Nippon Foundation wants to map entire Ocean Floor by 2030

The ocean seabed is yet to be mapped in detail – but this might soon change (Image: GEBCO)

From Maritime Executive

The Chairman of The Nippon Foundation, Yohei Sasakawa, has announced that The Nippon Foundation – GEBCO Seabed 2030 project to map the bathymetry of the world’s entire ocean floor by 2030 has started.
The Nippon Foundation has pledged $2 million per year as seed money – and is calling on the resources of the international maritime community for additional support.

A concept paper for the project highlights that the vast majority of the world ocean has not been sampled by echo sounders even at a resolution of about 30 arc seconds.
Considering that many of the approximately one kilometer grid cells only have a single sounding in them, the percentage of the seafloor that has actually been measured by echo-sounders is considerably less than 18 percent.

Satellite altimetry-derived bathymetry has represented an advancement, providing global coverage of general estimates of depths.
However, it is far less precise than echo sounder-derived data and has far less resolution than modern multi-beam sonars.

Understanding the bathymetry (seabed depth) of the global ocean is imperative, not only for improving maritime navigation, but also for enhancing our ability to predict climate change and monitor marine biodiversity and resources, says Sasakawa.
The project will make a significant contribution to the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goal 14: to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.
A comprehensive map of the seafloor will assist global efforts to combat pollution, aid marine conservation, forecast tsunami wave propagation, and help inform the study of tides, wave action, and sediment transport.

The need for bathymetric data was also highlighted by the disappearance in March 2014 of Malaysian Airlines flight, MH370.

tracklines

 worldwide tracklines

Since its launch, the project has made rapid progress, drawing on the experience of some 28 international organizations around the world.
The project’s structure is based on a roadmap produced by an establishment team of leading ocean mapping experts.

Sea floor mapping in search for missing flight MH370 released

“The Nippon Foundation alone cannot achieve the objectives of this ambitious project,” said Sasakawa.
“We will need the support of a large number of stakeholders, including world-leading technical experts.
It is crucially important that the maritime community comes together to achieve this important goal.”

As shallow seas lie mostly in the territorial waters of coastal states and much of the responsibility for mapping these waters will rest with local hydrographic agencies, most of the effort of the Nippon Foundation GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project will be focused on the 93 percent of the world’s oceans that is deeper than 200 meters and often beyond the jurisdiction of local hydrographic agencies.
For the other seven percent, the project will work closely with local hydrographic agencies to obtain shallow water data wherever possible.

Four Regional Centers have been set up, each with responsibility for a region of the world’s ocean, with a Global Center to produce the global map.
The Regional Centers are based at The Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), Germany, covering the Southern Ocean; The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), Wellington, New Zealand, covering the South and West Pacific Ocean; The Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, U.S., covering the Atlantic and Indian Oceans; and Stockholm University, Sweden, in partnership with the University of New Hampshire, U.S., for the North Pacific and Arctic Ocean.
The Global Center, which is responsible for centralized data management and products, is based at the U.K. National Oceanography Center, Southampton.


The Regional Centers will identify existing data from their assigned regions that are not currently in publicly available databases and seek to make these data available.
They will develop protocols for data collection and common software and other tools to assemble and attribute appropriate metadata as they assimilate regional grids using standardized techniques.

GEBCO bathymetry

(cortesy of OMG)

The Global Center will integrate the regional grids into a global grid and distribute to users world-wide.
It will also act as the central focal point for the coordination of common data standards and processing tools.

The project will encourage and help coordinate and track new survey efforts and facilitate the development of new technologies that can increase the efficiency of seafloor mapping.

GEBCO-NF Alumni team completes XPRIZE testing phase

Satinder Bindra has been appointed leader of the international project team and brings a wealth of experience to the project, having previously worked for the Asian Development Bank, the United Nations Development Programme and UN Environment, where he promoted key environmental initiatives and sustainable development.
Bindra said: “This is a challenging opportunity to build a global common good and do something meaningful for our future generations.
The scale and scope of the project is such that we will have to work with international organizations, universities, civil society, the private sector, maritime industries -including fishing and shipping, youth organizations and citizens from every corner of the world.
As we strengthen our cooperation, we will deepen our understanding of the oceans and enhance our ability to map the remaining 85 percent of the ocean floor much faster than ever before.’’

Links :

• Hydro : Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project / New Technology to Assist in Mapping the Ocean Floor
• NextBigFuture : Roadmap for Future Ocean Floor Mapping
• Futurism : Schools of Robots Are Mapping the Unknown Features of the Deep Sea
• NOAA : Seabed 2030 : Map the gaps 
• EarthIsland : Deep impact : mapping the ocean floor could put undersea creatures at risk
• GeoGarage blog : Why the first complete map of the ocean floor is stirring controversial / Here are the teams competing to map the ocean for ... / Ocean floor to be mapped by 2030 ? / It's time to geek out over a new global bathymetric ... / The floor of the ocean comes into better focus / If the ocean was transparent : the see-through sea / How one brilliant woman mapped the ocean floor's ... / The great challenge of mapping the sea / Marie Tharp: the woman who mapped the ocean floor / X Prize to map 4,000m-deep ocean floor with robots / Scientists to survey uncharted seafloor area / MH370 spur to 'better ocean mapping' / MH370 search data unveils fishing hot spots ...
  

First ship crosses Arctic in winter without an icebreaker as global warming causes ice sheets to melt

 Soon after delivery, Eduard Toll (Icebreaker LNG Carrier) made its way to complete both its first loading at Sabetta Terminal Russia and first discharge in Montoir, France.

This marked a major milestone for shipping in the arctic as this was the first time a shipping vessel made independent passage, without the support of an ice breaker, during this time of year.

The team onboard captured a timelapse of their voyage showing the start of the Northern Sea Route transit. 

