kevin z | May 22, 2008AP stock photo.
Rex Dalton reports in the latest issue of Nature:"Humpback whale numbers in the northern Pacific Ocean have ballooned to nearly 20,000, the largest population seen since the majestic mammals were hunted nearly to extinction half a century ago.
The number of humpbacks hit an all-time low of 1,400 or even lower by 1966, when their hunting was banned internationally. The new census, from one of the largest whale studies ever undertaken, shows that the animals have rebounded much better than expected.[...]
The three-year study, called SPLASH (Structure of Populations, Levels of…
petnoyer | May 21, 2008Did you ever look at Google's digital Earth model and notice something missing? Like 70% of Earth's topography, for instance? The seafloor shown there is a kind of "shadow topography". It's satellite derived. Fortunately for us, everything in Google Earth with an elevation less than zero is about to get some sweeet emotion.
As it stands, Google Earth's ocean is a blended product of Landsat imagery and a state-of-the-art bathymetry model that is, well, sooo last century.
Deep water features in Google Earth are a satellite-derived reflection of 1) sea surface topography, 2) Earth's gravity,…
kevin z | May 21, 2008Nature News reports in the latest issue:The chief of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has called for the creation of a National Climate Service to manage and disseminate information about global warming.
Like the National Weather Service, the service would fall within NOAA and be a repository for federal research that would be accessible to agencies and the public alike. NOAA administrator Conrad Lautenbacher says that having a central scientific organization to collate this information could help to depoliticize climate research. The service would not have any…
kevin z | May 20, 2008National Geographic Explorer and oceanographer Robert Ballard makes a case for serious exploration and mapping. Video is 18 min. long and recorded in February 2008 in Monterey, California. Dr. Ballard has been criticized on a few points (like favoring archeology over biology, *sniff*), but overall, outside the Titanic, this is what he's famous for... an energetic and inspiring talk with several good points and facts.
Hat tip to Michael Barton, FCD for the link.
kevin z | May 20, 2008On April 24, 1895, Nova Scotian Joshua Slocum set sail from Boston harbor on Spray, an 11 meter long sloop. He was the first to solo circumnavigate all 74,000 kilometers (46,000 miles) of the globe, accomplished without the use of stellar navigation by dead reckoning. Slocum's name continues to inspire and can be seen adorning ships and ferries, monuments and memorials and even a new underwater glider.
With the potential to travel 2000 meters depth over a distance of 40,000 kilometers, the Slocum Glider developed by the Webb Research Corporation is the new bloodhound of the sea, an…
petnoyer | May 20, 2008If you'd have fought like a man, you needn't hang like a dog- Anne Bonny
Anne Bonny is one of two famous lady pirates from the Caribbean. She was born of a lawyer and his maid in Ireland, was disowned by her father, and married a sailor who stole her away to the Caribbean. He was a fink. Anne left him for the handsome pirate "Calico" Jack Rackham, with whom she fought aboard the Revenge, and to whom she delivered the above quotation while awaiting execution, ... all by the age of twenty.
As a pirate, Anne Bonny fought in men's clothing, was an expert with pistol and cutlass, called fearless…
petnoyer | May 20, 2008Deep coral biologists like myself are continually looking to shallow reefs for applicable paradigms. A new online seminar on coral reef futures sponsored by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies provides about 100 examples in a set of FREE online lectures given by a parade of stars like Terry Hughes, John Pandolfi, and Bob Steneck. It's like a dream course in reef ecology from the comfort of your own home. The only thing lacking is a printable diploma!
Topics covered by the online seminars include:
* The latest science on coral bleaching
* The rising plague of coral…
cmcclain | May 19, 2008By now you probably realize that Peter, Kevin, and I are more than ready to burn our terrestrial dwellings down in favor of living among sea creatures in some oceanic utopia. Peter and I have discussed several options for this.
To our list of potential inhabitable salty structures comes a new venture from Peter Thiel. Thiel is founder of PayPal, a Google Engineer, and a former programmer for Sun Microsystems. With $500,000 of his money, The Seasteading Institute has been launched dedicated to "creating experimental ocean communities with diverse social, political, and legal systems." As…
cmcclain | May 18, 2008On a seamount near Macquarie Ridge lies a city several kilometers down. No mermaids, merman, or Snorkels reside here. Rather millions of brittlestars, living arm tip to arm tip, extend there tiny arms toward the surface to capture food. Much like a large city arises near a river, sheltered harbor, or gambling, Brittlestar City thrives because the Antarctic Circumpolar Current passes over the seamount at a brisk 2 knots. This makes it prime habitat for organisms who make a living filtering particles out the water. You can see more photos and video here.
petnoyer | May 17, 2008Dolphins swim through water by moving their flipper in an up and down motion. Sharks propel themselves forward moving from side to side. Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps uses both these techniques to help break records. More and more swimmers are turning to these animals for inspiration, both in style and material. Read more at Discovery News.
