Climate change: 'Forever plant' seagrass faces uncertain future

From BBC by Matt McGrath

The green, underwater meadows of Posidonia seagrass that surround the Balearic Islands are one of the world's most powerful, natural defences against climate change.

A hectare of this ancient, delicate plant can soak up 15 times more carbon dioxide every year than a similar sized piece of the Amazon rainforest.

But this global treasure is now under extreme pressure from tourists, from development and ironically from climate change.

Posidonia oceanica is found all over the Mediterranean but the area between Mallorca and Formentera is of special interest, having been designated a world heritage site by Unesco over 20 years ago.

Here you'll find around 55,000 hectares of the plant, which helps prevent coastal erosion, acts as a nursery for fish, but also plays a globally significant role in soaking up CO2.

"These seagrass meadows are the champion of carbon sequestration for the biosphere," said Prof Carlos Duarte, of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia.
He's recently published the first global scientific assessment of the environmental value of Unesco's marine world heritage sites .
"Posidonia acts as a very intensive sediment trap and captures carbon into these sediments. It is also very resistant to microbial degradation, so the carbon is not degraded when it's deposited on the sea floor. And much of that stays unaltered during decades to millennia."

Depending on the water temperature, the species reproduces either sexually through flowering or asexually by cloning itself.

This ability to clone itself means it can live an extremely long time.

 

Seagrasses are plants with amazing abilities to soak up carbon
Image copyright Shane Gross

"It's a remarkable plant not only in the capacity to sequester carbon, but also because it's one of the longest-lived organisms on the planet," said Prof Duarte.
"In the marine protected areas of Ibiza we documented one clone where we estimated that the seed that produced that clone was released into the seafloor and sprouted 200,000 years ago."
"A clone could be eternal, kind of," says Dr Núria Marbà, from the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies in Mallorca.
"If there are no damages that disturb it, it could last for forever - well maybe not forever but for an incredibly long time."

But despite its ability to live almost infinitely, Posidonia is finding the modern world increasingly treacherous.
This vivid green carpet that extends under the seas in the Balearics faces an ongoing threat from boats dropping their anchors which crush, tear and destroy the meadows.
One study showed that between 2008 and 2012, Posidonia meadows in Formentera were reduced by 44% because of the impact of anchoring.

 

Oxygen bubbles on a seagrass plant

The plant also grows extremely slowly.

The damage caused by one yacht's anchor in a single day several years ago would take almost 1,000 years to restore.

Another threat comes from too many nutrients in the waters, caused by effluent released from water treatment sites across the islands.
But perhaps the biggest and most difficult challenge for Posidonia is climate change.
"Posidonia has an upper thermal limit of about 28C," says Dr Marbà.
"I think it's about half of the summers since 2000 that we have exceeded this temperature in the water in the Balearic Islands.
"It doesn't cause massive mortality. But it's excessive for the slow growth of the plant."

Seagrass meadows off the coast of Western Australia

Image copyright DBCA

So what can be done to help protect this amazingly powerful seagrass?

Government action to protect Posidonia in the Balearics has been ramped up in recent years and public awareness of the importance of the species is rising.
But some researchers believe that putting a financial value on the carbon that's locked up by Posidonia could release the funds to save it.
"As countries try and reach the goals of the Paris agreement, the forecast is that carbon credits are going to see a tenfold increase in value," said Prof Carlos Duarte.
"Therefore, there's likely to be an increase in investment in habitats like Posidonia that can lock up carbon and generate these credits."

This would be welcome news in Ibiza and Formentera.

 

GeoGarage blog : Posidonia en las cartas nauticas de Formentera

 

If the carbon that's already been sequestered by the seagrass increases in value, then it will pay to protect and even attempt to restore the Posidonia meadows.

But time and rising temperatures are the key challenge, as Dr Núria Marbà explains.
"The whole thing of planting seagrasses is that you have to do a massive effort at the beginning to start the process. And then you just wait for the plant itself to grow.
"If we are in a hurry, at human timescales, it's impossible.
"But if we don't mind, and we can wait for a few centuries, it will be okay."

