Weekly Ocean News

WEEK ELEVEN: 17-21 November 2008

Ocean in the News

Eye on the tropics ---
- No organized tropical cyclones formed in the North Atlantic, eastern North Pacific or central North Pacific basins last week.
- In the western North Pacific, Tropical Storm Mayask made a loop across the South China Sea and dissipated early last week. A satellite image and additional information on Tropical Storm Mayask can be seen on the NASA Hurricane Page
  Tropical Storm Haishen formed over the western Pacific over this past weekend and was moving to the northeast well to the south of Japan as of early Monday, local time.
  Tropical Storm Noul developed over the South China Sea west of the Philippines on Sunday (local time) and by Monday was traveling to the west toward the central coast of Viet Nam.
- In the North Indian Ocean basin, Tropical Cyclone Khai-Muk formed over the Bay of Bengal late last week and after initially traveling northward, it took sharp turn to the west and reached the coast of Indian near Madras. For more information, including satellite imagery on Tropical Cyclone Khai-Muk, see the NASA Hurricane Page.
Illegal fishing operation uncovered -- Law enforcement agents from NOAA's Fisheries Service along with those from New York and New Jersey, uncovered evidence of alleged illegal fishing of prize striped bass in federal waters by two charter fishing operators. [NOAA News]
Economic effects of "red tide" disaster in New England waters determined -- The US Commerce Secretary recently determined that the closing of some shellfish fisheries in ocean waters off Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine due to a harmful algal bloom often called "red tide" has resulted economically in a commercial fishery failure. [NOAA News]
Sockeye salmon disaster declared in Pacific Northwest -- The Secretary of the US Department of Commerce recently determined that the continued fisheries resource disaster in the sockeye salmon fisheries in the waters of Washington State have resulted in a commercial fishery failure to several Northwest Indian tribes and non-tribal fishers in that state. [NOAA News]
Report given on health of a Gulf Coast marine sanctuary -- The NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries recently released a report on the health of the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary in waters of the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana and Texas coasts that indicates the sanctuary to be in good condition, but facing several emerging threats from a variety of human activities. [NOAA News]
Watching for migrating right whales -- NOAA’s Fisheries Service is advising all mariners and fishers to maintain a sharp lookout to prevent collision with the endangered North Atlantic right whales in waters off the Southeastern US through the next five months, a period when the pregnant female whales typically migrate south to these waters to calve. [NOAA News]
Unusual microbe could play major role in ocean ecosystem -- Researchers from the University of California, Santa Cruz claim that an unusual type of photosynthetic bacteria discovered in the waters of the open ocean may require a reconsideration of current theories involving the dynamics of the carbon and nitrogen cycles in the oceans. [EurekAlert!]
Ocean ecosystems affected by Arctic sea ice decline -- Researchers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center report that their analysis of NASA satellite images indicates an explosion in the phytoplankton population in the areas of the Arctic that experienced unprecedented open water due to changes in climate. [NASA GSFC]
Monitoring global water levels from space -- A team of scientists have been using altimeter data collected from several satellites, including NASA's GRACE mission, to monitor changes in water levels around the globe since 1993. They report an increase of sea level by approximately 3.3 mm per year, due in part to thermal expansion of the ocean and in part to melting of continental ice. Other scientists from the United Kingdom have begun monitoring lake and river levels on land using data from European Space Agency satellites. [EurekAlert!]
Predicting the effect of climate upon Pacific salmon stocks -- Researchers at the University of British Columbia claim that they have quantified a relationship between river temperature and salmon mortality rate that would help them accurately predicting the impact of climate change upon threatened Pacific salmon stocks, which could also result in better management strategies. [EurekAlert!]
Rapid migration of marine invasive species noted -- Researchers recently reported a northward migration of a non-native marine species by approximately 50 km per decade was due in part to the impacts upon the oceans by a changing climate and was much faster than the distance traversed by invasive terrestrial plant species. [EurekAlert!]
Ocean cores used to study past changes in monsoons -- A team of researchers from Scotland, Germany and the US report that an Ocean Drilling Project sediment core obtained from the floor of the South China Sea can be used to establish interpret a lengthy record of the changes in the precipitation eroding the Himalayan Mountains associated with variations in the intensity of the Asian monsoon over the last 24 million years. [EurekAlert!]
Urgent action plans being developed to aid coral reefs -- During a meeting in Australia last week, a group of coral reef scientists and policy makers from at least a dozen countries in the "Coral Triangle" in the western Pacific with some of the most prominent coral reefs were working to develop urgent action plans designed to rescue these coral reefs, viewed as some of the richest regions of marine biodiversity, from decline. Part of the proposed plan would help with adaptation to climate change. [Coral Reef Studies]
Deep sea expedition commences -- Researchers from several universities in the United States, Mexico and New Zealand recently set sail on a scientific expedition designed to collect data using the submersible vessel Alvin from two areas with hydrothermal events on the floor of the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean and in the Gulf of California. [EurekAlert!]
New early tsunami warning system becomes operational -- A new Tsunami Early Warning System for the Indian Ocean, GITEWS, was placed into operation last week with the official transfer of operations was made to the BMKG (Meteorological, Climatology and Geophysical Agency of Indonesia). This system employs new procedures and technologies developed by Germany's Helmholtz-Association for the Indian Ocean basin since the devastating tsunami of December 2004. [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

Most hermatypic corals thrive at an ocean water temperature of [(10) (27)] °C.
Corals [(can) (cannot)] recover from bleaching if high ocean water temperatures are not long lasting.

Historical Events:

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)
20 November 1820...The 238-ton American whaler Essex from Nantucket, MA was attacked by an 80-ton bull sperm whale approximately 2000 miles off the western coast of South America. Of the 20 crew members that escaped in three open boats, only five survived the 83-day journey to the coastal waters of South America. The classic novel Moby Dick by Herman Melville (1851) was inspired in part by the story of the Essex. (The History Channel)
21 November 1987...Truk Island (Federated States of Micronesia at 7.4 degrees N, 151.7 degrees E) was struck by the rapidly intensifying Tropical Storm Nina, as winds gusted to 95 mph. Five died, and most buildings were destroyed. A storm of such intensity so close to the equator is somewhat unusual. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
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)