3,000 Miles South: harmonizing surfing and ocean conservation in Nicaragua

From SurfLine

As any surfer knows, surfing is about a whole lot more than catching waves.
True, the stoke from catching that perfect barrel is second to none, but think about how much better it is when the view from that perfect barrel, or from your board between sets, is of a beautiful natural landscape.
Or how much better your session is on the days you surf with a school of dolphins or a solitary seal.
We surfers are lucky - on a daily basis, we get the unique opportunity to commune with the ocean and its creatures--to remember why conservation of our natural resources is so important.

In California, though we may often surf with seals and views from the lineup include natural landscapes, far more frequently, that view is obstructed by houses, and you might surf with trash like used syringes, plastic bottles, or dirty diapers. 3,000 miles south of here, off the Pacific coast of Nicaragua, the view from the lineup is of lush coastal mangroves and expansive seasonally dry tropical forests, and sea turtles are common surfing companions.
The 300 km of Pacific coastline receives consistent swell and prevailing off shore wind, with many of the best waves breaking in front of pristine beaches.
Yes, Nicaragua is a surfing paradise, but it shares California's struggle to maintain trash-free beaches and clear waters.

Ventura-based conservation organization, Paso Pacífico, is working tirelessly to preserve this Central American country's natural biodiversity and beautiful coast.
The organization annually coordinates Nicaragua's participation in the International Coastal Clean-up, an event sponsored annually by the Ocean Conservancy which again and again reveals the need for action.
Last year's Clean-up removed 332, 924 pounds of trash from Nicaragua's coastline, including 521 tires, 2,595 diapers, and 95,561 plastic bags--nearly twice the numbers of the same items found in Mexico.

Paso Pacífico sees Nicaragua's need first-hand, and has begun programs in the Paso del Istmo as a starting-point for conservation.
Paso del Istmo is biological corridor designed for the narrow Rivas Isthmus located on Nicaragua's southwestern coast, sandwiched between the Pacific Ocean and Lake Nicaragua, Central America's largest freshwater lake.
For millennia, this narrow passageway has served as a land bridge for wildlife migrating between North and South America.
But under the pressure of growing population, agriculture, and land development, the Paso del Istmo and its ecosystems face a serious threat.
Paso Pacifico has targeted this area, from the forested mountain ridges to the ocean's rocky reefs, as one of the most important for the continued health of the nation's ecosystems.

Though adventurous ex-pats have been surfing in Nicaragua for years, surfing has become increasingly popular with young Nicaraguans.
Particularly in coastal fishing communities, surfing is both an outlet and a source for positive energy.
For years now, particularly in the US but abroad as well, organizations like the Surfrider Foundation have proven that tapping into a surfer's passion can help achieve real action in ocean conservation.
With a recent grant from SIMA, Paso Pacífico will harness Nicaragua's growing passion for surfing to expand environmental protection and education programs to the Nicaraguan surfing community and beloved ocean playgrounds.
Paso Pacífico will hire and coordinate with a local surfer to educate peers about marine conservation issues and to communicate emerging threats of coastal development.
Local surfers will also lead their communities in Nicaragua's International Coastal Clean-up, thereby involving even more of the coastal population in conservation efforts.
Last year, Paso Pacífico mobilized over 6,000 volunteers in Nicaragua, but this year Paso Pacífico hopes that increased awareness will draw far greater numbers.
If you plan to be in Nicaragua or Ventura, CA on September 25th and are interested in joining Paso Pacífico's cleanup efforts, or if you are interested in participating in your own local beach cleanup, you can find out more information here.

Paso Pacífico's other ocean conservation initiatives extend beyond the beaches to marine wildlife.
For example, a community ranger program protects endangered sea turtles, an ecotourism guide training program provides jobs in sustainable tourism, and hands-on educational projects with local schools motivate local children.

Paso Pacífico pictures a Nicaragua where surfers and sea turtles continue riding waves together, where diapers and tires in the lineup are not a common reality, and where an empowered Nicaraguan population becomes part of the solution.
With the help of the surfing community, Paso Pacifico is working to realize that vision along Nicaragua's important and fragile Pacific coast.

Research says climate change undeniable

From FinancialTimes

International scientists have injected fresh evidence into the debate over global warming, saying that climate change is “undeniable” and shows clear signs of “human fingerprints” in the first major piece of research since the “Climategate” controversy.