 

Links :

• BBC : Posidonia: the Mediterranean's 'super plant'
• Ibiza spotlight : Posidonia Oceanica - the secret of Ibiza’s crystal clear water 

Captain Richard Farnfield, submariner who played underwater blind man’s buff with the Soviets

 

Captain Richard Farnfield: over eight weeks his submarine crossed 10,724 miles of ocean and remained in contact with Soviet target for 49 days, a record for the longest trail

From The Daily Telegraph

 

Undetected, his hunter-killed nuclear submarine Sovereign passed some 800 yards from a Delta-class sub, which was performing a ‘Crazy Ivan’

​Captain Richard Farnfield, who has died aged 87, was a Cold War submariner who, in an underwater game of blind man’s bluff, held the record for the longest trail of a Soviet ballistic missile submarine.

In September 1978 Farnfield was commanding the hunter-killer nuclear submarine Sovereign when ordered to find a Soviet submarine in the eastern Atlantic.
He had had just two days to familiarise his command team with Sovereign’s latest towed array sonar, which was clipped on from a tug and towed astern.

On September 29, Sovereign commenced Operation Agile Eagle in her patrol area southwest of Rockall, and found nothing until October 6, when intelligence indicated the presence of a Delta-class strategy missile-firing nuclear submarine (SSBN).
At 2330 that evening Farnfield located the sub and spent three days slowly closing the range.

For several days Farnfield trailed the Delta, rising occasionally to periscope depth to transmit and receive the signals, but on October 20 when he dived to continue the trail, the Soviet sub unexpectedly began to “clear its arcs”.
British submarines did this by exaggerated turns to port and starboard using passive sonar to check that there was no submarine behind them.
Soviet submarines practised another method nicknamed “Crazy Ivan” which involved reversing course and hurtling down their original path at full speed while using active sonar.

 

What exactly is the "Crazy Ivan maneuver "?

Most submariners call it “clearing the baffles.” 

A submarine’s hull-mounted sonar has a designed-in blind spot at the tail end of the vessel, which they call the baffles.

This is so the sounds of your machinery, which is toward the tail, don’t drown out anything you might want to be listening to.

This also means that if someone is following you around you can’t hear him.

So before they invented the towed sonar array you needed to turn the boat so your sonar could hear what was in the baffles area.
The Crazy Ivan was a very hard turn so that not only was your sonar pointed in the direction of what were the baffles, so were your torpedo tubes.

Pretty much only the Soviet Navy did it and it was a common maneuver in that navy.

It was called “crazy” because it was dangerous as hell - you could get run over by the guy following you - and “Ivan” because back in the Cold War we used that word as the generic term for all Soviets.
After everyone started dragging around a hydrophone at the end of a long cable so you could hear back there without turning the boat, subs had effectively no baffles.

see Wikipedia : Baffles (submarine)

 

On this occasion the Delta passed some 800 yards down Sovereign’s starboard side, yet Sovereign remained undetected.

Sovereign’s patrol was due to end on November 3, but given the exceptional interest being shown in the USA and UK it was extended by 42 days and the patrol area was increased to include the entire Atlantic south of 10° North.
On board, food rationing was introduced which resulted in bread and soup for lunch, no choice for dinner, and progressively lighter breakfasts, while tea was strictly rationed.

On October 26, Sovereign was forced to surface for a repair to her communications mast which took 75 minutes.
When Farnfield dived and sprinted to regain contact with the Delta, he found that the Soviet submarine was conducting a survey of the contours of the seabed.
This was priceless intelligence, indicating as it did a position which might be used by the Soviets as a reference point for underwater navigation.

Contact was lost on November 20, when Sovereign spent several days searching without success but Farnfield, reasoning that the Delta would pass southeast of Iceland, waited patiently there.
He had now been on patrol for more than two months, but his gamble paid off.
At 1103 on November 24 he regained contact and followed the Soviet boat from a range of 15 to 20 miles all the way into the Arctic Circle, until it entered the Barents Sea where he was ordered to break off the trail and withdraw to the southwest.

 

Farnfield, right, in Sovereign: their long hunt required food rationing, which meant bread and soup for lunch, no choice for dinner, and progressively lighter breakfasts

When he berthed in Devonport on December 6, Farnfield described his experience as “most challenging, testing, wearying and successful”.
From initial detection on October 6 until December 1, a period of eight weeks Sovereign had crossed 10,724 miles of ocean and remained in contact with the Delta for 49 days, a record for the longest trail of a Soviet submarine.
“It was hard work,” wrote Farnfield, “for all the watchkeepers over 70 days, physically and mentally tiring, particularly for those most closely involved in the trail.”

