Old vessel launches new career in coral seas

The White Holly, which served in World War II as a Navy yard freighter on San Francisco Bay, is beginning a new life -- as an oceanographic research vessel for a scientific expedition that seeks to discover how and why so many of the Earth's coral reefs are dying.

The ship is scheduled to embark tonight from Oakland on an extraordinary voyage: a 7,000-mile roundtrip cruise to explore the mysteries of the world's most pristine coral reefs, and at least one uncharted atoll, halfway across the Pacific.

"This is research that can affect mankind," said Capt. Vincent Backen, the White Holly's skipper, who has piloted deep sea oil tankers into San Francisco Bay as well as foreign ports from Saipan to Aruba, Guam and Papua New Guinea. "That's the main reason I took the project on."

The 10-week voyage, led by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, will take the 133-foot White Holly to the Line Islands archipelago in the central Pacific, about 1,300 miles south of Honolulu, and explore some of the least-disturbed coral reefs in the world.

Expedition leader Enric Sala, a Scripps marine ecologist and conservation biologist, calls these reefs "the marine equivalent of the Serengeti," referring to the national park in Tanzania that is one of the planet's oldest ecosystems.

Nineteen of the world's leading coral reef researchers plan to survey the reefs at five remote islands that have histories of varying degrees of human influence. With that data, they intend to establish a "baseline" of a healthy reef ecosystem -- to compare with degraded coral reefs elsewhere.

"It's like taking a time machine back to see what coral reefs used to look like and how they function," said Scripps expedition coordinator Stuart Sandin, a mathematical ecologist and fish biologist. "What's lacking in our science is how reefs looked before humans came along, before we depleted most of the big fish and sharks, before fertilizers and sewage caused algae to overgrow the coral."

Coral reefs are generally found in warm seas. Historically, these reefs were such colorful, complex havens of the marine food web that scientists likened them to tropical rain forests. But in recent decades, overfishing, pollution and global warming have been blamed for causing the catastrophic destruction of reefs.

Some scientists estimate that up to 25 percent of the world's coral reefs, located in tropical zones, have been lost. And two-thirds of what remains are at risk.

"Most every reef suffers impacts, often extreme impacts, from people," Sandin said. "Well below 10 percent of remaining reefs are in a pristine state, with a lot of fish and bigger fish, more corals and less algae, and more larger animals including sea turtles and marine mammals."

Conservationists say that marine reserves and anti-pollution laws are needed to protect coral reefs, restore their productivity and help replenish fish stocks.

The researchers say that it is vital to study the diversity, distribution and interaction of species in healthy reefs, and to test their hypotheses of how humans have impacted these ecosystems, to establish specific conservation goals.

Aided by underwater cameras, the scientists will count the reef fish species, including sharks and large snapper. They will investigate the algae, coral and invertebrates on the ocean floor, and use microbial sampling techniques to collect bacteria and viruses that live on the surfaces of coral and algae.

Their goal is to conduct the surveys without disturbing the reefs. No anchors are to be dropped on coral, and no sewage or wash water will be discharged. "They want to have zero impact on the reef," Backen said.

The White Holly was built in Napa in 1944 and was christened on D-Day. Its first mission: loading ammunition onto naval warships in San Francisco Bay. In 1947, the ship was outfitted as a buoy tender for the Coast Guard and served for decades in Alaska and Louisiana.

Backen purchased the vessel in 2002 and formed the nonprofit Seamen's Training Center. The White Holly has been used as a live-aboard training ship and also for salvage operations and bay cruises for marine biology students. The Sausalito-based ship was refitted this year for oceanographic research. Backen's philosophy: to make his ship available at low cost to worthy causes.

Oceanographers compete not only for funds, but also deep-water research vessels. In the past, flamboyant tycoons have loaned their megayachts to the world's leading marine scientists, including the late Jacques Cousteau. But those sources have all but dried up.

"You couldn't afford to build a vessel like this for research. She's way overbuilt," said Backen, noting that the White Holly's steel hull is 1/2-inch thick at the waterline. "There's no ship of this size and caliber that they can find on the world market. ... Every research boat is busy."

The Scripps expedition is being financed in part with a research grant by the San Francisco-based Moore Family Foundation, which was created by Intel Corp. co-founder Gordon E. Moore to support conservation biology.

Earlier this week, the crew stowed the science team's equipment on the ship, including a 5-ton research vessel, three Boston Whaler skiffs, computers with satellite uplinks, air compressors for scuba diving, and a sub-zero freezer for storing laboratory samples.

At a cruising speed of 8.5 knots, the ship's passage to Honolulu will take about 11 days, giving the crew additional time to prepare for the scientists to board there.

