The story of a ship that changed the world

Captain James Cook's incredible epic voyages of discovery are as controversial now after 250 years as ever.

In light of recent public debate in this new six-part series, Sam Neill re-examines Cook's legacy, delivering new perspectives from the Pacific cultures left in Cook's wake.

Cook first set sail to the Pacific in 1768.

These vast waters, one third of the Earth's surface, were uncharted - but not unknown.

A rich diversity of people and cultures navigated, traded, lived and fought here for thousands of years. Before Cook, the Pacific was disconnected from the power and ideas of Europe, Asia and America.

In the wake of Cook, everything changed.

In conjunction with the 250th anniversary of the HMS Endeavour's departure from England, actor and raconteur Sam Neill takes a deeply personal, present-day voyage to map his own understanding of James Cook, Europe's greatest navigator, and the immense Pacific Ocean itself. Setting sail on a great ocean tanker as well as many a smaller craft, Sam crosses the length and breadth of the largest ocean in the world to experience for himself a contemporary journey in Cook's footsteps.

From The Economist 

Endeavour: The Ship and the Attitude that Changed the World. By Peter Moore 

One clear moonlit night in June 1770, James Cook ran into yet more proof of how remarkable the newly explored continent of Australia was.
Literally: his ship, Endeavour, ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef.
The next 23 hours were spent bailing water in terror, until finally Endeavour slid free.
Ship, captain and the intelligence he had gathered returned to England—and a rapturous welcome.

Rarely has a craft been so well named.
As Peter Moore shows in his new book, Endeavour was more than merely the first English vessel to reach New Zealand and Australia’s east coast.
She was also a floating laboratory, a vast seed-bank and an international observatory.
Along with sails and anchors she carried telescopes, microscopes, two artists and several scientists.
Endeavour was the spirit of the Enlightenment under sail.

 At the time (1770) Captain Cook's map of New Zealand was remarkably accurate

She was also much less elegant than is Mr Moore’s immersive account of her life, from acorn to ending.
The ideals she came to serve belied her earthy beginnings.
Built in Whitby of Yorkshire oak, twisted and hardened by Yorkshire winds, Endeavour had been designed to carry not intellectuals but coal.
When Australian Aboriginals first saw her, they imagined she was a “big bird” with animals clustering about her wings.
Her crew referred to their matronly ship as “Mrs Endeavour”.

Yet when Britain decided to seek out Terra Australis, she was the craft chosen for the perilous undertaking.
It had been over two millennia since Aristotle discussed the idea of a southern continent in which men would stand with their feet (-podes) opposite (anti-) those of Europeans.
A century before Cook, a Dutch seaman called Abel Tasman had returned with reports of a land whose people were “rough, uncivilised, full of verve”.
Yet still the bottom-right corner of maps remained indistinct.

It was a tantalising smudge.
This was the great age of labels, in which educated men roamed the earth naming and (they felt) taming it.
Surveying the world today is like looking at a schoolboy’s desk: the scratched names remain, even if many of the boys are forgotten.
This enjoyable book breathes life into characters better remembered for their namesakes than themselves: Tasman (Tasmania), Louis Antoine de Bougainville (bougainvillea) and Carl Linnaeus (Linnaean classification).

Captain James Cook FRS (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy.

Cook made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific Ocean, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand.

Cook joined the British merchant navy as a teenager and joined the Royal Navy in 1755.

He saw action in the Seven Years' War, and subsequently surveyed and mapped much of the entrance to the Saint Lawrence River during the siege of Quebec.

This helped bring Cook to the attention of the Admiralty and Royal Society.

This notice came at a crucial moment in both Cook's career and the direction of British overseas exploration, and led to his commission in 1766 as commander of HM Bark Endeavour for the first of three Pacific voyages.

In three voyages Cook sailed thousands of miles across largely uncharted areas of the globe.

He mapped lands from New Zealand to Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean in greater detail and on a scale not previously achieved.

As he progressed on his voyages of discovery he surveyed and named features, and recorded islands and coastlines on European maps for the first time.

He displayed a combination of seamanship, superior surveying and cartographic skills, physical courage and an ability to lead men in adverse conditions.

Cook was attacked and killed while attempting to kidnap Kalaniʻōpuʻu, a Hawaiian chief, during his third exploratory voyage in the Pacific in 1779.

He left a legacy of scientific and geographical knowledge which was to influence his successors well into the 20th century, and numerous memorials worldwide have been dedicated to him.