 From The Independant by Josh Gabbatiss

Crossing of polar region is becoming easier due to warming global temperatures and thinning sea ice

The tanker, containing liquefied natural gas, is the first commercial vessel to make such a crossing alone during the winter months.
The voyage is a significant moment in the story of climate change in the Arctic and will be seized on by those with concerns about thinning polar ice and its implications for the environment.

 The Eduard Toll is named after a Russian geologist and explorer

(Picture: Teekay)

Belonging to the shipping company Teekay, the ship Eduard Toll made its way from South Korea to the Sabetta terminal in northern Russia in December.
From there, it sailed to Montoir in France to deliver a load of liquefied natural gas.

A similar vessel made the same crossing in August last year, but this is the first time it has been completed when the temperatures are at their coldest.
“The people and passion one needs for an ice passage like this cannot be underestimated,” Teekay gas group’s president and chief executive, Mark Kremin, told TradeWinds.

As global warming leads to melting Arctic ice, areas of the northern oceans are becoming accessible to vessels for the first time.

Shipping companies have been investing in ships that are able to break through thinning polar ice, as the northern sea route is considerably shorter for many trade links between Europe and Asia.
Teekay is investing in six ships to travel to its liquefied natural gas project in Yamal, northern Russia.

One study suggested European routes to Asia will become 10 days faster via the Arctic than alternatives by the middle of the century, and 13 days faster by the end.
“The reduction in summer sea ice, perhaps the most striking sign of climate change, may also provide economic opportunities,” Dr Nathanael Melia, one of the authors of that study, said at the time.
“There is renewed interest in trans-Arctic shipping because of potentially reduced costs and journey times between Asia and the Atlantic.”

However, environmentalists and scientists have expressed concerns over the opening of the northern route and exploitation of polar resources.
In December, the EU and nine of the world’s major fishing nations announced an agreement to ban fishing in the Arctic Ocean for the next 16 years.
This was welcomed by environmentalists and scientists who pointed out the fragility of polar ecosystems, and the need to preserve them instead of merely exploiting resources made newly available my melting sea ice.

But even non-fishing vessels can cause damage to the Arctic due to the pollution they emit into a largely pristine environment.
As for the opening of trade routes, environmentalists have noted the irony in the rapidly warming Arctic seas being used as a highway for fossil fuel transport.
“The Arctic has already exceeded the Paris agreement’s aspiration of limiting warming to 1.5C, and the agreed target of 2C. In some areas it has warmed by 4C,” said Sarah North, senior oil strategist for Greenpeace International.
“Inevitably, this has caused massive changes, with most of the Arctic ice having already disappeared. And so now, ironically, we can deliver fossil fuels more quickly. It’s like a heavy smoker using his tracheotomy to smoke two cigarettes at once.”

Links :

• Climate Home News : Shipping first as LNG tanker crosses Arctic in winter without icebreaker escort
• Mashable : A tanker loaded with gas needed no help barreling through feeble Arctic sea ice
• BBC news : China to develop Arctic shipping routes opened by global warming
• The Straits Times : China's polar ambitions cause anxiety
• Asia Times : Arctic sea routes could ease Malacca Strait security issue
• GeoGarage blog :China wants to build a “Polar Silk Road” in the Arctic / New sailing routes for future container mega-ships / Russian tanker sails through Arctic without ... / As Arctic ice vanishes, new shipping routes open / Arctic shipping passage 'still decades away' / Arctic passage / Putin makes his first move in race to control the Arctic / SCF Baltica tanker completed the Northern Sea Route / Arctic Ocean: history and now / Oblique icebreaker gives better access to Arctic waters / Gas tanker Ob River attempts first winter Arctic ... / Arctic mapping to make navigating Northwest ... / Ships to sail directly over the north pole by 2050 ...
   

Ocean science research is key for a sustainable future

Human–ocean interactions highlighting ocean ecosystem services and their threads

(taken from Ocean Atlas, 2017)

From Nature by Martin Visbeck

Human activity has already affected all parts of the ocean, with pollution increasing and fish-stocks plummeting.
The UN’s recent announcement of a Decade of Ocean Science provides a glimmer of hope, but scientists will need to work closely with decision-makers and society at large to get the ocean back on track.
The ocean covers 71% of the Earth’s surface.
It regulates our climate and holds vast and in some cases untouched resources.
It provides us with basics such as food, materials, energy, and transportation, and we also enjoy the seascape for religious or recreational practices.

Today, more than 40% of the global population lives in areas within 200 km of the ocean and 12 out of 15 mega cities are coastal.
Doubling of the world population over the last 50 years, rapid industrial development, and growing human affluence are exerting increasing pressure on the ocean.
Climate change, non-sustainable resource extraction, land-based pollution, and habitat degradation are threatening the productivity and health of the ocean.

In the Deep is a new Quartz series on the wonders of our oceans

and the intrepid scientists seeking to understand them.

It is in this context that over the last few years, scientists and societal actors have organized a bottom-up movement, which has ultimately led to the United Nations General Assembly proclaiming a Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030).
In the process, governments, industry, and scientists have raised awareness of the rapid degradation and over-use of the ocean.
The final document from the Rio+20 summit, The future we want, made extensive reference to the ocean, and the Global Ocean Commission articulated the need for more effective global ocean policies.
Moreover, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development includes an explicit ocean goal (SDG14) that led to the first-ever UN Ocean conference to support its implementation.
The ambition of the Decade of Ocean Science is to now use this gathering momentum to mobilize the scientific community, policy-makers, business, and civil society around a program of joint research and technological innovation.

 Increased need for ocean information to meet societal needs.

Meeting a growing range of societal demands and achieving Sustainable Development Goal 14 (Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources) from the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development can only be fully realized if all elements of the ocean value chain are resourced adequately and more integrated science agendas are advanced.

Sustainable Development Goal logo ©UNITED NATIONS.

