WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

6-10 May 2013

DataStreme Ocean will return for Fall 2013 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 2 September 2013. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

Item of Interest:

Land of the Midnight Sun -- Barring clouds, the sun should rise at Barrow, AK early Friday morning (2:54 AM AKDT on 10 May 2013) after spending 62 minutes below the horizon. The sun should then remain above the local horizon for the next 12 weeks, before going below the horizon for one hour and 14 minutes on 2 August 2013 (at 1:57 AM AKDT).

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics -- The only organized tropical cyclone found across any of the globe's ocean basins during the last week was Tropical Storm Zane that formed in the western South Pacific. This tropical cyclone formed early last week over the waters of the Coral Sea to the northeast of the Willis Islands and traveled to the west toward the Cape York Peninsula on the northeastern coast of Queensland, Australia. This tropical storm was short-lived, as it dissipated less than two days after forming. For more information on Tropical Storm Zane along with satellite images, please consult the NASA Hurricane Page.
World Meteorological Organization confirms 2012 was 9th warmest since 1850 -- During the last week, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released its "Statement on the Status of the Global Climate" noting that despite the cooling effect of a La Nina event early in the year, 2012 was the ninth-warmest since sufficiently reliable global climate records began in 1850. 2012. The global land and ocean surface temperature during January-December 2012 was estimated to be 0.45 Celsius degrees (0.83 Fahrenheit degrees) above the 1961-1990 average of 14.0 degrees C. Furthermore, 2012 was the 27th consecutive year that global surface temperatures (land and ocean) were above the 1961-1990 average. The report also notes a record loss of Arctic sea ice in August and September 2012. [World Meteorological Organization Media Center]
New current meter in New York Harbor will help ships navigate Harbor safely -- NOAA is now using ocean current data (direction, speed and volume) from a new current meter placed in the New York Harbor operated by New Jersey's Stevens Institute of Technology. This current meter is located just to the north of the Narrows between New York City's Boroughs of Brooklyn and Staten Island, or approximately halfway between Manhattan and the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. The current data from this new meter will be used in NOAA's Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System (PORTS®) system, which delivers real-time environmental observations, forecasts and other geospatial information to mariners in 21 major US harbors to help increase the safety of maritime commerce and recreation. [NOAA News]
Buckets are important to climate and ocean science -- NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) has posted an article that describes the importance of buckets that were used by scientists and sailors for more than a century to measure the temperatures of the top layers of the world's oceans from onboard ships. The method of taking the temperature of the sea water collected in the bucket has now been replaced by other techniques including satellite surveillance to determine the sea-surface temperatures, which are important in monitoring the global climate, ecosystems and the prediction of El Niño and La Niña events. A link to the International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Dataset is provided. [NOAA NCDC News]
Annual report on status of US fisheries submitted to Congress --NOAA Fisheries recently submitted its 2012 Annual Report on the Status of US Fisheries to Congress that provided a summary of the status of US fisheries at the end of 2012. According to this report, the status of the nation's marine fish stocks continued to improve in 2012, with ten stocks removed from the overfishing list and four stocks removed from the overfished lists. [NOAA Fisheries Service] Following the release of the 2012 Status of Stocks report, the Acting Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries, Sam Rauch, issued a message describing the success of the national science-based fisheries management system established under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, noting that 32 fisheries stocks have been declared rebuilt since 2000, along with overfishing reaching an all-time low. [NOAA Fisheries Service]
Catch limits announced for Northeast groundfish stocks -- NOAA Fisheries recently announced the new catch limits for Northeast groundfish stocks that would be placed in effect during the 2013-2014 season. While much lower quotas were set fir sine jet groundfish stocks, the move is meant to help the fisheries industry to better manage the fisheries and to help mitigate impacts to the fishers and the coastal communities in New England. [NOAA Fisheries Northeast Regional Office]
Grants awarded to spur innovation for conservation and management in nation's fisheries -- Early last week the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) awarded $1.6 million to 15 grant recipients from around the nation through its Fisheries Innovation Fund to foster the development and implementation of creative approaches for sustainable fisheries. This Fund was created four years ago as a successful public-private partnership that was conceived by NOAA Fisheries and NFWF. During this coming week (7-9 May), the Managing Our Nation's Fisheries III Conference will be held in Washington, DC that will provide a forum for information exchange on the sustainability of fish stocks and ecosystem functions, together with the fishing communities that depend on them. [NOAA Fisheries Service]
Fish exposed to Gulf oil spill have health defects -- Researchers from the University of California, Davis along with colleagues from Louisiana and South Carolina have found that Gulf killifish embryos exposed to sediments that were oiled from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico suffered from developmental abnormalities. These abnormalities, which included heart defects, delayed hatching and reduced hatching success, continued for at least one year after the disaster. [University of California, Davis News]
Sea turtles benefit from protected marine area in Florida -- A US Geological Survey has found that the endangered green turtles who have been nesting in Florida's Dry Tortugas National Park appear to be benefiting from the protection afforded by this federally protected area. [USGS Newsroom]
Operation IceBridge concludes for season -- Late last week, NASA's Operation IceBridge was concluded for another season. This season's IceBridge mission began in mid-March, with scientists flying aboard NASA's flying laboratory and collecting data on Arctic ice ranging from sea ice to tidewater glaciers to ice caps. IceBridge is a six-year mission operated by NASA to help scientists bridge the gap in polar observations between the failure of NASA's Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) in 2009 and ICESat-2, planned for launch in early 2016. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Space probe views large hurricane on Saturn -- Scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have recently released high-resolution images of a large spinning vortex in Saturn's northern polar region that resembles a hurricane on Earth. The images were obtained from NASA's Cassini spacecraft and show an eye with a diameter of 1250 miles that was surrounded by clouds circulating at speeds of approximately 330 mph. When the images were made, Saturn was entering the northern hemisphere's spring. [NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory]
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.

