16-20 May 2011

DataStreme Ocean will return for Fall 2011 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 29 August 2011. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

• Hurricane awareness week -- Since 2011 hurricane season in the eastern North Pacific Ocean basin began on Sunday, 15 May 2011 and the corresponding hurricane season in the North Atlantic basin (including the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico) will begin on 1 June, NOAA has declared the week of 22-28 May 2011 to be Hurricane Awareness Week across the nation.
• National Maritime Day will be observed-- Next Sunday, 22 May 2011, has been declared National Maritime Day, a day created to recognize the maritime industry. The holiday was created by the United States Congress on 20 May 1933. The date of 22 May was selected because on 22 May 1819, that the American steamship Savannah set sail from Savannah, GA on the first ever transoceanic voyage under steam power.
  The annual European Maritime Day Conference will be held in Gdansk, Poland from 19 to 20 May. [Editor's Note: This conference will be held in conjunction with European Maritime Day 2011, which is celebrated annually 20 May with the aim to raise awareness of the importance of the sea among the European citizens. The European Maritime Day was established jointly by the European Council, the European Parliament and European Commission in 2008 as part of the European Union's (EU) maritime policy. EJH]
• North American Safe Boating Week -- Commencing this coming Saturday, the week of 21-27 May has been declared 2011 National Safe Boating Week, to help kick off the 2011 North American Safe Boating Campaign. Check the Safe Boating Week site maintained by the Safe Boating Council.

• Eye on the tropics -- Although the official 2011 hurricane season began last Sunday (15 May 2011) in the eastern North Pacific basin, no new organized tropical cyclones were detected across the ocean basins last week. In the western North Pacific basin, Tropical Storm Aere became a midlatitude low pressure system as it traveled to the northeast over the waters of the western Pacific to the south of the Japanese Archipelago. For more information and satellite images on Tropical Storm Aere, see the NASA Hurricane Page.
• Northeast groundfish vessel revenues increase with new fishing rules -- An interim report released last week by NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center indicates that total revenues increased for Northeast groundfish vessels during the first nine months of the 2010 fishing year as compared with the corresponding interval in 2009. This increase was attributed in part to a new fisheries management program was placed in effect beginning in May 2010. [NOAA News]
• States in the Pacific Northwest can remove sea lions that eat salmon -- NOAA's Fisheries Service announced last Friday that the states of Washington and Oregon were given authorization to remove salmon-eating California sea lions that congregate along the Columbia River below the Bonneville Dam where adult salmon and steelhead migrate upstream to spawn. Some of these fish are listed as threatened or endangered. [NOAA News]
• Increased Sino-American cooperation in environmental issues -- The third U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue meeting, which was held recently in Washington, DC, produced an agreement for increased cooperation between the two countries on observing greenhouse gases and a renewed dialogue on bilateral fisheries and ocean management. [NOAA News]
• Ocean acidification buoys deployed in Alaskan waters -- Last month, researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks deployed the first of three instrumented buoys that will be moored in state waters that will collect data aimed at monitoring changes in the pH and carbon dioxide levels of the Gulf of Alaska, the Bering and Chukchi Sea due to changes in climate. [University of Alaska Fairbanks]
• Satellite to monitor linkages between salt and climate -- The salinity-measuring instrument that will be placed onboard NASA's new Aquarius satellite is featured in an article prepared by the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The Aquarius satellite, which will be launched from California next month, is designed to measure the salinity (or saltiness) of the planet's ocean surface so as to provide a better indication of how salinity is linked to Earth's water cycle, ocean circulation and climate. [NASA JPL]
• Antarctic icebergs help sequester carbon dioxide in oceans -- A research team funded by the National Science Foundation recently reported that Antarctic icebergs help the ocean assimilate atmospheric carbon dioxide because of the iron-rich sediments that the icebergs carry from land out into the ocean. These sediments on icebergs that had originated on the Antarctic continent helped fertilize the waters of the Southern Ocean, which helped the growth of algae, ultimately transferring carbon compounds into the deep ocean. [Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute]
• More species than those legally protected have been threatened by Deepwater Horizon spill -- A researcher from the University of New Hampshire and his colleagues have found that 39 marine species were facing threats of extinction from last year's BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in addition to the 14 species protected by federal law. [University of New Hampshire Media Relations]
• Increased carbon dioxide levels adversely affect coccoliths -- A researcher at Denmark's University of Copenhagen and colleagues have found that increased ocean acidity due to increased levels of carbon dioxide dissolved in sea water are causing coccoliths, the small calcium carbonate shells surrounding several species of marine algae, to dissolve. [University of Copenhagen]
• Biology could play a role in manipulation of cloud formation over oceans -- Scientists at the University of Georgia have discovered the biochemical pathway in which bacteria influence the flux of a sulfur compound gas from seawater, which would lead ultimately to cloud formation. These researchers claim that their findings have important implications for cloud manipulations to mitigate global warming that involve the use of ocean bacteria. [University of Georgia]
• 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, drought, floods, 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, to include drought, floods and storms during the current month. [NCDC]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