The research, headed by the US National Oceans and Atmospheric Administration, is based on new data not available for the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report of 2007, the target of attacks by sceptics in recent years.

The NOAA study drew on up to 11 different indicators of climate, and found that each one pointed to a world that was warming owing to the influence of greenhouse gases, said Peter Stott, head of climate monitoring at the UK’s Met Office, one of the agencies participating.

Seven indicators were rising, he said.
These were: air temperature over land, sea-surface temperature, marine air temperature, sea level, ocean heat, humidity, and tropospheric temperature in the “active-weather” layer of the atmosphere closest to the earth’s surface.
Four indicators were declining: Arctic sea ice, glaciers, spring snow cover in the northern hemisphere, and stratospheric temperatures.

Mr Stott said: “The whole of the climate system is acting in a way consistent with the effects of greenhouse gases.” “The fingerprints are clear,” he said. “The glaringly obvious explanation for this is warming from greenhouse gases.”

Some scientists hailed the study as a refutation of the claims made by climate sceptics during the “Climategate” saga. Those scandals involved accusations – some since proven correct – of flaws in the IPCC’s landmark 2007 report, and the release of hundreds of emails from climate scientists that appeared to show them distorting certain data.

“This confirms that while all of this [Climategate] was going on, the earth was continuing to warm. It shows that Climategate was a distraction, because it took the focus off what the science actually says,” said Bob Ward, policy director of the Grantham Institute at the London School of Economics.

But the report nonetheless remained the target of scorn for sceptics.

Myron Ebell, of the Competitive Enterprise Institute in the US, said the new report would not change people’s minds. “It’s clear that the scientific case for global warming alarmism is weak. The scientific case for [many of the claims] is unsound and we are finding out all the time how unsound it is.”

Pat Michaels, a prominent climate sceptic, ex-professor of environmental sciences and fellow of the Cato Institute in the US, said the NOAA study and other evidence suggested that the computerised climate models had overestimated the sensitivity of the earth’s temperature to carbon dioxide. This would mean that the earth could warm a little under the influence of greenhouse gases, but not by as much as the IPCC and others have predicted.
“I think it is the lack of frankness about this that emerged with Climategate, and that seems to continue [that make people doubt the findings],” he said.

Steve Goddard, a blogger, said the conclusion that the first half of 2010 showed a record high temperature was “based on incorrect, fabricated data” because the researchers involved did not have access to much information on Arctic temperatures.

But Jane Lubchenco, the administrator of NOAA, said the study found that the average temperature in the world had increased by 0.56° C (1° F) over the past 50 years. The rise “may seem small, but it has already altered our planet ... Glaciers and sea ice are melting, heavy rainfall is intensifying, and heat waves are more common.”
The report also suggests that more than 90 percent of the warming over the past 50 years may have gone into the oceans.

Links :

• HuffingtonPost : International Scientists Confirm Climate Change Is 'Undeniable'
• Guardian : Climate change
• Telegraph : The Met Office's climate change report, between denial and alarm lies reality
  

Wiring the ocean: researchers build world’s first permanent undersea broadband remote sensing network

From SmartPlanet

Oceanographer John Delaney is building an underwater network of high-definition cameras and sensors to turn the world’s oceans into a massive interactive lab.

Delaney and a University of Washington research team are implanting robotic sensor arrays along the Juan de Fuca Ridge and other ocean sites — on the ocean floor and throughout the water column — that link to the Internet using submarine electro-optical cables.

The mission: to build a cabled network of deep-ocean sensors that will study, over time and space, the way the ocean’s complex processes interact.

In essence, Delaney and his team are networking the ocean — for the benefit of ocean science.

In a TED talk, Delaney explains how the system will document and measure previously-inaccessible phenomena such as erupting volcanoes, migration patterns, submarine slumps, undersea earthquakes and storms.

The hope? That all of that data will lead to richer computer models of ocean behavior.

Or as Delaney puts it: “The system is the whole planet.”