From the Independent UK: Sharkskin swimsuits lead hi-tech bid for Olympic gold.
Scientists at the Natural History Museum in London acted as paid consultants to Speedo, the British swimwear company, as part of a four-year project to make a body suit…
kevin z | May 16, 2008The Cotton Factory has a new T-Shirt design!
It's teh awesome! On sale now for a ten spot.
petnoyer | May 16, 2008
There's a whole series of these animations from RG studios posted at YouTube, including Polar Bears hang gliding, playing golf, and on vacation in Easter Island. We would like to think they can rest easy now that they're listed as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), but environmental groups are claiming that loopholes in the ESA would still leave them unprotected against their biggest threat; global warming caused by man-made pollution.
petnoyer | May 15, 2008It feels strange to rejoice the listing of polar bears to the Endangered Species Act, because its nothing to be happy about, really. They are now officially in danger of extinction. I would be more ecstatic if they were being removed from the list, actually. But ESA is a powerful legislative weapon to address the root causes of extinction.
No, I'm not talking about ice retreat due to climate change, I'm talking about exogenous chemical pollution accumulating in the Arctic that causes female polar bears to grow a penis. The condition is known as imposex.
Imposex also occurs in mud snails…
kevin z | May 15, 2008Do you support the proposal to create a Marine Monument in the northern islands? Do you enjoy the slogan "You'll love how deep we go" as much as us? Do you find it absolute and utter bull-honkey that the CNMI legislature resolved to oppose the formation of marine reserve on unfounded grounds? Then help out Angelo to create the second largest marine no-take zone in the world!
I'm asking of you dearest deep sea readers to go over to the Saipan Tribune, CNMI's daily newspaper, and scroll down the front page to the poll and click "YES". RIGHT NOW! The poll will be in place until the end of the…
kevin z | May 15, 2008They're at it again. Conservation group Greenpeace is accusing the crew of japanese whaling ships of "embezzling" whale meat from the whale "research". CNN reports: The environmental group said "large-scale embezzlement" was allowed as an "open secret" by the Institute of Cetacean Research in Japan. The body oversees Japanese whale hunts, which are done in the name of "scientific" research.
The institute has previously accused Greenpeace and other organizations of "harassment" for interfering with Japanese whaling voyages.
The environmental group said that 12 members of a one whaling ship…
cmcclain | May 14, 2008Hugh Bradner died this week at the age of 92. Bradner was a prominent physicist and professor emeritus at the Scripps. He worked on the Manhattan Project and later designed instrumentation for the fusion bomb. He was one of the first Americans to make a deep dive using SCUBA.
Interestingly, Bradner is probably not best known for is contributions to physics but rather as the scientist that invented the wetsuit. From Wikipedia...
In 1951, UC Berkeley physicist Hugh Bradner had the insight that a thin layer of trapped water could act as an insulator. He sent his ideas to Lauriston C. "Larry"…
kevin z | May 13, 2008Imagine you can redesign Google's logo. What would it be? Perhaps the two o's can be portholes in a submarine that is exploring the 'l' hydrothermal vent? Google tasked K-12 students nationwide to come up with future Google logo's in the Doodle 4 Google.Doodle 4 Google is a competition where we invite K-12 students to reinvent Google's homepage logo. This year we asked U.S. kids to doodle around the theme "What if...?"
Well, the entries are in, and we couldn't be more impressed. We received thousands of wonderful doodles, and choosing 40 finalists for the public vote had to be one of the most…
cmcclain | May 12, 2008NR-1 is the navy's smallest nuclear-powered and only nuclear-powered research submarine. Launched in 1969, th 145' NR-1 (known affectionately as Nerwin) was designed for deep submergence work on the seabed ranging from recovery, repair, implantation, and observation. Given its nuclear reactor, missions on the bottom can last day limited only by consumables. The submersible possesses bunks for these extended missions. Despite this independence, it generally towed and does not stray far from a surface support ship, currently the MV Carolyn Chouest.
During extended missions, NR-1 typically…