The Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary was designated in 1989 after a request from Cordell Expeditions, a nonprofit organization. Cordell Expeditions had studied Cordell Bank, an undersea granite bank located entirely in federal waters on the edge of the continental shelf.
Designation of Cordell Bank as a National Marine Sanctuary resulted in regulations that banned a range of activities, including removing historical resources, removing or injuring benthic invertebrates or algae, discharging any substance unrelated to fishing and anchoring on the bank. Oil and gas development were also prohibited.
During its early years, the sanctuary was managed within the administrative framework of an adjacent sanctuary, but today it has its own budget and staff members. The sanctuary produces educational materials to encourage environmental stewardship, facilitates scientific studies and works with partner agencies to identify new management and regulatory strategies.
In 2008, a revised management plan with a focus on ecosystem-based management was published which called for the creation of a new regulation to prohibit releases of invasive species, development of an oil spill contingency plan, monitoring of sanctuary waters and habitats, and actions to track human use activities and impacts.
Mission
The mission of the Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary was published in the Federal Register in 1989. The mission is to protect and conserve Cordell Bank and its surrounding area to ensure the continued availability of the ecological, research, educational, aesthetic, and recreational resources contained within the sanctuary. Resource protection is the highest priority.
Objectives
The revised management plan issued in 2008 builds on that mission to outline the following primary objectives:
Lead Organizations
Initiator
Administrator
Key Parties
The Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary partners with and/or represents the interests of the Cordell Bank ecosystem to government agencies of various levels, including:
Stakeholders
The Sanctuary Advisory Council includes the following stakeholders:
Academic Institutions
Numerous members of academic institutions are involved in studies of aspects of the Cordell Bank ecosystem.
At its inception in 1989, the operation and management of the Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary (CBNMS) was contained within the administrative framework of the adjacent Gulf of Farallones National Marine Sanctuary (GFNMS). Its first full-time staff member was hired in 1995, funded by GFNMS.
Sanctuary Superintendent
In 1998, CBNMS received its own budget and now has six staff members, including the sanctuary superintendent, who:
Sanctuary Advisory Council
In 2001, a Sanctuary Advisory Council (SAC) was formed, consisting of seven members, to inject greater stakeholder participation into the management plan review process and increase public support for the sanctuary. Members hold seats representing different stakeholders, including:
Non-voting members represent the adjacent marine sanctuaries, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the National Marine Fisheries Service.
The SAC continues to provide advice to the superintendent on resource management issues and provide a forum for community involvement.
In 1853, Cordell Bank was discovered by George Davidson, a hydrographer for the U.S. Coastal Survey. About 16 years later it was surveyed more extensively by Edward Cordell, a surveyor with the agency.
From 1977 through 1987, Cordell Expeditions, a nonprofit organization, conducted the first comprehensive study of the area. Cordell Expeditions’ scuba divers took more than 3,000 photographs, shot significant amounts of film and video footage, and collected specimens. Its efforts brought the area’s biological diversity to the attention of the public for the first time. Newspapers would describe Cordell Bank as a lost island under the sea.
In July 1981, Cordell Expeditions initiated the process to designate the area around Cordell Bank as a National Marine Sanctuary with a request to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA agreed that Cordell Bank was not adequately protected and was eligible for inclusion on the List of Recommended Areas.
In 1984, a public scoping meeting to gather information and determine the range and significance of the issues related to its designation and management was held. In 1987, public hearings on the sanctuary’s first management plan were held and a final rule creating the Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary took effect in 1989.
In 2001, the Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary management plan was reviewed along with two adjacent sanctuaries, the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary and Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The review process included a four-month public scoping period to identify priority issues for the next five to ten years and more than 1,000 people participated in the 20 public forums held across the northern California coast. Cross-cutting issues were identified across a larger area to consider ecosystem-wide management issues, rather than focusing on activities within individual political boundaries.
The revised management plan was published in 2008.
The Ecosystem
Cordell Bank is a well-defined underwater granite bank, consisting of a series of steep-sided ridges and narrow pinnacles resting on a plateau. It is about 7.2 kilometers wide and 15.2 kilometers long and rises from the soft sediments of the continental shelf. The tops of its upper pinnacles reach to within 35 meters of the ocean’s surface. Only a few kilometers to the west, the ocean floor drops away dramatically to depths of more than 1,800 meters.
One of the world’s four major upwelling systems provides nutrient-rich bottom waters. The prevailing California current, which flows southward along the coast, moves nutrients to the upper levels of the bank.
A vigorous biological community is supported within the Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary. The vertical relief of the bank and its hard substrate provides a benthic habitat with near-shore characteristics in an open environment about 32 kilometers from shore. Scientists have identified more than 180 species of fish, 59 species of marine birds, numerous types of invertebrates and 26 species of marine mammals, including gray whales, blue whales, and humpback whales.
Threats
Because the marine sanctuary is located entirely offshore, direct human impacts are rather limited, but include:
Increasing scientific understanding of the Cordell Bank ecosystem is a priority of the Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary, which has a stated commitment to adapting its management strategies based on the results of scientific studies and communicating the information to the public through outreach efforts and interpretive displays.
Sanctuary staff monitor fish and invertebrate numbers and habitat to evaluate regulatory actions and identify areas in which new regulations may be needed. In one example, sanctuary staff are working with the U.S. Coast Guard to study potential impacts from vessel traffic. In addition, the role of Cordell Bank in the broader coastal ecosystem is being investigated.
Since 1997, ocean conditions have been monitored and investigated to discern a relationship with the abundance of whales, seabirds and other marine life, such as krill, a small invertebrate that is an important building block in the food chain in the area. Benthic habitats on Cordell Bank also were characterized from 2001 to 2005.
Other research is conducted in partnership with other state and federal agencies and nonprofit organizations in support of the sanctuary’s overall mission.
Legal Protections
Until the designation of the Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary (CBNMS), the area lacked legal protections to guard the relatively shallow pinnacles of the granite bank and their surroundings from injury due to human contact, or by the exploration for gas and oil. Exploration activities have been suggested for the area since the designation, but have not survived the legislative process.
Sense of Place
While Cordell Bank remains a relatively remote area as it is entirely offshore, it has a sense of place in the public mind, facilitated through the designation of the CBNMS and its associated outreach efforts. One example is the increase in traffic of wildlife sightseeing vessels within the sanctuary.
Ecosystem Improvements
Although the CBNMS does not have regulatory authority over fishing, staff work closely with federal and state regulators and provide scientific data to understand the health of the fishery and discern the impacts of regulatory actions. After the closure of certain areas to fishing and the imposition of gear restrictions in the 2000s, some overfished populations have increased. Others are stable. Some marine mammal populations have increased within the sanctuary, including populations of humpback whales, according to the Cordell Bank 2009 Condition Report.
Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary: http://cordellbank.noaa.gov
Cordell Bank 2009 Condition Report: http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/science/condition/cbnms/state.html
Cordell Expeditions: http://www.cordell.org