The importance of Maritime Surveillance

The Swordfish MPA is a high-end, multi-role safeguard platform

that offers strategic ISR capabilities over both sea and land.

Solo the Americas : Matt Rutherford solo sailing

Red Dot on the Ocean: The Matt Rutherford Story from SailFlix

Once labeled a “youth-at-risk,” 30-year old Matt Rutherford risked it all in an attempt to become the first person to sail alone, nonstop around North and South America.
www.solotheamericas.org 

In June 2011, Matt departed on an incredible, death-defying voyage to sail nonstop around the Americas. On St Brendan, Albin Vega #1147, an old, scrappy 27-foot sailboat he spent the next 309 days alone at sea.

He braved the icebergs of the Arctic and the treacherous waters off Cape Horn.

Red Dot on the Ocean is the story of Matt's death-defying voyage

and the childhood odyssey that shaped him

see : http://reddotontheocean.com

Image of the week : Offshore wind farms make wakes

acquired June 30, 2015

From NASA (Landsat)

For at least the past decade, satellites have spotted white dots cropping up in the North Sea.
If viewed from Earth’s surface, you would see that these dots are actually wind turbines—huge arrays of towers rising from the sea and topped with electricity-generating rotors.

 Kentish Flat wind farm with the GeoGarage platform (UKHO chart)

But they’re doing more than harvesting the wind.
They appear to also be giving rise to sediment plumes.

 acquired June 30, 2015

Some of the North Sea’s most expansive arrays are visible in these images, acquired on Jun 30, 2015, with the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat 8 satellite.
When these images were acquired, there were 84 offshore wind farms in Europe (including some under construction).
The North Sea accounts for the most offshore wind capacity—69 percent—in European seas, followed by the Irish Sea and Baltic Sea.

 acquired June 30, 2015

The turbines were built to take advantage of high winds blowing over the North Sea’s surface.
The London Array, visible in the first detailed image, spans 100 square kilometers (40 square miles). The wind farm, which first became operational in 2013, sits on two natural sandbanks in water as deep as 25 meters (80 feet).
The site was chosen because of its proximity to onshore electric power infrastructure and because it is beyond the main shipping lanes through the area.

 Thanet wind farm with the GeoGarage platform (UKHO chart)

Other significant wind farms, Thanet and the northern half of Greater Gabbard, are shown in the second and third detailed images.
Thanet spans 35 square kilometers (14 square miles) and sits in water measuring 20 to 25 meters deep; the entirety of Greater Gabbard spans 147 square kilometers (57 square miles) and sits in water 24 to 34 meters deep.

 acquired June 30, 2015

 Greater Gabbard wind farm with the GeoGarage platform (UKHO chart)

But the environment below the water’s surface can also feel the presence of the turbines.
The detailed views reveal light-brown plumes of suspended sediments extending from each tower.
In a 2014 paper, researchers analyzed satellite imagery and found that the wakes (and plumes) can measure anywhere from 30 to 150 meters wide and up to several kilometers long.
“The fact that the wakes are browner than the surrounding waters shows that they contain more suspended sediments,” said Quinten Vanhellemont, a researcher at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences and lead author of the 2014 paper.
“This shows that the installation of the wind turbines not only modifies the wind field above the sea surface (which is expected as they are extracting wind energy), but that they also modify the currents and sediment transport in the water.”

 London array wind farm with the GeoGarage platform (UKHO chart)

Vanhellemont explained that the wakes are generated by the tidal current moving around the foundation of the turbine.
The direction and curvature in the wakes are related to the general direction of the current.
For example, the image of the London Array was acquired during flood tide, so the wakes follow the northward current.
But the tide in this area reverses every six hours, Vanhellemont said, “so the wakes are quite dynamic over the day.”
It’s not yet clear how these changes in sediment transport could affect the relatively shallow underwater environment, which is known to be an important fish nursery.
According to Vanhellemont, researchers at the University of Hull are currently studying the wakes in greater detail by investigating their 3D structure.