The Royal Society, the moving spirit behind Endeavour’s mission, was less concerned with colonisation than with science.
Its chief interest was in observing the transit of Venus: by measuring its duration from both hemispheres, the data could be used to accurately calculate the distance of the sun.
Botany was a close second.
By the summer of 1768 the team had been chosen.
On July 30th Cook, his crew and a bumptious young botanist named Joseph Banks left their last London anchorage.

Their triumphant voyage changed the world.
Its very map could be redrawn; the sun could be set more securely in the sky and, thanks to Banks’s samples, the catalogue of known plants increased by a fifth.
The reputation (and in some cases egos) of Endeavour’s crew swelled similarly.
Linnaeus was so impressed by the trip that he gave Banks his own binomial classification, addressing a letter to “Immortalis Banks”.
Banks was not the sort to demur.

He may be immortal; Endeavour was not.
She limped on, transporting first food to the Falkland Islands, then troops to the American war of independence, before finally being scuttled off the coast of Newport, Rhode Island, in 1778.

Links :

• The Guardian : Endeavour by Peter Moore review – the ship that changed the world
• The Times : Review: Endeavour: The Ship and the Attitude that Changed the World by Peter Moore
• CaptainCookSociety : Moore's book review
• GeoGarage blog : James Cook: The Voyages / Wreckage of Captain Cook's HMS Endeavour ... / Capt. James Cook raised an ocean of knowledge

5 reasons to feel hopeful about the Oceans in 2019

From Forbes by Priya Shukla

Over the course of 2018, we have seen how human impacts and global climate change are rapidly altering the world's oceans.

While the war against ocean plastic escalated to new levels this past year, the extent of our plastic problem also became clearer.
For example, plastic was discovered 36,000 feet below sea level in the Marianas Trench, the deepest point in the ocean.
Additionally, whales washed up on Thai and Indonesian beaches earlier this year with over a dozen pounds of plastic in their stomachs.
And, while there is a highly publicized effort underway to remove some of the ocean plastic, the technology may not be effective and could prove harmful to wildlife.

FREE from ENJOY THE SOUP

FREE - that´s what I thought, standing in the sea, after watching the sundowner at Jericoacoara/Brazil on top of the famous dune.
After running down the steep face of finest white sand, it´s just a few steps on the black sanded beach until you touch the water.
Standing on the shore feeling the salty water surrounding my feet is what makes me happy the most. How simple is that?

Quite possibly the most pronounced impact has been multiple record-breaking warming events occurring around the world.
San Diego saw its warmest summer temperatures in a century.
A combination of warm waters and agricultural pollution caused Florida's worst red tide event in a decade.
Nearly half of the Great Barrier Reef is already bleached and a record-breaking heatwave that occurred north of Queensland in November may cause further bleaching in 2019.
And, as of this month, 95% the Arctic's oldest ice has already melted away.

While there are many reasons to be concerned about the oceans' well-being, I thought it would be nice to hone in a few reasons to be optimistic about the world's oceans in 2019.

1. There Are Unknown Ocean Habitats Waiting To Be Found

Live Lophelia colonies are bright white to slightly pink in color, which distinguishes them from the underlying darker dead coral matrix.

Not only did U.S. scientists discover a massive deep-sea coral reef near the South Carolina coast this past summer, but around the same time, they found nearly 1,000 previously unknown methane seeps along the Pacific Northwest coast.
More recently, scientists learned about a series of hydrothermal vents (named Jaich Maa) harboring a wide diversity of life almost 12,500 feet below sea level in the Gulf of California's Pescadero Basin.

2. More Of The Ocean Is Protected From Human Activity

This year, the United Kingdom called for 30% of the oceans to be protected within the next decade.
But, even without this announcement, many nations took major steps towards protecting their coastlines.
Argentina established two new marine parks that together cover the same area as the nation of Hungary.
Similarly, the government of the Seychelles instituted two marine parks whose cumulative size is similar to that of Great Britain.
New Caledonia, a French territory near Australia, announced four new marine protected areas intended to protect coral reefs and almost 11,000 square miles of ocean.
And, South Africa recently established 20 new marine protected areas along its coasts.
Although the severity and quality of these protections differs among such efforts, improving these measures is certainly a step towards better marine conservation.

3. There Are New Species To Be Discovered

While biologists named 17 new sea slug species living in tropical and temperate coastal zones, most of this year's discoveries happened in the deep sea.
Nearly 25,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, researchers found three new species of snailfish.
In an underwater mountain range near Tasmania that has been protected for almost 20 years, scientists discovered a new species of deep sea coral.
Similarly, at least 100 new species may have been found among seamounts in deep waters near Bermuda.