Backen's crew of four has multiple skills. For example, navigation officer Matthew Guanci is also a dive master; ordinary seaman Dave Murphy is a master carpenter.

The ship's creature comforts include air conditioning and good eats. Cody Reynolds, the ship's chef, was trained at the Four Seasons Hotel in Newport Beach.

"It'll be a combination of institutional food and gourmet," said Reynolds, whose menus include pecan pancakes, fish tacos and grilled pork tenderloin. "We'll have dinner parties on deck and create a comfortable scene."

The plan is to motor through the sweltering tropics to the Republic of Kiribati, an island nation of 33 scattered coral atolls that straddle the equator. The team intends to survey coral reefs at five nearby islands: Kiritimati (pop. 10,000), Tabuaeran (pop. 1,500), Teraina (pop. 950), Palmyra (pop. 0), and Kingman (pop. 0).

Palmyra atoll and Kingman Reef (both U.S. protectorates) have healthy coral reefs with little or no fishing since World War II. Palmyra, occupied by the United States during the war, is owned by the Nature Conservancy. The tiny island of Kingman Reef has never been charted or inhabited.

The five islands, all within an 800-mile radius, were created at the same time -- leading scientists to believe that they can measure and compare the impacts of varying degrees of human disturbance.

They will spend several days on each atoll, counting fish and collecting water, tissue, sediment and coral samples. They plan to use remote-controlled video cameras on the reefs in daylight, and to film sharks and other reef fish at night.

All told, 24 scientists will analyze the data, testing hypotheses such as whether changes induced by humans on reefs can lead to food webs ruled by invertebrates and microbes, rather than by fish.

David Obura, a coral taxonomist and ecologist based in Kenya, plans to study invertebrates, such as crabs, on the island reefs. Farooq Azam, a microbiologist, will study how bacteria and viruses can kill coral and interact with algae and fish in the reef system.

A major cause of reef destruction is coral disease linked to humans. One riddle scientists hope to solve is whether microbes causing coral disease are absent on untouched reefs. If the disease-causing microbes are found on pristine reefs, they say, humans may be disrupting the interactions between coral and microorganisms.

"We're very excited," Scripps' coordinator Sandin said. "We're developing some new science."

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White Holly - Oceanographic research vessel

Length: 133 feet

Beam: 33 feet

Draft: max. 8 feet

Gross tonnage: 141 tons

Fuel for expedition: 10,000 gallons

Potable water: 11,000 gallons of potable water plus a water maker that filters 400 gallons of seawater into drinking water each day.

Food: About 2.5 tons, or enough to serve an estimated 3,225 meals during the expedition.

Accommodations: Two staterooms, plus semiprivate bunks for total capacity of 25.

Pilothouse: Navigation and communications gear includes Sperry gyro, single sideband radio, satellite phone, Automatic Identification System, marine weather fax.

Engine room: Two, 1,000-horsepower Caterpillar diesel engines, plus auxillary engines to run the ship's electrical system and hydraulics for its 10-ton crane.

Machine shop: Full complement of tools including air compressors, welding and cutting gear, and pipe threading set.

Scientific equipment: Subzero freezer, 25-foot research vessel, scuba diving gear, three small motorboats, computers, video gear and laboratory sampling containers.

Safety gear: (partial list) one 25-person life raft, 25 survival suits, EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon).

Source: Seamen's Training Center

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Expedition to the Pacific

The research vessel will visit the Line Islands in the central Pacific Ocean, halfway between Hawaii and Australia. The scientists will survey reefs on five islands, including three in the Republic of Kiribati, an island nation of 33 coral atolls. Palmyra atoll and Kingman Reef are U.S. protectorates.

Itinerary

Today: Departure from Oakland.

July 25: Arrive at Honolulu (for refueling, picking up scientific personnel).

Aug. 2: Arrive on island of Kiritimati (for refueling).

Aug. 3-5: Field testing and developing sampling protocols on Kiritimati.

Aug. 6-9: Data collection on Kiritimati reefs.

Aug. 9-10: Travel to island of Tabuaeran.

Aug. 11: Begin data collection on Tabuaeran reefs.

Aug. 14-15: Travel to Palmyra atoll.

Aug. 16: Data collection on Palmyra reefs.

Aug. 24: Travel to Kingman Reef and begin data collection.

Aug. 27-28: Travel to island of Teraina.

Aug. 29: Data collection on Teraina reefs.

Sept. 1-2: Travel to Palmyra atoll.

Sept. 3-5: Finish data collection on Palmyra.

Sept. 6: Scientists take flight to Honolulu.

Sept. 11: Ship arrives at Honolulu (for refueling).

Sept. 16: Ship departs Honolulu.

Sept. 27: Ship arrives at Sausalito.

Sources: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Seamen's Training Center

Source: www.sfgate.com