Deep Sea News

…it’s a sea demon!

Actually its a pteropod, a shell-less gastropod, and even crazier it is a simultaneous hermaphrodite.

…the ocean is our final frontier. Besides if we need to explore it before it is overfished, mined, covered in trash, or a sink for all our excess carbon. Mars can wait.

Of course I say this in partly in jest. I mean I don’t want to start another Volcano War. A country like the United States should worry less about being a military leader, outspending all other countries 20 to 1. If we outspent the rest of the world 18 to 1 that would be enough for both space and deep-sea exploration.

If you have been following the story of Andrea Marshall and the manta rays off Mozambique you may notice she responded to questions in the comments section yesterday to tell us she’s working with elasmobranch expert Leonard Compagno to sort through “10 generic and 25 species synonyms, mostly without type specimens” in order to figure out whether she has a new species (or two).

Ocean Revolution co-director Tim Dykstra contacted Deep Sea News, too, thanking us for highlighting the outreach and communication model the Whale Shark and Manta Research Centre has embarked upon. I called the science communication model “Science 2.0″, but barely touched upon the most important aspect of their program, community outreach.

Here’s a few pictures of what community engagement looks like in Mozambique. Most of these people are seeing whale sharks and manta rays alive for the first time. They are learning about sustainable ecotourism as an economic alternative to commercial fishing (for manta rays).

Maunza villagers listening to Bitonga Divers presentation. Photo by Jon Snow.

Carlos Macua and Anabela Muchanga present a conservation talk in the fishing village Jobene Mozambique. Photo by Jon Snow.

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BBC News reports:

“Less than a month after it was put in orbit, the ocean-mapper Jason-2 has returned its first pictures to Earth.

From an altitude of more than 1,300km, the spacecraft is now feeding back data covering nearly the entire globe.

Jason-2 is set to become the primary means of measuring the shape of the world’s oceans, taking readings with an accuracy of better than 4cm.

The information will be crucial to our understanding of both sea level rise and changing ocean currents.

(snip)

Its key instrument is the Poseidon 3 solid-state altimeter. It constantly bounces microwave pulses off the sea surface.

By timing how long the signal takes to make the return trip, it can determine sea surface height. Additionally, the signal can indicate the height of waves and wind speed.

Elevation is a critical parameter for oceanographers. Just as surface air pressure reveals what the atmosphere is doing above, so ocean height will betray details about the behaviour of water down below.

Jason data gives clues to temperature and salinity. When combined with gravity information, it will also indicate current direction and speed.

The Jason lineage shows that mean sea level has been rising by about 3mm a year since 1993.”

Its cool how you can see a build up of seawater on the western side of the Pacific Ocean. Bonus points for those who can tell us why! (Think waaaaay back to your physical oceanography class if you took one)

When I was a kid, I was infatuated with Legos. Who am I kidding? I am still infatuated with Legos! Imagine when I realized that my love of oceanography and my long ignored love of Legos could be combined. Below the fold are some wonderful examples of what $1000 worth of Legos and too much free time can yield. You can see more of these here, here, and here.

All this reminds me several years ago when I spotted a Lego Technics set that was of Alvin. As a poor graduate student I didn’t purchase it, a decision I regret weekly. Does anybody remember this or know where to get one?

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Thanks to Michael Barton, FCD we would have almost forgotten to honor the anniversary of William Beebe’s birth. He lived from July 29, 1877 to June 4, 1962. Here is a little info:

“William Beebe was an American biologist, explorer, and writer on natural history who combined careful biological research with a rare literary skill. As director of tropical research for the New York Zoological Society from 1919, he led scientific expeditions to many parts of the world. He was the coinventor of the bathysphere, a spherical diving-vessel for use in underwater observations. In 1934, with Otis Barton, he descended in his bathysphere to a then record depth of 3,028 feet (923 metres) in Bermuda waters on 15 Aug 1934. Later dives reached depths of around 1.5 km (nearly 1 mile).”

West Coast politics are hot. Senator Ted Stevens of the four seas of Alaska (Chukchi, Bering, Beaufort, and the Pacific) was indicted for false statements while the Governators of California, Oregon and Washington launched a historic action plan to address challenging ocean and coastal management issues along the Pacific Coast of the United States.