• 19 May 1535...French explorer Jacques Cartier set sail on his second voyage to North America with 3 ships, 110 men, and Chief Donnacona's two sons (whom Cartier kidnapped during his first voyage). (Wikipedia)
• 19 May 1912...The US Navy established the North Atlantic Ice Patrol following the RMS Titanic disaster. (Naval Historical Center)
• 20 May 1497...John Cabot set sail from Bristol, England, on his ship The Mathew looking for a route to the west (other documents give a 2 May date). (Wikipedia)
• 20 May 1498...The Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama became the first European to reach India via the Atlantic Ocean when he arrived at Kozhikode (previously known as Calicut) on the Malabar Coast, after departing Lisbon, Portugal in July 1497. (The History Channel) (Wikipedia)
• 20 May 1570...Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issued the first modern atlas. (Wikipedia)
• 20 May 1845...HMS Erebus and HMS Terror with 134 men under John Franklin sailed from the River Thames in England, beginning a disastrous expedition to find the Northwest Passage. All hands were lost. (Wikipedia)
• 20 May 1964...The first U.S. atomic-powered lighthouse was put into operation in the Chesapeake Bay, Baltimore Harbor, MD. Designed to supply a continuous flow of electricity for ten years without refueling, the 60-watt nuclear generator generated heat from strontium-90 in the form of strontium titinate, a safe radioisotope. The heat was converted to electricity by 120 pairs of lead telluride thermocouples. Complete with shielding, the unit was only 34.5 inches high and 22 inches in diameter. It was designed and produced by the nuclear division of Martin-Marietta Corp. (Today in Science History)
• 20 May 1999...A devastating cyclone, packing winds of up to 170 mph and a high storm surge, struck the Sindh Province in southern Pakistan. Some 600 villages were devastated and more than 400 people killed. (The Weather Doctor)
• 22 May 1819...The steamship SS Savannah left Savannah, GA on a voyage to Liverpool, England and became the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. It reached Liverpool on 20 June. (Wikipedia)
• 22 May 1849...The future President, Abraham Lincoln, received a patent for the floating dry dock described as for "buoying boats over shoals" (No. 6,469). He was the first American president to receive a patent. His idea utilized inflated cylinders to float grounded vessels through shallow water. (Today in Science History)
• 22-24 May 1948...A rare early season hurricane struck the island of Hispaniola, killing an estimated 80 people. (The Weather Doctor)
• 22 May 1960...A 8.6 magnitude earthquake off the coast of south central Chile triggered a tsunami that moved across the Pacific Ocean. Between 490 and 2290 people were estimated to have been killed by the earthquake and tsunami, and damage estimates were over one half billion dollars. Hilo, HI was devastated by the tsunami. (The University of Washington)

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Prepared by AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2011, The American Meteorological Society.