All rights reserved

I see reasons for optimism in four main areas.

First, there is a tremendous opportunity to connect ocean sciences more directly with societal actors by promoting integrated ocean observation and solution-oriented research agendas.
Also, rich and poor nations are increasingly engaging in capacity development and resource sharing.
And finally, the UN system and coastal states have a unique chance to seriously collaborate in multi-stakeholder processes to advance maritime spatial planning and effective ocean governance.

A more integrated and sustainable ocean observing system The Decade of Ocean Science will encourage actions towards a more integrated and sustainable ocean observing system to facilitate ocean discovery and environmental monitoring.
The vast volume of the ocean and its complex coastlines are neither fully observed nor adequately understood.
In particular the deep sea is a frontier of ocean sciences, where internationally coordinated research teams regularly discover new ocean phenomena of profound importance or new organisms and substances for potential future use.
Sustained and systematic ocean observations are needed to document ocean change, initialize ocean system models and provide critical information for improved ocean understanding.

Advances in ocean robotics and the combination of remote and in situ ocean observations offer new opportunities; and free and open data sharing and multi-stakeholder contributions by governments (rich and poor), the private sector and citizens are opening exciting new dimensions.
International efforts, such as the Global Ocean Observing System, the Blue Planet initiative of the Group on Earth Observations and their Framework for Ocean Observing provide a solid basis and an opportunity for growth.
The upcoming decadal conference on ocean observations, OceanObs 19 will provide an excellent opportunity to advance our ocean observing ambitions.

Ocean Networks Canada

A solution-oriented integrated ocean science agenda

The Decade of Ocean Science should address both deep disciplinary understanding of ocean processes and solution-oriented research to generate new knowledge.
This will support societal actors in reducing ocean pressures, preserving and restoring ocean ecosystems and so safeguard ocean-related prosperity for generations to come.
A solution-oriented integrated ocean science agenda can provide innovative ideas, improved assessments and fundamental knowledge in the context of sustainable development and improving human–ocean interactions.
Our rapidly growing, affluent, and more technologically advanced societies are increasingly impacting their local and the global environment, leading to pollution by both chemical and physical wastes.

Integrated research is needed to assess the human and environmental risks of ongoing and future types of ocean pollution, to generate new ideas to reduce the ocean pressures by promoting recycling, improved waste management and incentive and governance regimes to encourage more sustainable production and consumption.

The most challenging ocean pollutants include: atmospheric carbon dioxide, which causes climate change, ocean warming, ocean acidification, and sea level rise; agricultural fertilizers, which lead to increased primary production but result in ocean deoxygenation; untreated waste water; invasive species; micro and macro plastics, the exponential increase of which has an environmental impact as yet only partially known.
Ocean hazards such as storm surges, harmful algal blooms, or coastline erosion can be devastating for coastal communities.

Throughout human evolution civilization has developed strategies to increase our resilience to threats from the ocean.
However, the rush for coastal recreation and access to the sea has produced newly built infrastructure that is increasingly vulnerable to ocean extreme events.
Hard solutions, such as building walls and levees, could provide some mitigation.
However, softer approaches, such as beach nourishment, restoration of mangroves and reef systems, would also provide natural protection and increase resilience to sea-level rise and storm surges.
Marine protected areas, natural coastal defences, mining codes, or regulations to limit ocean pollution are all critical elements to safeguard ocean resilience.

Humans have always benefitted from the ocean and its diverse ecosystem services.
We often speak of a healthy and productive ocean referring to the desire to maintain the ocean in a prosperous state.
The ocean provides food for many, often poor, coastal communities; provides jobs, energy, and raw materials; and enables global trade and recreational and cultural services.
The sustainability challenge is achieving long-term ocean prosperity for more affluent societies with a global population approaching 10 billion.

Is there sufficient intergenerational will to sustain the overall long-term wealth and well-being of humans by safeguarding ocean resources and ecosystem productivity?
What are the trade-offs and synergies between different strategies of marine food production and wild harvesting, different forms of energy harvesting and extraction of materials and ocean restoring zones?
New research should develop and flesh out sustainable blue-green growth agendas and link it to efforts in ecosystem protection.
The Decade of Ocean Science should develop a new ocean narrative that can provide context and motivation to reduce ocean pressures, increase ocean resilience, and promote ocean prosperity for generations to come.

At the same time, it can provide visibility to existing and new international ocean science programs, such as the new Future Earth Ocean Knowledge–Action network that aims to connect academic and practical knowledge to address the pressing issues of ocean sustainability using the concept of co-design, co-production, and co-dissemination of ocean sustainability knowledge.

Global Ocean Science 

Toward an Integrated Approach (1999)

Global capacity building

The success of the Decade of Ocean Science will critically depend on global capacity building and resource-sharing between countries at different levels of wealth and development.
The enormous need for more ocean information at the scientific, governmental, private sector, and public levels demands a step-change in ocean education at all levels.
New technology to improve ocean observation, more sustainable ocean resource extraction, and the digital revolution are transforming the ocean sciences and information communities.

How can we harness this opportunity?
Perhaps new curricula at universities can provide the opportunity to engage a wide range of disciplines in the area of ocean sustainability.
Global learning formats such as massive open online courses, open access to ocean information and increased interactions between the academic and societal actor communities are all promising activities.
In addition, partnerships between academic and civil society organizations can produce free ocean literacy material, such as the Ocean-Atlas or the World Ocean Review.
However, more engagement at the primary and secondary school levels is urgently needed to promote ocean literacy.
Training courses and exchange programs between south–south and north–south ocean actors, as well as courses for ocean professionals, hold tremendous potential to raise ocean awareness and promote better solutions.

