WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

5-9 January 2009

DataStreme Ocean will return for Spring 2009 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 19 January 2009. All the current online website products, including updated issues of Weekly Ocean News, will continue to be available throughout the winter break period.

Ocean in the News:

• Eye on the tropics -- No organized tropical cyclone activity was detected in any of the world's ocean basins during the last week.
• Amazing discovery of green algae which could save the world from global warming -- Melting icebergs, so long the iconic image of global warming, are triggering a natural process that could delay or even end climate change, British scientists have found. [Daily Mail, UK]
• Some coral recover rapidly from tsunami -- Researchers with the Wildlife Conservation Society expressed surprise that some coral reefs damaged by the Dec 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami have recovered faster than previously thought. [BBC News]
• Ancient earth was covered by water and barren land -- A scientist at Australia's University of Sydney and colleagues recently reported that they calculated that until approximately 2.5 billion years ago, much of early Earth was covered by water, with barren land comprising of less than four percent of the planet's surface area. [New Scientist]
• Turtle habitat seen from space -- A photograph taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station shows the waters around the US Virgin Islands, which are in the critical habitat region where several species of sea turtles are protected by the Endangered Species Act. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Attempts to disentangle right whale in Florida waters -- Rescue workers from NOAA's Fisheries Service, ,the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies and the New England Aquarium and Wildlife Trust recently attempted to disentangle an endangered North Atlantic right whale from a long rope in waters off Florida. [NOAA News]
• Increases seen in right whale numbers -- An aerial survey conducted by researchers at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center indicates a large number of the endangered North Atlantic right whales in the waters of the Gulf of Maine, which would suggest that these waters serve as a place for wintering and breeding for these whales. [NOAA News]
• A many-colored tropical sea -- An image made by the MODIS sensors on NASA's Terra satellite in mid December shows the variety of colors of the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico along Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula associated with sediment and from phytoplankton. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Growth of aquaculture is foreseen -- A researcher at the University of Michigan claims that the production of seafood through aquaculture should become the most rapidly increasing worldwide food production system within the next two decades. He also notes that improved management techniques can reduce effects of aquaculture practices upon the environment. [EurekAlert!]
• Tremors along British Columbia coastal fault due to trapped water -- Research conducted at the University of British Columbia indicates that the regular tremors along the Cascadia megathrust fault under British Columbia's Vancouver Island can be explained by the lubrication of the tectonic plates caused by the escape of water that had been trapped in a portion of the fault following a pressure buildup. [EurekAlert!]
• 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, 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:

• 5 January 1841...The British explorer, James Clark Ross, was the first to enter pack ice near Ross Ice Shelf off Antarctica.
• 5 January 1875...CDR Edward Lull, USN, began an expedition to locate the best ship canal route across Panama. This route was followed 30 years later. (Naval Historical Center)
• 5 January 1903...The general public could use the San Francisco-Hawaii telegraph cable across the Pacific cable for the very first time.
• 6 January 1839...A two-day storm off the Irish and English coasts was immortalized as "The Big Wind".
• 6 January 1898...The first telephone message from a submerged submarine was transmitted by Simon Lake, the father of the modern submarine.
• 6 January 1928...An intense low pressure system over the North Sea created a storm surge that moved upstream along the Thames River to London in England. Water rose over embankments. The rapid rise of the river resulted in 14 deaths in basements. As many as 40,000 people were left homeless. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 7 January 1904...The international Morse code distress signal "CQD" was established. Two years later, the 1906 International Conference on Wireless Communication at Sea, resolved that the radio distress signal should become "SOS" because it was quicker to send by wireless radio. (Wikipedia)
• 7 January 1927...Transatlantic telephone service began between New York and London, with 31 calls made on this first day.
• 8 January 1958...The Coast Guard LORAN Station at Johnston Island began transmitting on a 24-hour basis, thus establishing a new LORAN rate in the Central Pacific. The new rate between Johnston Island and French Frigate Shoal gave a higher order of accuracy for fixing positions in the steamship lanes from Oahu, Hawaii, to Midway Island. In the past, this was impossible in some areas along this important shipping route. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 8 January 1971...Twenty-nine pilot whales beached themselves and died at San Clemente Island, CA.
• 8-11 January 1980...Winds, waves and rain pounded Hawaii, resulting in 27.5 million dollars in storm damage, which was the greatest amount to that date in the Aloha State's history. Four houses were destroyed and 40 others damaged by a possible tornado in Honolulu's Pacific Palisades area on the 8^th. Ocean waves with heights to 20 feet entered beachfront hotels along the Kona Coast of the Big Island. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)

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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.