WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

THANKSGIVING WEEK: 24-28 November 2008

This is Thanksgiving Break for the Fall 2008 offering of the DataStreme Ocean course. This Weekly Ocean News contains new information items and historical data, but the Concept of the Week is repeated from Week 11.

Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving Week from the AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Ed Hopkins!

Ocean in the News:

• Eye on the tropics --- With two weeks remaining in the official hurricane seasons in the North Atlantic (including the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea) and the eastern North Pacific, no tropical cyclone activity was detected this past week. However, tropical cyclone activity was reported in the southern Indian Ocean, which is somewhat unusual as the Southern Hemisphere is currently experiencing spring. Tropical Storm Anika formed early last week off Java and dissipated several days later along the northwest coast of Australia. Information on this tropical storm can be found on the NASA Hurricane Webpage. Another system identified as Tropical Storm 3S formed south of south of the Cocos Islands during the week and weakened the following day. Additional information on this system appears on the NASA Hurricane Webpage.
• Financial aid available for fisheries disasters -- NOAA’s Fisheries Service recently announced financial air to:
  • Several Northwest Indian tribes and the state of Washington will be eligible for up to $2 million in assistance aid for those fishers affected by the failure in the Fraser River sockeye salmon fishery in Puget Sound. [NOAA News]
  • The states of Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire will be eligible for a total of $5 million in assistance aid to the shellfishing industries hit by the harmful algal bloom (also known as "red tide") in waters off the New England coast. [NOAA News]
  • The states of Maryland and Virginia will be eligible for a total of $20 million in assistance aid to the watermen hit by the commercial failure in blue crab fishery in Chesapeake Bay. [NOAA News]
  • The states of Louisiana and Texas will be eligible for will be eligible for a total of $47 million in assistance aid to restore and rebuild the fish habitats and fishing industries in these two states that were devastated by this fall's Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.. [NOAA News]
• Buffer zones could help protect West Coast salmon from pesticides -- NOAA Fisheries Service recently issued a biological opinion to the US Environmental Protection Agency that found diazonin, malathion, and chlorpyrifos, three chemicals used in pesticides, as being agents that are likely to jeopardize more than two dozen populations of salmon on the West Coast listed as either endangered or threatened. This opinion calls for buffer zones next to salmon streams where the chemicals are used. [NOAA News]
• Cut in the pollock catch recommended -- NOAA Fisheries Service is recommending a cut to the 2009 catch of walleye pollock in the eastern Bering Sea off Alaska due to recent scientific evidence showing a decline in the walleye pollock biomass. [NOAA News]
• Retirement of a research vessel -- The NOAA research ship Albatross IV was decommissioned last week following a 45 years of service that included numerous research cruises and fisheries surveys in the waters off the Northeast US. NOAA’s new fisheries survey vessel, the Henry B. Bigelow, will be the replacement for the Albatross IV. [NOAA News]
• National system of marine protected areas launched -- The U.S. Departments of Interior and Commerce jointly released the final version of "Framework for the National System of Marine Protected Areas of the United States," which represents the culmination of a cooperative multi-agency, multi-year effort to protect the nation’s natural and cultural marine treasures through a National System of Marine Protected Areas. [NOAA News]
• Plans for managing three California marine sanctuaries released -- The NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries recently released a final set of management plans, regulations and environmental impact statements for the protection and management of the Cordell Bank, Gulf of the Farallones and Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuaries that are located in the Pacific waters off the central California coast. [NOAA News]
• Public input requested on Monitor's resting place -- NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries will be conducting a series of five December meetings designed to gain public input on the management plan for the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary located off North Carolina's Outer Banks where the Civil War-ironclad USS Monitor sank. [NOAA News]
• Salinity of Chesapeake Bay could be altered by sea level rise -- Researchers from Penn State University and the University of Maryland warn that projected changes in global sea level may affect the salinity of various parts of Chesapeake Bay, the nation's largest estuary. [EurekAlert!]
• Unlocking the secrets of marine life -- Researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory claim that they have found how the first "eyes" on marine plankton may have worked and how these tiny creatures were guided toward light. [EurekAlert!]
• Ocean observing satellite mission receives an award -- NASA and the US Department of the Interior recently presented the annual William T. Pecora Awards to NASA's Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) mission team and Samuel N. Goward of the University of Maryland in recognition of their outstanding contributions toward understanding the Earth by means of remote sensing. The QuikSCAT satellite has provided early detection of ocean storms and advanced the scientific exploration of global ocean wind patterns. [NASA]
• NASA supercomputer is fast -- An announcement was made last week that NASA's new Pleiades supercomputer at Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA has been ranked as the third fastest on the on the Top500 list of the world's most powerful computers. In addition to running projects involving astronomy and space vehicle design, this supercomputer will run coupled atmosphere-ocean models to assess decadal climate prediction skill for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. [NASA ARC]
• A global review of October's warm weather -- Preliminary analysis of worldwide combined ocean and land temperatures by scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center indicates that the recently completed month of October 2008 had the second highest combined October temperature since a sufficiently dense and reliable network began in 1880. They also found that the globally averaged land surface temperature for October 2008 was the highest on record for October, while that month's global ocean surface temperature was the sixth highest. [NOAA News]
• 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.