 Sea Change

Effective ocean governance

Finally, the Decade of Ocean Science, in conjunction with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and other international and regional ocean agendas, has shown the need for societal actors to reflect on effective ocean governance.
From a regulatory perspective, coastal states can benefit from a systematic, multi-stakeholder assessment and spatial planning procedure.
In many parts of the world, each cubic meter of ocean is expected to support several, often conflicting, demands.
Spatial planning procedures that take the demands of neighboring countries and the global ocean system into account can help to find more sustainable and equitable regimes of ocean use and access.
Science can help in this effort by reflecting on a range of human development scenarios and evaluating how best to sustain ocean prosperity while respecting planetary and ocean boundaries.
A good example of this is the ocean scenario team that is scoping out development pathways to reach SDG14 and ocean-related goals by 2050 in the context of The World In 2050 project (TWI2050).

The increased awareness of the importance of the ocean to the future of humanity give grounds for cautious optimism and motivation for ambitious multilateral cooperation.
The scientific community has been given a stage on which to shine during the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.
Let us come together, respect our disciplines and agendas but also be ready to embark on an exciting and transformative journey to realize the ocean we need for the future we want.

Links :

• Xinhua : China to establish ocean science research center
• DAL : 10 reasons to be excited about ocean research

The Mercy review – high seas and crushed dreams

Following his Academy Award® nominated film The Theory of Everything, James Marsh directs the incredible true story of Donald Crowhurst (Colin Firth), an amateur sailor who competed in the 1968 Sunday Times Golden Globe Race in the hope of becoming the first person in history to single-handedly circumnavigate the globe without stopping.

With an unfinished boat and his business and house on the line, Donald leaves his wife, Clare (Rachel Weisz) and their children behind, hesitantly embarking on an adventure on his boat the Teignmouth Electron.

The story of Crowhurst's dangerous solo voyage and the struggles he confronted on the epic journey while his wife Clare and their family awaited his return is one of the most enduring mysteries of recent times.

From The Guardian by

The somewhat dispiriting real-life story of Donald Crowhurst, the amateur sailor who in 1968-9 lost his pride, his mind and then his life in a single-handed yacht race to circumnavigate the world, has long exerted a fascination for film-makers.

Nicolas Roeg once tried to film the story.
In 2006, the documentary Deep Water explored the tragedy.
And this big-budget take on the tale, buoyed up by the star power of Colin Firth and Rachel Weisz, was made at the same time as a smaller rival project, Crowhurst by Simon Rumley.

 Deep Water is a documentary film, directed by Jerry Rothwell and Louise Osmond, produced by Jonny Persey.

It is based on the true story of Donald Crowhurst and the 1969 Sunday Times Golden Globe Race round the world alone in a yacht. 

'"We are all human beings and we all have dreams."

Deep Water, beautifully narrated by Tilda Swinton, is a moving and totally absorbing account of one man who gets in over his head both physically and morally.

The small boat becomes a microcosm for life where a person has to find their own rules.

Crowhurst's journey is not the journey of Sunday Times heroes, but of a man.

His dilemma is dangerously easy to identify with.

This is an incredibly moving story - if you don't already know the historical details, do see the film first.

One can see the attraction of the story to director James Marsh: Crowhurst (Firth) has a similar maverick eccentricity and forceful self-belief to that of high-wire walker Philippe Petit, the subject of his documentary Man on Wire.
But for all its technical prowess – the sound design, all groaning metal and hectoring waves, is particularly effective – this account of inexorably crushed dreams is kind of a downer.

Unlike the steely resilience in the face of disaster of Robert Redford’s character in All Is Lost, watching Crowhurst slowly crack is the cinema equivalent of filling your pockets with pebbles and chucking yourself into the Solent.

 Links : 

• The Telegraph :  The Mercy

Image of the week : bloom in Antarctica

A bloom of microscopic plant life and icebergs can be seen off of Antarctica's Mawson Coast 
(Mawson Station Antarctica).

The Landsat 8 data was collected on 9 February 2018. 

Courtesy of NASA Ocean

  localization of the Mawson Station with the GeoGarage platform (AHS chart)

Nigel, the world's loneliest bird, was no victim. He was a hero.

Nigel the first gannet to settle on Mana Island, wooing his concrete mate

From The Washington Post by Karin Brulliard

The story of Nigel, a seabird who lived and died among concrete decoys on a rocky New Zealand island, flew around the world last week.
It was widely received as a tragedy.

Here was a beautiful gannet bird who had been lured to a strange place by humans.
In the face of solitude, he directed his mating instincts toward a false love interest: a painted decoy, still and stone-hearted, eternally oblivious to his wooing.
Years passed, no other gannets arrived, and there Nigel died, alone in the nest he built his cement princess.

But conservationists are not mourning his fate.
Nigel, they say, was a hero among gannets — a tragic hero, maybe, but a hero nonetheless.

Nigel the gannet and two concrete friends.

(New Zealand Department of Conservation)

“He was a pioneering spirit,” said Stephen Kress, vice president of bird conservation at the National Audubon Society.
“Was he a brave pioneer or a foolish pioneer? I would think of him as a brave pioneer, because it isn’t easy to live on the edge like that.”

Kress knows something about being a pioneer.
In the early 1970s, he came up with the idea of using decoys and recorded bird calls to attract seabirds to islands.
He was trying to reestablish a colony of Atlantic puffins on Eastern Egg Rock, a Maine island where hunters had wiped out the birds a century before.
But the method he was using — moving chicks to the island and hoping they’d come back to nest there — was not working.
They weren’t returning.

Then Kress had a revelation.
“It kind of hit me one day that the thing that was missing for this highly social bird, that always nests in colonies, was others of its kind,” Kress said.
“I put out some decoys, and almost immediately puffins started appearing.”

A photo of Nigel’s favorite spot, taken a few days after his death.

