Ballard and Students to Explore California Seas, Coast

George Stuteville
for National Geographic News

January 27, 2003

Students all over the world will have a chance in coming weeks to meet
pinnipeds, watch the flights of Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), and
learn the ancient ways of the Chumash culture.

It all sounds like fantastic scenes from Star Wars, but they are in fact on the agenda for this year's JASON Project, an expedition that take students and teachers on the ultimate field trip, allowing them to conduct field work, participate in experiments, and communicate with scientists in real time using satellites and Internet technology.

JASON Project founder Robert Ballard and an expedition team of scientists, teachers, and students are exploring California's Channel Islands, bringing their research to millions of students joining via satellite, the Web, and the National Geographic Channel.

The area being explored includes the Channel Islands National Park, the waters of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, and the densely populated California coastline.

Teachers and students participating in the project take part in an online community that provides the opportunity for online chats with researchers, online journals, digital labs, and more. They may also bring the live two-week expedition broadcast into the classroom by utilizing satellite equipment or the Internet.

Details for Web participation may be found on the JASON project's Web site.

Live telecasts of this year's JASON Project will also begin Tuesday, January 28 in Grosvenor Auditorium at the National Geographic Society's world headquarters in Washington, D.C.

JASON Project XIV: From Shore to Sea will be televised in the United States on the National Geographic Channel from January 27 to February 1 and February 3 to 7 from 2 to 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Twenty-eight student explorers and eight teachers from around the world have joined Ballard, who is also a National Geographic explorer-in-residence, on the JASON expedition in Southern California.

JASON Project XIV: From Shore to Sea will explore the fragile kelp forests and other marine and terrestrial ecosystems found in and around the Channel Islands. "The Channel Islands National Park and Marine Sanctuary will serve as laboratories for studying the extraordinary biology and incredible human history of the islands, including the culture of the native Chumash, colonization, and the human impact on this resource-rich maritime environment," said Andy van Duym, the director of business development and national programs for the National Geographic Society's Lectures and Public Programs.

Ballard, the discoverer of the RMS Titanic and PT-109, will help lead the daily journeys for the international Internet and television audiences.

This year's project looks at the Channel Islands' most populous residents: the pinnipeds, creatures better known as sea lions, seals, and walruses. They get their name from the Latin words pinna (feather or wing) and pedes (feet). Though the animals seem awkward on land as they scoot around using their flippers, in the ocean, where Ballard's team observes them closely, they can "fly" through the water at speeds up to 25 miles (40 kilometers) per hour.

Not only do students get a scuba-masked view of the Channel Islands' sea lions, but also the animals' habitat and surrounding waters as they will be scrutinized from the air and outer space using satellites and a brand-new NASA technology created specifically for Jason—the UAV's (Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles).

The UAVs look like model airplanes as they fly over the land and sea, but they are loaded with sensors that relay detailed information, such as colors, temperatures of the ocean and densities of floating seaweed, to orbiting satellites.

It is a misconception that UAVs are just fancy airplane toys, said Patrick Coronado, engineer and scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland who developed UAVs.. "They are very expensive and complex systems, mainly because they have to think for themselves,"

Tiny Plane, Big Picture

Coronado said the small planes provide the detail to the "big picture" that remote satellites capture. Together, the technologies create what scientists call "ground truth" that blends several different types of information to create a precise measurement and observation.

He said that a detailed study of the Channel Islands is a unique opportunity.

"It has many of the ingredients that make a diverse ecosystem possible, such as cold and warm water mixing, causing rich nutrient upwelling. It is also a place where there is little human interaction, and therefore the region can be studied in its more natural state," he said.

Yet, the Channel Islands have been a home to people for at least 13,000 years and supported a mariner culture known as the Chumash. At one time, the Chumash had developed a complex society of about 150 towns and invented an economic system using beads as a form of currency.

Now the language of the Chumash and most of its history has been lost, said Julie Tumamait-Stenslie, a Chumash storyteller who is working with the JASON Project.

She said that the project helps people of all ages understand a basic lesson for all time: "One of the most precious things that the Chumash people lost is their land. Land is forever. Each generation should watch out for the next. Don't let go of your heritage."

For 14 years, the single goal of the JASON Project has been to teach millions of students the fact that Earth is our home, our host, and our heritage.

"It's wonderful to be back on the Central Coast and share its rich maritime history with students," said Ballard, an alumnus of the University of California, Santa Barbara, where the campus has a view of the sensitive Channel Islands National Park.

"We will take the abundance of biological diversity Santa Barbara offers and make it come alive for students so they will learn the importance of protecting these invaluable natural and cultural resources."

The National Geographic Society is a founding national corporate sponsor of the JASON Project and helps develop student texts and offers professional development workshops for teachers.