DATASTREME OCEAN WEEK ELEVEN: 11-15 April 2005

• Another Indonesian earthquake, but no tsunami -- A 6.7 magnitude earthquake was detected off the Indonesia's northern island of Sumatra on Sunday evening (local time), followed by a series of aftershocks. While the earthquake was offshore and caused panic, a tsunami did not materialize as feared. [CNN]
• Active Atlantic hurricane season foreseen -- Hurricane expert, Professor William Gray, and colleagues at Colorado State University released their April forecast for the upcoming 2005 hurricane season in the North Atlantic that will commence on 1 June. They forecast that 13 named storms (both hurricanes and tropical storms) should form this year, with 7 becoming hurricanes and 3 that could evolve into major storms with sustained winds of 111 mph or higher. [USA Today]
• Crucial discovery involves harmful algal toxins -- A recent study by a group of researchers from NOAA, Canada's National Research Council, the University of Maine and the University of Washington have found important information concerning how harmful algal blooms can affect shellfish populations along the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts, making them unsafe for human consumption. Using molecular analysis techniques, they studied how paralytic shellfish toxins accumulate in softshell clams. [NOAA News]
• New website permits access to electronic navigation charts -- NOAA officials recently announced that a user-friendly portal website was created by the Office of Coast Survey that would permit users to access and view NOAA electronic navigation charts for non-navigational purposes. [NOAA News]
• Teacher at Sea Program produces a children's book -- Two teachers who participated in the NOAA Teachers at Sea Program recently published a book with the assistance of an illustrator from the NOAA Corps that has science and math activities that are aimed at middle school students and use the teachers' on board experiences. [NOAA News]

• Climate education opportunity --NOAA's Office of Education and Sustainable Development is supporting a fellowship for a K-16 educator to create resources for enhancing public awareness of issues and activities related to atmospheres and oceans. For more information or application (deadline 25 April 2005). See http://www.vsp.ucar.edu .

• A new view of ocean floor faulting proposed -- A team of scientists from Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory has proposed a new model of how differences in activity of the mid-ocean ridge magma result in distinctly different types of faults and ridges on the ocean floor. [EurekAlert!]
• Biodiversity of tropical reef fish studied -- Scientists from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Harvard University the University of Florida and the University of Hawaii have found that greater differences may occur between coral reef fish from neighboring habitats than those between fish found in environments thousands of miles distant. This finding runs counter to a currently held evolutionary paradigm. [EurekAlert!]
• Endurance records set by ocean-diving gliders --A pair of autonomous underwater gliders built at the University of Washington were recently retrieved off Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands after setting a world distance record for unmanned underwater vehicles by traveling 1860 miles across the eastern Pacific in 191 days, along with over 550 dive cycles. Two other University of Washington gliders, which have yet to be retrieved from the Labrador Sea, have set an endurance records for time, as they have been in service for 193 days. [EurekAlert!]
• Math models help solve several oceanographic problems -- A math professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology has developed improved mathematical models that describe how sound waves travel underwater, thereby allowing for better detection of the location of submerged submarines and whales, as well as assessment of environmental contamination and changing climate as a result of warming. [EurekAlert!]
• Ocean drilling operation narrowly misses the "Moho" -- Scientists onboard the ocean drilling vessel JOIDES Resolution have recently retrieved rock from the third deepest drill hole more than 4644 feet below the sea floor as part of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program in the Atlantis Massif. They believe that their drill hole reached within 1000 feet of the Mohorovicic discontinuity (or "Moho") between the brittle outer crust and the softer underlying mantle. [EurekAlert!]

• Fish respond differently to different El Niño-La Niña episodes -- Researchers with The L'Institut de recherche pour le développment (IRD) and Instituto del Mar del Peru have been monitoring fluctuations in the sardine and anchovy populations in the Peru-Humboldt Current system off Peru over the last decade. Typically, anchovy populations decline while sardine populations increase during El Niño events. However, they report that during the strong 1997-98 El Niño event, anchovy populations did not necessarily decline, but adapted to the warm water. [IRD Bulletin]

• A "petroleum umbrella" found in the North Sea -- Scientists at the University of the Basque Country reported that their analysis of the response of mollusks placed in cages near oil drilling rigs in the North Sea indicates that those placed near the platforms appeared to be hardly affected because they may be shielded from the discharged hydrocarbon pollutants dispersed in the form of an inverted open umbrella. [Basque Research]
• Imported oysters raise concern on the Chesapeake -- The apparent success of the Suminoe oysters that were imported from Asia and put into shellfish beds on Chesapeake Bay during the decline of the native Eastern oysters are now concerned that these imported oysters could crowd out the native species and upset the food chain in the nation's largest estuary. [ENN]
• Great Lakes salmon could be threatened -- Biologists with the Michigan and Wisconsin Departments of Natural Resources are concerned that the rapid decline in the population of alewives along with the increase in several new invasive species such as the zebra mussel are causing a dramatic reduction in the population of the desired chinook salmon. [Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel]
• Young reef fish use noise to find a home -- A group of researchers built artificial reefs off Australia and experimented with sound to attract returning fish. [ENN]
• Foreign shipping company to pay for dumping waste along the US coasts -- The US District Court in Los Angeles fined a Panamanian shipping company $25 million for dumping waste in the ocean waters off both the East and West Coasts of the US. [ENN]
• 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: Living Coral and El Niño