(New Zealand Department of Conservation)

He also broadcast puffin calls, because puffins are vocal.
And he put out mirrors, because although the birds were savvy enough to lose interest in an immobile model, they seemed “fooled” into believing their own reflections were peers, Kress said.
As of last summer, Eastern Egg Rock was home to 172 puffin breeding pairs.
And Kress’s method, known as “social attraction,” is now used worldwide to start seabird colonies on islands.

That includes in New Zealand, where gannets are not endangered but are clustered in just a few places.
Wildlife officials would like them to be “more geographically diverse,” said Chris Bell, a conservation ranger who is the sole human inhabitant of Mana Island, where Nigel made his home.
Mana was deemed a good site for a gannet social attraction project because invasive predators have been eradicated and because the birds, with their fertilizing guano, could help “restore the kind of ecosystem [the island] had before humans arrived,” he said in an email.

 Mana island with the GeoGarage platform (Linz nautical chart)

Yet such projects depend on birds that defy their deep instinct to return to their birthplace — a tendency known as philopatry.
In other words, success depends on Nigels.

“Without birds like Nigel, there wouldn’t be any new colonies.
The species would be locked into this philopatric pattern,” leaving it vulnerable to wipeouts caused by introduced predators or sea-level rise or illness, Kress said.
“He’s a hero! He gave it all for the species. He tried.”

The Mana project began in the late 1990s, when schoolchildren first painted gannet decoys, but it was not until 2015 that a real one — Nigel — showed up.
By staying, Bell said, Nigel acted as a living, breathing advertisement for the spot.
In recent months, after Bell and colleagues moved the speakers playing gannet calls closer to the decoy colony, three more gannets showed up.

Gannets “like to see that other birds have gone there before they trust a place,” he said.
“The three regular birds we currently have are Nigel’s legacy.”

Chris Bell, a conservation ranger on Mana Island, and some of the 80 concrete gannet decoys used to attract real gannets.

(New Zealand Department of Conservation)

Despite the bird’s isolation, Bell said New Zealand conservation officials never considered relocating Nigel.
Gannets are known to fly thousands of miles between Australia and New Zealand; Mana Island is located just two miles from New Zealand’s North Island.

“Nigel was a free agent,” said Bell, who added that officials are performing a necropsy to confirm the bird’s cause of death, which they suspect was old age.
His infatuation with a decoy “was odd behavior for a gannet, but every group has their individuals.”

Many seabirds attracted to islands by decoys leave early on, Kress said.
Nigel may simply have seen advantages in Mana that his fellow gannets did not: a sense of peace, a lack of crowds, a strife-free relationship.

“Either they’re going to attract other members of their kind, or they’ll give up and they’ll leave,” Kress said.
“Nigel could have done either of those things.
But time caught up with him.”

Steve Leonard and a group of conservationists attach tiny gadgets to the feathers of a Gannet

to learn how they eat and fly out in the deep oceans.

Links :

• WP : Nigel, the world’s loneliest bird, dies next to the concrete decoy he loved
• The Guardian : Nigel the lonely gannet dies as he lived, surrounded by concrete birds
•  DailyMail: Tragic end for seabird who spent four years courting a decoy: Nigel the gannet dies without ever finding romance (and is found next to fake bird he worshipped in the love nest he'd built her)
  

An international plastics treaty could avert a “Silent Spring” for our seas

A seal trapped in a mat of plastic pollution.

(Nels Israelson/Flickr), CC BY-NC

From The Conversation by Linda Nowlan

Global problems — like our plastic-choked seas — need global solutions.

It was welcome news when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada will use its year-long G7 presidency to turn the global spotlight on ocean plastics and pollution.
Environment Minister Catherine McKenna has said plastics will be a main theme of June’s summit when leaders from Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States join Trudeau in Charlevoix, Quebec.

But can Canada move these nations to establish enforceable rules?
The G7 has raised the plastics issue before.
The Germans launched an action plan to combat marine litter in 2015 and Japan reaffirmed the commitment to address the problem in 2016.

During the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos later that year, headlines blared “More Plastic than Fish in the Sea by 2050” after the release of a report on global plastic waste.
In 2017, Italy held a workshop on marine litter during its G7 presidency.

Promises proliferate while plastic waste piles up

But despite these promises, plastic production and waste continues to grow.

Globally, millions of metric tonnes of plastic waste enter the ocean each year.
In 2010, for example, between 4.8 million and 12.7 million metric tonnes of plastic hit the water. That’s equivalent to dumping a garbage truck of plastic into marine waters every minute.

Alarmingly, production of single-use plastic, like grocery bags, contributed nearly 40 per cent of total plastic production in 2015.
Many end up in our oceans.

Boris Worm, a marine scientist at the Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, has warned that if current trends continue, we’ll face a new “Silent Spring” of the seas.
Today, close to 90 per cent of seabirds have plastics in their guts, similar to the ubiquitous presence of the toxic chemical DDT in the 1960s, the focus of Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring.
These voluntary international pledges are failing to stem the plastic tide.

Controlling plastic pollution on land could limit what ends up in the sea.

(Ingrid Taylar/Flickr), CC BY

Most of the plastic in the sea comes from land.
Most of it is not abandoned fishing gear, but plastic bags, milk and water bottles, and consumer goods like flip-flops dumped into waterways and washed out to sea.

We’ve recognized this for years — more than 100 countries have endorsed efforts to reduce the impacts of marine litter worldwide since 1995.
But that was also a non-binding agreement.
Since then, promises to cut ocean plastics have proliferated, including the 2011 Honolulu Strategy and “The Future We Want” agreement at the 2012 Rio+20 conference.
The 2015 Oceans Goal, one of the UN’s 20 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), repeats the target of significant marine pollution reduction.
And last year, the United Nations Environmental Programme launched its “war on plastic” with the Clean Seas campaign, which aims to eliminate microplastics in cosmetics and the wasteful usage of single-use plastic by the year 2022.

