Human litter found in Europe's deepest ocean depths

Locations of the study sites sampled with imaging technology

(ROVs, manned submersible, towed camera systems) and trawling

From The Guardian by Jessica Aldred

Seabed survey reveals depth of marine litter problem by mapping waste in Atlantic and Arctic oceans and Mediterranean

Bottles, plastic bags, fishing nets and other human litter have been found in Europe's deepest ocean depths, according one of the largest scientific surveys of the seafloor to date.

Scientists used video and trawl surveys to take nearly 600 samples from 32 sites in the Atlantic and Arctic oceans and the Mediterranean Sea, from depths of 35 metres to 4.5 kilometres.
They found rubbish in every Mediterranean site surveyed, and all the way from the continental shelf of Europe to the mid-Atlantic ridge, around 2,000km from land.

 A Heineken beer can found by a remote-operated vehicle in the upper Whittard canyon at 950m water depth.

Photograph: Hermione Project/Plymouth University

Plastic was the most common type of litter found on the seafloor, accounting for 41%, while rubbish associated with fishing activities (discarded net and fishing lines) made up 34%.
Glass, metal, wood, paper and cardboard, clothing, pottery and unidentified materials were also documented.

Jonathan Copley, senior lecturer in marine ecology at the University of Southampton, who did not take part in the study, said: "This very important research confirms what most of us who work in the deep ocean have noticed for quite some time – that human rubbish has got there before us.
"But this paper presents an analysis of the kinds of rubbish, what is common where, and what sort of activities are having the most impact in terms of rubbish reaching the deep ocean in different regions. People are piecing this together on a global scale to appreciate how widespread this problem is potentially."

As more of Europe's deep seafloor is being explored, litter is being revealed as far more widespread than previously thought. While individual studies have used trawling to quantify the amount of litter in particular areas or remotely operated vehicles to study the types of waste, this paper is the first to analyse the patterns of distribution and abundance of litter across different underwater geographical settings and depths.

A plastic bag recorded at 2,500m in the Arctic Ocean.

Photograph: Hermione Project/Plymouth University 

The most dense accumulations of litter were found in deep underwater canyons, and the lowest density on continental shelves and ocean ridges, according to the international study involving 15 European organisations.

Dr Kerry Howell, associate professor at Plymouth University's Marine Institute, who took part in the study, said: "This survey has shown that human litter is present in all marine habitats, from beaches to the most remote and deepest parts of the oceans. Most of the deep sea remains unexplored by humans and these are our first visits to many of these sites, but we were shocked to find that our rubbish has got there before us."

Litter disposal and accumulation in the marine environment is one of the fastest growing threats the health of the world's oceans, with an estimated 6.4m tonnes of litter entering the oceans each year.
Plastics are by far the most abundant material, introducing toxic chemicals that can be lethal to marine fauna and break down into "microplastics" that have become the most abundant form of solid-waste pollution on Earth.
Plastic pollution has also been found to be changing microbial processes in the ocean.

Besides the visible impact of marine pollution, litter can be mistaken as food and ingested by a wide variety of marine organisms.
Entanglement in derelict fishing gear – known as "ghost fishing" – is a serious threat to mammals, turtles, birds and corals.
Floating litter also facilitates the transfer of alien species to new habitats.

 Cargo net entangled in a cold-water coral colony at 950m in Darwin Mound.

Scientists said one interesting discovery made in the study related to seafloor deposits of clinker – the residue of burnt coal dumped by steam ships from the late 18th century onwards.

Marine biologist Dr Eva Ramirez-Llodra said: "We have known that clinker occurs on the deep-sea bed for some time, but what we found was the accumulation of clinker is closely related with modern shipping routes, indicating that the main shipping corridors have not been altered in the last two centuries."

