Weekly Ocean News

DATASTREME OCEAN WEEK ELEVEN: 13-17 November 2006

Ocean in the News:

• (Thurs.) Large earthquake produces minor tsunami -- A major 8.1 magnitude earthquake off the northern coast of Japan on Wednesday (local time) prompted tsunami warnings around the Pacific by various agencies, including the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. However, the warning was soon discontinued as the wave was less than 20 inches on some of the Japanese coasts. [CNN]
• (Thurs.) Non native fish populations need to be controlled -- Scientists from the NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science recently reported that conventional methods of eliminating the growth of non-native lionfish populations from the coasts of the Southeastern States and the Bahamas appear to be ineffective and that better monitoring efforts are needed to detect the non-native species before they become established, along with outreach efforts to discourage the release of these exotic species. [NOAA News]
• (Thurs.) Ballast water could bring harmful species to South Carolina waters -- Concern is being raised in Charleston, SC that ballast water could be dumped into that city's harbor containing harmful foreign marine species, which could rapidly populate the harbor and decimate the native ecosystem. [US Water News Online]
• (Thurs.) Northern and Southern Hemispheres were connected by ocean currents during Ice Age -- A team of European scientists participating in the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA) has studied ice cores and found that temperature responses in Northern and Southern hemispheres between 55,000 and 20,000 years ago at the height of the last Ice Age appear to be connected by ocean currents that maintain a north-south circulation regime. [EurekAlert!]
• (Thurs.) Harnessing the ocean -- Several small companies are requesting permits that would allow them to set up turbines at various sites that would extract energy from tidal motion. [US Water News Online]
• (Tues.) Caribbean reef management addressed -- In anticipation of the celebration of the International Year of the Reef in 2008, the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force began planning by addressing the challenges associated with management of the Caribbean reefs, especially in the US Virgin Islands. [NOAA News]
• (Tues.) A space-eye view of the Dead Sea -- An image obtained from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite shows the Dead Sea and the surrounding desert in the rift valley that forms the Dead Sea depression, the lowest spot on Earth. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• (Tues.) A phase of large barrier island restoration project nears completion -- NOAA officials recently announced that the first phase of a project that involves the restoration of a barrier island in Louisiana's Plaquemines Parish in the Mississippi Delta is nearing completion. This 800-acre project is one of the largest barrier island projects undertaken by NOAA. [NOAA News]
• (Tues.) A cloud, climate and ocean organism link seen -- Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology theorize that airborne particles produced by the oxidation of the chemical isoprene emitted by a large bloom of phytoplankton in the Southern Oceans could be responsible for increased concentrations of clouds over the Atlantic Ocean waters off the east coast of South America, which could ultimately contribute to climate change. [EurekAlert!]
• (Tues.) Lawsuits attempt to end Bluefin fishing -- Several environmental groups are filing suit in Federal courts in an attempt to terminate Bluefin tuna fishing in the Gulf of Mexico, since populations of this valuable fish are dwindling. [ENN]
• (Tues.) European study focuses on tsunami prediction -- European scientists involved with ocean margin research are collaborating in a program called EUROMARGINS to predict tsunamis as a means to avert natural disaster along these ocean margins. [EurekAlert!]
• Eye on the tropics --
  • In the eastern Pacific, Tropical Storm Rosa formed off the Mexican coast at the midpoint of last week, moved northward and then westward before dissipating at the end of the week. Over the weekend, Tropical Depression 20-E formed west of Mexico over the weekend then dissipated.
  • In the western North Pacific, Typhoon Chebi formed last week to the east of the northern Philippines and moved westward, crossing Luzon close to the track of Supertyphoon Cimaron that caused 19 deaths across this island a week earlier. Before making landfall, Typhoon Chebi briefly intensified to a category 4 typhoon on the Saffir-Simpson Scale and weakened after moving across Luzon and entering the South China Sea. Winds gusted to 143 mph and heavy rain produced some flooding. On Sunday, this minimal typhoon was heading toward the coast of Viet Nam. [USA Today]
• Iceland's resumption of whaling draws international protest -- The United States, along with 24 other countries and the European Commission recently delivered a protest to the Icelandic government urging it to reconsider its decision in mid October 2006 to resume commercial whaling and cease current whaling operations. [NOAA News]
• Birth of volcanic island documented by yacht crew -- The crew of the yacht "Maiken" sailing toward Fiji in August were witness to the birth of a volcanic island in Tonga, an island nation in the southwest Pacific Ocean; they have posted pictures of floating pumice on the Internet. [Matangi Tonga]
• Rising sea level could force millions to flee -- German researchers who form the German Advisory Council on Global Change report that widespread warming across the planet associated with climate change could cause sea levels to rise, storms to become more powerful and seawater to become more acidic. They caution that these threats could cause tens of millions of people to become "sea level refugees" as they flee low-lying coastal communities. [ENN]
• Sea level was higher in the past -- Investigators from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies claim that a fossil corral reef found at roughly 10 feet above high tide along the coast of West Australia marks the high point of the last major rise in sea level during the previous interglacial epoch, between 128,000 and 125,000 years ago. [ARC Coral Reef Studies]
• Sharks are in trouble -- Environmentalists are warning that many shark species are threatened because of worldwide fishing pressures. [ENN]
• Icebergs float across Southern Ocean -- An oceanographer with New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research claims that the icebergs that have recently floated close to New Zealand in the South Pacific originally began their journey after breaking off the Ronne Ice Shelf located to the southeast of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic approximately six years ago, drifting eastward in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. [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.

