WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

1-5 June 2009

DataStreme Ocean will return for Fall 2009 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 31 August 2009. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

Ocean in the News:

• Eye on the Tropics -- In western North Atlantic basin, the first tropical depression of the 2009 Hurricane Season formed over the waters east of North Carolina late last week. Tropical Depression One (TD-1) traveled rapidly to the northeast across the open North Atlantic and weakened by the end of the week as it moved over colder waters. For satellite images and additional information on TD-1, consult the NASA Hurricane Page.
  In the North Indian Ocean, Tropical Cyclone Aila moved across the Bay of Bengal and after becoming a minimal category 1 cyclone (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) made landfall along the coast of eastern India and Bangladesh at the start of last week. As many as 264 people were killed by storm surges and flooding from heavy rain. [USA Today] See the NASA Hurricane Page for additional information and satellite images.
• A story of stranded dolphins -- Five northern right whale dolphins were stranded on Santa Rosa Island, one of the Channel Islands off the southern California coast. Unfortunately, four of the five stranded dolphins were deceased and the cause of their deaths will be determined following necropsies. [NOAA News]
• World Hydrography Day celebrated -- The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) will celebrate the fourth annual World Hydrography Day on Thursday 5 June 2009. The theme for this year's celebration is Hydrography-Protecting the Marine Environment. [IHO] [Note: This link is to a pdf file that requires Adobe Acrobat Reader - see below.]
• Reducing the risk of whale-ship collisions -- Two changes to the shipping lanes from the North Atlantic Ocean into Boston (MA) Harbor will go into effect this week in an effort to significantly reduce the risk of collisions between large ships with weights of at least 300 gross tons and the endangered whales that frequent these waters. The changes that were proposed by NOAA and the US Coast Guard have been adapted by the International Maritime Organization. [NOAA News]
• Recovery plan issued for sockeye salmon fishery -- In an attempt to provide conditions that would help increase the population of the threatened sockeye salmon in lake waters of Washington State's Olympic Peninsula, NOAA’s Fisheries Service recently released its recovery plan for this sockeye salmon population in Lake Ozette and the surrounding watershed located in Olympic National Park. [NOAA News]
• Public comment invited for river restoration plan -- NOAA, along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington State Department of Ecology, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Suquamish Tribe and the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, are inviting public comment on a plan that would restore the Lower Duwamish River in Washington State. This river, an industrialized estuary, has experienced the release of hazardous materials during much of the 20th century. [NOAA News]
• Monitoring this past season's sea ice around Antarctica -- Satellite-derived images show the maximum and minimum sea ice extent around Antarctica from last September and February, respectively. These images were made from the Special Sensor Microwave/Imagers flown on a series of Defense Meteorological Satellite Program missions and the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for the Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) on NASA’s Aqua satellite. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Fluorescence helps map global ocean plant health -- Marine biologists from Oregon State University have used data collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite to determine the amount of fluorescent red light emitted by ocean phytoplankton and then to estimate the health and productivity of global ocean plants. [NASA Earth Science News Team]
• Searching for alien oceans on distant planets -- Scientists from several universities and NASA are participating in a project called the Deep Impact/EPOXI mission in which they are attempting to develop a method for determining if some distant planet outside of our solar system would have an ocean with liquid water that would be capable of supporting life. In an early experiment, planet Earth appeared as a "pale blue dot." [NASA JPL]
• Improvements made in modeling Earth's ocean climate -- Researchers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a new computer gridding technique that projects the faces of a cube onto the surface of a sphere, which permits more uniform coverage in polar regions during computing simulations of ocean circulation and climate run on the NASA Advanced Supercomputers (NAS) facilities at Ames Research Center. [NASA JPL News]
• Cheap underwater sensor networks created -- Computer scientists at the University of California, San Diego are developing a method in which low cost networks of underwater sensors that can monitor the underwater environment and transmit the collected data to stations on land. [University of California, San Diego]
• Seasonal variation occurs in the heights of large ocean waves -- An engineer with the Spanish University of Cantabria has applied a statistical model to assess how the height of ocean waves around the Iberian Peninsula varies over time, in particular, the seasonal variation in extremely high waves, due in part to seasonal variations in migratory storm systems that affect the region. This work could help in the design and construction of coastal infrastructure and offshore oil platforms. [EurekAlert!]
• Fisheries-induced evolution may have caused a collapse in the North Atlantic fisheries -- Scientists at the University of Iceland and Marine Research Institute in Reykjavik claim that fisheries-induced evolution may have been a possible cause of the collapse of North Atlantic cod and other fisheries, as intense fishing in shallow waters around Iceland selected against cod adapted to these shallow waters, resulting in their rapid elimination within a few generations. [EurekAlert!]
• Revising abundance of ocean life in historic times -- Using a variety of historic records, historians with the Census of Marine Life program have been attempting to reconstruct the abundance and size of sea life in previous centuries, well before the widespread fishing and hunting efforts commenced. [EurekAlert!]
• 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.

