Fishers, divers help track marine species

Fisher, divers and beachgoers alike can contribute to a tracking map of species they see.

(Credit: Rick Stuart-Smith)

From AustralianGeographic

Thanks to a helping hand from the public along with government grants, scientists will be able to map the migration of fish, turtles, sharks and other marine species around the Tasmanian coast.

In 2009, researchers from the University of Tasmania set up the interactive REDMAP (Range Extension Database and Mapping Project) website, where fishers, divers, swimmers, and beachgoers could report the presence of marine species in in local Tasmanian seas.
The aim was to identify sea creatures' marine habitat and what may be altered by climate change.

Originally exclusive to Tasmania, the project will expand to the whole Australian coast in November 2012.
"REDMAP acts as an important early indicator for new species being reported in an area they have not been found in before" says Phillip Glyde, deputy secretary of the federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry,  which helped fund the expansion of the REDMAP project through the Climate Change Research program.

Marine conservation help from fishers

Thanks to member sightings, REDMAP has shown that some species of fish tend inhabit areas further south than they are usually found.
Increasing sea temperature driven by climate change may force fish to travel south to cooler waters, the researchers say.

For Dr Alexandra Campbell, an ecologist from the University of New South Wales, making REDMAP available to 3.5 million fishers and divers nationwide is a boon for science.
"Using this sort of unconventional tool for gathering data on the location and condition of marine species is essential in a country like Australia, which has an extensive coastline and limited resources to carry out specialist monitoring programs" she says.

Researchers hope the program will raise awareness of the impact of climate change on marine life.
"We're involving people in the discovery of how our ecosystems are changing - engaging people in the science of climate change through activities they enjoy like fishing and diving" says Dr Gretta Pecl, a marine ecologist at the University of Tasmania and principal researcher for REDMAP.
"People are very happy about having something valuable to contribute to scientific research."

A smart phone application is being be developed to enable Australian fishers, boaters or divers to log sightings and photos of uncommon species instantly and on the spot.
These will be checked by scientists at REDMAP and instantly mapped on the website.

Images from National Geographic

Just before a huge monsoon downpour, the ocean became flat as I have never seen before.
It was drizzling a bit, people were on their way to their house, when I walked up this pier.
The light rain made the pier mirror-like, and the ocean was so calm.
On the horizon are the islands just in front of Makassar, part of that special islands of Sulawesi. Makassar, Indonesia. (Photo and caption by Erik Kievit)

Children filled with happiness playing in the water. Brazil. (Photo and caption by Seth Solo)

Sunbathing underwater : The sun gives us energy even underwater.
This image was captured during freediving (diving on a single breath without scuba gear) in the Red Sea. Eel Garden, Dahab, Sinai, Egypt.
(Photo and caption by Vaclav Krpelik)

This image was captured to Sandbar, Grand Cayman during my last trip.
This beautiful creature turn around you very close and you can touch it.
This is a really amazing experience, you are surrounded by dozen of this friendly animal. Sandbar-Grand Cayman-Caribean
(Photo and caption by Gazzaroli Claudio)

Confronting : cage divers confront a great white shark on the Isla de Guadalupe.
(Photo and caption by David Litchfield)

Patterns of sea stars as exquisite mosaics, attractive, and each time is different. Cambodia (Photo and caption by Andrey Narchuk

Photo & caption by Guy L. Brun
The upper Bay of Fundy, where this picture was taken in early August of 2011, is an important staging area for migratory birds on their long flight south.
Here, a flock of semipalmated sandpipers is in full motion after being spooked by a falcon looking for a tasty meal.

Photo & caption by Sarah Jones
I had just finished photographing surfers when this school of dolphins came through.
For once I had my camera with me and was able to get the shot!

Photo & caption by Tony Heff
Golden hour at Ala Moana Harbor, Honolulu. Ocean paddlers race the evening light back to the shore.

Photo & caption by Victorio Duran
Soft and gentle waves.
Taken a few hours after the sun set behind the horizon.
Location: Nagbalayong, Morong, Bataan, Philippines.

Photo & caption by Dafna Ben NunWhile diving with beluga whales in the Arctic, I managed to capture the O-shaped air coming up.

Photo & caption by Louis Hiemstra
As the sun rises over False Bay near Cape Town, three elderly ladies brave the icy water of Boulders Beach.

Photo & caption by Chris Kotsiopoulos
Fire in the sky! This is an image sequence containing 70 lightning shots, taken on Ikaría island, Greece, during a severe thunderstorm that took place June 16, 2011.
In order to make the sequence, I set the camera to a tripod taking 20-second shots.
After 83 minutes I ended up with this wall of lightning!

