The divers of the Mexican Liveaboard SolmarV encountered an unusually friendly humpback whale mama with her newborn who allowed them unparalleled close encounters underwater.
The next day 2 Orcas showed up at the dive site and executed natures plan of order....
A Street View Trekker mounted on an autonomous Wamv robot passes the Exploratorium. and see the San Francisco Shoreline streetview imagery in Google Maps at maps.google.com/ocean.
Recent visitors to San Francisco Bay might have spotted something strange: a small unmanned vessel zipping through the water with a mysterious sphere mounted atop its two parallel hulls. “What is that?” one bystander asked recently, as the watercraft hugged the shoreline off of Fort Mason. “Is it a water drone?” asked another.
For the past few months, the nonprofit San Francisco Baykeeper has been remotely piloting the craft — a catamaran topped with a loaner Google Street View camera. In a teaming of tech and environmental advocacy, Baykeeper is using the camera’s 360-degree imagery to capture the shoreline’s rising sea levels, mapping a meandering 400 miles of the bay’s coast.
The idea is to give people a close-up view of the shore, the kind of view typically available only from a boat. This, Baykeeper hopes, will rile them up. “A lot of people know about sea level rise,” said Sejal Choksi, an environmental lawyer and Baykeeper’s interim director.
“We are hoping these images will really bring the reality home to the public, that they will look at pictures of places they know and say, 'Oh my gosh, this is going to be underwater.’” Google’s Street View cameras have been affixed to cars, boats, people and even camels. But this catamaran, a Wave Adaptive Modular Vessel that keeps the camera steady even as the tide swells, is a first.
Baykeeper initially planned to use kayaks and GoPro cameras to document small parts of the bay. After Baykeeper won a $100,000 grant from Google, though, the Mountain View tech giant offered up its imaging gear. The camera consists of 15 lenses atop a mast, each angled in a different direction to be stitched together to create a panoramic view.
The catamaran is battery-operated, and controlled via joystick from Baykeeper’s patrol boat. “It’s basically a large-scale video game,” said Karin Tuxen-Bettman, a Google employee and wetlands-mapping expert who is helping Baykeeper with the project.
Baykeeper began mapping in October.
After more than 20 eight-hour days on the water, the organization has documented 300 miles of shoreline, including wetlands and deltas. Already, the mapping expeditions have proven revelatory, said Ian Wren, Baykeeper’s staff scientist. “We noticed in some areas the wetlands are just a few inches above high tide,” he said.
“That means they are at risk for flooding, which could destroy those ecosystems.”
Wren has also discovered abandoned ships at risk of polluting the bay as they rot. Once the mapping is done, Baykeeper will display the images in interactive maps on its website. They will also be available through Google’s popular Street View tool. “A lot of agencies talk about sea level rise, but there is not a lot of public input,” Choksi said.
“These kind of issues should be more community-based. They are local, regional problems.”
In addition to using the images to raise public awareness, the nonprofit hopes to establish a baseline against which researchers can measure sea levels in the future. There is significant research indicating that the global sea level is rising now at a faster rate than in the past.
The Global Mean Sea Level has risen by 4 to 8 inches since record keeping began in 1880. (Sea-level rise is caused by two main things: thermal expansion due to the warming of the oceans and the melting of land-based ice such as glaciers and polar ice caps.)
Baykeeper is not the first environmental group to receive Google’s Street View technology.
Through Google.org, the company’s nonprofit arm, Google has lent its cameras to researchers studying the Galapagos Islands, Tanzania’s Gombe National Park and the Colorado River, among other locations.
Nonprofits, researchers and government tourism agencies can apply to borrow the device.
Tuxen-Bettman said she hopes to eventually work with local governments and nonprofits to map all of the waterways feeding San Francisco Bay.
It might be useful for planning purposes, like documenting infrastructure that might need to be replaced or repaired. “We want people to see that this kind of information could really be useful,” she said.
Plastics weighing 191 times as much as the Titanic are dumped in the oceans every year as nations led by countries in Asia struggle to manage waste, the first study to quantify the problem showed.