Links :

• NYTimes : 'Bringing the Ocean to the world', in High-Def
  
• Observing the Oceans – A 2020 Vision for Ocean Science
• Interactive Oceans : Regional cabled component
  

Canada CHS update in the Marine GeoGarage

3447 Nanaimo harbour and Departure Bay CHS chart update

82 updated charts for Canada :

• 1312 LAC SAINT-PIERRE
• 1313 BATISCAN AUTO LAC SAINT-PIERRE
• 1317 SAULT-AU-COCHON TO QUEBEC
• 1350A SOREL - TRACY TO RUISSEAU LAHAISE
• 1350B RUISSEAU LAHAISE TO SAINT-ANTOINE-SUR-RICHELIEU
• 1350C SAINT-ANTOINE-SUR-RICHELIEU TO ILE AUX CERFS
• 1350D ILE AUX CERFS TO OTTERBURN PARK
• 1509A RIVIERE DES PRAIRIES ILE BIZARD TO PONT-VIAU
• 1509B RIVIERE DES PRAIRIES PONT-VIAU TO ILE BOURDON
• 2042 WELLAND CANAL ST.CATHERINES TO PORT COLBORNE
• 2318 HERON BAY
• 3053A SHUSWAP LAKE CHASE TO ANGLEMONT
• 3053B SHUSWAP LAKE SALMON ARM TO SEYMOUR ARM
• 3441 HARO STRAIT BOUNDARY PASS AND SATELLITE CHANNEL
• 3447 NANAIMO HARBOUR AND DEPARTURE BAY
• 3463 STRAIT OF GEORGIA SOUTHERN PORTION
• 3477 BEDWELL HARBOUR TO GEORGESON PASSAGE
• 3478 PLANS SALTSPRING ISLAND
• 3479 APPROACHES TO SIDNEY
• 3492 ROBERTS BANK
• 3526 HOWE SOUND
• 3527 BAYNES SOUND
• 3602 APPROACHES TO JUAN DE FUCA STRAIT
• 3603 UCLUELET INLET TO NOOTKA SOUND
• 3902 HECATE STRAIT
• 4002 GOLFE DU SAINT-LAURENT GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE
• 4012 YARMOUTH TO HALIFAX
• 4013 HALIFAX TO SYDNEY
• 4015 SYDNEY TO SAINT-PIERRE
• 4022 CABOT STRAIT AND APPROACHES
• 4023 NORTHUMBERLAND STRAIT
• 4047 ST PIERRE BANK TO WHALE BANK
• 4115 PASSAMAQUODDY BAY AND ST CROIX RIVER
• 4116 APPROACHES TO SAINT JOHN
• 4202 HALIFAX HARBOUR POINT PLEASANT TO BEDFORD BASIN
• 4233 CAPE CANSO TO COUNTRY ISLAND
• 4235 BARREN ISLAND TO TAYLORS HEAD
• 4237 APPROACHES TO APPROCHES DE HALIFAX HARBOUR
• 4275 ST. PETERS BAY
• 4307 CANSO HARBOUR TO STRAIT OF CANSO
• 4320 EGG ISLAND TO WEST IRONBOUND ISLAND
• 4321 CAPE CANSO TO LISCOMB ISLAND
• 4328 LUNENBURG BAY
• 4335 STRAIT OF CANSO AND APPROACHES
• 4363 CAPE SMOKEY TO ST PAUL ISLAND
• 4384 PEARL ISLAND TO CAPE LA HAVE
• 4385 CHEBUCTO HEAD TO BETTY ISLAND
• 4399 PARRSBORO HARBOUR AND APPROACHES
• 4405 PICTOU ISLAND TO TRYON SHOALS
• 4447 POMQUET AND TRACADIE HARBOURS
• 4450 SAINT PAUL ISLAND
• 4462 ST. GEORGE'S BAY
• 4491 MALPEQUE BAY
• 4497 AMET SOUND
• 4498 PUGWASH HARBOUR AND APPROACHES
• 4521 BAIE VERTE
• 4593 SUNDAY COVE ISLAND TO THIMBLE TICKLES
• 4615 HARBOURS IN PLACENTIA BAY PETIT FORTE TO BROAD COVE
• 4616 BURIN INLET AND APPROACHES
• 4625 BURIN PENINSULA TO SAINT-PIERRE
• 4641 PORT AUX BASQUES AND APPROACHES
• 4724 TICORALAK ISLAND TO CARRINGTON ISLAND
• 4820 CAPE FREELS TO EXPLOITS ISLANDS
• 4821 WHITE BAY AND NOTRE DAME BAY
• 4826 BURGEO TO FRANCOIS
• 4831 FORTUNE BAY NORTHERN PORTION
• 4839 HEAD OFFOND DE PLACENTIA BAY
• 4849 PLANS CONCEPTION BAY
• 4850 CAPE ST FRANCIS TO BACCALIEU ISLAND / HEART'S CONTENT
• 4851 TRINITY BAY - SOUTHERN PORTION
• 4854 CATALINA HARBOUR TO INNER GOOSEBERRY ISLANDS
• 4855 BONAVISTA BAY SOUTHERN PORTION
• 4862 CARMANVILLE TO BACALHAO ISLAND AND FOGO
• 4863 BACALHAO ISLAND TO BLACK ISLAND
• 4864 BACK ISLAND TO LITTLE DENIER ISLAND
• 4913 CARAQUET HARBOUR BAIE DE SHIPPEGAN AND MISCOU HARBOUR
• 4920 CHALEUR BAY SOUTH SHORE
• 4956 CAP-AUX-MEULES
• 5138 SANDWICH BAY
• 6023 LAKE OF BAYS
• 7122 CULBERTSON ISLAND TO KOOJESSE INLET
• 8048 CAPE HARRISON TO ST MICHAEL BAY

