY — It’s no secret the vast canyons off the coast are vitally important to the resort’s fishing economy, but scientists are still exploring their potential other uses.
Last week, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean (MARCO), a five-state partnership that includes Maryland and Delaware, hosted a workshop for a group of leading scientists and federal management partners, to discuss the current state of the deep sea canyon ecosystem. The workshop explored the existing management programs that have jurisdiction over the current and potential future uses of the vast canyons off the mid-Atlantic coast.
The canyons mark the outer edge of the U.S. continental shelf along the entire mid-Atlantic coast, literally the “grand canyons” of the Atlantic, providing important habitat for ocean life and supporting an essential part of the coastal economy. They are home to a wealth of resources, including newly discovered marine species, colorful cold-water corals, unique fishes and many other organisms. The MARCO workshop last week revealed much has been learned about the canyons, but much more is still unknown.
“We have come very far in just 15 years in what we know about the canyons,” said Dr. John McDonough, deputy director of NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, which has been responsible for leading expeditions that expand the understanding of the mid-Atlantic canyons. “Collaboration and relationships have been critical for that.”
MARCO hosted the workshop last week as part of its ongoing work to enhance the vitality of the region’s ocean ecosystem and economy.
“The canyons off this coast are an important economic resource for our region,” said Sara Cooksey, Environmental Program Administrator for the Delaware Coastal Programs, who sits on MARCO’s management board. “The fish, sea turtles, dolphins, whales, seabirds and other wildlife that depend on them are critical to our fishing and tourism industries. We need to ensure we have the best available science and understand what the science is telling us in order to manage them in a sustainable way.”
The meeting participants, including federal and state representatives, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and academic scientists, conclude that ongoing science and management efforts in the mid-Atlantic canyons should emphasize research, data sharing and collaboration tools and processes and outreach. The workshop participants also continued to seek solutions to address new impacts on the canyons from marine pollution in the form of toxics, plastics and lost fishing gear, to climate change, warming sea temperatures and increasing acidification.
“The governors of the MARCO states agreed these canyons are a shared regional priority due to their ecological value,” said Laura McKay, program manager for Virginia’s Coastal Zone Management Program and chair of the MARCO management board. “Although many factors led to the fortuitous series of mid-Atlantic canyon explorations funded by NOAA and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management from 2011 to 2016, MARCO’s identification of the need helped galvanize the effort.”
As a result, the data collection and information shared during the workshop last week continues to advance a greater knowledge of the vast canyons off the resort coast.
“We are now beginning to build a truly regional approach to maintaining the health of the canyons, a sustained collaborative effort among academic leaders, federal and state resource managers and stakeholders,” said McKay.