Some
eight million metric tons of plastic waste makes its way into the
world’s oceans each year, and the amount of the debris is likely to
increase greatly over the next decade unless nations take strong
measures to dispose of their trash responsibly, new research suggests.
The report,
which appeared in the journal Science on Thursday, is the most
ambitious effort yet to estimate how much plastic debris ends up in the
sea.
Indian fishermen pushed their boat through plastic waste last month in Mumbai.
Jenna Jambeck,
an assistant professor of environmental engineering at the University
of Georgia and lead author of the study, said the amount of plastic that
entered the oceans in the year measured, 2010, might be as little as
4.8 million metric tons or as much as 12.7 million.
The paper’s middle figure of eight million, she said, is the equivalent of
“five plastic grocery bags filled with plastic for every foot of
coastline in the world” — a visualization that, she said, “sort of blew
my mind.”
By 2025, she said, the amount of plastic projected to be entering the
oceans would constitute the equivalent of 10 bags per foot of coastline.
The researchers then
projected the amount of waste going forward based on population growth
estimates.
Any walk along a beach will produce a sizeable haul of plastic waste
“This is a significant study,” said Nancy Wallace, director of the marine debris program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who saw the paper before it was published.
Ms.
Wallace applauded what she considered the sophisticated use of
available data to estimate the amount of plastic entering the marine
environment, both collectively and country by country.
“Of course we
know these aren’t absolute numbers, but it gives us an idea of the
magnitude, and where we might need to focus our efforts to affect the
issue,” she said.
In 2010, 192 countries produced a total of 2.5 billion metric tones of solid waste, including 275 million metric tons of plastic.
An estimated 8 million metric tons entered the ocean that year
The
research also lists the world’s 20 worst plastic polluters, from China
to the United States, based on such factors as size of coastal
population and national plastic production.
According
to the estimate, China tops the list, producing as much as 3.5 million
metric tons of marine debris each year.
The United States, which
generates as much as 110,000 metric tons of marine debris a year, came
in at No. 20.
While
Americans generate 2.6 kilograms of waste per person per day, or 5.7
pounds, to China’s 1.10 kilograms, the United States ranked lower on the
list because of its more efficient waste management, Professor Jambeck
said.
Inside the Garbage of the World Documentary from Philippe Carillo
Is the Plastic Trash Island floating in the Pacific Ocean a myth? Are we getting poisoned? How long do we have before a worldwide disaster happen?
Plastics
have been spotted in the oceans since the 1970s.
In the intervening
decades, masses of junk have been observed floating where ocean currents
come together, and debris can be found on the remotest beaches and in
arctic sea ice.
Debris from urban activities and runoff accumulates at the edge of Lake Michigan.
(Courtesy Jenna Jambeck/University of Georgia)
The
problem is more than an aesthetic one: Exposed to saltwater and sun,
and the jostling of the surf, the debris shreds into tiny pieces that
become coated with toxic substances like PCBs and other pollutants.
Research
into the marine food chain suggests that fish and other organisms
consume the bite-size particles and may reabsorb the toxic substances.
Those fish are eaten by other fish, and by people.
Cleaning
up the plastic once it is in the oceans is impractical; only a portion
of it floats, while most disappears, and presumably what does not wash
ashore settles to the bottom.
Any
collection system fine enough to capture the smaller particles would
also pick up enormous amounts of marine life.
So the best option,
Professor Jambeck and others suggest, is to improve waste management
ashore.
But
prodding developing countries to spend money on waste management is
difficult, she acknowledged.
“You’ve got critical infrastructure needs
first, like clean drinking water,” she said.
“It’s kind of easy to push
waste to the side.”
Over
the years she has pursued this line of research, Professor Jambeck
said, she has seen a strong, even visceral response from the public.
4Yacht, Inc. presents yacht project "Triple Deuce", a whopping 222 meters (728.4’) long, and the most expensive, at a cost of over one billion dollars... 4Yacht is not able to provide more details, such as the designer, or the volume. They did release information about the engines; triple gas turbine engines producing over 100,000 horsepower, powering electric podded propulsion units. Adding such features will almost certainly add more time to the total construction time, putting more pressure on the 2018 delivery date. Time will tell if construction of this project will eventually commence.