So 757 CHS charts (1614 including sub-charts) are viewable in the Marine GeoGarage.

Note : don't forget to visit 'Notices to Mariners' published monthly and available from the Canadian Coast Guard both online or through a free hardcopy subscription service.
This essential publication provides the latest information on changes to the aids to navigation system, as well as updates from CHS regarding CHS charts and publications.

NZ Linz update in the Marine GeoGarage

New map NZ5219, Approaches to Marsden Point - 1:50000

The entire catalogue of raster charts from Linz has been updated in the Marine GeoGarage.

The 10 following charts have been updated :

• NZ53 Bream Head to Slipper Island including Hauraki Gulf
• NZ531 Great Barrier Island to Mercury Bay
• NZ534 Mercury Bay to Katikati Entrance
• NZ5214 Marsden Point
• NZ5215 Whangarei Harbour
• NZ5215_1
• NZ5318 Great Mercury Island to Otara Bay
• NZ5318_1
• NZ5323 Auckland Harbour West
• NZ5323_1
• NZ5323_2
• NZ5571_1 Poverty Bay and Approaches to Gisborne
• NZ5571_2 Gisborne Harbour and Entrance
• NZ7132_1 Approaches to Westport
• NZ7132_2
• NZ7132_3

and some charts have been added :

• NZ5219 Approaches to Marsden Point

So the NZ layer is composed of 321 charts (including sub-charts) right now.

Note : don't forget to visit the New Zealand Notices to Mariners (NTMs)

New expedition to Titanic site will create 3D map of wreck

RMS Titanic 2004 expedition

From Steve Szkotak, The Associated Press

A team of scientists will launch an expedition to the Titanic next month to assess the deteriorating condition of the world's most famous shipwreck and create a detailed three-dimensional map that will “virtually raise the Titanic” for the public.

The expedition to the site four kilometres beneath the North Atlantic is billed as the most advanced scientific mission to the Titanic wreck since its discovery 25 years ago.
(Titanic position in the Marine GeoGarage)

The 20-day expedition is to leave St. John's, Newfoundland, on Aug. 18 under a partnership between RMS Titanic Inc., which has exclusive salvage rights to the wreck, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. The expedition will not collect artifacts but will probe a 3-by-5 kilometre debris field where hundreds of thousands of artifacts remain scattered.

Some of the world's most frequent visitors to the site will be part of the expedition along with a who's who of underwater scientists and organizations such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Organizers say the new scientific data and images will ultimately will be accessible to the public.

“For the first time, we're really going to treat it as an archaeological site with two things in mind,” David Gallo, an expedition leader and Woods Hole scientist, told The Associated Press on Monday. “One is to preserve the legacy of the ship by enhancing the story of the Titanic itself. The second part is to really understand what the state of the ship is.”

The Titanic struck ice and sank on its maiden voyage in international waters on April 15, 1912, leaving 1,522 people dead.

