SANTA CRUZ -- Deep below the sea, 75 miles southwest of Monterey, lies a pristine mountain covered with vast marine forests boasting pink and orange corals twice as tall as humans, harboring strange species of fish and invertebrates.
Now, the undersea mountain will stay that way forever.
After seven years of study, planning and public comment, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday that Davidson Seamount is officially part of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The seamount will now be fully protected from any harm or exploitation, including destructive fishing and harvesting of corals.
"It's going to be the first seamount in U.S. waters to be protected," said Lonny Lundsten, a deep-sea coral researcher from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. "This is really taking a step to preserve an environment that is comparable to an old-growth forest or any other place of scenic grandeur."
Researchers fell in love with Davidson Seamount after the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute led cruises in 2002 and 2006 to explore the undersea mountain with an ROV -- remotely operated vehicle -- and collected seamount organisms.
"It's one of these places that engenders a sense of wonder and exploration of people," said Andrew DeVogelaere, research coordinator at the sanctuary.
The base of the seamount is about 13,000 feet deep, and the mount rises up to 4,100 feet below the surface. The old volcano, formed by the San Andreas fault system, is home to 34 species of deep-sea corals.
"There are only a few peaks that extend up into that zone where the corals are, and we've been to about eight of them," said David Clague, a senior scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute . "Davidson's the best. The animal communities are the most varied, and the corals are bigger than any place else we've seen."
Clague described corals that grew to 13 feet tall and 10 feet wide.
These massive corals live for more than 100 years, based on the research of Allen Andrews at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories.
Not only are corals taking centuries to grow, but also "everywhere you go, scientists are finding that these corals are loaded with endemics that live on and in the coral only," Andrews said.
Fishing remains the biggest threat to most seamount communities, according to Tony Koslow of the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organization. When commercial trawlers run their gear over seamounts, they crush seafloor animals and knock down coral, destroying critical fish habitat.
By the time most seamounts are protected, their communities have already been decimated.
But commercial trawlers have yet to touch down on Davidson Seamount.
Most of the fish species found on the seamount are unique deep-sea fish species, such as rattails and sea toads, which are not viable for commercial fisheries. And the seamount's great depth puts it beyond the capabilities of most commercial fishing gear.
Yet fishermen are harvesting at these depths in New Zealand, DeVogelaere said, and just one trawl run could wipe out corals that live hundreds of years.
Because of the seamount's new designation, fishing on the mountain itself will be banned, but it will be allowed in the water above the seamount down to 1,000 meters. This is not deep enough to affect the coral habitat, but deep enough for the fishermen to continue catching fish.
"The inclusion of Davidson Seamount into the sanctuary shouldn't affect fishermen at all," said Steve Scheiblauer, Monterey harbormaster. "There was large agreement that it had a lot of special qualities, and it should be fully protected from the bottom. Protection there was a win-win thing."
Davidson Seamount's new sanctuary status also prevents anyone from collecting corals and sponges for pharmaceutical or wholesale use, DeVogelaere said.
Black and precious corals, a popular jewelry coral harvested in some parts of the world, are found in dense stands on Davidson, Lundsten said.
The sanctuary was designated in 1992 after Central Coast communities banded together to protect the coastline from oil drilling. More than 5,000 square miles were initially preserved; the figure will rise to 6,094 with the addition of the seamount.
Local pressure to add the seamount to the sanctuary began in 2002, after it gained national attention because of the fantastic footage of expansive undersea coral forests.
"All of the feedback we've gotten is excitement," DeVogelaere said. "People have been very interested and worked hard on this for a long time."Contact C. Brooks at 706-3254 or email@example.com.