WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

8-12 June 2009

DataStreme Ocean will return for Fall 2009 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 31 August 2009. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

Ocean in the News:

• World Ocean Day to be celebrated -- World Ocean Day or a "Celebration of the Sea" will be celebrated Monday, 8 June 2009 in an effort to increase public awareness and to foster public involvement in the management of the ocean and its resources. Although this date was created at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, it had not been officially recognized by the United Nations until this year. This year's theme is "one ocean, one climate, one future" with a special focus on the interconnection between the oceans and the Earth's climate, as well as how marine life is vulnerable to climate change. A partial listing is provided for events across the US and other nations that will celebrate World Ocean Day. [The Ocean Project]
• "Break the Grip of the Rip®" -- NOAA and National Park Service officials have designated this upcoming week of 7-13 June 2009 as national Rip Current Awareness Week. Using the theme, Break the Grip of the Rip®, efforts are meant to heighten public awareness of rip currents at surf beaches that claim the lives of as many as 100 people in the United States annually. [NOAA News] [NWS Rip Current Safety]
• Eye on the tropics -- Although the hurricane season officially started in the North Atlantic basin at the beginning of last week, no tropical cyclone activity was detected across any of the world's ocean basins through the entire week. An area of low pressure formed over the North Atlantic to the north-northeast of the Azores by midweek, with little further development. Additional information and satellite imagery of this low-pressure area can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
  NASA scientists at the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory who have been monitoring atmospheric and oceanic data obtained from the fleet of satellites managed by NASA report that some recent oceanic signals appear to provide a hint of forthcoming tropical cyclone (hurricane) activity. Sea surface temperatures across the tropical Atlantic are currently below the long-term average, which could result in reduced hurricane activity. In the eastern Pacific, the recent La Niña event appears to be fading, but the Pacific Decadal Oscillation remains in a cool phase, while warm waters remain across the western tropical Pacific, which would result in more western Pacific typhoons. [NASA JPL/GSFC]
• California water projects appears to be jeopardizing listed fish species -- Scientists from NOAA's Fisheries Service have released a report that finds water pumping operations in California's Central Valley by the US Bureau of Reclamation jeopardize several threatened and endangered fish species from the eastern North Pacific that may use the rivers in this region to spawn. This report provides recommended alternatives. [NOAA News]
• Support for sanctuary in Florida Keys continues to increase --A study conducted by NOAA, the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, and Thomas J. Murray and Associates indicates that support continues to grow over the last decade for the management strategies and regulations of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, even among commercial fishing interests who had been opposed initially to the sanctuary's creation. [NOAA News]
• Money made available to reduce bycatch -- NOAA’s Fisheries Service recently announced that it has provided a monetary grant to the World Wildlife Fund that would support the 2009 Smart Gear Competition, which awards prizes for innovative gear designs that reduce fisheries bycatch. [NOAA News]
• Remotely controlled aircraft search for Bering Sea seals -- Scientists from NOAA's Fisheries Service and the University of Alaska recently launched the unmanned aircraft ScanEagle, from the NOAA research vessel McArthur II to search for ice seals on the pack ice covering the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska. [NOAA News]
• A new fisheries survey vessel delivered -- At the end of last week, a Mississippi shipbuilder delivered to NOAA the 208-foot Pisces, the third in a series of four new fisheries survey ships. This ship, to be placed in operation in October, will monitor ocean conditions and sea life in US waters from the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean and the western North Atlantic to as far north as North Carolina. [NOAA News]
• Monitoring biosphere changes from space -- NASA scientists have been monitoring the changes in the biosphere over the last few years from data collected by various satellites, such as the maps showing the detected ocean chlorophyll data obtained from the SeaWiFS Project and vegetation data courtesy of the Global Mapping and Modelling & Mapping Studies (GIMMS) project. Two maps are provided showing the annually averaged data in 2002 and 2008. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Salinity sensor developed for new satellite -- Scientists and technicians at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory recently shipped the Aquarius sensor to the Space Agency of Argentina (Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales, CONAE). This sensor will be placed onboard the Aquarius/SAC-D satellite that is scheduled to be launched in 2010 as a joint NASA/CONAE mission to measure sea surface salinity and its effects on ocean circulation, the water cycle and climate. [NASA JPL]
• Tracking penguins from space -- Scientists with the British Antarctic Survey have used satellite imagery, such as that obtained from the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus on NASA’s Landsat 7, to map the existence of emperor penguin colonies from guano stains left on sea ice. [NASA Earth Observatory] [EurekAlert!]
• All-Hazards Monitor -- This Web portal provides the user information from NOAA on current environmental events that may pose as hazards such as tropical weather, marine weather, tsunamis, rip currents, Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) and coral bleaching. [NOAAWatch]
• 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:

• 8 June 1937...Observation of the total eclipse of the sun was made by a U.S. Navy detachment commanded by Captain J. F. Hellweg, USN, which was participating in the National Geographic Society - United States Navy Eclipse Expedition at Canton Island in the Phoenix Islands, Pacific Ocean. USS Avocet was assigned to this expedition. (Naval Historical Center)
• 8-9 June 1990...The Norwegian tanker Mega Borg released 5.1 million gallons of oil some 60 nautical miles south-southeast of Galveston, TX, the result of an explosion and subsequent fire in the pump room. Two crewmembers were killed. Coast Guard units fought the resulting fires and recovered spilled oil. (Information Please) (USCG Historian's Office)
• 8 June 1992...The first World Ocean Day was celebrated, coinciding with the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Wikipedia)
• 9 June 1534...The French navigator Jacques Cartier became the first European explorer to discover the river that he named the St. Lawrence in present-day Quebec, Canada. (The History Channel)
• 9 June 1966...Hurricane Alma made landfall over the eastern Florida Panhandle near Alligator Point during the evening-- the earliest land-falling hurricane on the U.S. mainland on record. Peak sustained winds were near 90 mph. Highest winds reached 125 mph and lowest pressure 970.2 millibars (28.65 inches) were reported at the Dry Tortugas on the 8th. (Intellicast) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 9 June 1990...San Diego, CA set a new record rainfall amount on this date, as 0.38 inches of rain fell breaking the old record of 0.13 inches established in 1892. Moisture from the remains of Hurricane Boris was responsible for this rare rain event. (Intellicast)
• 10 June 1909...The International Distress Call (SOS distress signal) was used for the first time in an emergency. The Cunard liner SS Slavonia used the signal when it wrecked off the Azores. Two steamers received her signals and went to the rescue.
• 11 June 1644...The Florentine scientist, Evangelista Torricelli described in a letter the invention of a barometer, or "torricellian tube." (Today in Science History)
• 11 June 1764...The Sandy Hook Lighthouse, at the south point of the entrance to New York Harbor, was first lighted. Today, its octagonal tower, built by Mr. Isaac Conro of New York City with money collected by a group of New York merchants, is the oldest original light tower still standing and in use in the United States. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 11 June 1770...The British explorer Captain James Cook discovered the Great Barrier Reef off Australia when he ran aground. (Information Please)
• 11 June 1847...The English naval officer and an Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin died in Canada while attempting to locate the Northwest Passage.
• 12 June 1925...Lake Huron Lightship radio fog signal was placed in commission, the first signal of this kind on the Great Lakes. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 12 June 1991...On the same day that Mt Pinatubo in the Philippines awakened from its 635-year slumber, Typhoon Yunya crossed Luzon province. Mudslides and flooding caused many deaths and when added to the impacts of Pinatubo left more than a million homeless. (The Weather Doctor)
• 13 June 1415...Henry the Navigator, the prince of Portugal, embarked on an expedition to Africa.
• 13 June 1881...The steamer USS Jeannette was crushed in Arctic ice pack north of Siberia as the 1879-1881 Jeannette Arctic Exploring Expedition under the command of Lieutenant Commander George Washington DeLong, USN, attempted to reach the North Pole by ship. (Naval Historical Center)
• 13 June 1977...A tropical cyclone crossed the Arabian Sea from near the Laccadive Islands off southwest India and slammed into the island of Masirah, sultanate of Oman. Winds reached at least 104 mph and the 24-hour rainfall total was 16.95 inches. About 99% of buildings were damaged. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 14 June 1834...The first US patent for a practical underwater diving suit was issued to Leonard Norcross of Dixfield, ME. One month earlier, he tested his suit, an airtight leather outfit with a brass helmet connected via a rubber hose to an air bellows pump on a boat, in the Webb River. (Today in Science History)

Return to DataStreme Ocean website

Prepared by AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2009, The American Meteorological Society.