Introducing "Triple Deuce," set to be the world's biggest superyacht at a whopping 222 meters long.
At $1 billion, it will also be the most expensive private yacht ever built, costing more than the annual GDP of Western Sahara, the British Virgin Islands, and Micronesia.
The identity of "Triple Deuce's" owner remains secret.
Nonetheless, building a yacht of this size is all about "boasting rights," said Craig Timm of 4Yacht, broker of the record-breaking project.
"It's just like the competition to build the world's tallest building," he said of the commission, due to be completed in spring 2018.
"Project Deuce will cost $1.1 billion to $1.2 billion," added Timm.
"And don't forget to add in annual operating costs -- on a yacht of this size, it will run the owner up an additional $20 to $30 million per year."
The boat will be over 40 meters longer than the world's current biggest superyacht, "Azzam," believed to be owned by the President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
It will also trump Russian businessman Roman Abramovich's "Eclipse" by 58.5 meters.
At 180 meters long, "Azzam" is currently the biggest superyacht in the world... but for how long?
"Our client was concerned that if we built the yacht to 200 meters, then someone would come along like Roman Abramovich when he built "Eclipse" at 163.5 meters, and outdid Sheikh Maktoum's yacht, the 162 meter "Dubai," by only 1.5 meters," explained Timm.
"By building the yacht to 222 meters, the owner wants to make it difficult, if not impossible, to be 'eclipsed' himself."
As the race to build the world's biggest superyacht steps up a notch, is there a point when these floating palaces simply become "too big?"
"You can't really be 'too big' for the high seas. But these superyachts are now at such a size that many of them can't get into harbors," said John Kampfner, author of "The Rich: From slaves to superyachts, a 2,000 year history."
"So what they do is moor out at sea, and a small boat -- which is still enormous by the standards of ordinary mortals -- will take them to shore. Or they could always jump on their helicopter, because no self-respecting superyacht comes without a helipad these days."
In the past two decades average superyacht sizes have more than doubled, according to Gaelle Tallarida, managing director of the Monaco Yacht Show.
"Fifteen years ago a large yacht was 45 meters," she said.
"Whereas now it's 100 meters long, maybe even a little more," she said.
"And I think we have still not achieved the limit."
"Triple Deuce's" master suite alone encompasses two stories and stretches across 275 square meters -- including a private gym. The seven-deck superyacht also comes with two pools, numerous jacuzzi, and a hair stylist and barber.
Yet in a global climate of "haves and have-nots," is it morally justifiable to spend $1 billion on a private yacht catering for 36 guests?
"To be honest, what ordinary mortals think is 'moral,' is not actually relevant to these people," said Kampfner.
"You have to understand that we're not talking about the top 1% -- in this instance we're talking about the 0.01%. This is a tiny group who live in their own bubble, they mix only among themselves."
Timm sees things differently, pointing to the employment opportunities created during the building and running of the superyacht.
"The boat will take approximately two to three million human hours to build -- not counting all the worldwide subcontractor hours, or the ready-made items already available on the market ready to be installed on the yacht," he said.
"Building the yacht at the shipyard will directly employ, at the minimum, 500 people for a period of three years. These people, who have families to support and feed, will be gainfully employed.
"And this does not include the 50 to 70 people who will work on the yacht and will be employed full time by the yacht owner, as well as others who supply the yacht."
He extends this reasoning to the media -- "You, the journalist, benefits from this build indirectly by being gainfully employed by CNN for writing this story."
And you, the person reading this story?
Kampfer sees the public's interest in the lifestyles of the super rich as a type of luxury porn.
"There is an enormous sense of injustice which is shared not just by the poor, but also by the middle class, towards the global super rich," he said.
"But together with that however, is a sense of envy and ogling. So whether you call it confusion, or double standards, or hypocrisy, or whatever it might be -- we both abhor the lifestyles of the super rich and at the same time we are endlessly fascinated by them."
The Wedge with the Marine GeoGarage :
