12-16 January 2009

DataStreme Ocean will return for Spring 2009 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 19 January 2009. All the current online website products, including updated issues of Weekly Ocean News, will continue to be available throughout the winter break period.

Scholarship opportunities:  Applications from qualified undergraduate students attending a Minority Serving Institution are invited for scholarships as part of the 2009 Undergraduate Scholarship Program in the NOAA Office of Education.  Applications need to be submitted no later than 2 February 2009.  For additional information, see http://www.epp.noaa.gov/  

• Eye on the Tropics -- Tropical Cyclone Dongo developed at the end of last week near the center of the tropical South Indian Ocean to the south-southwest of Diego Garcia. As of Sunday, this storm was traveling to the south-southeast. For more information and satellite images on Tropical Storm Dongo, please see the NASA Hurricane Page.
  Over the weekend, Tropical Cyclone Charlotte developed over the waters north of Australia.
• Major oil spill off Puerto Rico is remembered -- NOAA, the commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the Trust for Public Land recently celebrated the 15th anniversary of a large and environmentally-damaging oil spill in coastal waters off Puerto Rico by adding 152 acres of additional coastal land to the San Miguel Natural Preserve east of San Juan to help compensate for lost beach use and injured natural resources because of the spill. [NOAA News]
• The fishing industry generated jobs -- NOAA Fisheries Service recently released an economic report entitled Fisheries Economics of the United States 2006 indicating that U.S. commercial and recreational saltwater fishing supported more than two million jobs and generated more than $185 billion in sales during 2006.  [NOAA News]
• Coral reef conservation receives a monetary award -- An announcement was made recently by NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation were funding 15 grants to assist local governmental agencies and conservation organizations along the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts protect coral reefs through a jointly managed  Coral Reef Conservation Fund. [NOAA News]
• Restoration plan for Delaware River presented -- Public comment is requested by NOAA, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware on a plan to restore and improve the Delaware River ecosystem that had been damaged by an oil spill in 2004.  [NOAA News]
• Changes at the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory -- As NOAA officials helped open a new facility that will house the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory south of Ann Arbor, MI recently, they also announced that a new acting director for the Laboratory had been selected to replace the previous director.   [NOAA News]
• Another estimate of sea level rise by early next century -- Comparing the relationships between global temperature and melting of ice sheets using tree ring and ice core analysis techniques, researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen, England and Finland warn that their research indicates a one meter rise in the global sea level during the next 100 years, which is approximately three times higher than the predictions recently made by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change).  [EurekAlert!]
• Great Barrier Reef coral exhibits slow growth --  The decline endangers the species the reef supports, say Researchers at the Australian Institute of Marine Science note that growth of coral in Australia's Great Barrier Reef has declined to the slowest growth rate in the last 400 years, apparently a consequence of higher global temperatures and increased ocean acidification. [BBC]
• A repository in Texas has ocean treasure -- A special refrigerated storage facility at Texas A&M University serves as the repository for nearly 66 miles of cylindrical cores of sediments drilled from the ocean floors around the world as part of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program.  [Texas A&M University]
• Analyzing harmful algal blooms -- A series of nearly two dozen articles written by an international group of scientists links increased nutrient pollution in coastal waters around the world with increases in the number of harmful algal bloom occurrences that often result in fish kills, tainted seafood and respiratory problems in humans. [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.

• 12 January 1836...Charles Darwin onboard the HMS Beagle reached Sydney, Australia.
• 12 January 1937...A plow for laying submarine cable was issued a U.S. patent. Designed to feed a cable at the same time that it would dig a trench in the ocean bed, the device could be used at depths up to a half mile. The first transatlantic cable of high-speed permalloy was buried on 14 June 1938. The inventors were Chester S. Lawton of Ridgewood, NJ and Capt. Melville H. Bloomer of Halifax, Nova Scotia. (Today in Science History).
• 12 January 1991...A major Atlantic storm intensified over the ocean waters off Newfoundland. Winds reached 105 mph at coastal Bonavista and ocean waves reached heights of 66 feet. A cargo ship sank 250 miles off the southeast Newfoundland coast. This storm was responsible for 33 deaths. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 13 January 1840...The 207-ft long side-wheel steamship Lexington burned and sank in Long Island Sound four miles off the northern coast of New York State's Long Island with the loss of 139 lives. Only four people survived. (Wikipedia)
• 15 January 1833...HMS Beagle anchored at Goeree Tierra del Fuego.
• 17 January 1773...HMS Resolution, commanded by English explorer Captain James Cook, became the first ship to cross the Antarctic Circle (66º 33' S). (Wikipedia)
• 17 January 1779...The English explorer Captain James Cook made his last notation in ship's log Discovery. He was killed less than one month later on Hawaii's Big Island.
• 18 January 1778...The English explorer Captain James Cook sailed past the island of Oahu, thereby becoming the first European to see the Hawaiian Islands, which he called the "Sandwich Islands." (The History Channel)
• 18-22 January 1978...The Atlantic's first-ever January subtropical storm with tropical characteristics since records began in 1871 organized 1500 miles east-northeast of Puerto Rico. The storm finally dissipated on the 22nd approximately 200 miles north of Puerto Rico. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)

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Prepared by AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2009, The American Meteorological Society.