WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

20-24 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.

Items of Interest:

National Maritime Day will be observed -- Next Wednesday, 22 May 2013, 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 Valletta, Malta from 21 to 22 May. The theme of this year’s conference is “Sustainable Coastal and Maritime Tourism in the wider context of blue growth.” [Editor's Note: This conference will be held in conjunction with European Maritime Day 2013, 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 -- This week of 18-24 May has been declared 2013 National Safe Boating Week, to help kick off the 2013 North American Safe Boating Campaign. Check the Safe Boating Week site maintained by the Safe Boating Council.

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics --- On last Wednesday, the first day of the official 2013 hurricane season in the eastern North Pacific basin, Tropical Storm Alvin formed from a tropical depression approximately 650 miles to the south-southwest of Acapulco, Mexico. Alvin, the first named tropical cyclone of the season, was relatively short lived, becoming a remnant low within two days of formation as the minimal tropical storm traveled to the west-northwest over the waters of the eastern North Pacific away from the Mexican coast. For additional information on Tropical Storm Alvin along with satellite imagery, see the NASA Hurricane Page. NOTE: The earliest hurricane of the season in the eastern North Pacific basin was Hurricane Alma, a category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale that formed on 12 May 1990 and reached hurricane status on the 15th.
In the North Indian Ocean basin, Tropical Storm Mahasen traveled to the northwest across the southern Bay of Bengal over last weekend before gradually turning to a northward and then northeastward direction across the central and northern sections of the Bay during the week. Tropical Storm Mahasen, the first tropical cyclone of 2013 in the North Indian Ocean basin, eventually made landfall along the southern Bangladesh coast last Thursday. Torrential rains from rainshowers and thunderstorms associated with Mahasen fell across Bangladesh, India and Myanmar (formerly called Burma). At least 13 fatalities attributed to Mahasen were reported in Bangladesh. As many as 50 people were feared to be drowned after their boats capsized in the Bay of Bengal off the coast of western Burma due to the strong winds associated with Mahasen. The NASA Hurricane Page has additional information and satellite images on Tropical Storm Mahasen.
Citizen science effort helps classify tropical cyclone imagery -- A collaborative project reached a milestone last week with 200,000 classifications of tropical cyclone images. This project represents a collaboration between NOAA's National Climatic Data Center, the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites-North Carolina, the University of North Carolina-Asheville, and the Citizen Science Alliance (CycloneCenter.org) The project's aim is to address uncertainties in the global tropical cyclone record by enlisting volunteers from the public to help classify tropical cyclone imagery. [NOAA NCDC News]
Final service assessment report on Hurricane Sandy released -- During the last week, NOAA released a report entitled Hurricane/Post Tropical Cyclone Sandy Service Assessment reviewing the performance of NOAA's National Weather Service during Hurricane/post-Tropical Cyclone Sandy that made landfall along the New Jersey coast last October. The report indicates that NWS provided accurate forecasts for Sandy, which gave people along the Atlantic Seaboard early awareness of this weather system. However, certain problems were found with NOAA's ability to communicate the impending impacts associated with the storm surge that represented one of the most significant hazards associated with Sandy. The report also includes 23 recommendations designed to improve NWS products and services that would help meet future needs of the public and other governmental agencies.[NOAA News]
Public invited to comment on new Steller sea lion protection measures -- During the last week NOAA Fisheries released for public review and comment a copy of new fishery management measures intended to protect Steller sea lions as part of a draft environmental impact statement for Alaska's Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area. The western distinct population segment of Steller sea lions are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. In addition to protecting the Steller sea lions, the proposed fishery management measures would reduce economic impacts on the Atka mackerel, Pacific cod, and pollock fisheries in the Aleutian Islands. [NOAA Fisheries News Releases]
"Fish thermometer" shows how climate change impacts global fisheries -- Researchers at the University of British Columbia have devised a "fish thermometer" that uses the temperature preferences of fish and other marine species to assess the effects of changing climate on the world's oceans in the last four decades. The researchers found that changes in climate, as indicated primarily by rising global temperatures, have driven marine species to cooler and deeper waters. They also discovered that global fisheries catches were increasingly dominated by warm-water species due to the migration of fish toward polar latitudes in response to higher ocean temperatures. [University of British Columbia]
Satellite data helps determine role of glaciers in sea-level rise -- An international team of researchers using data obtained from NASA's Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) and from its Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) missions have determined the contribution of glaciers worldwide to the changes in sea level. They found that those glaciers exclusive of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets lost an average of 571 trillion pounds of mass every year during the six-year study, making the oceans rise 0.03 inches per year. These glaciers contain only one percent of all land ice, but contributed to about 30 percent of the total observed global sea level rise between 2003 and 2009. [NASA Headquarters]
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:

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)
23 May 1850...The US Navy sent USS Advance and USS Rescue to attempt rescue of Sir John Franklin's expedition, lost in Arctic. (Naval Historical Center)
23 May 1946...Commodore Edward M. Webster, USCG, headed the U.S. Delegation to the International Meeting on Radio Aids to Marine Navigation, which was held in London, England. As a result of this meeting, the principal maritime nations of the world would make an intensive study of the World War II-developed devices of radar, LORAN, radar beacons, and other navigational aids with a view to adapt them to peacetime use. This meeting was the first time that the wartime technical secrets of radar and LORAN were generally disclosed to the public. (USCG Historian's Office)
23 May 1960...Tsunami waves from Chilean earthquakes began to affect the Alaska's coast along the Gulf of Alaska from Prince of Wales Island to Montague Island for as long as one week. The tsunami waves on the 23rd were up to 14 feet high near Yakutat. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
24 May 1500...The 13 ships in the fleet of Portuguese navigator Pedro Alvares Cabral were hit by a huge ice storm that sank four ships. The rest of the ships were separated as they sailed south of the Cape of Good Hope and continued their journey to India.
24 May 1901...The relative humidity at Parkstone, Dorset in England at 4 PM was reported to be 9.5 percent. This low relative humidity is not typical of the British Islands, which are surrounded by ocean water and have no large high mountain barriers or plateaus. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
24 May 1951...Northeast gales generated waves to 15 feet high in the harbor of Newport, RI. A 50-ft. Navy launch with about 142 men on board capsized. Nineteen of the men drowned in the incident. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
24 May 1992...Winds up to 40 knots and seas to 18 feet in the northern Gulf of Alaska, approximately 30 miles southwest of Alaska's Cape Cleare, sent three waves crashing over the Cajun Mama. The 80-ft fishing boat sank, but the crew of five was rescued. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
25 May 1985...The Meghna River delta in Bangladesh was hit with a tropical cyclone with winds of over 100 mph that created a 15-to 20-foot high storm surge that flooded a 400-square-mile area, mainly islands located in the mouth of the river. More than 11,000 people and 500,000 head of cattle died and hundreds of thousands were left homeless because of this cyclone.
26 May 1967...A slow moving nor'easter battered New England with high winds, heavy rain, and record late season snow on this day and into the 26th. Winds 70 to 90 mph in gusts occurred along the coast. Over 7 inches of rain fell at Nantucket, MA with 6.57 inches falling in 24 hours to set a new 24-hour rainfall record. Severe damage occurred along the coast from very high tides. The 24.9 inches of snow that fell at Mount Washington, NH set a new May snowfall record. Other locations in New Hampshire received 10 inches of snow near Keene and 6 inches at Dublin. (Intellicast)