Sovereign had obtained valuable electronic and acoustic intelligence particularly about how Soviet commanders operated a Delta-class SSBN, and the Royal Navy and the US Navy now possessed a detailed track, they knew the speed and depth at which it operated, where and when it adjusted course, when the commander carried out a check of his stern arcs, and when the submarine came up to periscope depth to communicate, and the various navigational methods used.

 

Farnfield, right, with the future King

Richard Hugh Farnfield was born on December 4 1937 at Leamington Spa, the son of Captain G L Farnfield, DSO, DSC, who was first lieutenant of the destroyer Hereward which had evacuated Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands in May 1940 after the German invasion.
Young Farnfield was educated at Malvern College before joining the Navy as a public school entrant in 1956.

Farnfield served almost his entire naval career as a submariner, starting in the diesel-powered Trenchant.
He passed the “perisher” in 1968 with the future Admiral Sir Sandy Woodward as “teacher”, his desk jobs in London and Washington were submarine-related, and he was Captain, 10th Submarine Squadron in Faslane (1986-88).

A modest man of good humour yet strong leadership, Farnfield was much admired by his colleagues, who thought that his achievement in Operation Agile Eagle was not adequately recognised.

In retirement he spent some years as a health care manager, was peripatetic and moved homes 24 times including houses in South Africa and Tenerife.
He enjoyed gardening so long as the results were photogenic, and played golf off a 10 handicap.

Farnfield married Deborah Helen Wigram in 1961.
She survives him with their daughter and three sons.
Captain R H Farnfield, born December 4 1937, died January 16 2025​

Links :

• Workboat : The Crazy Ivan part I / II / III

New NATO AI tool can flag vessels behaving suspiciously amid sea cables sabotage threat

NATO expects the real-time technology will help it to rapidly respond to emerging threats, 

such as sabotage attempts.

From Euronews by Roselyne Min

NATO says it has developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can flag vessels that are behaving suspiciously.

The software, called "Mainsail," is designed to analyse maritime traffic and can spot vessels that appear to be diverting off-course to potentially damage or gather intelligence about undersea infrastructure.

According to the military alliance, the software uses satellite imagery, sonar systems, and underwater sensors. 

Algorithms used to monitor ship traffic

"Mainsail is the result of years of experience and scientific development in order to pick up anomalies in the maritime domain, and these algorithms that the centre has developed, oftentimes using AI, have been able to be used for monitoring ship traffic," Eric Pouliquen, the director of NATO’s Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation, said in an alliance video.
"It turns out that it works very well. It's able to, in an automatic way, without the user and the presence of operators, it's able to actually raise suspicion on particular trajectories of ships and other activity," Pouliquen added.

NATO expects the real-time technology will help it rapidly respond to emerging threats.

However, some experts say tools like Mainsail could send false alarms due to the limited number of sensors on the seabed.
"If we talk about things happening on the sea surface, I think there is a possibility here for tools like this to identify a collision or risk for collisions between ships or also groundings," Hans Liwång, the deputy head of the system science for defence and security department at the Swedish Defence University, told Euronews Next.
"But if we're talking about things that could happen at the seabed, the information available for tools like this of incidents on the seabed is very limited".

Installing more sensors is a process that is complicated legally, he added.
"Countries can implement sensors on their national waters for military purposes. But in the economic zone and in international waters, it's not possible or legal to implement a sensor for military purposes," Liwång said.

While sensors can be placed near existing infrastructure like cables or wind power structures he said there would always be a limited number of them on the seabed.

 

Orange & Kingfisher database cables in the GeoGarage platform (Google Earth view)

 

NATO patrolling the sea

NATO has increased sea patrolling following several incidents such as the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage in 2022, the Balticconnector gas pipeline burst in 2023, and undersea cable damage in the Baltic Sea in 2024.

In early February this year, NATO’s minesweepers patrolled the Øresund Strait between Denmark and Sweden.

The group was using powerful sensors and submarine drones to monitor undersea infrastructure while scoping out passing traffic for signs of wrongdoing, according to NATO.

"The modern society is very dependent on the underwater infrastructure, be it Internet cables, be it pipelines with fossil fuels or otherwise," Sander Klop, a lieutenant commander of the Royal Netherlands Navy, said in a NATO video.
"I think damaging these infrastructures can cripple a society so I think it’s essential to prevent that".
Problems with cables shouldn’t disrupt society

Liwång says the sabotage doesn’t pose a direct threat to our society as we have many cables and pipes.
"If we look at the incidents at the scene so far, it doesn't really have any concrete effect on the societies. It is the uncertainty that it creates, not the breakage themselves that actually creates an effect," he said.
Liwång added we are in an "era" of getting more information about what happens at sea but that automatic tools also present challenges as we haven’t had that data historically.