Links :

• The European and Wind Energy Association (2016, July) The European offshore wind industry—key trends and statistics 1st half 2016. Accessed November 7, 2016.
• The European and Wind Energy Association (2016, February) The European offshore wind industry—key trends and statistics 2015. Accessed November 7, 2016.
• LORC List of Offshore Wind Farms. Accessed November 7, 2016.
• USGS Landsat Missions Image Gallery (2016, September 27) Landsat Confirms Spatial Extent of Wind Tower Sediment Plumes. Accessed November 7, 2016.
• Vanhellemont, Q. and Ruddick, K. (2014, April 5) Turbid wakes associated with offshore wind turbines observed with Landsat 8. Remote Sensing of Environment, 145, 105-115.
• GeoGarage blog : The new Viking invasion: How Denmark's offshore wind ... / Statoil to build the world's first floating wind farm: Hywind ... / Monstrous wind farm that will 'dwarf' the Isle of Wight / Image of the week : the London array, the world's largest ... / Wind turbines policy is all at sea / Offshore wind cable plan highlights grid bottleneck
• Gizmodo : Satellite captures a surprising impact of offshore wind

Seabirds eat floating plastic debris because it smells like food, study finds

Birds and other marine creatures ingest plastic and this can lead to damage to internal organs, gut blockages or chemical build-ups in tissues.

Photograph: Dan Clark/USFWS/AP

From The Guardian by Hannah Devlin

Algae on drifting plastic waste gives off a sulfur compound which smells similar to the krill many marine birds feed on, researchers have discovered

Seabirds are enticed into eating plastic debris because it smells like their food, according to scientists.
The study found that drifting plastic waste accumulates algae and gives off a smell very similar to the krill that many marine birds feed on.

The findings could explain why certain birds - including albatrosses and shearwaters - which rely on their sense of smell for hunting, are particularly vulnerable to swallowing plastic.
Matthew Savoca, the study’s lead author at the University of California Davis, said: “Animals usually have a reason for the decisions they make.
If we want to truly understand why animals are eating plastic in the ocean, we have to think about how animals find food.”

 CNN gained rare access to Midway Atoll to see the shocking amounts of plastic that makes its way across the Pacific Ocean and into our food chain.

The rate of plastic pollution is steadily increasing worldwide, with one study last year estimating that about eight million metric tons of plastic - enough to cover every foot of coastline in the world - is enters the oceans annually.
It is known that birds and other marine creatures, including turtles and fish, ingest plastic.
This can lead to damage to internal organs, gut blockages or build-ups of chemicals from the plastics in the animals’ tissues.
Previous studies have shown that some birds feed their young bits of waste - presumably mistaking it for food.
To investigate what attracts birds to debris, the scientists put beads made from the three most common types of plastic - high-density polyethylene, low-density polyethylene, and polypropylene - into the ocean at Monterey Bay and Bodega Bay, off the California coast.
The beads were sewn into mesh bags and tied to buoys to avoid any of them being eaten by wildlife.
Three weeks later, the beads were collected and the smell they gave off was analysed at the UC Davis Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, where scientists normal focus on the chemistry behind the flavour and fragrance of wines.
The plastic was found to give off a sulfur compound, dimethyl sulfide (DMS), linked to the algae which coated the floating plastic.
The same team had previously shown that DMS is the chemical cue that triggers certain seabirds to forage for krill - or as the scientists put it “the birds’ version of a dinner bell”.
It is this cue that is being hijacked by the plastics.

 The world ocean's food chain is being polluted with plastics.

This program has won the Ocean Film Festival Award of Excellence at the NOAA sponsored Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary film festival.

In a second piece of analysis, using data from 55 studies and 13,315 birds, the scientists showed that seabirds that track the scent of DMS to find prey - a group known as tube-nosed seabirds and which includes albatrosses, petrels, and shearwaters - are nearly six times more likely to eat plastic than other birds.

Birds could be better protected in future, the scientists argue, by creating plastics that do not accumulate algae as readily in the sea.
Berry Mulligan, international marine programme officer at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, said: “While research such as this is raising the alarm about plastics in our oceans, it is hard to realistically estimate the magnitude of the problem for seabirds at a global level.
Seabirds are one of most threatened groups of birds in the world, but untangling the effects of multiple threats to seabirds is a challenge, one which underlines the importance of ongoing research such as this which helps determine vulnerability of different species.”
The findings are published in the journal Science Advances.

