2-6 May 2005

DataStreme Ocean will return for Fall 2005 with new Ocean News and Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 29 August 2005. All the current online homepage products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

• Ocean ghostnets are a maritime environmental problem -- NOAA scientists recently reported that ghostnets, which are abandoned or discarded fishing nets and balls of net, are an environmental hazard in the Pacific Ocean. They entangle wildlife and damage reefs. [NOAA News]
• Hurricane awareness tour to begin along East Coast -- NOAA "hurricane hunter" aircraft will travel to five East Coast cities from Maine to Florida this week on a mission designed to increase the public's awareness of hurricanes and to encourage greater preparedness in communities vulnerable to the effects of a land falling hurricane. National Hurricane Preparedness week will be in two weeks. [NOAA News]
• Study of Lake Erie "Dead Zone" commences -- Researchers with the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory along with the US Environmental Protection Agency and 15 universities in the US and Canada began a two-year project called the "International Field Years on Lake Erie" that will study the lake, focusing upon the "dead zone", an area of low oxygen that develops each summer. [NOAA News]
• WMO group adopts updated El Niño-La Niña definitions and indices -- NOAA officials recently announced that those nations in the World Meteorological Organization's zone that are located in Caribbean and North and Central America have adopted the proposed definitions and indices that describe El Niño-La Niña episodes. [NOAA News]
• Planetary energy budget out of balance -- Using data collected from ocean submersibles and satellites, along with statistics from computer models to study the earth's oceans, scientists from NASA, Columbia University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have concluded that an energy imbalance between the amount of sunlight absorbed by the planet and the infrared radiation emitted to space has resulted in an increase in ocean heat content over the past decade. [NASA]
• Hurricanes contribute to poor lake health -- Scientists and local residents report that last year's hurricanes churned the waters of Florida's Lake Okeechobee and contributed to its failing health in terms of water quality and aquatic life. [USA Today]
• "Dead Zone" in Gulf of Mexico could be expanding--A team of scientists from Texas A&M. Louisiana State University and NASA recently reported that the 'dead zone", a region of low dissolved oxygen, in the northern Gulf of Mexico has appeared earlier this year and could be come larger and potentially more disastrous to marine life than in previous years. [EurekAlert!]
• Extinction rates of marine life lower during an ice age -- A researcher at Johns Hopkins University has found that rates of extinction were low for many major marine life groups during a major Paleozoic Era ice age, suggesting that the marine life could adapt to changes in ocean temperature and sea level. [EurekAlert!]
• Details of ocean mixing studied--Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have been studying the small-scale salt fingers that develop and create a layering of salty water with fresher layers in what is called a "salty staircase" in the tropical Atlantic near Barbados. [EurekAlert!]
• Tsunamis have been an continuing threat to humans -- A professor at the University of Washington reported that her studies of historic and pre-historic tsunamis indicates that humans often forget the lessons from these periodic tragic events. She challenged the scientific community to providing increased education of the public in an effort to reduce the death toll in future events. [EurekAlert!]
• Online link to Gulf of Maine ecosystem data unveiled -- A group within the University of Maine recently posted a webpage called "The Dynamic Atlas of the Gulf of Maine" that serves as a portal to ecological data for the Gulf of Maine. [EurekAlert!]
• 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.

• 2 May 1775...Benjamin Franklin completed the first scientific study of the Gulf Stream. His observations began in 1769 when as deputy postmaster of the British Colonies he found ships took two weeks longer to bring mail from England than was required in the opposite direction. Thus, Franklin became the first to chart the Gulf Stream. (Today in Science)
• 2 May 1880...The first U.S. steamboat to successfully employ electric lights was the Columbia, a 309-ft long vessel which operated between San Francisco, CA and Portland, OR. An "A" type dynamo was placed in operation to illuminate the passenger rooms and main salons. (Today in Science)
• 2 May 1932...After a Convention with Canada, the Northern Pacific Halibut Act re-enacted the Act of 7 June 1924 and made it unlawful to catch halibut between 1 November and 15 February of each year in territorial waters of United States and Canada, as well as on the high seas, extending westerly from there, including Bering Sea. The Coast Guard enforced this act. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 2-3 May 1998...Ocean swells from storms in the South Pacific caused surf heights of 7 to 9 feet, with sets to 12 feet along the southern California coast. A man fishing on rocks at Rancho Palos Verdes, CA was swept away. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
• 3 May 1494...The explorer Christopher Columbus sighted the island of Jamaica in the West Indies. He named the island Santa Gloria. On the following day he landed on Jamaica. (Library of Congress)
• 3 May 1761...Large tornadoes swept the Charleston, SC harbor when a British Fleet of 40 sails was at anchor. It raised a wave 12 feet high, leaving many vessels on their beam-ends. Four people drowned. (Intellicast)
• 4 May 1869...The first U.S. patent for an offshore oil-drill rig was issued to T.F. Rowland for his "submarine drilling apparatus" (No. 89,794). (Today in Science)
• 4 May 1904...Construction began on the Panama Canal. (Wikipedia)
• 4 May 1910...Congress required every passenger ship or other ship carrying 50 persons or more, leaving any port of United States to be equipped with radio (100-mi radius) and a qualified operator. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 5 May 1990...A strong Pacific cold front moving rapidly inland caused weather conditions at the east end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca in Washington State to quickly change from sunny and calm to westerly winds of 60 mph and ten-foot waves. Three recreational fishing boats capsized in heavy seas off Port Angeles resulting in five deaths. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• 6 May 1994...The rail tunnel under the English Channel, or "Chunnel," that connects Folkestone, England, with Sangatte, France was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and French President Mitterrand. (The History Channel)
• 8 May 1961...The first practical seawater conversion plant in the U.S. was opened in Freeport, TX by the Office of Saline Water, U.S. Dept of the Interior. The plant was designed to produce about a million gallons of water a day at a cost of about $1.25 per thousand gallons. (Today in Science)
• 8 May 1992...The source of a "red tide" in the Gulf of Mexico was suggested by scientists at a conference on the ecology of the Gulf. The red tide produced huge blooms of reddish algae in sufficient quantity to kill fish and cause severe respiratory problems for humans. A "green river" that started 60 miles inland of Florida was indicated as the source of the algae. The wind and water currents that bring nutrients from the floor of the ocean to the surface provided the food that caused the algae population to explode once it reached the Gulf. (Today in Science)

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Prepared by AMS DSOcean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2005, The American Meteorological Society.