Since oceanographer Robert Ballard and an international team discovered the Titanic in 1985, most of the expeditions have either been to photograph the wreck or gather thousands of artifacts, like fine china, shoes and ship fittings. “Titanic” director James Cameron has also led teams to the wreck to record the bow and the stern, which separated during the sinking and now lie one-third of a mile apart.

RMS Titanic made the last expedition to the site in 2004. The company, a subsidiary of Premier Exhibitions Inc. of Atlanta, conducts traveling displays of the Titanic artifacts, which the company says have been viewed by tens of millions of people worldwide.

“We believe there's still a number of really exciting mysteries to be discovered at the wreck site,” said Chris Davino, president of and CEO of Premier Exhibitions and RMS Titanic. “It's our contention that substantial portions of the wreck site have never really been properly studied.”

The “dream team” of archaeologists, oceanographers and other scientists want to get the best assessment yet on the two main sections of the ship, which have been subjected to fierce deep-ocean currents, salt water and intense pressure.

Mr. Gallo said while the rate of Titanic's deterioration is not known, the expedition approaches the mission with a sense of urgency.

“We see places where it looks like the upper decks are getting thin, the walls are thin, the ceilings may be collapsing a bit,” he said. “We hear all these anecdotal things about the ship is rusting away, it's collapsing on itself. No one really knows.”

The expedition will use imaging technology and sonar devices that never have been used before on the Titanic wreck and to probe nearly a century of sediment in the debris field to seek a full inventory of the ship's artifacts.

“We're actually treating it like a crime scene,” Mr. Gallo said. “We want to know what's out there in that debris field, what the stern and the bow are looking like.”

“Never before have we had the scientific and technological means to discover so much of an expedition to Titanic,” said P.H. Nargeolet, who is co-leading the expedition. He has made more than 30 dives to the wreck.

Bill Lange, a Woods Hole scientist who will lead the optical survey and will be one of the first to visit the wreck, said a key analysis will be comparing images from the first expedition 25 years ago and new images to measure decay and erosion.

“We're going to see things we haven't seen before. That's a given,” he said. “The technology has really evolved in the last 25 years.”

“I'm sure there will be future expeditions because this is the just the beginning of a whole new era of these kind of expeditions to Titanic – serious, archaeological mapping expeditions,” Mr. Gallo said.

Tip of the day : how to create a link to the Marine GeoGarage

Geo link to the Marine GeoGarage

If you need to send the display of a specific area containing the nautical map at the scale of your choice :

• move the cursor of the mouse to the left bottom corner of the map
• a small window appears (show in red above)
• click once on the first line (Link) to copy and paste the html address for sending this link via Email or Instant Messaging (IM)

For 'Public' layers (NOAA US, Linz NZ, DHN Brazil ), select at first the chart layer, and this one will be automatically recorded in the Marine GeoGarage link.
Ex.: Fort Lauderdale, Bahia Mar Yacht Club
http://marine.geogarage.com/routes?anonmap=eyJtdCI6MSwicG9zIjp7ImxsIjoiMjYuMTEzMTgsLTgwLjEwNjU1IiwieiI6MTd9LCJvIjp7Ijk1MyI6eyJ0Ijo2OX19fQ==

For 'Private' chart layers (UKHO, CHS Canada, SHN Argentina) , you need to be registered with 'Chart Premium' access
Ex. : Bassin Louise, Quebec ( to view the above CHS chart)
http://marine.geogarage.com/routes?anonmap=eyJtdCI6MSwicG9zIjp7ImxsIjoiNDYuODIwNDYsLTcxLjE5OTM5IiwieiI6MTZ9LCJvIjp7IjEwN2EiOnsidCI6NTh9fX0=

Note : you can eventually use the service of some URL shortening services (bit.ly ...) in order to insert your Marine GeoGarage link in a short form for Twitter
Ex. : http://bit.ly/doluXW / http://bit.ly/aV47Zk tied to the above examples

Work underway to resolve Beaufort Sea boundary dispute

NOAA chart of the Yukon-Alaska border

CHS chart of the Yukon-Alaska border

From VancouverSun

Canadian and U.S. government experts met quietly in Ottawa last week to begin trying to resolve a long-standing boundary dispute in the Beaufort Sea, a Canadian diplomat revealed Monday.