Historical Events:

• 1-17 June 2001...The deadliest and costliest tropical storm in US history, Tropical Storm Allison, wandered westward across the tropical Atlantic and crossed over into the Pacific before reversing direction and moving back into the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. On 1 June the tropical wave, which eventually evolved into TS Allison, moved into the Gulf of Tehuantepec on the Pacific coast of Mexico after moving westward across the tropical Atlantic and the Caribbean from off the west coast of Africa on 21 May. On the 2^nd, a cyclonic (counterclockwise) circulation developed to the south-southeast of Salma Cruz, Mexico, but the low-level circulation became ill-defined as the system moved inland on the 3^rd over southeastern Mexico and western Guatemala. This system intensified again and eventually moved northward to the Texas Gulf Coast and then eastward to the Atlantic before turning into an extratropical storm in mid-June. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 2-4 June 1986...A tropical disturbance brought flooding rains to parts of the Greater Antilles. The flooding caused 59 deaths in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba. As many as 240,000 people lost their homes to this disturbance. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 3 June 1979...The world's worst oil spill occurred when an exploratory oil well, Ixtoc 1, blew out, spilling over 140 million gallons of crude oil into the Bay of Campeche off the coast of Mexico. Although it is the largest known oil spill, it had a relatively low environmental impact. The well was finally capped in March 1980. Booms were placed along the Texas coast to protect major inlets from the oil that was carried northward by prevailing surface currents in the Gulf of Mexico. (Information Please) (Wikipedia)
• 4 June 1825...A hurricane struck Long Island, NY leveling trees and causing damage to ships. The early season hurricane, which originated near Cuba, caused major damage along the Atlantic coast from Charleston, SC to New York City. Many were lost at sea. (David Ludlum)
• 4 June 1976...Forty-foot waves from a tropical cyclone smashed Gogha (port), India. Excellent warnings limited the death toll to approximately 70. Dredging of the harbor at Bhavnnagar ceased for several years as storm runoff from the Kansa River washed away accumulated sand and silt. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 6 June 1882...More than 100,000 inhabitants of Bombay, India were killed as a tropical cyclone that developed over the Arabian Sea pushed huge waves into the harbor. (Wikipedia)
• 7 June 1914...The first vessel, the Alliance, passed through the Panama Canal. The 51-mile long canal, which links the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans across the isthmus of Panama, was officially opened on 15 August 1914. (Today in Science History) (Wikipedia)
• 7 June 1924...The Oil Pollution Act was passed. It was enforced by the Coast Guard.
  Protection of halibut in the North Pacific Ocean was placed under Bureau of Fisheries (Coast Guard- enforced since 1926). (USCG Historian's Office)
• 7 June 1972...Richmond, VA experienced its worst flood of record as rains from Hurricane Agnes pushed the water level at the city locks to a height of 36.5 feet, easily topping the previous record of thirty feet set in 1771. (The Weather Channel)
• 7-10 June 2001...Tropical Storm Allison made landfall along the Texas Gulf Coast near Galveston early on the 6^th and drifted northward before becoming stationary as a depression later in the day near Lufkin. Later, it began to drift back southward, moving offshore over the Gulf late on the 9^th at nearly the same place as it had made landfall. Allison caused disastrous flooding across the Upper Texas Gulf Coast, especially in the Houston area where a storm total of 36.99 inches fell at Port Houston. Twenty-three people lost their lives in Texas. Damage in the region amounted to $5 billion, which included 45,000 homes, 70,000 vehicles and 2000 businesses. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 8 June 1937...Observation of the total eclipse of the sun was made by a U.S. Navy detachment commanded by Captain J. F. Hellweg, USN, which was participating in the National Geographic Society - United States Navy Eclipse Expedition at Canton Island in the Phoenix Islands, Pacific Ocean. USS Avocet was assigned to this expedition. (Naval Historical Center)
• 8-9 June 1990...The Norwegian tanker Mega Borg released 5.1 million gallons of oil some 60 nautical miles south-southeast of Galveston, TX, the result of an explosion and subsequent fire in the pump room. Two crewmembers were killed. Coast Guard units fought the resulting fires and recovered spilled oil. (Information Please) (USCG Historian's Office)
• 8 June 1992...The first World Ocean Day was celebrated, coinciding with the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Wikipedia)

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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.