 Jellyfish (Cotylorhiza tuberculata) drifting just beneath the surface, looking to capture the first sunrays to trigger their symbiotic algae to produce energy for it.  Mar Menor coastal lagoon, Murcia province, Spain. (Photo and caption by Angel Fitor)

A beautiful rainbow after the rain, into the green zone of the Palawan Islands.
Onuk island, Balabac Palawan, Philippines. (Photo and caption by George Tapan)

Once a year, Formosa fishermen’s unique sulfuric fire fishing ritual is handed down from generation to generation. Taipei, Taiwan. (Photo and caption by Hung-Hsiu Shih)

An example of photo luminescence in coral in West Papua (Photo and caption by Stephen Martin)

The edge of an iceberg floating just off the coast of Antarctica. (Photo and caption by Mike Matas)

Andrew and his friend, a young sperm whale named Scar, were swimming together off the west coast of Dominica. The two of them became "friends" after Andrew saved Scar's life. (Photo and caption by Peter Allinson)

When the wave conditions are right a wave appears, infrequently, as a result of the splash back off the cliff connecting with an incoming wave. This causes the incoming wave to pop up, creating fan-like shapes. On this particular day, over the two hours I spent on the rocks, this wave only appeared once. This is that shot. (Photo and caption by Aaron Feinberg)

Curious gulls on Sanibel Island, Florida. Meet my friend, "Gull-i-Bel"!!! (Photo and caption by Richard Rush)

Links :

• NationalGeographic : photo contest

Vast volcanic 'raft' found in Pacific, near New Zealand

From BBC

 A vast "raft" of volcanic rocks covering 10,000 sq miles (26,000 sq km) of ocean has been spotted by a New Zealand military aircraft.

A naval ship was forced to change course in order to avoid the cluster of buoyant rocks, located 1,000 miles off the New Zealand coast.

The unusual phenomenon was probably the result of pumice being released from an underwater volcano, experts said.

This photo from the New Zealand Defense Force

shows a handful of the rocks found floating in the South Pacific.

One navy officer described it as the "weirdest thing" he had seen at sea.
Lieutenant Tim Oscar told the AFP news agency:
"As far ahead as I could observe was a raft of pumice moving up and down with the swell.
"The [top of the] rock looked to be sitting two feet above the surface of the waves and lit up a brilliant white colour. It looked exactly like the edge of an ice shelf," the officer said.

Researchers aboard the ship, HMNZS Canterbury, suggest that the source of the pumice was an underwater volcano (seamount) known as Monowai, located to the north of New Zealand.
The pumice is likely to have been formed when lava from the seamount came into contact with seawater, and as it is less dense than water it quickly rises to the surface of the ocean.

Near-intact Roman ship holds jars of food

From Discovery

An almost intact Roman ship has been found in the sea off the town on Varazze, some 18 miles from Genova, Italy.

The ship, a navis oneraria, or merchant vessel, was located at a depth of about 200 feet thanks to a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) following tips from fishermen who had caught some jars in their nets.

 The Carabinieri dive team of Liguria examine a recovered amphora, or storage jar, found at the site of a 2,000-year-old Roman shipwreck off the coast of Italy near Genoa.

The recovered amphora was a Dressel 1B type, produced in the kilns of Tuscany between the first century B.C. and A.D. the first century and was used for transporting wine.

(Carabinieri Diving Center of Liguria)

The ship sank about 2,000 years ago on her trade route between Spain and central Italy with a full cargo of more than 200 amphorae.
Test on some of the recovered jars revealed they contained pickled fish, grain, wine and oil.
The foodstuffs were traded in Spain for other goods.
"There are some broken jars around the wreck, but we believe that most of the amphorae inside the ship are still sealed and food filled," Lt. Col. Francesco Schilardi, who led the Carabinieri Subacquei (police divers), said.

The ship, which dates to sometime between the 1st Century B.C. and the 1st Century A.D., is hidden under layers of mud on the seabed, which has left the wreck and its cargo intact.

The vessel will remain hidden at the bottom of the sea until Italian authorities decide whether to raise it or not.
"Right now the area of the finding has been secured, and no fishing or water traffic is allowed," Lt. Col. Schilardi said.

The discovery comes shortly after the same team found the Transylvania, an English liner that was sunk by a German submarine in May 1917 during World War I.

Links :

• Discovery :  Roman shipwreck full of wine jars found

Hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones: storms of many names

Hurricane Ivan was a classical, long-lived Cape Verde hurricane that reached Category 5 strength on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale three times.

It was also the strongest hurricane on record that far southeast of the Lesser Antilles.