News of the surprise talks was disclosed during a briefing by Canadian and U.S. officials on a bi-national seabed mapping mission to be conducted next month in the Beaufort region.

This summer's joint Canada-U.S. survey, the third consecutive year in which researchers from the two countries have agreed to collaborate on mapping the Beaufort sea floor, will also include a sonar probe of the contested area itself for the first time.

The Ottawa talks on the Beaufort controversy, held July 22, followed a pledge earlier this year by Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon that Canada intends to actively pursue an agreement with the U.S. over where the maritime boundary should be drawn in an unresolved, Lake Ontario-sized section of the Arctic Ocean north of the Yukon-Alaska border.

Allison Saunders, deputy director of the continental shelf division at the Department of Foreign Affairs, said the gathered specialists in international law, hydrography and other fields had a productive discussion on the technical aspect related to the boundary and that a second meeting has been scheduled to take place in Washington next year.

Beginning Aug. 2, scientists aboard the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Healy and the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Louis S. St-Laurent will co-operate in a 42-day mission aimed at generating seabed data across a wide swath of the southern, central and northern Beaufort Sea.

The information is intended to help the two countries prepare their respective claims under a UN treaty for extended authority over submerged territory as well as potential petroleum deposits and other seabed resources.

Canada's submission to the UN agency on continental shelves is due in 2013.

Until now, the two countries have avoided conducting survey work in the disputed zone in the southern Beaufort.

But the federal scientist leading Canada's offshore mapping mission, Natural Resources Canada geologist Jacob Verhoef, said Monday that mapping within the contested area has become necessary to complete each country's broader claims for undersea territory beyond the Beaufort's southern waters.

To secure extensions to their authority over extended stretches of undersea territory, countries must prove that clear geological connections exist between the continental mainland and adjacent stretches of sea floor.

Historically, the key area of dispute was a triangle-shaped, 21,500-sq.-km section of the Beaufort Sea close to the Yukon-Alaska shore. But the joint Canada-U.S. seabed surveys in 2008 and 2009 showed each country's claims could extend much farther toward the North Pole than previously imagined, doubling or even tripling the ultimate size of the dispute zone once continental shelf submissions are made.

The two countries have disagreed since the 1970s over where to draw the ocean border. It's a conflict that flares whenever fisheries management, oil-and-gas exploration or other resource development issues arise in the region.

Canada's position is based on an 1825 treaty between Russian and Britain that was transferred to the U.S. and Canada when the two countries acquired Alaska and the Yukon respectively in the latter half of the 19th century.

That treaty suggests the Beaufort Sea maritime boundary is an extension of the arrow-straight land border between Yukon and Alaska, which follows the 141st meridian.

The U.S. argues the offshore boundary is defined by an "equidistance" principle: the demarcation line at any point is drawn halfway between each country's nearest stretch of coastline.

But because the two countries are working to expand their seabed domains in the central and northern Beaufort — also potential petroleum targets — an area much larger than the traditional dispute zone is coming into play.

Under the U.S. formula for determining the maritime boundary, the looming presence of Canada's Banks Island on the Beaufort's eastern side radically alters where the border between the two countries would be drawn in areas farther out to sea.

According to the U.S. position, Alaska's northward-sloping coastline means the sea's southern maritime boundary veers slightly eastward of the Yukon-Alaska land boundary, giving the U.S. a greater amount of marine jurisdiction.

But the overlap in the northerly expanse of the Beaufort would be much larger and reversed, with the boundary under the U.S. formula swinging far to the west because of Banks Island, giving Canada a greater share of the potentially resource-rich seabed.

Meanwhile, Canada's longitude-line formula for determining the boundary would give the U.S. more seabed territory in the outer Beaufort.

Canada also recently began talks with Denmark to try to resolve an offshore territorial dispute in the eastern Arctic Ocean.

In March, Canwest News Service revealed that the two countries were now actively working to end a decades-old disagreement over a 200-square-kilometre section of the Lincoln Sea, north of Canada's Ellesmere Island and Danish-controlled Greenland.

Crazy-looking new deep-sea creatures

"An ocean without its unnamed monsters would be like a completely dreamless sleep."
John Steinbeck

From Wired

Ten new possible species could change everything about the way we think about deep-sea life in the Atlantic Ocean.