Historical Events:

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 History)
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 History)
9 May 1502...The explorer Christopher Columbus left Spain for his fourth and final journey to the "New World". (Wikipedia)
9 May 1926...The Baden-Baden, a ship propelled by two 50-ft high cylindrical rotors arrived in New York having left Hamburg on 2 April 1926, and completed a transatlantic crossing from Germany. Utilizing the aerodynamic power of the Magnus Effect (discovered in 1852), which builds air pressure behind a rotating cylinder, these rotors drove 45-hp electric motors that powered the ship. Although a theoretical success, it was not sufficiently effective for commercial application. (Today in Science)
9 May 1980...A blinding squall, followed by dense fog, reduced visibility to near zero at the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay in Florida. The Liberian freighter SS Summit Venture hit the bridge piling, causing a 1200-foot section of the bridge to fall 150 feet into the bay. Several vehicles, including a bus, drove off the edge of the span, resulting in 35 deaths. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar) (Wikipedia).
9 May 1990...A tropical cyclone hit the southeast coast of India, killing 1000 people, even though 400,000 people evacuated because of early warning of the storm. More than 100 miles of coast were devastated as winds reached 125 mph and a storm surge measured at 22 feet flooded inland as far as 22 miles. (The Weather Doctor) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
10 May 1497...The Italian cartographer Amerigo Vespucci allegedly left the Spanish coastal city of Cádiz for his first voyage to the New World. (Wikipedia)
10 May 1503...Christopher Columbus discovered the Cayman Islands and named them Las Tortugas after the numerous sea turtles that he found there. (Wikipedia)
10 May 1960...The submarine, USS Triton (SSRN-586), completed a submerged circumnavigation of world in 84 days following many of the routes taken by Magellan and cruising 46,000 miles. (Naval Historical Center)
11 May 1833...The ship Lady of the Lake struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic while bound from England to Quebec, resulting in the loss of 215 lives. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
11-12 May 1965...The first of two cyclones that struck East Pakistan (now called Bangladesh) during the year made landfall. This system, along with the one on 1-2 June, killed about 47,000 people.
12 May 1916...Plumb Point, Jamaica reported 17.80 inches of rain in 15 minutes, which set a world record. (The Weather Doctor)
12 May 1978...The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that they would no longer exclusively name hurricanes after women.