He suggests that we look at other measures to protect our infrastructure beyond protecting undersea cables as well.
"So the main protection method is actually to have alternatives, not being dependent on a specific cable, but having alternative routes and alternative cables both for electricity and for data," he said.
"We must have a society that can allow cables to break either as a result of accidents or sabotage. That shouldn't be anything that really disturbs our main functions of society".

 

Meta’s sub-sea internet cable plan. Sharing here a sheet edited from BBC news. 

“More than 95% of internet traffic is through undersea cables.”

 

Links 

• Euronews : NATO explores new drone technology as ‘Pandora’s box’ opened in Russia's war in Ukraine / Europe's Achilles Heel? Why the Baltic region is the most vulnerable to subsea sabotage  / NATO may turn to using a fleet of sea drones to protect vulnerable Internet cables in the Baltic Sea / Officials are worried about Internet blackouts. How vulnerable are underwater cables to attacks?  
• CSIS : NATO’s Role in Protecting Critical Undersea Infrastructure / Reinforcing resilience: NATO’s role in enhanced security for critical undersea infrastructure / Beneath NATO’s Radars: Unaddressed Threats to Subsea Cables
  
• CBC news : What NATO patrols are watching in the Baltic Sea after undersea cables were severed
• CNN : Ships, sea drones and AI: How NATO is hardening its defense of critical Baltic undersea cables
• VOA : NATO announces mission to protect undersea cables in Baltic region
  
• Carnegie : Securing Europe’s Subsea Data Cables
  
• The Verge : Internet cables undersea deep repair ships
• Telegeography : Is It Sabotage? Unraveling the Mystery of Undersea Cable Breaks
• GeoGarage blog : NATO-funded project to reroute internet to space in case of disruption to critical infrastructure
  

For-profit companies can’t easily replace NOAA’s weather-forecasting process

A forecaster monitors incoming data for Hurricane Irma in 2017 at the National Hurricane Center, part of the NOAA.  

Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images

From The Conversation by Christine Wiedinmyer & Kari Bowen

When a hurricane or tornado starts to form, your local weather forecasters can quickly pull up maps tracking its movement and showing where it’s headed.
But have you ever wondered where they get all that information?
The forecasts can seem effortless, but behind the scenes, a vast network of satellites, airplanes, radar, computer models, and weather analysts are providing access to the latest data—and warnings when necessary.
This data comes from analysts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, known as NOAA, and its National Weather Service.
Atmospheric scientists Christine Wiedinmyer and Kari Bowen, a former National Weather Service forecaster, explain NOAA’s central role in most US weather forecasts.

When people see a weather report on TV, what went on at NOAA to make that forecast possible?
 

A lot of the weather information Americans rely on starts with real-time data collected by NOAA satellites, airplanes, weather balloons, radar, and maritime buoys, as well as weather stations around the world.

All of that information goes into the agency’s computers, which process the data to begin defining what’s going on in different parts of the atmosphere.
NOAA forecasters use computer models that simulate physics and the behavior of the atmosphere, along with their own experience and local knowledge, to start to paint a picture of the weather—what’s coming in a few minutes or hours or days.
They also use that data to project seasonal conditions out over weeks or months.

NOAA’s data comes from many sources to provide a more complete picture of developing climate and weather conditions.
Communities and economies rely on that constantly updated information.NOAA
 

When severe weather is on the way, the agency issues the official alerts you’ll see in the news and on your phone.

All of this analysis happens before the information reaches private weather apps and TV stations.

No matter who you are, you can freely access that data and the analyses.
In fact, a large number of private companies use NOAA data to create fancy maps and other weather products that they sell.

It would be extremely difficult to do all of that without NOAA.

The agency operates a fleet of 18 satellites that are packed with instruments dedicated to observing weather phenomena essential to predicting the weather, from how hot the land surface is to the water content of the atmosphere.
Some are geostationary satellites which sit high above different parts of the US measuring weather conditions 24/7.
Others orbit the planet.
Many of these are operated as part of partnerships with NASA or the Air Force.