Most of the creatures are so strange, it is hard to know which direction they swim or where their mouths are.

The images were captured by researchers from the University of Aberdeen during more than 300 hours of diving with a remotely operated vehicle between 2,300 feet and 12,000 feet deep along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the largest mountain range on Earth, which runs down the center of the Atlantic Ocean between Europe and Africa on the east and the Americas on the west.

Three of the species, which look like colorful wavy worms, belong to a group of creatures called Enteropneust, which is believed to be the evolutionary link between backbone and invertebrate animals. Previously only a few specimens of the group, from the Pacific Ocean, were known to science.

“They have no eyes, no obvious sense organs or brain but there is a head end, tail end and the primitive body plan of backboned animals is established,” said Monty Priede, one of the lead researchers on the project, part of the Census of Marine Life.

One of the most surprising observations by the researchers was how different the species are on either side of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, just tens of miles apart. “[The two sides of the ridge are] mirror images of each other,” Priede said. “but that is where the similarity ended.”

“It seemed like we were in a scene from Alice Through the Looking Glass,” Pried said. “This expedition has revolutionized our thinking about deep-sea life in the Atlantic Ocean. It shows that we cannot just study what lives around the edges of the ocean and ignore the vast array of animals living on the slopes and valleys in the middle of the ocean.”

Links :

• Toronto Sun : New creatures found off Newfoundland coast
• BBC News / DailyMail : New sea creatures found on Barrier Reef
  

Respect : round the world solo non-stop without assistance, on a sailing boat of 6.5

I had to go there.

It was a sort of mystic conviction - something in the nature of a call.
But it was difficult to state intelligibly the grounds of this belief to that man of rigorous logic...
Joseph Conrad, The mirror of the sea

From OceanExplorers

Franco-Italian Alessandro Di Benedetto has spent the last 268 days circumnavigating the world in a 6.5 meter yacht solo. The last part, the whole Atlantic, of it with a jury rig.

Alessandro Di Benedetto arrived in Les Sables d’Olonne, France on Thursday July 22nd, where he started nearly nine months ago. Hundreds of friends, family and followers had gathered to meet the solo sailor.

It was really fantastic for me. It was a dream I've always thought was feasible. However, there are plenty of people told me I was crazy and that I would die, Alessandro said when he finally could set his feet on shore again.


The boat he used, though modified, is by no means designed for a world circumnavigation. The 6.5 meter long boat is designed for fast solo sailing over the Atlantic in warm down wind. Not for sailing in house high waves in the harsh Southern Ocean conditions. But the 40 year old solo sailor managed to control both his boat and himself during the 24,000 miles nonstop and without assistance.

It’s a first for such a small boat.
His record, as the smallest boat to complete a circumnavigation in such a time, have been approved by the World Speed Sailing Record Council (WSSRC). The official time is 268 days, 19 hours, 36 minutes and 12 seconds as the official time.

"Keeps going anyway"
The accomplishment becomes even bigger when considering that the Franco-Italian sailor dismasted just before rounding Cape Horn. He made a jury rig and after some thinking decided to carry on to Les Sables d’Olonne. That’s seamanship and persistence few can do after him.
The distance under jury rig alone must be close to a world record in jury rigged sailing--if such a category exists.

Alessandro had rather lofty goals for his project which range beyond simply being the 'first' to achieve something. In his words (from his website) some of the aims of the project were :

• to accomplish a unique feat which would be recognized as World Record.
• to be ambassador and international testimonial for sponsors taking part into the event.
• to contribute to the scientific research in several fields (renewable energy, environment protection, medical researches, new technologies, clothing, materials).
• to promote extraordinary experience to be shared with people from different cultures in order to make them feel citizens of the world.
• to be a source of inspiration and motivation for children and young people and to educate them to consider themselves citizens of the world in order to sustain the protection of both natural and artistic earth heritage, with special regard to the next generations.

Links :

• Other circumnavigations
• Alain Maignan solo RTW in a Jeanneau Sun Rise 34 (2007)
• Jacques Riguidel solo RTW, without assistance, sithout motors, without fossil fuel, in harmony with ocean with 'Fréquence Jazz' 9,7 m (2008)