Weekly Ocean News

DATASTREME OCEAN WEEK TEN: 5-9 November 2007

Ocean in the News:

(Thurs.) Protecting salmon from hydropower systems -- The NOAA Fisheries Service recently announced a series of actions that it is undertaking with the collaboration of states and tribes in the Northwest at protecting and recovering endangered salmon stocks by mitigating the effects of the Columbia Basin hydropower system and Upper Snake River irrigation projects. [NOAA News]
(Thurs.) Fall cooling of the upper Great Lakes -- Surface temperature data of Lakes Michigan and Superior obtained by the MODIS sensors onboard NASA satellites and displayed by the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison show that the surface waters have fallen between 10 and 20 Fahrenheit degrees across the upper Lakes between late August and late October. [NWSFO Milwaukee/Sullivan]
(Thurs.) Early oxygen-rich atmosphere is dated -- Geologists at Ohio State University, the University of California, Riverside and Penn State University have found evidence suggesting that an oxygen-rich atmosphere may have developed during the late Cambrian period (approximately 500 million years ago) as upheavals in the earth's crust may have cooled the world oceans sufficiently to allow for biodiversity with widespread giant plankton blooms that resulted in a burst of free oxygen into the atmosphere. [Ohio State University News]
(Tues.) Marine debris education effort is launched -- NOAA, along with Department of the Interior, the US EPA, U.S. Coast Guard, and the Department of Transportation, recently launched "Marine Debris 101", an Internet-based national marine education program that is designed to increase public awareness of the growing problem of marine debris. This effort will involve a network of Coastal Ecosystem Learning Centers that include 20 aquariums, museums, and research facilities. [NOAA News]
(Tues.) New diving guide available for marine sanctuaries -- A printed guide and web page have been unveiled by the NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Program with the intended purpose of increasing the safety and enhancing the experiences of scuba diving enthusiasts diving in the waters of the 13 national marine sanctuaries that are found along the country's coasts. [NOAA News]
(Tues.) Conserving mangroves important in tsunami-prone regions -- Using Landsat satellite images across the Indian Ocean basin for over a 30-year span, researchers have found that agricultural encroachment has been a greater factor in reducing the mangrove forests in tsunami-prone coastal areas than shrimp farming. [EurekAlert!]
(Tues.) Oldest jellyfish found -- Researchers at the University of Kansas report that they have found fossils in rocks dating from more than 500 million years ago that appear to be the oldest jellyfish found to date. [EurekAlert!]
(Tues.) New marine organisms discovered in Alaskan waters -- Marine biologists at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks discovered as many as three new marine organism species including two sea anemones in the ocean waters surrounding Alaska's Aleutian islands during their dives. [University of Alaska, Fairbanks]
Eye on the Tropics --
- In the North Atlantic Basin, Hurricane Noel, the fifth hurricane of the 2007 hurricane season, developed from a tropical depression that formed over the Caribbean south of Hispaniola at the start of last week. Intensifying to a Tropical Storm, it moved northward across Hispaniola, then westward over Cuba before curving northward across the Bahamas, intensifying to hurricane north of the Bahamas at the end of last week. Moving to the north-northeast, it lost its tropical characteristics and became an extratropical storm as it took aim on New England and the Canadian Maritimes, where it hit over the weekend. This system became the deadliest tropical cyclone of the season as it was responsible for at least 118 deaths across the Caribbean as torrential rain caused flooding and mudslides. [USA Today]
  A visible image obtained from the sensors on NOAA's GOES-12 satellite shows the clouds associated with Hurricane Noel as it moves northward away from the Bahamas last Friday. [NOAA OSEI] An image made from the MODIS sensor on NASA's Aqua satellite shows clouds associated with then Tropical Storm Noel as it was moving across the waters of the Bahamas near the end of last week. [NASA Earth Observatory] An image depicts a week's rainfall totals across the Caribbean and western Atlantic associated with the passage of Noel as determined by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis using data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite. [NASA Earth Observatory]
- No organized tropical cyclones were reported across the eastern or central North Pacific this past week.
- In the western North Pacific, Tropical Storm Faxai was relatively short lived as it moved across the ocean to the northeast well off the southeast coast of Japan over the previous weekend. This past weekend, a new tropical depression formed east of Luzon in the northern Philippines and intensified to become Typhoon Peipah on Monday (local time) just before traveling across Luzon.
- In the North Indian Ocean basin, Tropical Cyclone 5A continued its travel toward the west-northwest across the Arabian Sea. An image from the MET-7 satellite shows clouds associated with Tropical Cyclone 5A as it traveled westward. [NOAA OSEI]
Milestone reached in deployment of Argo floats -- The 3000th Argo float was recently deployed, which not only marks a milestone in the international effort of oceanic observation, but also represents the attainment of the initial eight-year goal of an array of free-floating submersible floats that measure ocean temperature and salinity from the ocean surface to depths of approximately 6000 feet. The Argo network, which covers the global oceans, has provided important climate information, such as improvements in assessing ocean heat storage. [NOAA News] [Scripps Institution of Oceanography]
A top 10 list of endangered beach towns is named -- Geologists recently produced a list of what they considered the ten most endangered communities along the nation's North Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico beaches. [National Geographic News]
Spit on the Baltic -- An image obtained from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer on NASA’s Terra satellite shows the Curonian (or Courland) Spit that lies in the southeastern Baltic Sea and separated from the coast of Lithuania and Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast by the Curonian Lagoon. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has designated the Curonian Spit as a World Heritage site. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Global and US Hazards/Climate Extremes -- A review and analysis of the global impacts of various weather-related events, including drought, floods, and storms during the current month. [NCDC]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Concept of the Week: Solving the Mystery of Seamount Ecosystems

The United States Commission on Ocean Policy reports that less than 5% of the ocean floor has been explored. This is beginning to change as scientists and engineers develop and apply new technologies to investigate deep ocean waters and the sea bottom (refer to Chapter A in your DataStreme Ocean textbook). Consider, for example, the effort to obtain a better understanding of seamount ecosystems.

