THANKSGIVING WEEK: 22-26 November 2010

Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving Week from the AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Ed Hopkins!

Ocean in the News:

• Eye on the tropics --
With less than two weeks remaining in the official hurricane seasons in the North Atlantic (including the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea) and the eastern North Pacific, no tropical cyclone activity was detected in either basin during this past week. However, a broad area of low pressure with a disorganized array of showers and thunderstorms was found across the western Caribbean off Central America. Additional information and a satellite image of the clouds associated with this low-pressure area, consult the NASA Hurricane Page. No tropical cyclones were found elsewhere across the tropical ocean basins of either Northern or Southern Hemispheres.
• Proposal made to add Hawaiian insular false killer whale to endangered list --
NOAA's Fisheries Service announced that it will recommend that the Hawaiian insular false killer whale be listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in an effort to prevent the current population of fewer than 170 whales from becoming extinct. [NOAA News]
• Right whale ship strike reduction rule is being enforced --
Early last week, NOAA announced that it was issuing notices of violations against seven vessels for allegedly violating seasonal speed limits designed to protect the North Atlantic right whales, one of the most endangered whales in the world. These violation notices included proposing civil administrative penalties against these vessels, which were charged for allegedly speeding where the endangered whales calve, feed and migrate off the East Coast. [NOAA News]
• Evaluating heat stress to Caribbean corals over time--
A comprehensive documentation of basin-scale bleaching made by collaborators from 22 countries indicates that coral reefs in the waters of the tropical Atlantic and Caribbean suffered record losses due to high ocean temperatures in these bodies of water in 2005. These findings revealed that 2005 represented the most severe bleaching event ever recorded in the basin. Satellite-based tools from NOAA's Coral Reef Watch Program were used in this study. [NOAA News]
• Tuna conservation meeting held in Paris --
The 48-nation International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) began its annual meeting in Paris, France last Friday. One of the main concerns at this meeting is the survival of Atlantic bluefin tuna, as the populations are down drastically since 1970 and are considered on the edge of extinction. In addition to bluefin tuna, the commission also manages an additional 30 species in the Atlantic Ocean and nearby seas including sharks, swordfish, billfish and mackerels. [USA Today] NOAA Administrator, Dr. Jane Lubchenco, addressed the ICCAT meeting on Friday, voicing the US concerns for better management of fisheries in terms of a food security issue and a biodiversity and conservation issue. [NOAA News]
• More Gulf waters reopened to fishing --
Early last week, NOAA announced that it was reopening more than 8400 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama coasts to commercial and recreational fishing. These waters had been closed to fishing after last spring's oil spill that followed the explosion at the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil rig. The reopening, made following consultation with officials from NOAA, the US Food and Drug Administration and Gulf Coast States, brought to 99.6 percent the area of federal waters now open. [NOAA News]
• Funding made available to restore Delaware River after 2004 oil spill --
NOAA and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, along with the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, will receive $27.5 million from the US Coast Guard's Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund for nine restoration projects designed to restore the sections of the Delaware River damaged by an oil spill from the vessel Athos I in 2004. [NOAA News]
• Money awarded to restore Great Lakes fish habitat --
Last week NOAA officials awarded approximately $9.2 million to nine projects in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio and New York that are designed to restore fish habitat in Great Lakes. This funding from the Environmental Protection Agency through the President's Great Lakes Restoration Initiative will involve a variety of efforts that include removing marine debris and invasive species, restoring wetland and removing dams and barriers. [NOAA News]
• A global review of October 2010 temperatures --
Preliminary analysis of worldwide combined ocean and land surface temperatures by scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center indicates that the recently completed month of October 2010 ranked as the eighth warmest global October surface temperature since a sufficiently dense and reliable network began in 1880. They also found that the globally averaged land surface temperature for October 2010 was the sixth highest on record for October, while that month's global ocean surface temperature was the tenth highest. Furthermore, the scientists reported that the combined land and ocean surface temperatures averaged over the first ten months of 2010 has tied 1998 for the highest January through October average in 131 years of record. The January-October 2010 global average land surface temperature was the second highest behind 2007, while the corresponding global ocean surface temperature ranked second highest behind 1998. La Nina represented a significant factor in the global ocean temperatures. The average Arctic sea ice extent for October 2010 was the third lowest October sea ice extent since satellite surveillance began in 1979. [NOAA News]
• Isthmus of Panama at risk of large earthquake --
Geologists at San Diego State University and colleagues warn that the isthmus of Panama, along with the Panama Canal and Panama City is under a significant seismic risk for a major earthquake along the Limon and Pedro Miguel faults in central Panama. The Pedro Miguel fault, which runs under the existing locks in the Panama Canal, experienced a large earthquake in 1621. A future earthquake could have major implications for the Panama Canal, which links the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean basins. [EurekAlert!]
• Faster water flow means more diversity in marine life --
Ecologists from Brown University who conducted observations and experiments in the Republic of Palau, Alaska, and Maine claim that invertebrate marine life, such as sponges, sea anemones, hydriods, soft corals, polychaetes, molluscs and barnacles, appears to be more diverse when the water flows faster. [Brown University News]
• Deep sea lava bakes sediments and releases greenhouse gases --
Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory have discovered that hot lava emanating from deep sea volcanoes along ocean ridges are baking ocean sediments, which releases greenhouse gases. This discovery is contrary to some earlier thoughts that this process represented a carbon sink rather than a carbon source. [Discovery News]
• Microbes found in deep ocean crust --
Researchers at Oregon State University who obtained core samples from drilling more than 4600 feet into a formation near an undersea mountain called the Atlantis Massif have found bacteria with a remarkable range of capabilities, including those that consumed hydrocarbons and natural gas and stored carbon. This bacteria represents the deepest biological activity found in ocean crust so far explored. [EurekAlert!]
• An 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.