El Niño episodes of 1982-83 and 1997-1998, the most intense of the century, confirmed the connection between higher than average ocean temperatures and bleaching of hermatypic corals. (Hermatypic corals live in warm shallow water and build large reefs.) Water temperatures higher than 29 °C (the normal maximum sea surface temperature in the equatorial eastern Pacific) can trigger expulsion of zooxanthellae, microscopic dinoflagellates whose symbiotic relationship with coral polyps is essential for the long-term survival of coral. Without zooxanthellae, coral polyps have little pigmentation and appear nearly transparent on the coral's white skeleton, a condition known as coral bleaching. If maximum temperatures are not too high for too long, corals can recover, but prolonged warming associated with an intense El Niño (that may persist for 12 to 18 months) can be lethal to coral. Most hermatypic corals thrive when the water temperature is 27 °C, but do not grow when the water becomes too cold. Although the ideal temperature varies with species and from one location to another, the temperature range for optimal growth is quite narrow--only a few Celsius degrees. This sensitivity to relatively small changes in water temperature is an important source of information on past climates as fossil coral is a significant component of many limestones. Evidence of bleaching episodes in fossil corals may yield important clues to past changes in the world's tropical ocean.

Coral, sometimes referred to as "the rainforests of the ocean," provides a base for local ecosystems and have many benefits (e.g., fisheries, tourism) that are important in many parts of the globe. Hence, vulnerability to El Niño-associated warming is an object of considerable scientific interest. During the 1997-98 El Niño, NOAA charted significant coral bleaching from portions of the Great Barrier Reef near Australia, French Polynesia in the south Pacific, in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Kenya, and around the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador. Closer to home, coral bleaching was reported in the Florida Keys, the Cayman Islands, and off the Pacific coast of Panama and Baja California. Fortunately damage from the 1997-98 El Niño warming was less drastic than the 1983-84 El Niño when up to 95% of the corals in some locations died. Many of the corals damaged in the late 1990s have at least partially recovered including important reefs in the Florida Keys. For additional information on coral status go to the NOAA website http://www.coralreef.noaa.gov/.

Concept of the Week: Questions

1. Most hermatypic corals thrive at an ocean water temperature of [(10) (27)] °C.
2. Corals [(can) (cannot)] recover from bleaching if high ocean water temperatures are not long lasting.

• 11 April 1803...A twin-screw propeller steamboat was patented by John Stevens of Hoboken, NJ. (Today in Science)
• 11 April 1900...The U.S. Navy acquired its first submarine, a 53-foot craft designed by Irish immigrant John P. Holland that was propelled by gasoline while on the surface and by electricity when submerged. (Today in Science)
• 13 April 1960...The Navy's first navigation satellite, Transit-1B, was placed into orbit from Cape Canaveral, FL and demonstrated the ability to launch another satellite. The Transit system was designed to meet Navy's need for accurately locating ballistic missile submarines and other ships. (Naval Historical Center) (Today in Science)
• 14 April 1543...Bartolomé Ferrelo returned to Spain after assuming command of the ill-fated expedition of the Spanish navigator Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo (who died on San Miguel Island in California's Channel Islands). The expedition was the first known entry by Europeans into San Francisco Bay in the New World.
• 14-15 April 1912...The British steamer RMS Titanic sank following its collision with an iceberg in the North Atlantic off Newfoundland on its maiden voyage from South Hampton to New York. The collision occurred at about 11:45 PM on 14 April and the ship, which was considered unsinkable, sank in 21/2 hours during the early morning hours of the 15^th. Reports showed 1517 people out of 2207 onboard lost their lives in this accident. As a result of this disaster, certification and life saving devices were improved and an International Ice Patrol was established to monitor the iceberg hazards in the North Atlantic. The U.S. Coast Guard continues to conduct much of the effort. (US Coast Guard Historian's Office) A 21-year old telegraph operator at the Marconi radio station in New York City , David Sarnoff who became a pioneer in radio and television broadcasting, received and transmitted the distress calls from the Titanic. (Today in Science)
• 16 April 1851...The famous "Lighthouse Storm" (a "nor'easter") raged near Boston Harbor. Whole gales and gigantic waves destroyed the 116-ft Minot Ledge Light at Cohasset, MA with the loss of its two keepers still inside. The lighthouse was the first one built in the United States that was exposed to the full force of the ocean. The storm coupled with a spring tide resulted in massive flooding, great shipping losses and coastal erosion. Streets in Boston were flooded to the Custom House. (David Ludlum) (US Coast Guard Historians Office) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 16 April 1854...A furious storm that produced two feet of snow at New Brunswick, NJ also caused approximately 18 shipwrecks along the New Jersey coast. The immigrant ship Powhattan beached 100 yards from the shore. With rescue impossible, 340 people on board lost their lives. "The shrieks of the drowning creatures were melancholy indeed." (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 16 April 1992... - The Katina P ran aground off Maputo, Mozambique, causing 60,000 tons of crude oil to spill into the ocean. (Wikipedia)
• 17 April 1492...Spain and the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus signed a contract for him to sail to Asia to get spices. (Wikipedia)
• 17 April 1524...Giovanni Verrazano, a Florentine navigator, onboard the frigate La Dauphine "discovered" New York Bay. (Wikipedia)

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Prepared by AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2005, The American Meteorological Society.