"Striking" new images show impact of Kaikoura earthquake on the sea floor

 A 3D generated image showing the newly-raised sea floor, pictured here between the faultline furthest to right and the one in the centre.

 From Stuff by Philip McSweeney

New maps created with 3-D technology show the effect of the Kaikoura earthquake on the sea floor, demonstrating that the monumental damage of the earthquake wasn't localised to land.
Cracked roads, displaced land and ruptured landmarks have been a fixture in Kaikoura after the quake, but the seabed wasn't immune to the seismological disruptions.

The maps, produced by Land Information New Zealand (LINZ), reveal an uplift in the seabed that wasn't there previously, according to LINZ spokesman John Summers.

The uplift shown from another angle.

An uplifted area has formed between two fault-lines also caused by the earthquake.
The area between two lines in the top left hand corner of the maps represent newly-uplifed sea floor, he said.

The uplift shown in a vertical shot captured using 3D technology.

"Everyone's heard about what's happened to the land, but this shows [the quake] has had a substantial impact on the sea floor too."

Graeme Blick, Chief Geodesist for LINZ, said the information will ensure the safety of mariners.

He described the images as "striking".

Mariners in the area had been warned about potential uncharted hazards, which the maps help localise.

"We're using this to understand what happened in the area to see if we have to update maritime charts," Summers said.

 Kaikoura peninsula with the GeoGarage platform

The land surrounding Kaikoura was also altered by the earthquake.

 Links :

• Stuff : Before and after the Kaikoura quake: images show colossal damage / NASA photos show Kaikoura land raised by quake
• GeoGarage blog : Scientists detect huge fault rupture offshore from Kaikoura

Why nautical charts are fun

From Panama Jack by by Neil Schulman

They look a lot like maps, but they’re bigger: giant sheets of paper.
And they have a bunch of tiny numbers and symbols and colors on them.
They show the coast as a mix of odd colors, and lots of tiny numbers in the water.
Welcome to the world of a nautical chart.
Obviously, nautical charts were designed for mariners—mostly big ships—to find themselves safely to and from port.
But even if you don’t own a sailboat, there are a lot of reasons to know what all those symbols mean.
And you can make your trip to the coast even more fun.

US Chart N°1 NOAA

Solve the Puzzle
The first step to figuring out the puzzle of a nautical chart is figuring out what symbols mean.
A number?
A set of weird looking triangles?
A symbol like this * ?
The numbers  tell you the depth of the water at average low tide.
The triangles are a set of tide rips, and the * is an undersea rock.
Best of all, the secret code to deciphering all these symbols isn’t a secret at all.
It’s all in a chart called “Chart No. 1”  (like all US nautical charts) for no money whatsoever from the US government.

 Key West with the GeoGarage platform

Find the Marine Life
With the mastery of a nautical chart, it’s easy to find  coral reefs, tidepools, and other places where sea life gathers.
Look for sets of rocks in shallow water where an olive-drab chart color (which means it covers and uncovers as the tide goes in and out) means that rocks will be exposed, and go at low tide.
If there are some of those weird triangles nearby even better: tide races mean strong currents, which mean more marine life.
Another rule of thumb: the more complex the undersea features look on the chart, the more stuff will live there.

 NOAA Tidal info (GeoGarage platform)

Find a Cool Beach to Explore
Likewise, you can use a chart—often better than a map—to find a new secret cove or a beach to explore.
The chart will show you how much a beach will be walkable at low and high tides, and whether it will be an unbroken stretch of sand great for running, or a rocky complex shore with lots of interesting rocks and coves.
Of course, you’ll need a tide table to figure out when to go there.

 Los Angeles, California (GeoGarage platform)

Catch Dinner
A fishing-mad friend of mine who lives on the California coast claims that his most important piece of fishing gear is his chart.
It tells him where the undersea rocks are, and how far down they are.
As he told me, “There’s no point in dropping a lure in 12 feet of water is the rock is 14 feet down.” From the number of rockfish and cod he hauls up, he’s right.

 Maine’s Revesing Falls (GeoGarage platform)

Find Tidal Rapids
Charts will tell you where you can watch one of the ocean’s weirdest and coolest phenomena: ocean tidal rapid.
Where ocean currents flow through narrow passes, they accelerate, forming a whitewater river….that reverses direction.
They’re incredibly cool to watch, and attract everything from marine life to fishermen and whitewater kayakers.
Some are famous, like Washington’s Deception Pass, Maine’s Revesing Falls, or the Straits of Messina between Sicily and Italy, that Homer made famous as the whirlpool Charybdis, in the Odyssey.

Miami with the GeoGarage platform

Go Paddling or Rowing
And if you get in a small boat—any small boat: rowboat, canoe, dinghy, sailboat, kayak, or outboard—you’ll want to know how to read a chart.

Act Like an Old Salt
Best of all, reading a chart can also help talk like an old salt.
Impress (or tease) your friends with phrases like “2 fathoms below mean lower low water” or “that lighthouse over there flashes every 39 seconds and is visible for 5 nautical miles”.
They’ll stop rolling their eyes when they realize that you know where to catch fish, and they don’t.

They’re Free!
Nautical charts for anywhere in the US are free for download.
The coast guard knows its cheaper to put them all online than to have to send out the chopper or rescue boat when you get in trouble because your boat ran aground or waded out into a quicksand mudflat you didn’t know was there.
You can buy paper charts too–which cost a few bucks to cover the cost of paper and ink.