From LiveScience

There is an old expression that a hurricane is Mother Nature’s way of telling us that she is angry.
But of course hurricanes are not just a byproduct of nature’s ire.

www.csc.noaa.gov/hurricanes/
This interactive mapping application easily searches and displays global tropical cyclone data.
Users are able to query storms by the storm name, ZIP Code, city, state, geographic region, or latitude/longitude coordinates.
Custom queries can track storms of interest and allow for data extraction and download.

Hurricanes — or more broadly, tropical cyclones — generally begin as clusters of thunderstorms over tropical ocean waters, taking anywhere from several hours to several days to become organized and graduate to hurricane status.

The GOES-13 satellite captured this stunning visible image of Hurricane Irene just before it made landfall in New York City in 2011.
CREDIT: NASA | NOAA | GOES Project

There has to be a perfect storm, so to speak, of conditions for a hurricane to form, including:

• Water that is at least 80 degrees F (26.6 C)
• Relatively moist air
• Very warm surface temperatures
• A continuous evaporation and condensation cycle
• Wind patterns of varying directions that collide (converging winds)
• A difference in air pressure between the surface and high altitude

Tropical cyclones form all around the world, generally about 300 miles (480 kilometers) north or south of the equator.
When they form in the Atlantic or Eastern Pacific, the storms are called hurricanes.
They are called typhoons in the western North Pacific and cyclones in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean.

Infographic: How, When & Where Hurricanes Form

The Atlantic hurricane season is from June through November, when the storms take shape on the coast of Africa.
The Eastern Pacific season runs from mid-May through November.
Typhoons occur year-round but peak in late August.
In the South Pacific, the cyclone season begins in October and ends in May.

In the Atlantic region, hurricanes form anywhere from the tropical central Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico.

 Infographic: Storm Targets: Where the Hurricanes Hit

Hurricanes typically follow three paths :

• originating off the West Coast of Africa near the Cape Verde Islands and traveling west toward the Caribbean and the East Coast of the United States
• originating in the Western Caribbean, and moving into the Gulf Coast, or along the U.S. East Coast
• originating in the Gulf of Mexico and moving into the Gulf Coast states from Texas to Florida.

There are distinct levels of progression as a storm becomes a hurricane.
The first stage is a tropical disturbance, which is essentially a significant cluster of showers and thunderstorms.
As it becomes a tropical depression, it is slightly more organized and the winds pick up to 25 to 38 mph (40 to 61 km/h).
It is classified as a tropical storm when winds reach 39 to 73 mph (62 to 117 km/h).
Once the winds reach 74 mph, it is classified as a hurricane and its intensity is measured by the Saffir-Simpson Scale.

The Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale was developed in 1971 by civil engineer Herbert Saffir and meteorologist Bob Simpson, who at the time was director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center.

• Category 1: wind 74-95 mph (119-153 km/h)
• Category 2: winds 96-110 mph (154-177 km/h)
• Category 3: 111-129 mph (178-208 km/h)
• Category 4: 130-156 mph (209-251 km/h)
• Category 5: exceeding 157 mph (252 km/h)

Storm structure

The main parts of a hurricane are the rainbands, the eye and the eyewall.
Air spirals in toward the center in a counter-clockwise pattern in the Northern Hemisphere (clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere) and out the top in the opposite direction.
In the very center of the storm, air sinks, forming an "eye" that is mostly cloud-free and extends 20 to 40 miles (32 to 64 km) in diameter.

The eye is surrounded by the eyewall, a ring of towering thunderstorms that inflict some of the storm’s most severe punishment.
Curved bands of clouds and thunderstorms trail away from the eye wall in a spiral fashion.
These rainbands can produce heavy bursts of rain and wind, as well as tornadoes.

Tropical cyclones can get up to 300 miles (483 km) wide, but size is not necessarily an indication of intensity.
A hurricane's destructive winds and rains can extend outward more than 150 miles (242 km).

Winds are not the only hazard from tropical cyclones.
Storm surges, when water is pushed toward the shore by the force of the winds, can increase the average water level 15 feet (4.5 meters) or more.
Flooding also occurs, and in fact, causes most of the deaths during a tropical cyclone.
More people are killed by floods than by any other weather-related cause.

 Infographic: Nature to the Rescue: Barriers to Storm Surge

Naming the storms

Since 1953, tropical storms have been named, first by the National Hurricane Center and now by the World Meteorological Organization.
The organization maintains six lists of alphabetical names that are used in rotation and recycled every six years.
There are separate lists for Atlantic, Eastern North Pacific, Central North Pacific and other zones. Names are retired after a particularly deadly or costly storm.
Most recently, the names Wilma (2005), Rita (2005) and Katrina (2005) were among the names removed from the lists.

 Infographic: The Costliest Hurricanes in History

Links :

• NOAA : NOAA raises hurricane season prediction despite expected El Niño