Law rules

What we lack are binding rules for land-based sources of plastic pollution that apply to countries around the world.
As the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) noted: “Current initiatives to tackle plastic pollution focus on the symptoms but not the root of the problem.”

At home, Trudeau can support the development of a coordinated national strategy to combat plastics pollution, backed up by law.

There’s plenty of evidence that voluntary actions aren’t enough.
In 2000, Canada was the first country to act with a National Plan of Action on land-based sources of marine pollution.
But with no legal mechanism to compel action, the national plan to keep plastic pollution from entering the sea has languished.
It would be a step forward even if the G7 only acknowledged the need for binding laws.

G7 to the rescue?

Still more can be done. Canada can start a race to the top to see who can put the best laws in place, and who can reap the gains from a new plastic economy.

Plastic collected from the Pacific Ocean.

(Chris Jordan/flickr), CC BY-NC-ND

Trudeau can convince his fellow G7 leaders to emulate Canada’s new regulations that prohibit the manufacture, import and sale of personal toiletry products that contain plastic microbeads.
The G7 leaders can share their experiences on what’s worked well for them, whether it’s the European Union’s new Plastics Strategy and legislative initiative on single-use plastics, France’s ban on plastic cups and plates, or the U.S. initiative called Save Our Seas Act.

Canada could plan a “Plastic-Free Day” during the meeting, or host an ocean plastics art competition at the Charlevoix venue with entries from all G7 nations.
It could help to bring industry on side by showcasing promising initiatives like the New Plastics Economy, focused on increasing recapture, reuse and recycling of plastics.
And it could screen a heart-wrenching film like Blue for the world leaders.
A bold step forward would be a G7 agreement to fast-track an international plastics treaty.

Plastic waste is increasing in the supposedly pristine wilderness of the Arctic.

Scientists say almost everywhere they have looked in the Arctic Ocean, they’ve found plastic pollution.

In the northern fjords of Norway, one man is on a mission to pick up as much plastic as he can.

Video journalist: Charlotte Pamment

End game: A plastic pollution treaty
Canada can build on its past leadership on environmental treaties, such as the Montreal Protocol that eliminated more than 99 per cent of ozone-depleting substances globally, to tackle marine plastic pollution.
During the G7 presidency, Trudeau can take the lead to initiate an international treaty that sets global reduction targets for the production and consumption of plastics, and regulates their production, consumption, disposal and clean-up.

At the U.N. Environment Assembly in December, nations failed to include any reductions targets or a timetable in their resolution on marine litter and microplastics.
They did, however, establish a group to “further examine the barriers to, and options for, combating marine plastic litter and microplastics from all sources, especially land-based sources.”
This group can recommend the formation of a treaty.
If the G7 were to endorse this idea, it might get the international treaty-making machinery moving even more quickly.

There are many proposals at hand.
One based on the Montreal Protocol — widely regarded as one of the world’s most successful environmental agreements — would impose caps on plastics production and trade bans.
Another points to the climate treaty, with countries setting a binding plastics goal and then developing national action plans.
Alternatively, others call for an agreement that institutes a waste hierarchy, where plastics are first reduced, then reused, re-purposed and finally recycled, and creates a global fund to help pay for better waste management practices and infrastructure.
But successful treaties need industry involvement — and commitment to change.
A recent CIEL report traces industry awareness of the ocean plastics problem back to the 1970s.
There is no time for the kind of industry denial we’ve seen regarding climate change.
It’s an opportune time for Canada to use its G7 leadership to avert another Silent Spring and begin tackling the problem of plastics in the oceans.

Links :

• BBC : Plastic waste 'building up' in Arctic / Microplastics pollute most remote and uncharted areas of the ocean
• Eco Watch : 'Plastic in All Sizes' Found Everywhere in Once Pristine European Arctic
• GeoGarage blog : An international plastics treaty could avert a “Silent ... / Seven charts that explain the plastic pollution problem / The pristine Arctic has become a garbage trap for ... / Plastic pollution in the world's oceans: Interactive ... / Our seas have become a plastic graveyard - but can ... / "A Plastic Tide" film depicts shocking plastic ... / How an uninhabited island got the world's highest ... / 'Biodegradable' plastics are a big fat lie / 8 maps show plastic's impact on the world's oceans ... / Seabirds 'blighted by plastic waste' / Study finds rising levels of plastics in oceans / We can solve the ocean plastic problem / Plastic by the numbers in the Atlantic Ocean / Mediterranean Sea as afflicted by plastic dumping ... / Global call to stop plastic pollution presented at Rio ...

Canada (CHS) layer update in the GeoGarage platform

45 nautical raster charts updated & 1 new chart added

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Satellite observations show sea levels rising, and climate change is accelerating it

Global sea level rise is accelerating incrementally over time rather than increasing at a steady rate, as previously thought, according to a new study based on 25 years of NASA and European satellite data.

If the rate of ocean rise continues to change at this pace, sea level will rise 26 inches (65 centimeters) by 2100--enough to cause significant problems for coastal cities.

From CNN by Brandon Miller

Sea level rise is happening now, and the rate at which it is rising is increasing every year, according to a study released Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Researchers, led by University of Colorado-Boulder professor of aerospace engineering sciences Steve Nerem, used satellite data dating to 1993 to observe the levels of the world's oceans.

 Changes in sea level observed between 1992 and 2014.

Orange/red colors represent higher sea levels, while blue colors show where sea levels are lower.
Using satellite data rather than tide-gauge data that is normally used to measure sea levels allows for more precise estimates of global sea level, since it provides measurements of the open ocean.
The team observed a total rise in the ocean of 7 centimeters (2.8 inches) in 25 years of data, which aligns with the generally accepted current rate of sea level rise of about 3 millimeters (0.1 inches) per year.