Humans are killing the marine ecosystem. But this man is trying to reverse that

From CatchNews  by Ashwin Aghor 

Siddharth Chakravarty worked for a decade in the merchant navy, and even captained cargo vessels. It was a lucrative job, but one day, he realised it was just not for him.
He walked out of the merchant navy in 2011.
The reason? Because the merchant navy's goal was to maximise profits, and let the marine ecosytem be damned.
In his decade on the job, Chakravarty had witnessed violations that led to severe ocean pollution, and destruction of marine wealth.And there was nothing he could do about it if he remained with the merchant navy.

"I would helplessly watch hazardous chemicals loaded on my ship. They took least precautions and hardly followed any rules. The chemicals were haphazardly loaded and unloaded to save time and maximise the profits. It was something I could not be a mute spectator to. That is why I decided to quit the merchant navy," Chakravarty says.

Steve Irwin ship

Man on a mission

Once he had quit, he decided to try and undo the damage he had been witness to for a decade, and try and save the oceans and marine life.
He began searching for a suitable assignment, wherein he could use his skills in the right way to help ocean and marine life conservation.
"I was searching for scientific expeditions to volunteer for and research vessels to crew on. During the search, I stumbled upon the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. It was exactly what I was looking for. Without wasting even a minute, I wrote an email to the society, and within 10 days, I was on my way to Australia," he said.
In early 2011, Chakravarty was posted on the vessel Steve Irwin,and thus began his journey of direct action intervention and marine conservation.
He went on to become captain of the Steve Irwin, which was involved in several mid-ocean direct intervention operations to prevent whale poaching and other illegal fishing activities across the globe.

"Illicit whaling still goes on, which needs to be controlled if we want to save the magnificent animal. At Sea Shepherd, my main job was to head various anti-poaching campaigns across the globe. During one such campaign in 2012, we chased a fishing vessel for 110 days. Though we managed to capture the crew, the vessel operators succeeded in sinking it to destroy the evidence. However, the evidence collected during the chase proved to be vital in the prosecution of the captain and crew in east Africa. They are now in jail," he said.

Siddharth Chakravarty on board his ship.

How marine poaching is done

Marine poachers have a modus operendi somewhat similar to car thieves.
Like the latter put up bogus number plates on stolen vehicles, marine poachers get the vessel registered in one country, change the name mid-ocean, go for poaching, and once they poach enough fish, the vessel name is changed again before coming to any shore.
"This is to avoid arrest and subsequent prosecution. It makes it very difficult to establish the crime, even if the crew is arrested," Chakravarty said.

The scale of the problem and reasons for it

It is not just whales.
Other species such as tuna, dolphin and shark are also facing the heat.
Poachers are least bothered about the loss to other species when they are on fishing spree - the nets they use catch other fish as well.
When the nets are lifted, unwanted dead fish are dumped back into the ocean.
Drift net, commonly used by Chinese vessels, proves fatal for dolphins and sharks.
Though it was banned in 1991, it is still used by many poachers.
Though there is evidence against the poachers, it is very difficult to prove the crime and prosecute them, due to lack of coordination among various countries.
The lack of single jurisdiction covering the oceans is the biggest hurdle in controlling marine poaching.
"The vessels are registered in one part of the world, operated in another part, catch is delivered in a third part while the crew is from an altogether different part of the world. This makes really difficult to bring the poachers to justice," Chakravarty said.
"Taiwanese vessels catch tuna fish in the Atlantic, which are processed in Indonesia, where cheap labour is available, and sold in USA and other countries."
At present 4.7 million vessels are involved in fishing across the globe, which take out 100 million tonnes of fish every year, making it $1.3 trillion business annually.
"It is not just marine life that is getting killed. The illicit fishing syndicate is run on tax payers' money in terms of subsidy given by various governments. The money is diverted to illegal trade marred with issues such as inhuman labour abuse, human trafficking, on-board violence, rape, murder, money laundering, tax evasion, drug smuggling and gun running," Chakravarty said.
It has also harmed many stakeholders such as fisherfolk and other native communities along the shores across the globe.
One Siddharth Chakravarty may not be enough to overturn all that.
But at least it's a start.

Links :

•  Interview: Captain Siddharth Chakravarty: Let’s make a sea change
  DNA India : Saving whales and catching pirate ships: The life of Sea Shepherd Siddharth Chakravarty

NZ Linz update in the GeoGarage platform

4 nautical raster charts updated

see GeoGarage news

Underwater mobile mapping

DOF Subsea, Sonardyne, 2G Robotics, and Seatronics successfully demonstrated a new underwater surveying technique that could significantly shorten the time needed to map underwater structures and offshore sites.
The new technique uses a 3D laser scanner fitted to an ROV to create highly detailed, point cloud images of subsea assets and environments.

By combining the 3D laser data with precise underwater acoustic and inertial navigation information, it is now possible to generate centimetre resolution engineering models from which accurate measurements can be instantaneously and repeatably captured.

When navigating poorly charted or unfamiliar areas, commercial ships, expedition cruise ships and naval vessels remain vulnerable to groundings and collisions with submerged objects.

This is where underwater forward looking sonar technology provides a solution.
NOAS (Navigation and Obstacle Avoidance Sonar) works by scanning a wide area in front of a vessel with multiple sonar ‘pings’ to create a highly detailed, 3D model of the sea floor and water column along a vessel’s course.

Water depth, underwater features and potential hazards to a range of up to 600 metres over a 90 degree field of view are displayed.