WEEK TEN: 8-12 November 2010

Items of Interest:

• Opportunity for Teachers:
The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Teacher at Sea 2011 Field Season program is now accepting applications until 30 November 2010. Gain your "sea legs" and first-hand experience in one-week to one-month voyages. For more information, or to apply, see http://teacheratsea.noaa.gov.

Ocean in the News:

• Eye on the tropics --
During the last week several tropical cyclones were found across the tropical Atlantic and Indian Oceans:
• In the North Atlantic Basin, Hurricane Tomas dominated the weather across the Caribbean Sea for essentially all of last week. After reaching category-2 status (on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale) over the previous weekend, Tomas weakened to a tropical storm and then a tropical depression as it traveled westward across the Caribbean during the week. Near the end of the week, this depression turned toward the north and then intensified to a category 1 hurricane as it approached southwestern Haiti and eastern Cuba. Entering the western North Atlantic after skirting Haiti, Hurricane Tomas weakened to a tropical storm early Saturday. However, Tropical Storm Tomas intensified to become a hurricane for the third time on Saturday as it moved to the north-northeast. As of Saturday, eight people had been killed in Haiti due to Hurricane Tomas. [USA Today] For more information and satellite images associated with Hurricane Tomas, consult the NASA Hurricane Page.
• In the South Indian Ocean Basin a tropical cyclone identified as Tropical Storm Anggrek formed over the waters of the eastern South Indian Ocean to the north-northeast of the Cocos Islands last weekend. During the week, this tropical storm intensified as it moved southward, but by the end of the week, Anggrek had dissipated. NASA Hurricane Page has more information on Anggrek.
• In the North Indian Ocean Basin, Tropical Cyclone Jal formed late last week over the southern Bay of Bengal. This category-1 tropical cyclone traveled to the northwest toward the southeast coast of India over this past weekend. Additional information and satellite imagery on Tropical Cyclone Jal can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
• Deep-sea research cruise in Gulf is completed --
At the end of last week, a group of scientists from several universities including Florida State, Louisiana State, Temple and Penn State, as well as from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the US Geological Survey completed the three-week Lophelia II 2010 Expedition. This cruise was the fourth in a four-year project sponsored by the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research and the US Department of Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement. Its mission was to discover and characterize deep-water coral communities in the Gulf of Mexico and to conduct a variety of experiments and analyses. During this cruise, the scientists observed damage to deep-sea corals. [NOAA News]
• Catch shares use encouraged to protect fisheries --
During this past week, NOAA released a national policy designed to encourage use of catch shares, a fishery management tool that has been shown to end overfishing and aid in rebuilding fisheries, while sustaining the fishing industry and coastal communities. These catch share programs include limited access privilege programs and individual fishing quotas. [NOAA News]
• Restrictions in ship speed to protect endangered whales in North Atlantic --
Last week, NOAA Fisheries officials announced seasonal vessel speed restrictions have been put in place on 65-foot or longer vessels along the US East Coast where the endangered North Atlantic right whales travel. These restrictions require these vessels to travel at 10 knots or less in important whale areas to protect the whales from being injured or killed by colliding with ships. [NOAA News]
• Too many scallops taken --
NOAA's General Counsel recently announced that notices of violations have been issued that propose civil administrative penalties against four scallop vessel owners and operators for taking significantly more scallops than were allowed by law. These owners and operators were also charged with making false statements to investigators and filing false trip reports to cover their actions. [NOAA News]
• Environmental literacy grants for science education announced --
Early last week, NOAA’s Office of Education announced that more than $8 million in Environmental Literacy Grants were made to seventeen of the institutions with the intention to engage the public in science education activities that improve understanding and stewardship of the local and global environment. [NOAA News]
• NOAA Education website gets new look and content --
NOAA officials recently unveiled an updated website http://www.education.noaa.gov that represents their agency's is education primary education resource portal. This site, which is intended to better connect students and educators with NOAA’s education and science resources, has the themes of Oceans and Coasts, Climate, Weather and Atmosphere, Marine Life, and Freshwater. [NOAA News]
• Monitoring marine phytoplankton patterns from space --
A set of monthly global maps showing the chlorophyll concentration in surface seawater in the world's oceans has been prepared for a span of slightly more than eight years. These data were collected from the MODIS sensor on NASA's Aqua satellite. In essence, these chlorophyll maps are equivalent to the concentrations of algae and phytoplankton in the oceans that are near the base of the ocean food web. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Changes in climate during Pleistocene reversed Atlantic Ocean's circulation --
An international team of researchers from Spain's Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and the University of Seville, along with those from the United Kingdom's Oxford and Cardiff Universities have determined that changes in the Earth's climate approximately 20,000 years ago reversed the circulation of the Atlantic Ocean. Their investigation of the isotopes distributed on the floor of the Atlantic showed a change in the meridional overturning circulation (MOC) that may have accelerated climate change during the last Pleistocene Ice Age. [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: 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

1. Seamounts are extinct submarine volcanoes that occur primarily in the [(Atlantic) (Pacific)(Southern)] Ocean.
2. Commercial fish trawling has [(little if any)(a devastating)] impact on seamount ecosystems.

Historical Events:

• 9 November 1913...The "Freshwater Fury," a rapidly deepening extratropical cyclone, caused unpredicted gales on the Great Lakes. Seventeen ships, including eight large ore carriers on Lake Erie sank drowning 270 sailors. Cleveland, OH reported 17.4 in. of snow in 24 hrs, and a storm total of 22.2 in., both all-time records for that location. During the storm, winds at Cleveland averaged 50 mph, with gusts to 79 mph. The storm produced sustained winds of 62 mph at Port Huron, MI, wind gusts to 80 mph at Buffalo, NY. (9^th-11^th) (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
• 9 November 1932...An unnamed hurricane struck Cuba, with winds reaching approximately 210 mph at Nuvitas. However, a storm surge was the main killer of 2500 of the 4000 residents of Santa Cruiz del Sur. Essentially no storm records exist, as the observer drowned, with records and instruments washed away. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
• 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)

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Prepared by AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 2010, The American Meteorological Society.