But that rate is not constant.
Continuous emissions of greenhouse gases are warming the Earth's atmosphere and oceans and melting its ice, causing the rate of sea level rise to increase.
"This acceleration, driven mainly by accelerated melting in Greenland and Antarctica, has the potential to double the total sea level rise by 2100 as compared to projections that assume a constant rate, to more than 60 centimeters instead of about 30," said Nerem, who is also a fellow with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science.
That projection agrees perfectly with climate models used in the latest International Panel on Climate Change report, which show sea level rise to be between 52 and 98 centimeters by 2100 for a "business as usual" scenario (in which greenhouse emissions continue without reduction).

Therefore, scientists now have observed evidence validating climate model projections, as well as providing policy-makers with a "data-driven assessment of sea level change that does not depend on the climate models," Nerem said.
Sea level rise of 65 centimeters, or roughly 2 feet, would cause significant problems for coastal cities around the world.
Extreme water levels, such as high tides and surges from strong storms, would be made exponentially worse.
Consider the record set in Boston Harbor during January's "bomb cyclone" or the inundation regularly experienced in Miami during the King tides; these are occurring with sea levels that have risen about a foot in the past 100 years.
Now, researchers say we could add another 2 feet by the end of this century.

 Nerem provided this chart showing sea level projections to 2100

using the newly calculated acceleration rate.

Nerem and his team took into account natural changes in sea level thanks to cycles such as El Niño/La Niña and even events such as the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo, which altered sea levels worldwide for several years.
The result is a "climate-change-driven" acceleration: the amount the sea levels are rising because of the warming caused by manmade global warming.

The researchers used data from other scientific missions such as GRACE, the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, to determine what was causing the rate to accelerate.

NASA's GRACE mission used satellites to measure changes in ice mass.

This image shows areas of Antarctica that gained or lost ice between 2002 and 2016.

Currently, over half of the observed rise is the result of "thermal expansion": As ocean water warms, it expands, and sea levels rise.
The rest of the rise is the result of melted ice in Greenland and Antarctica and mountain glaciers flowing into the oceans.

From the South Pole to Greenland, from Alaska’s glaciers to Svalbard, NASA’s Operation IceBridge covered the icy regions of our planet in 2017 with a record seven separate field campaigns.

The mission of IceBridge, NASA’s longest-running airborne science program monitoring polar ice, is to collect data on changing ice sheets, glaciers, and sea ice, and maintain continuity of measurements between ICESat satellite missions.

Theirs is a troubling finding when considering the recent rapid ice loss in the ice sheets.
"Sixty-five centimeters is probably on the low end for 2100," Nerem said, "since it assumes the rate and acceleration we have seen over the last 25 years continues for the next 82 years."
"We are already seeing signs of ice sheet instability in Greenland and Antarctica, so if they experience rapid changes, then we would likely see more than 65 centimeters of sea level rise by 2100."
Penn State climate scientist Michael Mann, who was not involved with the study, said "it confirms what we have long feared: that the sooner-than-expected ice loss from the west Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets is leading to acceleration in sea level rise sooner than was projected."

Links :

• ArsTechnica : Yes, sea level rise really is accelerating
• The Guardian : Melting ice sheets are hastening sea level rise, satellite data confirms
• Inverse : 25 Years of Satellite Data Uncover Alarming Error in Sea Level Measurements
• EOS : Incorporating Physical Processes into Sea Level Projections
• EuroNews : Rising sea levels threat: a shrinking European coastline in 2100? 

NOAA releases 2018 hydrographic survey season plans

From NOAA

NOAA hydrographic survey ships and contractors are preparing for the 2018 hydrographic survey season.
Operations are scheduled for maritime priority areas around the country.

2018 planned survey projects:

Alaska NOAA chart coverage with the GeoGarage platform

Alaska

• North Coast of Kodiak Island – Last surveyed in 1932, this survey project focuses on areas inadequate for safe navigation, particularly along the corridor of vessel traffic transiting from Kodiak.
• West of Prince of Wales Island – These complex waterways are critical to the economic success of local coastal communities on Prince of Wales Island. This survey project updates previous surveys dating back to 1916.
• Tracy Arm Fjord – Frequently visited by cruise ships and tourist vessels, modern surveys will increase maritime safety and address the needs of the maritime pilot community.
• Lisianski Strait and Inlet – This navigationally complex area experiences a large volume of marine traffic, with the vast majority of the inlet last surveyed in 1917. This project provides contemporary surveys for the area.
• Southwest Alaskan Peninsula – This survey project updates nautical charting products to support the increase in vessel traffic in Unimak Passage. Fishing fleets in Bristol Bay and Bering Sea frequent this area.
• Morzhovoi Bay – With parts of the bay last surveyed in the 1920s and 1950s, this survey project focuses on areas inadequate for safe navigation.
• Point Hope and Vicinity – Vessel traffic is increasing each year as sea ice recedes. Seventy percent of the area remains unsurveyed.

Pacific Coast & Puget Sound NOAA chart coverage with the GeoGarage platform

 
Pacific Coast and Puget Sound

• Puget Sound, Washington –This moderate to high traffic density area includes several ferry routes. Current surveys of the area consist of partial bottom coverage and in some areas, lesser coverage.
• Channel Islands and Vicinity, California – This survey project provides data for crucial nautical chart updates and also generates backscatter data used in habitat mapping in the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary.