A seamount is a submarine mountain of volcanic origin (now extinct) that rises more than 1000 m (3300 ft) above the ocean floor. Usually a seamount summit is 1000 to 2000 m (3300 to 6600 ft) below sea level. They occur as isolated peaks, chains (e.g., Emperor Seamounts in the North Pacific; New England chain in the North Atlantic), or clusters. The term "seamount" was first applied in 1936 to the Davidson Seamount located off the coast of Southern California. Scientists estimate that perhaps 30,000 dot the ocean floor with as many as two-thirds located on the Pacific Ocean bottom. However, fewer than one thousand seamounts have been named and only a handful of seamounts has received detailed scientific study.

In recent years, discovery of unique life forms on seamounts has spurred scientific interest in seamount ecosystems. Many nations, including the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, are supporting scientific cruises to observe and collect specimens from seamount ecosystems. Seamount ecosystems are unusually productive and are home to unique species. Some seamount surveys have found that certain seamount species are endemic, that is, they live on only one seamount or a few nearby peaks. For example, up to one-third of all species living on some seamounts off New Caledonia are endemic while up to half of the invertebrates and fish on the Nazca seamount off Chile are endemic. In the northeast Pacific, large-scale eddies may transport larval fish from coastal environments to isolated seamounts located out at sea. Furthermore, some scientists argue that seamounts may function as stepping stones that allow for migration of species over lengthy periods--perhaps over millions of years. In addition, some seamounts may serve as aids to navigation for fish that migrate over long distances. For example, hammerhead sharks may use the magnetic field surrounding seamounts to find their way.

The recent effort to survey and explore seamount ecosystems has reached new urgency with the realization of the devastating impact of commercial fish trawlers on those ecosystems. In some cases, trawling has striped off most marine life (e.g., coral gardens) from the surface of seamounts leaving behind mostly bare rock. Typically, trawled seamounts have only half the biomass and considerably fewer species than undisturbed seamounts. Scientists anticipate that a better understanding of seamount ecosystems will help make the case for their conservation and inform the most effective strategies for their protection. Australia is one of the first nations to protect seamount ecosystems, establishing the Tasmanian Seamount Marine Reserve in 1999. The reserve covers 370 square km (140 square mi) and includes more than a dozen seamounts.

Concept of the Week: Questions

Seamounts are extinct submarine volcanoes that occur primarily in the [(Atlantic) (Pacific)(Southern)] Ocean.
Commercial fish trawling has [(little if any)(a devastating)] impact on seamount ecosystems.

Historical Events:

6 November 1528...Shipwrecked Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca became the first known European to set foot on Texas soil, near present-day Galveston Island. (Wikipedia)
9 November 1913...The "Freshwater Fury," a rapidly deepening extratropical cyclone, caused unpredicted gales on the Great Lakes. Seventeen ships, including eight large ore carriers on Lake Erie sank drowning 270 sailors. Cleveland, OH reported 17.4 in. of snow in 24 hrs, and a storm total of 22.2 in., both all-time records for that location. During the storm, winds at Cleveland averaged 50 mph, with gusts to 79 mph. The storm produced sustained winds of 62 mph at Port Huron, MI, wind gusts to 80 mph at Buffalo, NY. (9^th-11^th) (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
9 November 1932...An unnamed hurricane struck Cuba, with winds reaching approximately 210 mph at Nuvitas. However, a storm surge was the main killer of 2500 of the 4000 residents of Santa Cruiz del Sur. Essentially no storm records exist, as the observer drowned, with records and instruments washed away. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
10 November 1993...Violent storm over the Black Sea closed the Russian oil terminal port of Novorossisk for 20 days. "Bora" winds reported as high as 112 mph sank at least seven ships. (The Weather Doctor)
10 November 1975...Another "freshwater fury" hit the Great Lakes. A large ore carrier on Lake Superior, the Edmund Fitzgerald, sank near Crisp Point with the loss of its crew of 29 men. Eastern Upper Michigan and coastal Lower Michigan were hardest hit by the storm, which produced wind gusts to 71 mph at Sault Ste Marie, MI and gusts to 78 mph at Grand Rapids, MI. Severe land and road erosion occurred along the Lake Michigan shoreline. A popular song by Gordon Lightfoot was inspired by the storm. (David Ludlum) (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
Editors note: In 2000, the NOAA National Weather Service Forecast Office at Marquette, MI created a web page commemorating the 25^th anniversary of the sinking and describing the advances in marine weather forecasting over the last quarter century. EJH
11 November 1099...Violent storm in the North Sea killed 100,000 people in England and The Netherlands. (The Weather Doctor)