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.

Historical Events:

• 22 November 1992...Supertyphoon Gay generated gusts up to 120 mph on Guam in the western Pacific. Only one injury was sustained. Earlier, when at its peak approximately 1000 miles southeast of Guam, Supertyphoon Gay had sustained surface winds estimated to 185 mph with gusts to 225 mph. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
• 23 November 1869...The clipper ship, the Cutty Sark, was launched at Dumbarton, Scotland. This three-masted and 212-foot long ship was one of the last clipper ships to be built and is the only one surviving to the present day, residing in a dry dock at Greenwich, England. (Wikipedia)
• 23-24 November 1981...Typhoon Irma, the worst in 10 years, struck north central Philippines (mostly Luzon) with winds to 139 mph and a storm surge of 16 feet. More than 236 people died, while 600,000 were made homeless. Entire provinces were left without power or communication. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
• 24 November 1982...Hurricane Iwa lashed the Hawaiian Islands of Niihau, Kauai, and Oahu with high winds and surf. Winds gusting to 120 mph caused extensive shoreline damage. Winds at Honolulu gusted to 81 mph. Damage totaled 150 million dollars on Kauai, and fifty million dollars on Oahu. The peak storm surge on the south shore was six to eight feet. It marked the first time in 25 years that Hawaii had been affected by a hurricane. (The Weather Channel)
• 26 November 1703...Bristol England was damaged by a hurricane. The Royal Navy lost 15 warships.
• 26 November 1778...Captain James Cook of the British Royal Navy became the first European to discover Maui in the Sandwich Islands (later renamed the Hawaiian Islands). (Wikipedia)
• 26 November 1847...LT William Lynch, USN, sailed from New York to Haifa on USS Supply for an expedition to the River Jordan and the Dead Sea. His group charted the Jordan River from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea and compiled reports of the flora and fauna of the area. (Naval Historical Center)
• 26 November 1888...A late season hurricane brushed the East Coast with heavy rain and gale force winds. The hurricane passed inside Nantucket and over Cape Cod, then crossed Nova Scotia. (David Ludlum)
• 26 November 1966...The world's first tidal power station was opened at Rance estuary in the French province of Brittany. This power plant, fitted with reversible turbines, generates 500 million kilowatt-hours annually. (Today in Science History)
• 26-28 November 1898...The "Portland" storm raged across New England producing gale force winds along the coast and heavy snow inland. A foot of snow blanketed Boston, MA, and 27 inches fell at New London, CT. Winds at Boston gusted to 72 mph, and wind gusts to 98 mph were estimated at Block Island, RI. A passenger ship, the S.S. Portland, sank off Cape Cod with the loss of all 191 persons aboard, and Boston Harbor was filled with wrecked ships. The storm wrecked 56 vessels resulting in a total of 456 casualties. (26^th- 28^th) (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
• 27 November 1703...The first Eddystone Lighthouse off the coast of Devon, England (approximately 14 miles southwest of Plymouth) was destroyed in the "Great Storm," and killed its builder Henry Winstanley. This first light was in an octagonal wooden structure built in 1698. The "Great Storm" is reported to have killed more than 8000 people. (Wikipedia) (Today in Science History)
• 27-28 November 1905...Heavy snow and wind blasted the western Great Lakes with as much as seven inches of snow in northwestern Wisconsin and sustained winds of 42 mph recorded at Duluth, MN for 29 straight hours and 65 mph winds for 13 continuous hours. Severe drifting resulted. Eighteen ships were destroyed or disabled on Lake Superior. The ship Mataafa was grounded and broke in two in Duluth harbor. Nine of the fifteen crew of the Mataafa froze to death despite running aground within 100 yards of the shore. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
• 28 November 1520...Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean after passing through the treacherous South American strait that now bears his name in a 38-day passage. He was the first European to sail into the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic to the east. (The History Channel)
• 28 November 1960...A severe storm produced waves 20 to 40 feet high on Lake Superior. Duluth, MN was buried under a foot of snow, and clocked wind gusts to 73 mph. The northern shore of Lake Superior was flooded, and property along the shore was battered. Thousands of cords of pulpwood were washed into Lake Superior, and up to three feet of water flooded the main street of Grand Marais. Thunder accompanied the "nor'easter". (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)

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, 2010, The American Meteorological Society.