Historical Events:

• 13 November 1970...A cyclone swept over Bangladesh, then known as East Pakistan, pushing a 49-ft storm surge against the coast at high tide. Flooding killed 500,000. Over 50 million people were affected by the storm rain, wind and surge. (The Weather Doctor)
• 13 November 2002...The single-hulled oil tanker Prestige sank off Spain's Galician coast, causing a huge oil spill. (Wikipedia)
• 14 November 1825...The Codorus, the first ship made in the U.S. with sheet iron, was tested on the Susquehanna River at York, PA. The ship weighted five tons, of which two tons was for the coal- and wood- fueled boiler which provided power for an 8 hp engine. With a keel length of 60-ft and a 9-ft beam, the ship drew about seven inches of water. (Today in Science History)
• 14-21 November 1991...Tropical Cyclone Tia spent most of its life near the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. However, it completely destroyed 90 percent of all dwellings on Tikopia Island. The remaining 10 percent of the buildings sustained collapsed walls or roofs that had been blown off. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
• 15 November 1860...The light in the massive stone Minots Ledge Lighthouse at the entrance to Boston Harbor, which was built on the original site of the one lost in 1851, was exhibited. Work on the new lighthouse commenced in 1855 and was finished in 1860. "It ranks, by the engineering difficulties surrounding its erection and by the skill and science shown in the details of its construction, among the chief of the great sea-rock lighthouses of the world." (USCG Historians Office)
• 15 November 1888...The Norwegian oceanographer and meteorologist Harald Ulrik Sverdrup was born on this date. He was known for his studies of the physics, chemistry, and biology of the ocean. He died in August 1957. (Today in Science History)
• 15 November 1854...In Egypt, a royal concession from Said was made that ultimately permitted construction of the Suez Canal linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea. (Wikipedia)
• 17 November 1820...Captain Nathaniel Palmer, USN, became the first American to see Antarctica. He saw the Palmer Peninsula, which was later named after him. (Wikipedia)
• 17 November 1869...The Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean and Red Seas, was officially inaugurated in Egypt with an elaborate ceremony. (Wikipedia)
• 17 November 1973...The "Largest Icebreaker in the Western World," USCGC Polar Star, was launched. (USCG Historians Office)
• 18 November 1421...Wind-driven waves from an intense storm breached Dutch dikes on the Zuider Zee, sweeping away 72 villages. At least 10,000 people died in "St. Elizabeth's flood." (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
• 18 November 1929...A magnitude 7.2 submarine earthquake centered on the Grand Banks off the south coast of Newfoundland broke 12 transatlantic telegraph cables and triggered a tsunami that destroyed many south coast communities on Newfoundland's Burin Peninsula. (Wikipedia)
• 19 November 1493...The explorer Christopher Columbus became the first European to go ashore on modern day Puerto Rico one day after seeing it for the first time. At the time, he named the island San Juan Bautista. (Wikipedia)
• 19 November 1978...A waterspout came onshore to become a tornado near Muhio Wharf in Hilo Harbor on Hawaii's Big Island. Some industrial buildings lost their roofs. The proximity of the waterspout-tornado caused an airliner to change its landing approach to Hilo's airport. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
• 19 November 1996...The last component of the Confederation Bridge was placed that crosses the Northumberland Strait between Borden-Carleton, Prince Edward Island and Cape Jourimain, New Brunswick. This two-lane eight mile long bridge, which was opened in May 1997, is the longest bridge over ice covered salt waters in the world. Ice covers the strait for five months per year. (Today in Science History)

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Prepared by AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2006, The American Meteorological Society.