Gulf of Mexico & Mississipi River NOAA chart coverage with the GeoGarage platform

Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi River

• Chandeleur, Louisiana – This survey area includes active oil and gas exploration areas and future state-leasing waters and is also shoaler than 20 fathoms throughout. This survey will identify hazards and changes in bathymetry.
• Mississippi River, Louisiana – The ports of the southern Mississippi River represent the largest part complex in the world and one of the most heavily trafficked waterways in the United States. This survey project supports new, high-resolution charting products for maritime commerce.
• Louisiana Coast – This survey project addresses concerns of migrating shoals and exposed hazards in the vicinity of the Atchafalaya River Delta and Port of Morgan City.
• Approaches to Houston, Texas – The current chart coverage of the area between Galveston Bay and Sabine Bank Channels shows numerous reported wrecks and obstructions. This survey will identify changes to the bathymetry and resolve position uncertainty in known hazards.
• Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, Florida – This survey project provides updates to nautical charting products of the area and supports marine habitat research projects through the National Center for Coastal Ocean Science and the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries.

Atlantic Coast & Puerto Rico NOAA chart coverage with the GeoGarage platform

Atlantic Coast and Puerto Rico

• Approaches to Chesapeake Bay – This multi-year survey covers the approaches to Chesapeake Bay to support the safety of commerce and monitor the environmental health of the region.
• Approaches to Jacksonville, Florida – The Port of Jacksonville entrance channel is in need of updated charts to meet the needs of larger ships.
• Puerto Rico – NOAA will return to the island of Puerto Rico and conduct surveys to update the nautical charts in critical need of revisions following Hurricane Maria.

The 2018 field season will begin in April.
That is when NOAA’s four hydrographic survey ships–Thomas Jefferson, Ferdinand Hassler, Rainier, and Fairweather–and private survey companies on contract with NOAA will tackle their assigned survey projects.
The NOAA ships are operated and maintained by the Office of Marine and Aviation Operations, with hydrographic survey projects managed by the Office of Coast Survey.

Drone films sub wreck lost for 103 years

It's taken 103 years of searching but the wreck of Australia's first naval submarine has been found.
The HMAS AE-1 was the first Allied submarine lost in World War One.

From CNN by Amanda Coakley

 The wreck of Australia's first submarine has been discovered off the coast of Papua New Guinea after disappearing without a trace 103 years ago.

 Last known position of WW1 sub HMAS AE1, found 300m below the sea's surface.

(AHS nautical chart with the GeoGarage platform)

"Australia's oldest naval mystery has been solved," said Australia's Minister for Defense Marise Payne.
The Royal Australian Navy submarine HMAS AE1, which was carrying 35 crew members from Australia, Britain and New Zealand, sank near Rabaul on the island of New Britain on September 14, 1914.
World War I had begun just a few weeks earlier and the disappearance marked the country's first loss in the conflict.
"This is a great day for Australian maritime history," said Brendan Nelson, director of the Australian War Memorial, in a statement.
"When the AE1 went missing in 1914 it had a profound impact on our young nation," he said. "Now we can properly mourn the deaths of those men who served in AE1, and commemorate their sacrifice in a meaningful and fitting way."
Following the discovery, those on board the survey vessel that found it held a small commemorative service to remember those who lost their lives.
Efforts are being made to find any descendants of the submarine's crew members.

The submarine has been described as "remarkably well preserved."

'Remarkably well preserved'

An expedition set out earlier this week to search the waters near the Duke of York Island group in Papua New Guinea.
The team of maritime surveyors, marine archaeologists and naval historians used a multi-beam echo sounder and side-scan technology in an underwater drone flying 40 meters above the seabed to scour the area.
According to Defense Minister Payne, this was the 13th time a team had set out to search for the missing submarine.
The AE1, Australia's first submarine, was commissioned at the outbreak of World War I. Along with one other submarine (AEII) and several cruisers and destroyers, it was sent to New Guinea -- a German colony at the time -- to serve in operations against the enemy, according to maritime archaeologist Michael McCarthy.

But just six weeks after the start of the war, AE1 mysteriously disappeared while on patrol.

A search for the vessel "was quickly abandoned" when Australian units in the area were required elsewhere, McCarthy wrote in a 2009 essay.

"AEI was then forgotten by all bar a few."
Searches in the late 1970s and 1980s were unsuccessful, as were more recent efforts spearheaded by John Foster, a commander in the Australian Navy, who spent his retirement searching for AE1 but died in 2010.
"When a submarine just disappears, it can be anywhere," Innes McCartney, nautical archaeologist and Leverhulme research fellow at Bournemouth University in the UK, told CNN.
Search teams are often working across a very large area and in very deep water, he explained.
"There are hundreds and hundreds (of submarines) on the bottom of the ocean," McCartney said. "They are generally chance finds."
The first glimmer of hope this week came when the search vessel Fugro Equator identified an "object of interest" 300 meters below the surface.
After producing a three-dimensional rendering of the object, the team dropped a camera to confirm the find.
The vessel seems to be "remarkably well preserved and apparently in one piece," according to the Ministry of Defense. 

A three-dimensional rendering of an object on the ocean floor suggested the mission had been a success

'Somber' occasion

The cause of the sinking is not yet known.

While some believe the vessel could have struck a reef while moving in poor visibility, others think it was lost in a practice dive.
According to McCartney, there is a "very good chance" that archaeologists will be able to solve the mystery by studying the outer surfaces of the wreck.
These submarines, which were designed and built in Britain, "were successful and they were reliable," said McCartney.

"But submarining is inherently dangerous and submarines hadn't been around that long."

The war was their "first great test."
Mark Sander, president of the Submarine Institute of Australia (SIA), one of the organizations involved in the search, described the discovery as "both a satisfying and somber occasion."
"Australia will never forget the crew of HMAS AE1 who are on eternal patrol," he said in a statement.
A number of groups were involved in the expedition along with the SIA, including the Australian National Maritime Museum, the Silentworld Foundation, Fugro Survey and the Papua New Guinea government as well as the Australian Royal Navy.

Links :

• The Telegraph : First World War submarine lost with 35 British and Allied crew on board is finally found - ending 103-year mystery
• The Guardian : Australian navy world war one AE1 submarine found 103 years after it vanished
• The Australian : Missing WW1 submarine AE1 found with underwater camera