Let’s talk about living shipwrecks!
Do you often wonder what lies on the ocean floor? Or where fish and other sea life live?
In a collaborative research project between the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science and Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, scientists have worked to answer these questions and more using cutting edge technology to explore under the ocean’s surface. With our nation’s long tradition of honoring and protecting special places that have defined our history, this research serves to commemorate and honor the service members who fought and died off the North Carolina coast in defense of freedom.
Off the North Carolina coast lie scores of ships that sank during the Civil War, World War I, and World War II. Since 2008, Monitor National Marine Sanctuary and partners have studied and documented these historically significant shipwrecks that serve as quiet witnesses to the valor and sacrifices of generations past.
During World War II, the area off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, emerged as a strategic hotspot for German U-boat activity (see GIF below).
This activity resulted in a collection of shipwrecks unparalleled in the United States consisting of 78 merchant ships, eight Allied warships, and four German U-boats.These shipwrecks serve as gravesites for nearly 1,700 individuals and as a memorial to this history, particularly to the sacrifice of the U.S. Merchant Marine.
Today, these shipwrecks not only represent our nation’s rich maritime history, but they serve as artificial habitat for a diversity of marine life and important fish species!
Pictured below, researchers with the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science work to document how and when fish use these artificial structures. Understanding how fish communities use these habitats can help researchers ensure that the reef ecosystems remain sustainable in support of the blue economy.
To better understand how these shipwrecks function as artificial habitats, scientists collect data using visual and acoustic methods, including high-resolution seafloor habitat mapping and surveys using echosounders (split beam and multibeam), remotely operated vehicles, time-lapse video, and scientific diving.
Pictured above is a high resolution image of U-352, a German U-boat, and the fish living on it. Individual fish are displayed as orange circles and are detected by an instrument called a split beam echosounder. Pretty cool right?
Want to learn more? Read the full story here: https://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/news/nov20/living-shipwrecks.html
