Weekly Ocean News

WEEK TEN: 10-14 November 2008

Ocean in the News:

(Wed.) Supreme Court rules in favor of Navy sonar use -- The U.S. Supreme Court voted 5 to 4 to remove restrictions on Navy use of sonar saying there was insufficient evidence of harm to whales. [CNN.]
Eye on the Tropics -- After a relatively quite spell, the weather across the tropical ocean basins became more active last week:
- In the North Atlantic basin, a tropical depression over the southwestern Caribbean Sea grew rapidly during the second half of the week to become the eighth hurricane of the 2008 North Atlantic hurricane season, Hurricane Paloma. By this past Saturday, Hurricane Paloma had intensified to become a major hurricane, reaching category 4 status on the Saffir-Simpson Scale with maximum sustained surface winds of 145 mph as it moved initially to the north and then to the northeast across the Caribbean, passing across the Cayman Islands and Cuba. By late Saturday night Paloma made landfall along the south central coast of Cuba, where it weakened rapidly to a category 1 hurricane. A visible image obtained from sensors onboard NOAA's GOES-12 satellite late last week shows the characteristic swirl of clouds surrounding Hurricane Paloma. [NASA Earth Observatory] A detailed discussion and additional satellite images on Hurricane Paloma are available on the NASA Hurricane Page.
- In the eastern North Pacific basin, Tropical Storm Polo, the sixteenth named tropical cyclone of the 2008 hurricane in that basin formed well to the west of the Central American coast over last weekend. Approximately two days later, this minimal tropical storm dissipated as it traveled westward. Additional information on Tropical Storm Polo, together with satellite images, can be obtained from the NASA Hurricane Page.
- In the western North Pacific basin, Tropical Storm Maysak formed northeast of Zambonga in the Philippine Islands at the midpoint of last week. After traveling initially to the northwest across the South China Sea, this tropical storm curved to the northeast by late in the weekend.
"Teachers Under the Sea" bring marine science to the classroom -- A high school teacher from Miami, FL and from Longmont, CO, selected as the first K-12 teachers to participate in the "Teachers Under the Sea" are living and working in the NOAA's Aquarius Reef Base, the world’s only permanent undersea laboratory that is submerged under the ocean surface in Florida's Conch Reef Sanctuary. In addition to assisting in research, these teachers are providing live communications to the nation's schools through broadcasts, blogs, and video conferencing. [NOAA News]
Correcting for ocean cooling -- An ocean scientist from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and colleagues have reevaluated the near-surface energy budget of the world's oceans and have found that data for the 2004-2006 collected by ARGO floats were not correct and did not show a cooling of the near surface waters as initially thought. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Satellites used to monitor glacier mass changes -- A geophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and colleagues from other institutions have used satellite data obtained from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission satellites to precisely measure changes in the mass of mountain glaciers that surround the Gulf of Alaska. [NASA GSFC]
Seeking answers on the Greenland ice cap -- Scientists at a recent workshop organized by the European Science Foundation focused upon developing research efforts designed to measure and answer how the Greenland ice cap is responding to recent changes in climate, especially in how the increased meltwater could affect global sea levels. [EurekAlert!]
North Atlantic experiencing major climate-driven ecological shifts -- An oceanographer at Cornell University and his colleagues report that the increases in temperatures and an influx of freshwater from melting Arctic ice sheets and glaciers during the last century have resulted in a dramatic shift in the ecosystem of the North Atlantic. [EurekAlert!]
European bluefin tuna threatened by overfishing -- Researchers at the Technical University of Denmark and University of New Hampshire report that the highly valued European bluefin tuna could become depleted in the waters of the northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean because of the overfishing of this species by European fishers. [EurekAlert!]
Cold water coral reefs are found -- Using bottom lander observatories, researchers associated with the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) have found coral reefs that developed in the cold waters of the North Atlantic Ocean at depths ranging from 600 to 1000 meters. [NWO]
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: 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:

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)
12 November 1956...(date approximate) The crew on the icebreaker USCGC Glacier saw what may have been the world's largest iceberg. Observed about 150 mi west of Antarctica's Scott Island, the iceberg was about 60 mi wide by 208 mi long, or roughly the size of Maryland. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
12 November 1974...A salmon was caught in the River Thames, England - the first in more than 130 years. (Today in Science History)
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)