Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary
Welcome to the Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary Science web site. Here you'll discover the marine life and extraordinary habitats that make up your nation's marine sanctuaries and our continuing efforts to conserve these ocean and coastal treasures.

Scientific monitoring and research are essential, ongoing activities within the conservation science program at Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary (CBNMS). Through partnerships with state and federal agencies, and academic and research institutions, CBNMS seeks out the broader scientific community to ensure that the most effective and rigorous science can be attained. Our goal is to create sound scientific information available for resource management, monitoring, interpretation, education, planning and policy needs. Click here for more information on conducting research within Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary.

For a complete assessment of the science and information needs to address priority management issues for CBNMS click here.


Projects that are conducted within the sanctuary are divided into 'Site Characterization,' 'Monitoring' and 'Research' categories.

  • Site characterization projects allow scientists to better understand the biodiversity, habitats, populations, communities, and ecological processes that define each sanctuary's environment. Site characterization also describes the history of the site, effects of human activities on natural systems and socioeconomic information.
  • Monitoring projects focus on the status and condition of marine life and habitats to detect trends within the sanctuaries.
  • Research projects include hypothesis-driven process studies and modeling. Scientists conduct research to better understand the ecosystem and how it functions within the sanctuary.


Featured Science Projects
within Cordell Bank

Re-discovering Cordell Bank: Dive Expedition 30 Years Later

In 2010, a technical dive team from NOAA's National Marine Sanctuaries and the Cooperative Institute for Ocean Exploration, Research and Technology (CIOERT) completed a series of deep dives in rigorous conditions on Cordell Bank. The team completed a series of dives down to 190 feet in strong current. This was the first dive expedition to Cordell Bank since Cordell Expedition divers explored the Bank between 1977 and 1985. Divers returned to the boat astonished at the pristine nature and spectacular diversity of life covering the Bank's upper reef areas. The team was able to accomplish all the mission's science objectives including photo and video documentation and sample collection of invertebrates. This information will allow sanctuary staff to evaluate changes that have occurred on the bank since the original survey 30 years ago, and establish species composition and reef conditions in 2010. The 2010 data will allow sanctuary staff to analyze future changes that may be associated with climate, in particular effects of ocean acidification on deep corals.

Deep-Sea Coral Exploration

Interest in the conservation of deep-sea coral and sponge (DSC) communities has grown over the last decade. Increased awareness of the ecological importance of and threats to DSC has come about as nearshore fishing grounds have become depleted and fishers have moved into deeper water where DSC are often taken as bycatch. In conjunction with NOAA’s Deep Sea Coral Research and Technology program, scientists conducted targeted exploration in 2010 and 2011 to improve the understanding of DSC abundance and distribution in the Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary.

Applied California Current Ecosystem Studies (ACCESS)

PRBO Conservation Science in partnership with Cordell Bank and Gulf of the Farallones link leaves the site National Marine Sanctuaries, has been investigating the spatial and temporal relationships between oceanographic processes, zooplankton, and marine birds and mammals in the region surrounding Cordell Bank and the Gulf of the Farallones.