From the Ocean Public mailing list:

The action plan released today is the result of three states working side-by-side to identify problems and develop a comprehensive action plan to solve them. It commits three states to collaborate closely with each other and their federal partners on seven priority areas related to ocean protection:

• Ensuring clean coastal waters and beaches;

• Protecting and restoring healthy ocean and coastal habitats;

• Promoting the effective implementation of ecosystem-based management of our ocean and coastal resources;

• Reducing adverse impacts of offshore development;

• Increasing ocean awareness and literacy among our citizens;

• Expanding ocean and coastal scientific information, research and monitoring; and

• Fostering sustainable economic development throughout our diverse coastal communities.

The plan includes actions to help combat polluted runoff and reduce marine garbage, advocate for stricter ocean going vessel emission standards, prevent the introduction of invasive species, explore the feasibility of offshore alternative ocean energy development, improve ocean research, increase ocean education and prevent and respond to offshore oil spills, among others.

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SEED Magazine has put my article up on their website! Go there and take a read. Let me know what you think or address any questions, comments and concerns below!

… in a freshwater lake. I know, its not the deep sea but it is deep and it involves ocean-going submersibles! Lake Baikal is pretty interesting in its own right though. Its home to one fifth of the worlds liquid freshwater, hundreds of unique flora and fauna including the Baikal Seal and was declared a UNESCO World heritage Site in 1996.
BBC News reports:

“Russian news reports said two manned mini-submarines successfully plunged 1,680m (5,512ft) to the lake’s bed.

The mission is part of a two-year plan aimed at conserving the ecosystem of Lake Baikal, which contains about one-fifth of the world’s fresh water.

(snip)

“This is a world record for a submarine diving in fresh water,” Interfax quoted an organiser as saying.

(snip)

“There are technological problems, fickle weather conditions. Fresh water dictates its own special conditions,” he said.

The two 18-tonne mini-submarines were designed to operate in seawater – but have shed hundreds of kilos to make them buoyant enough in less dense fresh water.

Mr Chilingarov also led a team of scientists to the North Pole in August last year – where they controversially staked Russia’s claim by planting a flag on the seabed.

The BBC’s James Rogers, at Lake Baikal, says the latest expedition is another sign of the Kremlin’s desire to show the world the kind of feat a newly confident Russia is capable of.”

There is also a little video of one of the Mir submersibles being lowered into the lake. It really adds nothing to the story, except there is a diver surfing on top of it…

Russ comments in our previous post

Au contrair. The record shows that Planktos was long advocating and involved in ecorestoration not merely recently. The Way Back machine easily proves this. The strawman of Planktos that was created and the ad hominem attacks that were and are the hallmark of those opposed to this work for selfish reasons continue here. For example the fact that the Planktos ship Weatherbird was staffed by top scientists from around the world seems not only missing but refused. That Weatherbird was equipped and maintained by the same academic organizations that equip and maintain the NSF and NOAA fleet ships was eschewed. That the ship was captained by the most famous and dedicated professional mariners of Greenpeace, nah just call them bad people without a life long personal history of dedication to the ocean environment. The idea that Planktos projects were overly large at 50 tonnes of natural iron mineral dust into the Eastern Atlantic where 500 million tonnes of dust arrives in the wind was called reckless, what is the fraction 50/500,000,000. The idea of the target concentration of iron at 100 parts per trillion when the dangerous levels for fish is 1.3 parts per thousand was of course justification for the lies calling the iron a toxic waste cargo. The idea that the decline of ocean productivity is not happening and all is well in the oceans – ridiculous and ignorant, is there such a thing as an ostrich fish, they seem to be increasing in numbers. And the nonsense notion that 20 years and $200 million and many proposed projects on the desks of national funding agencies around the world more or less identical to those of Planktos by leading marine science institutes proves it doesn’t work and is fruitless. And for the last straw the orchestrated opposition to the careful small scale pilot research to find out the facts is indiciative of close mindedness and anti-science thinking. But hey for some ranting and lying about those who actually do things is way easier than actually doing something productive for the benefit of the planet.

Instead of posting there I believe my response justifies a new post.

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