Timothy: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 1:42PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Welcome to the Camp Internet chatroom. Today's chat session is part of our Summer Technology Skills workshop for teachers. Ben will be online to discuss his work with the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary and other special projects. Chat starts at 2pm.

: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:05PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Hi Everyone! I'm Ben Waltenberger, a Physical Scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). I work at the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary. My job there includes working with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing hardware and software (mostly from satellites). One of my main jobs is taking in LOTS and LOTS of research data collected in and around the sanctuary and tying it all together to look and see where things are connected. I also work with our shipwreck expert to map wrecks and acts as our emergency response officer, providing data during emergencies such as oil spills. I look forward to answering all your questions today!

Michelle McC: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:08PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Hi Ben, Michelle

Ben @ NOAA: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:09PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Here's an image to orient you to the Santa Barbara Channel. THis is a TIN (Triangulated Irregular Network) model of the topography and bathymetry of the area. It's made up of about 6 million individual points.

Wendy/Charles Mack Elementary: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:09PM PST (-0800 GMT)
How many shipwrecks have you located?

carrie: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:10PM PST (-0800 GMT)
What research project have you worked on today?

Ben @ NOAA: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:10PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Hi Michelle! How's the training going?

Carolyn: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:10PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Mr. Waltenberger, how long have the Channel Islands been protected as a sanctuary?

Ted, Van Buren: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:11PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Ben, how deep is the water where the shipwrecks are found?

HowardVic: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:11PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Do you use sonic sounding equipment to examine what lies under the surface? How was the pigmy mammoth discovered?

lLMB: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:11PM PST (-0800 GMT)
What kind of research data are you working on at this time?

Ben @ NOAA: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:11PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Wendy: We know of about 200 shipwrecks around the islands. We've physically discovered about 25 of them (including a World War @ bomber). Carrie: I'm currently working on making maps out of aerial photography.

Michelle McC: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:12PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Ben, what is your favorite park of your job working with GIS or RS technology

Clara Alvear-Rio Lindo School: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:13PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Hello Ben, Can you give some examples of the data you collect and of the connections you have been able to establish? Just an example for us to understand better what you do.

Joan from Maple Elementary: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:14PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Hi Ben. Thanks for chatting with us today. What part of your job is the most challenging?

Timothy - Camp: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:14PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Ben - What is the most exciting new study that has taken place in the Channel Islands Sanctuary this past year?

Ben @ NOAA: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:14PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Carolyn: We've been in existence since 1980. Ted: It varies greatly. Most of the wrecks have been discovered at SCUBA diving depths between 10-100 feet. HowardVic: Yes, we use what's called Side Scan Sonar to help us "photograph" the seafloor using sound. Here are a couple of images from our last shipwreck dive:

Carolyn: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:14PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Hey Ben... How long have the Channel Islands been protected?

sherie camp internet staff: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:14PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Are you involved in any GIS projects that have located where the bacteria is coming from that is making Santa Barbara and Goleta beaches unhealthy?

Timothy - Camp: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:15PM PST (-0800 GMT)
To Ben - has you been down in the submersible which is used by the SSE Proejct. Perhaps give a bit of background on SSE in this area and what the submersible is used for.

HowardVic: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:17PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Do you use any laser technology to help you in gather GIS data? If so, how is this equipment used?

Carolyn: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:17PM PST (-0800 GMT)
What kinds of marine life dwells near ship wrecks? Why ?

Ben @ NOAA: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:17PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Michelle: The great people I work with! Also using remote sensing to discover things you can't see with the naked eye or in visible light> Clara: One of the neat things we do is fly around in a plane (photo below) to see where mammals and vessels are. It's really been able to help us understand why we see certain vessels in one area, and other types in another, as one example.

carrie: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:17PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Do any of the shipwrecks contain treasures, such as gold, silver, gems?

Timothy - Camp: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:19PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Ben - Would you remind us of the location of the ShipWrect database.

Ben @ NOAA: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:21PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Carolyn: The marine portion has been protected as a sanctuary since 1980. They have been a National Park and monument for many years prior ( I think around 15). Sherie: We don't do a lot of work on the mainland coast, but we do check for pollutants and bacteria at sample sites around the islands every 4 years: Timothy: Unfortunately, I'm 2" too tall to drive an SSE submersible. SSE is a program using oner person submersibles to study marine sanctuaries all over the country. It's headed by Dr Silvia Earle. THe subs are capable of diving to 2000'!

Ted, Van Buren: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:23PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Ben, how long does it take to add a wreck and have it available to mariners

Ben @ NOAA: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:24PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Carrie: The pgoto I linked was of the Winfield Scott Wreck off Anacapa Island. It did contain gold at one time, but that was salvaged long ago ( The Winfield Scott sank in the 1850's). Interestingly, we're still trying to acurately survey all the wrecks. The other picture I linked with the three "X's" in it are all of the Winfield Scott site using different technology. You can see the difference in accuracy!

Clara Alvear-Rio Lindo School: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:24PM PST (-0800 GMT)
How long have you been working on this field?

dirk: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:24PM PST (-0800 GMT)
In which ways are the Channel Islands unique in flora and fauna?

Ted, Van Buren: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:25PM PST (-0800 GMT)
button

Ben @ NOAA: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:25PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Ted: I can't give you an exact date (that's a question for our archeologist Bob Schwemmer) but it does take a good while as the site has to be surveyed for recordkeeping, sensitivity, etc. Some sites are never made public because of the potential for looting.

Ben Fan Club: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:26PM PST (-0800 GMT)
:-) Your pictures are really cool!