This Concept of the Week is repeated from Week 11.

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:

• 24 November 1982...Hurricane Iwa lashed the Hawaiian Islands of Niihau, Kauai, and Oahu with high winds and surf. Winds gusting to 120 mph caused extensive shoreline damage. Winds at Honolulu gusted to 81 mph. Damage totaled 150 million dollars on Kauai, and fifty million dollars on Oahu. The peak storm surge on the south shore was six to eight feet. It marked the first time in 25 years that Hawaii had been affected by a hurricane. (The Weather Channel)
• 26 November 1703...Bristol England was damaged by a hurricane. The Royal Navy lost 15 warships.
• 26 November 1778...Captain James Cook of the British Royal Navy became the first European to discover Maui in the Sandwich Islands (later renamed the Hawaiian Islands). (Wikipedia)
• 26 November 1847...LT William Lynch, USN, sailed from New York to Haifa on USS Supply for an expedition to the River Jordan and the Dead Sea. His group charted the Jordan River from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea and compiled reports of the flora and fauna of the area. (Naval Historical Center)
• 26 November 1888...A late season hurricane brushed the East Coast with heavy rain and gale force winds. The hurricane passed inside Nantucket and over Cape Cod, then crossed Nova Scotia. (David Ludlum)
• 26 November 1966...The world's first tidal power station was opened at Rance estuary in the French province of Brittany. This power plant, fitted with reversible turbines, generates 500 million kilowatt-hours annually. (Today in Science History)
• 26-28 November 1898...The "Portland" storm raged across New England producing gale force winds along the coast and heavy snow inland. A foot of snow blanketed Boston, MA, and 27 inches fell at New London, CT. Winds at Boston gusted to 72 mph, and wind gusts to 98 mph were estimated at Block Island, RI. A passenger ship, the S.S. Portland, sank off Cape Cod with the loss of all 191 persons aboard, and Boston Harbor was filled with wrecked ships. The storm wrecked 56 vessels resulting in a total of 456 casualties. (26^th- 28^th) (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
• 27 November 1703...The first Eddystone Lighthouse off the coast of Devon, England (approximately 14 miles southwest of Plymouth) was destroyed in the "Great Storm," and killed its builder Henry Winstanley. This first light was in an octagonal wooden structure built in 1698. The "Great Storm" is reported to have killed more than 8000 people. (Wikipedia) (Today in Science History)
• 27-28 November 1905...Heavy snow and wind blasted the western Great Lakes with as much as seven inches of snow in northwestern Wisconsin and sustained winds of 42 mph recorded at Duluth, MN for 29 straight hours and 65 mph winds for 13 continuous hours. Severe drifting resulted. Eighteen ships were destroyed or disabled on Lake Superior. The ship Mataafa was grounded and broke in two in Duluth harbor. Nine of the fifteen crew of the Mataafa froze to death despite running aground within 100 yards of the shore. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
• 28 November 1520...Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean after passing through the treacherous South American strait that now bears his name in a 38-day passage. He was the first European to sail into the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic to the east. (The History Channel)
• 28 November 1960...A severe storm produced waves 20 to 40 feet high on Lake Superior. Duluth, MN was buried under a foot of snow, and clocked wind gusts to 73 mph. The northern shore of Lake Superior was flooded, and property along the shore was battered. Thousands of cords of pulpwood were washed into Lake Superior, and up to three feet of water flooded the main street of Grand Marais. Thunder accompanied the "nor'easter". (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)

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Prepared by AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., emailhopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2007, The American Meteorological Society.