Posted by Walt on December 14, 2004 at 17:52:54:
We are collecting data on the sea life found at Redondo Beach before and after the harbor dredging project. It needs to be statistically accurate. Here’s a proposal for some diver teams to accomplish before dredging starts in January 2005:
1. Make a 10 foot by 10 foot (or 1 meter by 1 meter) square out of PVC pipe. The 10 foot may be hard to get through the surf…if you use 1 meter, try to take more samples as you’ll be measuring a smaller area. You’ll need 4 - 10 foot (or 1 meter) lengths of schedule 40 and 4 ‘T’’s (must leave the ends of the pipe open to allow them to fill with water); don’t bother cementing the ends – that allows you to assemble the frame under water. Cost would be under $10.
2. Dive at Redondo between Ruby and Topaz streets (Vet’s Park area) and randomly place the frame at as many random locations in the depths of 15 to 60 feet of water as you can.
3. Record the following for each sample:
• Team name and contact information
• Size of sample (100 square feet or 1 square meter)
• Date and time of day
• Depth
• Approximate location (should be between Ruby to Topaz streets…count kicks out to your square and estimate yards/feet out from a landmark like the bike path and approximate directions…map if you can)
• Identify what you find in the square and count what you find…sea pens, cucumbers, shells, fish, as much as you can without disturbing the animals. For a set duration – 5 minutes – identify and count the fish that swim by your square.
• Move to the next location – try to be random and repeat the sample.
Send your results via email to: cd_redondo_dive@prodigy.net
They will be tabulated and summarized with others. Summaries of results will be made available to Surfrider Foundation and other interested parties (and will be posted on diver.net).
We’ll repeat this exercise after the dredging project if finished and one year later in December, 2005. This should give us a good profile as to the impact of the dredging project on the underwater life at Redondo.
The information our diver teams collect will supplement water quality measurements taken by Surfrider Foundation before and after the dredging project. It will show the measurable and quantified impact of dredging projects on the environment and will hopefully provide a basis for requiring more thorough environmental review of these dredging projects in the future.