Ben @ NOAA: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:28PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Clara: I've been doing this for about 8 years now. Ted: One of the most unique things about the islands is that they are in a transition zone of cold and warm water currents. This creates a really neat interaction of marine flora and fauna that would normally not mix. Here's a 3D view I made of the bathymetry (ocean depths) in the area. The flat squares are where we may be puytting marine protected areas:

Ben @ NOAA: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:29PM PST (-0800 GMT)
The above is a view from the East. Here's one from the Southwest:

Michelle McCutchan: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:29PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Ben, fantastic 3D image.

lmb/Howard-Victoria: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:29PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Do you use GPS to monitor fluctuations in geological features? Are you allowed to use the military GPS accuracy or do you have to function with the civilian offsets?

Ben @ NOAA: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:29PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Wow! My own fan club! : )

Michelle McCutchan: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:30PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Ben, i have been a member of the BFC for a long time.

Ted, Van Buren: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:31PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Ben, where can I find a list of wrecks that have been found and mapped by NOAA

Ben @ NOAA: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:31PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Imb: We don't use the military signal, but I have a special survey GPS unit that does realtime accuracy corrections and gets me to within a foot of where I want to be. Here's what it looks like:

Ben @ NOAA: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:32PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Ted: The best place to go to view info about Channel Islands wrecks is at our cultural resources page at: www.cinms.nos.noaa.gov/cultres.stm

Clara Alvear-Rio Lindo School: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:33PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Where are you physically located to conduct your research? How many people collaborate with you?

Marcy, Camp: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:33PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Here is the main page of the National Marine Sanctuaries that we looked at here in the lab button and this link goes to the Channel Islands Sanctuaries gateway web site button and this is the link that is the direct CINMS web site button

Ted, Van Buren: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:34PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Thanks Ben, you're the man

Wendy/Charles Mack Elementary: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:34PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Ben, what would be some of the biggest problems that you have encountered on your job, that was man made?? Not weather related ?? etc..

Ben @ NOAA: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:35PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Some of the other things we study are mainland impacts to the islands. The following image is from a NOAA satellite. It shows a sea surface temperature anomoly (temps you wouldn't expect) that indicates a sediment plume from the Santa Clara river after an El Nino storm. You can see where the sediment (and pollutants) are hitting the islands.

Marcy, Camp: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:35PM PST (-0800 GMT)
RE-Posting - Here is the main page of the National Marine Sanctuaries that we looked at here in the lab button and this link goes to the Channel Islands Sanctuaries gateway web site button , and this is the link that is the direct CINMS web site button

Ben @ NOAA: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:38PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Clara: I work out of the Santa Barbara Harbor office. I collaborate with about a dozen other agencies at the moment. We do this to help eliminate duplicate data and share our expertise. Wendy: The biggest manmade disaster of the last couple of years was the Alaska Airlines crash off Anacapa Island. We used all our GIS resources to help find the wreck, where debris were going and what the ocean bottom looked like around it. Here's an image I made for ther US Navy before they sent their robots down:

Timothy: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:38PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Ben - what areas of study should young kids focus on if they really want to get into Marine Science and do work like you do?

Wendy/Charles Mack Elementary: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:40PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Wow, that was the last thing I would have thought of, was an airline crash. Amazing Thanks

Ben @ NOAA: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:41PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Timothy: Well, my first geography teacher told me that geography was "the mother of all sciences." In other words, almost everything in the world has a geographic component to it. So courses of study would be more in line with the old fashioned educations of people like Alexander Von Humboldt (famous historic geographer, where you try and learn a bit about many sciences so you can learn to connect them with geography. Ther modern components for Geographic Information Science include a good statistics background and familiarity with computers.

Michelle McCutchan: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:42PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Ben, how has GIS helped choose areas for no take reserves in CINMS? How did the users groups of CINMS responde to this technology?

Michelle McCutchan: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:44PM PST (-0800 GMT)
How many Sanctuaries in the US have GIS?

Ben @ NOAA: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:44PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Wendy: Yes, that was a surprise to us too! We mostly deal with things like oil spills. We've designed a program where we use out aircraft to map spills in realtime, compute their trajectories, and transmit the info from our plane to command centers on the ground. It's a great way to help all responders plan in the most efficient manner.

Ben @ NOAA: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:46PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Michelle: We actually designed a GIS as a decision support tool. It allows the community to have input into the reserves process. The tool computes weights for the importance of scientific criteria versus socioeconomic criteria (i.e., "which place will give the most protection with the least impact to the community?") As of this year, all sanctuaries have some GIS capability. Three of them are fairly advanced.

Michelle McCutchan: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:46PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Thanks Ben, see ya in the office later

carrie: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:46PM PST (-0800 GMT)
thnak you Ben for a very interesting and enlightening afternoon chat!

lwalker: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:47PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Goodbye.

Carolyn Montoya: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:47PM PST (-0800 GMT)
It has been wonderful talking and learning so much from you. Thanks, Carolyn!!!

dirk: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:47PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Thank you, Ben. Your information and images have been fascinating.

Ben @ NOAA: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:47PM PST (-0800 GMT)
No problem! Thanks everyone for your great questions!

lmb/Victoria: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:47PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Ben, it was great chatting with you. I had no idea you were so young and so knowledgeable! We have to move on to something new now, so we're signing off. Thanks again for your time.

#1 Husker: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:48PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Ben. Thank you for your time and wonderful information!

HowardVic: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:48PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Do you use laser technology in your research?

Ben @ NOAA: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:48PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Thanks again. If any of you want to know more, feel free to email me at ben.waltenberger@noaa.gov

HowardVic: . . . . Mon, Aug 6, 2:50PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Thank you very much for all the great information. My students are going to learn a lot from being able to talk directly to the experts.

: . . . . Wed, Aug 8, 2:38PM PST (-0800 GMT)

t: . . . . Wed, Aug 8, 2:39PM PST (-0800 GMT)