CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (16 Jan 2004) -- A coral reef system thriving in cold, dark, deep water and found nowhere else in the world has a protector now: the 65-foot C.T. Randall. The primary mission of the $1.15 million vessel and its crew is to patrol the unique Oculina reefs, between Daytona Beach and Fort Pierce, and enforce the fishing regulations that safeguard them, especially in the federally protected areas south of Cape Canaveral. The Randall, named for a wildlife officer who died in the line of duty, came about through a joint arrangement with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the National Marine Fisheries Service. It's the first time the commission has had a large boat dedicated to deep sea enforcement along the Atlantic coast. The boat is a dream come true for John Reed who was among the first to discover the banks in 1975 and explore the unique ivory tree coral, Oculina varicosa, from which the reef gets its name. "It was awesome, to see just out of the blue, this eerie blueish white reef rising up ahead of you," Reed said. A senior marine biologist at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute in Fort Pierce, he waxes poetic when talking about the Oculina. "These reefs are like nowhere else on earth," Reed said. "They're the equivalent of an old growth redwood forest, providing habitat for prized grouper and snapper." Coral heads as tall as 6 feet are found on the reef, about 25 miles off Florida's East Coast. One coral head the size of a basketball can be habitat for up to 2,000 animals, Reed said. "The diversity on the reef is equal to any tropical rain forest." The bank first became a federal sanctuary between Sebastian and Fort Pierce in 1984. Bottom trawling and fishing in the northern half continued. When Reed returned to the northern area in the late 1990s for more research and mapping by submersible vessel, he was horrified to find entire fields leveled, the ocean floor littered with broken and shattered "coral rubble." "It's from bottom trawling," Reed said, "with big chains dragging along the bottom, destroying hundreds of years of habitat in one fell swoop." In 2000, the protected area was expanded north to Cape Canaveral. Now there's no anchoring, bottom trawling or long-line fishing between Canaveral and Fort Pierce and no bottom fishing south of Sebastian. Recreational fisherman Mark Madole has been deep-sea fishing off Daytona Beach for more than 30 years. He's not a big fan of closing any part of the area to most fishing, but he says he understands the need to prevent reef damage. "Once you knock that coral head over and it dies, it ain't never coming back in our lifetime," Madole said. "And without the coral you're not going to have marine life." Reed hopes the Randall and its crew will be able to prevent future devastation to the coral. And the Randall means business. Its captain, Lt. Steve Thomas, is a wily former commercial fisherman, who has piloted boats for 25 years. The crew will work several 10- to-14-hour days or nights each week, patrolling the ocean from Daytona Beach to Fort Pierce. | | C. T. Randall 32 knot patrol vessel The average boat won't outrun the Randall. Thomas said they've had it up to 32 knots. Its gun racks hold specially equipped marine shotguns and AR-15 rifles with night lights. The guns aren't meant for the average poacher but for more serious criminals the wildlife officers could encounter on the high seas. The boat, which is docked at Port Canaveral, also will see occasional duty for homeland security, which is why a machine gun mount soon will be added to the bow. The Randall is named for officer Chuck T. Randall, a graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, who was killed in a car crash while on patrol in South Florida in 2001. The Marine Fisheries Service put up the money for the boat in a cooperative enforcement agreement with the commission. Even though the official dedication is today, patrolling has started. Last Saturday, Thomas and the crew handed a $750 violation to a recreational fisherman from Orlando, who Thomas said was bottom-fishing with 1-pound weights. Buoys don't mark the protected area, but it is shown on printed and electronic charts. "It's your responsibility to know it's there," Thomas said. "It's far enough offshore that people who are out there know where they're going and why."  |
DID YOU KNOW? | | Oculina Banks is the only known deepwater reef in the world, composed entirely of a single species of coral found nowhere else in the world: Oculina varicosa, or Ivory Tree coral. Cold dark water is its preferred habitat, unlike other coral reefs that thrive in warm tropical waters.A coral reef is an accumulation of many tiny marine polyps. Reefs are the most biologically diverse marine ecosystems on earth.The three basic types of coral reefs are fringing, barrier and atolls.Fringing reefs are younger than others and lie close to shore.Barrier reefs occur farther from the coast, and true to their name, form a barrier between a lagoon or other body of water near the shore and the open sea. Australia's Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest group of coral reefs.Atolls are ring-shaped reefs that form around submerged volcano rims in the ocean. |
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