CORALS OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
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Oregon is home to a magnificent underwater environment, valuable fisheries and diverse seafloor habitats. Deep underwater canyons like Astoria Canyon, where the Columbia River meets the ocean, are home to a variety of coral and sponge habitats. Heceta Bank off the Oregon Coast is a hotspot for black corals. These complex habitats provide homes for commercially important species like rockfish, which are currently rebuilding from overfishing..
Washington state is famous for its spectacular shores and rugged coastlines. Beneath the ocean's surface, the coral, sponges, and other colorful sea life that inhabit the ocean floor just off the coast are equally beautiful. For example, the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary is also home to corals, sponges, and other living seafloor habitats. In fact, this sanctuary is home to a rare discovery of Lophelia pertusa, a reef-forming deep-sea coral previously thought to exist only in the Atlantic Ocean (click here to read article on Lophelia discovery). Even Puget Sound contains hydrocorals scattered throughout its various inlets and islands. These corals are living, or "biogenic", habitats
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Trawling in the Pacific Northwest has taken its toll both on the fish and their habitat. Targeting flatfish, whiting, and rockfish, trawlers have flattened many of the corals, sponges, and other living seafloor animals before scientists even knew they were there. Since the early 1980s, NOAA Fisheries has been collecting information on corals and sponges through trawl surveys, but until 2002, no trawl vessels were required to carry observers to count what they were catching!
Along with a coalition of environmental and recreational fishing groups, Oceana has developed a comprehensive, collaborative proposal to protect important undersea habitats, while maintaining vibrant fisheries off the Pacific Northwest Coast. With the help of 19,373 Oceana wavemaker comments, the Pacific Fishery Management Council voted unanimously to adopt the Oceana proposal, which was mostly approved by NOAA on March 8, 2006 (click here to see a map of the areas closed to bottom trawling).
Off the Oregon coast, this action protects areas of known importance, such as Astoria Canyon, Rogue Canyon, Daisy Bank, and Heceta Bank, as well as other areas of biogenic habitats based on records from NOAA. Although the new policy protects more sensitive areas, it leaves open zones of high economic value to trawlers. Off Washington an area in the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, several areas of dense biogenic habitat, and a large portion of Grays Canyon are now protected.
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