WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

9-13 July 2007

DataStreme Ocean will return for Fall 2007 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 27 August 2007. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

Ocean in the News:

• Helping sharks keep their fins -- A partnership has formed between NOAA and the US Fish and Wildlife Service in an attempt to curb the prohibited practice of shark finning, where the fins of a shark are removed for use in shark fin soup, an Asian delicacy. [NOAA News]
• Bloom in the North Atlantic -- An image obtained recently from the MODIS instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite shows large swirls of phytoplankton that were blooming in the near surface waters of the North Atlantic Ocean near Greenland and Iceland. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Hurricanes could help coral -- NOAA researchers and their colleagues suggest that hurricanes passing within 250 miles of coral reef could benefit corals that have been stressed by warm ocean water because the surface winds surrounding the hurricane would mix the near surface water, cooling the water sufficiently to aid the coral. However, a direct hit by the hurricane would damage the coral. [USA Today]
• Eye on the tropics -- Few tropical cyclone (low-pressure systems that form over tropical waters) activity was detected during the last week:
  • Tropical Storm Toraji developed over the South China Sea last week and moved to the northwest, making landfall along the coast of northern Viet Nam as a tropical depression. An image from the Japanese MTSAT satellite shows the clouds accompanying Tropical Depression Toraji at landfall. [NOAA OSEI]
  • Tropical Depression 4W developed on Sunday (local time) over the tropical western North Pacific and by Monday had become Tropical Storm Man-Yi. This minimal tropical storm was moving to the northwest passing to the south of Guam.
• Human fishers viewed as natural predators -- Researchers at the French Institut de Recherche Pour le Développement and their colleagues at the Peruvian Institute of the Sea have used mathematical trajectory models to analyze Peruvian fisheries data, finding interactions that would suggest that human fishers behave like other natural predators. Their findings emphasize a need for an ecosystem-based concept of fisheries management. [Institut de Recherche Pour le Développement] [Note: This link is a pdf document that requires Adobe Acrobat Reader. See below.]
• Classification scheme designed to aid marine conservation -- A new biogeographic classification scheme of the world's ocean and shelf waters, called "Marine Ecoregions of the World," is being developed by researchers at The Nature Conservancy and from other institutions around the world to air in research and marine conservation efforts. To date, this scheme has identified more than 200 distinct marine ecoregions. [The Nature Conservancy]
• The planet is smaller than previously estimated -- Geoscientists at the University of Bonn employing a technique involving the use of radio waves collected by an international network of radio telescopes have determined that the size of planet Earth is several millimeters smaller than previously assumed. They plan to use this technique, called "Very Long Baseline Interferometry," to monitor changes in sea level associated with large-scale climatic change. [EurekAlert!]
• Making waves to study tsunamis -- Researchers at the University College London have built a wave generator that produces water waves in a controlled environment, thereby permitting the study of the impacts to shorelines and surrounding structures by a future tsunami. [EurekAlert!]
• 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.

Historical Events:

• 11 July 1576...The British seaman Martin Frobisher sighted Greenland during one of his attempts to find the Northwest Passage. (Wikipedia)
• 11 July 1776...The English explorer Captain James Cook began his third and final voyage, exploring the North Pacific, western North America to as far north as the Bering Strait and the Sandwich Islands (later renamed the Hawaiian Islands), where he was killed in February 1779. (Wikipedia)
• 12 July 1844...Captain J.N. Taylor of the Royal Navy first demonstrated the fog horn. At the time, it was called a telephone - to mean far-signaling, thus an instrument like a fog-horn, used on ships, railway trains, etc., for signaling by loud sounds or notes. The 19 July 1844 Times (London) reported, "Yesterday week was a levee day at the Admiralty, and amongst the numerous models...was Captain J. N. Tayler's telephone instrument... The chief object of this powerful wind instrument is to convey signals during foggy weather. Also the Illustrated London Newson 24 Aug. 1844 referred to "The Telephone; a Telegraphic Alarum. Amongst the many valuable inventions...that of the 'Telephone, or Marine Alarum and Signal Trumpet', by Captain J. N. Taylor." (Today in Science History)
• 12 July 1920...The Panama Canal was formally dedicated, having taken more than 30 years to overcome the enormous engineering challenges and complete at a cost of $347 million. The first ship had traveled through six years earlier when the Panama Canal opened to shipping on 15 Aug 1914. At that time, the world scarcely noticed the event since German troops were driving across Belgium toward Paris and the newspapers relegated the Panama story to their back pages; the greatest engineering project in the history of the world had been dwarfed by the totality of World War I. (Today in Science History)
• 12 July 1993...A magnitude 7.8 earthquake that was situated offshore of Hokkaido, Japan produced a tsunami that killed 202 people on the island of Okushiri. (Wikipedia)
• 13 July 1996...Heavy rains from the remnants of Hurricane Bertha caused roads to washout in the Camden, ME area. Two people were hurt when they drove into a 600-pound boulder that had fallen onto the roadway due to the heavy rain. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 15-16 July 1916...A dying South Atlantic Coast storm produced torrential rains in the southern Appalachian Mountains. Altapass, NC was drenched with 22.22 inches of rain, a 24-hour rainfall record for the Tarheel State, and at the time, a 24-hour record for the U.S. (The current 24-hour rainfall record for the US is 43 inches set 25-25 July 1979 at Alvin, TX). Flooding resulted in considerable damage, particularly to railroads. (David Ludlum) (Intellicast) (NCDC)

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Prepared by AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2007, The American Meteorological Society.