Weekly Ocean News

WEEK TEN: 5-9 November 2012

For Your Information

"Falling back" this past weekend -- Early this past Sunday morning most of the nation will revert back to Standard time after nearly 8 months of observing Daylight Saving Time. Since Arizona, Hawaii and Puerto Rico do not observe Daylight Saving Time, no time change will be needed in those parts of the country. The U.S. Congress has mandated time changes. Following the old adage of "spring ahead, fall behind", you will need to turn your clocks back by one hour to conform with the local time observance. Note:A recent Energy Policy Act has extended Daylight Saving Time, with the start on the second Sunday in March (11 March 2012) and the end on the first Sunday in November (4 November 2012). Next spring, Daylight Saving Time will start on Sunday morning, 10 March 2013.
A change from Daylight Saving to Standard Time does not deduct an extra hour of daylight from the day nor does it affect weather and climate patterns. The daily climate data collected at those automatic weather stations operated by the National Weather Service and the Federal Aviation Administration, together with all the cooperative weather observing stations around the nation are always made according to local standard time. NOTE: You may check the correct current official time at http://www.time.gov/
Finding answers to Right whale questions -- The public is invited to chat with NOAA Fisheries Service scientists live on Twitter this upcoming Thursday afternoon (8 November 2012 at 2 PM EST) concerning Right whales in the western North Atlantic Ocean. [NOAA Fisheries Service]
Hydrothermal vent organisms -- You are invited to read this week's Supplemental Information...In Greater Depth that describes how geoscientists have investigated the deep-sea environment in the vicinity of hydrothermal vents that form along the oceanic ridges nearly 3000 meters below the ocean surface. Interestingly, a diverse and abundant community of marine organisms has been found to live in these extreme oceanic conditions.

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics -- During the last week, several tropical cyclones were found across the North Atlantic, the North Pacific Oceans and the North Indian Ocean in the Northern Hemisphere:

In the North Atlantic basin, Hurricane Sandy moved northward off the Southeastern US coast at the start of last week before making a turn toward the northwest and then west on Monday. As it approached the Middle Atlantic coast, Hurricane Sandy lost its tropical characteristics as it merged with a midlatitude cold front. However, hurricane force winds remained as this system made landfall along the New Jersey coast near Atlantic City on Monday evening as Post-tropical Cyclone or Superstorm Sandy. In addition to the hurricane-force winds that caused damage, a storm surge on top of a high astronomical tide produced record flooding in New York Harbor. Locally heavy rain fell along the coast, while record snow fell over the higher terrain of the central Appalachians. Several billions of damage was caused and more than 40 people were killed along the Middle Atlantic coast. Additional information and satellite imagery on Hurricane Sandy can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
In the eastern North Pacific basin, the seventeenth named tropical cyclone of 2012 in that basin formed early last week off the southwestern coast of Mexico. Identified as Tropical Storm Rosa, it traveled generally westward through the remainder of the week. As of this past Sunday, Rosa had weakened to a tropical depression. . The NASA Hurricane Page has additional information and satellite imagery on Tropical Storm Rosa.
In the western North Pacific basin, Typhoon Son-tinh, which had become a major category 3 typhoon on the Saffir-Simpson Scale over the Gulf of Tonkin. made landfall along the northern coast of Vietnam early last week. Additional information on Typhoon Son-tinh along with satellite imagery can be found NASA Hurricane Page.
In the North Indian Ocean basin, the second named tropical cyclone of 2012 in the basin formed early last week over the waters northeast of Colombo, Sri Lanka. This system, which was named Tropical Storm Nilam, traveled to the northwest and made landfall along the southeastern coast of India by midweek. The NASA Hurricane Center has additional information and satellite images on Tropical Storm Nilam.

More about Superstorm Sandy -- Former Hurricane Sandy slammed into the Middle Atlantic coast as a devastating hybrid storm after merging with a a midlatitude weather system. The following are some interesting sidelights concerning what has been one of the most powerful and devastating storms to hit the nation's East Coast:
- Scientists affiliated with the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison used satellite imagery from NOAA and NASA satellites to track the path of Hurricane Sandy as it moved northward along the coast and made an unprecedented turn to the left before making landfall. The work by these scientists has helped improve hurricane weather forecasts. [University of Wisconsin News]
- The various line agencies within NOAA continued to provide additional post-storm operations following the demise of Superstorm Sandy. NOAA's hydrographic survey vessels made surveys of New York Harbor in search of dangers to navigation, the remote sending program of NOAA's National Geodetic Survey continued to conduct aerial photographic surveys of the battered coast and NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration provided scientific support to the US Coast Guard in responding to a significant spill at an oil refinery in New Jersey. [National Ocean Service]
- Sections of the coastline of New Jersey changed considerably after the landfall of Sandy. "Before and after" aerial images taken by NOAA's Remote Sensing Division of one of the barrier islands along the coast to the north of where Sandy made landfall shows how the island was cut by wave action. [NASA Earth Observatory]
- The strong winds, the storm surge and the coastal flooding that accompanied Superstorm Sandy resulted in widespread power outages in New York and New Jersey. Comparison of a pair of nighttime satellite images made by before and after Sandy by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the NOAA/NASA Suomi NPP satellite shows the extent of the power outages. [ NASA Earth Observatory]
Deep sea coral and sponge banks found off central California coast -- A team of scientists from NOAA, the US Geological Society and California who participated in a series of research cruises in the waters of NOAA's Gulf of the Farallones Sanctuary off the coast of central California near San Francisco Bay have recently discovered many species of deep sea corals, sponges and rockfish. Large black coral was found on a previously unstudied rocky seafloor bank 40 miles offshore near the Farallon Islands. [National Ocean Service]
Acoustic devices listen for change in Arctic marine ecosystem -- Scientists with NOAA's Fisheries Office of Science and Technology have deployed a series of underwater acoustic listening devices in the Arctic Ocean off Alaska as part of the Chukchi Acoustic, Oceanographic, and Zooplankton (CHAOZ) Study. These devices not only listen for whale calls, but also monitor changes in the marine ecosystem. These acoustic surveys can be conducted year-round and can cover a greater geographic range than traditional visual surveys. The tracking of the Arctic whales also permits simultaneous monitoring of the water temperature, salinity and ice thickness. [NOAA Fisheries Service]
Legislation introduced to fight illegal pirate fishing -- Members of the US Congress have introduced two complementary bills that are intended to target illegal fisheries and their products. One of the measures is called the "Pirate Fishing Elimination Act" that would deny port access to vessels engaged in or supporting illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. The other piece of legislation is the "International Fisheries Stewardship and Enforcement Act: that would increase our nation's enforcement power against vessels and nations engaged in illegal fishing and improve monitoring of the seafood trade. Combating IUU fishing is one of the top priorities of NOAA's Fisheries Service. [NOAA Fisheries Service]
Sea level may be rising ahead of projections -- A geologist at the University of Colorado claims that global sea levels appear to be rising faster than expected due to increased temperatures because he believes that the models used to forecast the increase in height have not included critical feedback mechanisms that include Arctic sea ice, the Greenland ice cap and one involving soil moisture and groundwater mining. [Geological Society of America]
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, drought, floods, 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, to include 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 13 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 Núńez 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 1835...A severe storm crossed the Great Lakes and "swept the lakes clear of sail" as 19 ships were lost and 254 sailors killed on Lakes Erie, Ontario and Michigan. (Intellicast)
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
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)
11 November 1099...Violent storm in the North Sea killed 100,000 people in England and The Netherlands. (The Weather Doctor)