Some private companies are starting to invest in satellites, but it would take an enormous amount of money to replicate the range of instrumentation and coverage that NOAA has in place.
Satellites only last so long and take time to build, so NOAA is continually planning for the future, and using its technical expertise to develop new instruments and computer algorithms to interpret the data.

NOAA’s low earth orbiting satellites circle the planet from pole to pole and across the equator 14 times a day to provide a full picture of the year twice a day.

 

The agency also has geostationary satellites that provide continuous coverage over the US.

COURTESY OF DAVID DUCROSS/NOAA

Maritime buoys are another measuring system that would be difficult to replicate.
Over 1,300 buoys across oceans around the world measure water temperature, wind, and wave height—all of which are essential for coastal warnings, as well as long-term forecasts.

Weather observation has been around a long time.
President Ulysses S.
Grant created the first national weather service in the War Department in 1870.
It became a civilian service in 1880 under the Department of Agriculture and is now in the Commerce Department.
The information its scientists and technologists produce is essential for safety and also benefits people and industries in a lot of ways.

 

The SpaceX Falcon 9 launching from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California with the Jason-3 spacecraft onboard, on January 17, 2016.

PHOTOGRAPH: BILL INGALLS; NASA/GETTY IMAGES

Could a private company create forecasts on its own without NOAA data?

It would be difficult for one company to provide comprehensive weather data in a reliable way that is also accessible to the entire public.

Some companies might be able to launch their own satellite, but one satellite only gives you part of the picture.
NOAA’s weather observation network has been around for a long time and collects data from points all over the US and the oceans.
Without that robust data, computer models, and the broad network of forecasters and developers, forecasting also becomes less reliable.

Analyzing that data is also complex.
You’re not going to be able to take satellite data, run a model on a standard laptop and suddenly have a forecast.

And there’s a question of whether a private company would want to take on the legal risk of being responsible for the nation’s forecasts and severe weather warnings.

Neil Jacobs, nominated to oversee NOAA, explains why the agency is essential for accurate national weather forecasting and why private companies might not want to take on the legal risk on their own.

NOAA is taxpayer-funded, so it is a public good—its services provide safety and security for everyone, not just those who can pay for it.

If weather data was only available at a price, one town might be able to afford the weather information necessary to protect its residents, while a smaller town or a rural area across the state might not.
If you’re in a tornado-prone area or coastal zone, that information can be the difference between life or death.

Is climate data and research into the changing climate important for forecasts?

The Earth’s systems—its land, water, and the atmosphere—are changing, and we have to be able to assess how those changes will impact weather tomorrow, in two weeks, and far into the future.

Rising global temperatures affect weather patterns.
Dryness can fuel wildfires.
Forecasts have to take the changing climate into account to be accurate, no matter who is creating the forecast.

Drought is an example.
The dryness of the Earth controls how much water gets exchanged with the atmosphere to form clouds and rainfall.
To have an accurate weather prediction, we need to know how dry things are at the surface and how that has changed over time.
That requires long-term climate information.

NOAA doesn’t do all of this by itself—who else is involved?

NOAA partners with private sector, academia, nonprofits, and many others around the world to ensure that everyone has the best information to produce the most robust weather forecasts.
Private weather companies and media also play important roles in getting those forecasts and alerts out more widely to the public.

A lot of businesses rely on accuracy from NOAA’s weather data and forecasts: aviation, energy companies, insurance, even modern tractors’ precision farming equipment.
The agency’s long-range forecasts are essential for managing state reservoirs to ensure enough water is saved and to avoid flooding.

The government agency can be held accountable in a way private businesses are not because it answers to Congress.
So, the data is trustworthy, accessible and developed with the goal to protect public safety and property for everyone.
Could the same be said if only for-profit companies were producing that data?

 

Links :

• Scietific America : Trump Team Looks to Drastically Cut Weather and Climate Agency
• The Conversation : How to find climate data and science the Trump administration doesn’t want you to see
• Politifact : “Project 2025 wants to get rid of NOAA” and the National Weather Service 
• The Guardian : Doge staffers enter Noaa headquarters and incite reports of cuts and threats
  

Humpback whale swallows kayaker briefly before spitting him out

Adrián Simancas was kayaking in Bahía El Águila in the strait of Magellan when the whale engulfed him and his yellow kayak for a few seconds before letting him go.

He was unharmed.

Simancas's father, Dell, who was kayaking with him, recorded the incident

 

Links :

• AP news : A humpback whale briefly swallows kayaker in Chilean Patagonia — and it’s all captured on camera