 Litter density

The report also showed the path that materials such as plastics can take, originating from coastal and land sources and being carried along continental shelves and slopes into deep water.
Dr Veerle Huvenne, seafloor and habitat mapping team leader at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, said: "Submarine canyons form the main connection between shallow coastal waters and the deep sea. Canyons that are located close to major coastal towns and cities, such as the Lisbon canyon offshore Portugal, or the Blanes canyon offshore Barcelona, can funnel litter straight to water depths of 4,500m or more."

The paper, Marine litter distribution and density in European Seas, from the shelves to deep basins, was published in the journal PLOS ONE.
The study was led by the University of the Azores, and is a collaboration between the Mapping the Deep Project led by Plymouth University and the Hermione Project, coordinated by the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton.

Links :

• GeoGarage blog : Trashed /  Trash in the deep sea: bringing a hidden problem to light / How to rid the seas of ‘plastic soup’? / Pollution of Indonesian waters on full display in surf photos / Global call to stop plastic pollution presented at Rio Earth Summit / How much plastic is in the ocean ?

400 years of beautiful, historical, and powerful globes

From Wired by Greg Miller

To look at an ancient globe is to look at the Earth as it was seen by the people of another time.
It reflects their understanding of the continents and seas, and it captures political divisions that have long since shifted.

 This "dissected globe" dates to around 1866.

At the time such items were a popular toy for children, which may explain why so few survive with all of their pieces intact.

Even the typography and colors of a globe are indicative of the time and place of its origin, says Sylvia Sumira, a London-based conservator of ancient globes.

This is the oldest surviving terrestrial globe made in China.

It dates to 1623.

Unlike other Chinese maps of the time, which showed China at the center and left the rest of the world blank, this globe shows the world as it was understood in Europe at the time.

Often, it’s a thing of remarkable craftsmanship and beauty.
“If you go into a room and there’s a globe, your attention is immediately drawn to it,” Sumira said.
In her lavishly illustrated new book, Globes: 400 years of exploration, navigation, and power, Sumira traces the history and making of globes and showcases dozens of fine examples drawn largely from the collection of the British Library.

These gores, the printed sheets that cover a globe, date to around 1700.

They were published in an atlas by Vincenzo Coronelli, a enterprising Venetian cartographer who realized that books were easier to transport -- and therefore easer to sell -- than globes.

Contrary to the popular misconception that nobody knew the Earth was round before Columbus, the ancient Greeks described the making of globes (in verse, no less) in the third century B.C.
The oldest surviving globe dates back to 150 A.D.
But they really took off between about 1500 and 1900, and it’s this period that’s the focus of Globes.

This celestial globe was made in the early 1600s by famed Dutch cartographer Willem Blaeu.

There are records of globes being brought on ships during the age of exploration, but they probably weren’t used for navigation, Sumira says.
For one thing, any globe that’s small enough to be brought onboard would have to be scaled down to the point of being useless for charting a course on the high seas.

This pocket globe is just three inches in diameter.

It was made in 1793 by Scotsman John Miller.

British Library

“They’re more a symbol of navigation than a tool for navigation,” she said.
In the book, she writes that in the 17th century, globes were sold as “handsome objects of status and prestige to a comfortable merchant class.”

This 1772 celestial globe spurns the traditional mythical beasts to pay homage to the hottest tech trends.

Here you can see call outs to the constellations Microscopium and Telescopium.

Not visible in this view: Air Pump.

Not that ancient globes don’t convey some useful information.
Much of it is contained in the horizon ring that surrounds many of them.
Concentric circles printed or engraved on the ring indicate the degrees of the compass, the months of the year, zodiac signs, and sometimes information about winds.
They can be used, for example, to determine the sunrise and sunset on a given day of the year, Sumira says. “Most of the globes were like little calculating machines.”

This pocket globe, from around 1715, is less than three inches across.

The inside of the leather case is lined with a celestial map.

The terrestrial globe opens up to reveal a hollow armillary sphere with a ring depicting the zodiac signs and a tiny Sun at its center.

