WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

19-23 December 2005

DataStreme Ocean will return for Spring 2006 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 16 January 2006. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the break period.

Ocean in the News:

• An update on disentanglement efforts -- A NOAA-led team spent five-hours removing much of the rope and other fishing gear that entangled a North Atlantic right whale off the North Carolina coast before the distressed whale disappeared into darkness. Unfortunately, other right whales have also been entangled by fishing lines. [NOAA News]
• Another view of the 2005 North Atlantic hurricane season -- The Scientific Visualization Studio at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center has produced a high resolution image along with animations that show the tracks of the 30 tropical cyclones, ranging from tropical depressions, to tropical storms and to hurricanes that developed across the North Atlantic during the just-concluded record hurricane season. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• North Atlantic was very warm in 2005 -- Scientists from the United Kingdom's Met Office and from East Anglia University report that 2005 was the warmest year on record not only across the Northern Hemisphere, but also for the surface waters of the North Atlantic Ocean. [UPI]
• Identification of tsunami victims continues -- Nearly one year has elapsed since the disastrous Indian Ocean tsunami claimed more 200,000 lives along the shorelines of this ocean basin, but attempts continue at identifying the remains of numerous victims, including use of DNA [USA Today]
• Deep-sea drilling ship concludes initial training mission -- The Japanese deep-sea drilling ship Chikyu recently completed its first mission at collecting samples from the ocean floor. This ship will participate in the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, ultimately drilling for cores extending 7000 meters below the ocean floor. [The New Scientist] [EurekAlert!]
• Additional health concerns raised in the Katrina aftermath -- Researchers from Texas Tech University have found unsafe levels of lead in the sediments and soil disturbed by Hurricane Katrina in the city of New Orleans. [EurekAlert!]
• Breaking the rules along the Gulf Coast -- Numerous environmental rules have either been broken or set aside along the Louisiana Gulf Coast following the landfall of Hurricane Katrina in an effort to aid in the recovery and rebuilding efforts. [ENN]
• Marine life census features "fish with chips" -- As the midpoint of the ambitious Census of Marine Life approaches, some highlights of the project found to date have been announced, including the discovery of new species of sponges, the discovery of life near smoking seafloor vents in the South Atlantic and an underwater dead zone near the epicenter of the Indonesian earthquake that produced the 2004 tsunami. The cataloguing project was aided by tracking of fish with implanted computer chips. [EurekAlert!]
• A dolphin breeding breakthrough announced -- SeaWorld in San Diego, CA recently announced that they have been successfully selecting the gender of newborn dolphins in an effort to improve the population of these captive marine mammals. [ENN]
• Orcas may be high on PCBs -- A researcher at the Norwegian Polar Institute reports that orca or "killer" whales appear to have the highest concentrations of anthropogenic toxins of all arctic mammals tested in Europe and surrounding waters. [ENN]
• Lake Erie receives untreated sewage -- The Ohio Public Interest Research Group has reported that more than 8.9 billion gallons of untreated sewage flows annually into Lake Erie because of sewer systems that are overwhelmed during storms crossing the watershed surrounding the lake. [US Water News Online]
• 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:

• 19 December 1551...The Dutch west coast was hit by a hurricane.
• 19 December 1741...Vitus J Bering, Dutch navigator/explorer, died on this date.
• 19-21 December 1835...The HMS Beagle and Charles Darwin approached New Zealand and sailed into the Bay of Islands.
• 20 December 1987...Worst peacetime shipping disaster occurred as the Dona Paz, a Philippine ferry, sank after collision with oil tanker Vector off Mindoro island, setting off a double explosion. As many as 1749 confirmed deaths, but the death toll was probably closer to 3000.
• 21 December 1163...A hurricane hit villages in Holland/Friesland, causing floods.
• 21 December 1872...The HMS Challenger set sail from Portsmouth, England on the 4-year scientific expedition that would lay the foundation for the science of oceanography. (Wikipedia)
• 21 December 1936...Ice breaking operations in channels and harbors by the US Coast Guard was authorized by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Executive Order No. 7521. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 22 December 1832...The HMS Beagle and Charles Darwin reached the Barnevelts Islands
• 22 December 1837...Congress authorized the President "to cause any suitable number of public vessels, adapted to the purpose, to cruise upon the coast, in the severe portion of the season, and to afford aid to distressed navigators." This statute was the first authorizing activities in the field of maritime safety, thereby interjecting the national government into the field of lifesaving for the first time. Although revenue cutters were specifically mentioned, the performance of this duty was imposed primarily upon the Revenue Marine Service and quickly became one of its major activities. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 22 December 1894...The Dutch coast was hit by a hurricane.
• 23 December 1811...A cold storm hit Long Island Sound with a foot of snow, gale force winds, and temperatures near zero. During the storm, many ships were wrecked, and in some cases, entire crews perished. (David Ludlum)
• 23 December 1854...A tsunami struck the coast of Japan, with water in the harbor of Simoda changing depth between 8 and 40 feet. Twelve hours later this giant wave reached the Pacific coast of the U.S. The newly installed self-registering tide gauges noted these waves. The information derived from this event enabled Alexander D. Bache, Superintendent of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, to apply a newly derived law relating ocean depth to wave speed and provide the first relatively accurate scientific estimate of the depth of an ocean between Japan and the Pacific coast of the U.S. The velocity of the sea wave from Simoda to San Francisco was 369 mph. (Today in Science)
• 25 December 1492...The Santa Maria, one of the ships that Christopher Columbus used, landed at the Dominican Republic.
• 25 December 1974...Tropical Cyclone Tracy (a hurricane in the waters surrounding Australia) made landfall near Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. Excellent warnings kept the death toll to between 50 and 60, with more than 20,000 people evacuated in the week following the storm. Some areas were totally devastated. Peak wind speeds reached exceeded 174 mph. (The Weather Doctor) (Accord's Weather Calendar)

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Prepared by AMS DSOcean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2005, The American Meteorological Society.