By SCOTT D. JOHNSTON

The Coastal Interpretive Center’s “Glimpses” lecture series drew a full house at the Home Port restaurant in Ocean Shores on a very windy and wet evening Jan. 18, for a presentation by Quinault Indian Nation (QIN) Marine Resources Scientist Joe Schumacker, titled “Nautilus Live and the Quinault Canyon Exploration.”

For eight days last summer, the one-of-a-kind research vessel, the E/V Nautilus, and its two Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) and one Autonomous Underwater Vehicle explored the seabed in an area of about 500 square miles off the central Washington coast.

The Quinault Canyon begins about 23 miles offshore in the area roughly from Taholah to Queets. The canyon reaches a maximum depth of 1,477 meters, or 4,846 feet.

​Schumacker has been working with the Quinault Indian Nation for 18 years and has managed many of the tribe’s fisheries including salmon, ground fish and shellfish. He explained that the research vessel and crew cost $50,000 per day, which was covered by a grant from the Office of Exploration and Research of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Research partners for this expedition included NOAA Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, where the Quinault Canyon is located, NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center, the Quinault Indian Nation, and the University of Rhode Island.

One of the unique features of the 211-foot ship is its technology that allows a live video feed from the ROVs. This is available online at www.nautiluslive.org, along with images from many missions, including the one involving the Quinault Canyon.

The mission, which began Aug. 18, 2017, was to map habitats that support many of the QIN’s treaty fisheries, sample for harmful algal blooms, map the ocean floor, check oxygen levels, and investigate ocean acidification and methane levels as well.

The Quinault Canyon is “one of the largest natural amphitheater-type canyons,” Schumacker said, adding, “it’s right off our coast and we don’t really know what lives there.”

He said the mission produced an enormous amount of data that will be analyzed for some time by research partners involved.

He said the canyon “is channeling water from the deep ocean up onto the continental shelf,” with several effects. Much of the bottom is “organic mud,” and researchers were surprised to observe that “any type of structure had a lot of fish.”

The Quinault scientist also said that deep ocean water and the canyon create a “seasonal hypoxia” or reduced oxygen levels in the seawater in the area, which “also seems to be tied to ocean acidification.”

The Nautilus mission also documented the existence of vast amounts of offshore methane seeps, found mostly as hydrates, or ice, in depths from 600 to 1,200 feet. He said researchers watched as methane bubbled from the depths. The seeps occurring from Oregon to Vancouver Island represent “more methane than all of Saudi Arabia,” Schumacker said.

The Glimpses lecture series continues on Thursday, Feb. 15, with Bill Pickell, former CEO of the Washington Contract Loggers Association, with the topic, “Discover the Forest: Olympic National Forest from a Private Perspective.”

More information is available at www.interpretivecenter.org.