Several globes in the book come in pairs: one terrestrial, one celestial.
“The constellations were very much used for navigational purposes,” Sumira says, so being able to study pairs like this would have been very instructive for mariners in training.
The celestial globes sometimes look like someone let the animals out of the zoo: the stars that make up a constellation are overlaid on the figure that gives it its name — a lion for Leo, a big bear for Ursa Major and so on.

This tiny pocket globe made in 1831 is just 1.5 inches in diameter.

Dotted lines trace voyages by Captain Cook and other explorers.

Getting your bearings with the celestial globes is a little tricky.
It helps if you pretend you’re God, looking down at the heavens from on high.
The earth would be a dot inside the center of the globe.
From this view, the constellations are mirror images of how they appear from Earth.

Another beautiful pocket globe, this one from 1731.

Among Sumira’s favorites are the pocket globes
 “They’re just delightful little things,” she said.
The smallest is just 1.5 inches in diameter.
Many come in a wood or leather case that opens up to reveal a terrestrial globe that can be taken out. The concave surface of the case often contains a matching celestial globe.

Staring down shorebreak for the perfect shot

Creators: Clark Little on Staring Down Shorebreak for The Perfect Shot from The Inertia

Getting tossed around by shorebreak and slammed into the sand day after day is a rough go; Clark Little wouldn’t have it any other way.

In fact, for the North Shore local, it’s all in a good day’s work.

But the Waimea addict didn’t grow up snapping shots with his father’s camera like so many photographers do.

He instead set out to capture his longtime stomping grounds when his wife came home with a framed photograph of Waimea shorebreak, an image he figured he would be able to easily replicate.

Having never owned a camera, he threw a cheap “waterproof” casing over a cheaper point-and-shoot and headed out to the beach.

Since that first attempt, Clark has not only emulated his wife’s purchased wall art, but — with a gallery in Haleiwa and international recognition — has become a heavily respected fixture of wave photography.

Links :

• GeoGarage blog : Shorebreaks

Kainos

Kainos - Teaser from Jeff Dotson

Dolphins protect long-distance swimmer from shark

From ABC news

A long-distance swimmer seeking to become the first British man to complete the Ocean’s Seven, a group of seven long-distance swims around the world, was protected on his journey by a pod of dolphins who scared off a shark, according to the swimmer’s support team.

Adam Walker was swimming the approximately 16-mile long Cook Strait off the New Zealand coast last Tuesday when he spotted a shark in the water below him.
Just as his fears began to rise, Walker said he was surrounded by a pod of around 10 dolphins that swam with him for more than an hour.
“I’d like to think they were protecting me and guiding me home,” Walker wrote on his Facebook page.
“This swim will stay with me forever.”

Walker finished the Cook Strait swim in eight hours and 36 minutes.
He has already conquered the English Channel, Gibraltar Straits, Catalina Channel, Molokai Strait and Tsugaru Strait.

Ocean's Seven is a group of 7 long distance swims scattered across the globe: Irish Channel, the Cook Strait, the Molokai Channel, the English Channel, the Catalina Channel, the Tsugaru Strait and the Strait of Gibraltar.

It has only been completed by one person ever: on Saturday July 14th 2012, Mr Redmond from Ballydehob, Co. Cork, Ireland became the first person to complete the Ocean 7's Challenge when he successfully crossed the Tsugaru Strait in Japan.

Adam Walker will be the next...

With the Cook Strait now under his swim cap, Walker has only the North Channel in the Irish Sea left to swim to complete the Ocean’s Seven.
He will take that on this August, according to his YouTube page, and, if successful, complete the Ocean’s Seven.
In a fitting coincidence, given the animals he encountered in Cook Strait, Walker is swimming to raise money for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation, an organization that bills itself as “the leading global charity dedicated to the conservation and protection of whales and dolphins.”

Links :

• Stuff.co.nz : Swimmer knocks another strait off