Links :

• The Conversation : The oceans are full of plastic, but why do seabirds eat it?
• National geographic : Animals Eat Ocean Plastic Because it Smells Like Food
• BBC : Chemical clue to why seabirds eat plastic
• Christian Science Monitor : What makes plastic debris seem so tasty to seabirds?
• The Atlantic : Scientists Now Know Why Some Seabirds Eat So Much Plastic
• GeoGarage blog :Seabirds 'blighted by plastic waste' / After 60 million years of extreme living, seabirds are crashing 

Why President Donald Trump is an even bigger disaster than you thought

Mr Trump has previously described climate change as 'fictional' and 'created by the Chinese'

A new study by Lux Research projects that Trump would reverse eight years of declining emissions under the Obama administration.

From The Independant by Adam Withnall

World's most influential climate champion elects man who does not believe in the science behind man-made climate change, and has threatened to 'cancel' the Paris Agreement

Climate experts who have been nervously watching the US election from the UN summit in Marrakech will now go into crisis mode at the news that Donald Trump will be the next President of the United States.

Many attendees stayed up through the night to find out whether a man who has previously described “the concept of global warming” as being “created by and for the Chinese” will be named the most powerful leader in the world.

The Morocco summit has seen representatives from around the world gather to discuss how last year’s groundbreaking Paris Agreement will be implemented in practice.

But Mr Trump has previously stated that he wants to dismantle the accord, which aims to limit global warming to within 2C, suggesting the US should not waste "financial resources” on tacking the issue.

What Trump has said about climate change

The new US President has tweeted dozens of times about how he does not accept the overwhelming scientific evidence that man-made climate change is real.

Asked about his views on ScienceDebate, he said: "There is still much that needs to be investigated in the field of 'climate change. We must decide on how best to proceed so that we can make lives better, safer and more prosperous.”

The issue of climate change came up only once in the three live US presidential debates between Mr Trump and his defeated opponent Hillary Clinton.

Ms Clinton said she wanted to make America “the clean energy superpower of the 21st century”, and added: “Donald thinks that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese. I think it's real… I think science is real.”

The Republican denied the content of his tweet, saying: “I did not. I did not. I do not say that.”

Whether this gives hope to climate experts that Mr Trump could change his position, or concern that the new US President would say something evidently untrue on live TV, remains to be seen.

How will President Trump impact the climate?

Patricia Espinosa, the UN’s top climate official, said last month that there was “no plan B” for the event of a Trump presidency.

Donald Trump said he would "cancel" the climate-rescue Paris Agreement if elected
(AFP Photo/Derek Blair)

Speaking to Climate Home, she admitted the US election result would have serious “implications” for how the world tackles dangerous climate change.

But climate officials have also been bullish since the start of the COP22 summit, saying there is no going back on the Paris Agreement.
“I think everyone in the world is following the election process because of the implications, and we are vigilant, but it’s important to bear in mind the Paris Agreement has an incredible amount of legitimacy,” Ms Espinosa said.
“It remains a treaty that is in force. What we will do is be vigilant and attentive.”

In a report released at the summit on Tuesday, experts warned that the global climate had shown an "increasingly visible human footprint” in the last five years.
The World Meteorological Organization, the UN’s weather agency, said 2011-2015 was the hottest five-year period on record, and that many extreme events during the period were made more likely as a result of man-made climate change.
"The evidence is overwhelming," said Chris Field, director of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.
"The new report from WMO is a clarion call for embracing and going beyond the goals of the Paris Agreement.”

How possible that is, with Donald Trump as US President, remains to be seen.

Links :

• Nature : Donald Trump's US election win stuns scientists
• Vox : There’s no way around it: Donald Trump is going to be a disaster for the planet
• E&E publishing : 5 yuge ways Trump and Clinton differ on climate, energy
• Fusion : This may be the last time I write about Donald Trump and the environment
• Law Street : Where Does Donald Trump Stand on Environmental Policy?
• BlastingNews : Here’s what a Trump victory might mean for the climate  
• The Atlantic : 2016's Most Interesting Climate-Change Fights Are in the States 
• Slate : Here’s What President Trump Will Mean for the Planet
• Mother Jones : How Donald Trump Could Ruin the Most Important Climate Talks of the Year
• Quartz : Trump has vowed to yank the US from the global climate pact. He can do it.
• Wired : From Nasa to climate change: how the Trump presidency will impact science, tech and culture