Achieving UN SDG 14 is essential for meeting a number of the other goals
Image: Nereus Program

4. Coral Reefs May Be More Resilient Than We Think

Although coral reefs have become harbingers of the consequences of climate change in the world's oceans, there is some evidence that they may be able to survive warming events.
Specifically, a new study suggestes that corals that lived through the intense marine heatwave in 2016 were able to endure additional warming events in 2017.
This indicates that surviving a warming event may make corals more resistant to similar incidents in the future.
Additionally, Brazilian reefs have been especially hearty in the face of warming and better understanding Brazilian corals' secrets for surviving rising temperatures may be beneficial for other corals around the world.
Further, because wastewater can stress reefs, the United Nations is working to develop waste management plans to prevent corals from being chronically exposed to sewage pollution.

5. Some Fisheries Are Recovering

Many West Coast groundfish species (such as rockfish), whose catch limits have been severely constrained, are recovering faster than expected.
These fisheries were virtually closed for two decades after coming to the brink of collapse.
But starting January 1, 2019, the National Marine Fisheries Service plans to double catch limits for groundfish and other species.
This change could inject nearly $60 million in fishing income into Pacific coast fishing communities.

The Madagascar Pochard is considered by many to be the world's rarest bird.
Although it was considered extinct nearly a decade ago, several researchers re-introduced 21 of these captively bred ducks to a lake in Northern Madagascar earlier this week.

A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky
by Lewis Carroll (author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)

The top ten ocean stories of 2018

Highlights from ocean.org, the Ocean Wise story-telling platform dedicating to telling ocean stories, and highlighting ocean issues.

From Smithsonian Mag by Danielle Hall & Emily Frost

From the most ancient animal known to a newly defined ocean zone, the world’s watery places never cease to amaze

As 2018 draws to a close, we look back on the studies, expeditions and stories that carried forward our knowledge and understanding of the world’s oceans—the lifeblood of the planet.
It was a year filled with triumphs, from the first successful revival of coral larvae following cryofreezing, to an optimistic progress report for the Chesapeake Bay’s restoration, to global awareness about single-use plastic straws.
It was also a year of discovery.
We learned of a shark that chows on greens, an entire new ocean zone teeming with life, and one of the earliest animals to ever live here on Earth.

The year also had its moments of grief and distress in the seas.
Noxious red tides, right whale populations that continue to decline, and the passing of a coral reef science legend are also on our minds as we look back at the oceans of 2018.
The following list of the year’s top ten ocean stories—the unique, troubling, perplexing and optimistic—was curated by the National Museum of Natural History’s Ocean Portal team.

An Odorous Stench 

Red tide algae blooms on the coast of Florida.

(NOAA)

For those living in or visiting Florida this year, you may have noticed a particularly noxious stench lingering in the air.
This year the coastal waters of Florida are experiencing one of the worst red tides in recent history.
The tide is caused by a bloom of algae that feed on nutrient-rich runoff from farms and fertilized lawns.
Over 300 sea turtles, 100 manatees, innumerable fish and many dolphins have been killed by the noxious chemicals expelled by the algae.
Humans, too, can feel the effect of the fumes that waft onto the land, and beaches have closed because of hazardous conditions.
Many see this as a wake-up call for better management of the chemicals and nutrients that fuel the harmful algae’s growth.

Evolutionary Steps

Researchers first discovered Dickinsonia fossils back in 1946.

(Verisimilus / Wikicommons via CC BY 2.5)

Evolution produces some wonderous marvels.
Scientists determined that the creature called Dickinsonia, a flat, mushroom-top-shaped creature that roamed the ocean floor roughly 580 million years ago, is the earliest known animal.
Examining the mummified fat of a particular fossil, the scientists were able to show that the fat was animal-like, rather than plant-like or fungi-like, thus earning it the animal designation.
We also learned that baleen whales may have evolved from a toothless ancestor that vacuumed its prey in the prehistoric oceans of 30 to 33 million years ago.

Today, evolution is still at work, and the adaptability of life continues to amaze.
A study of the Bajau “Sea Nomad” people’s DNA show that a life at sea has changed their DNA.
This group of people, who can spend over five hours underwater per day, have alterations in their genetics that help them stay submerged for longer.

Marvels in Plain Sight

Up to 1,000 octopus moms care for their brood.

(Phil Torres / Geoff Wheat)

Once again, we were reminded that as land dwelling creatures, humans miss out on many of the ocean’s everyday wonders.
Although we know from museum specimens that the male anglerfish latches onto the female like a parasite and sucks nutrients from her blood, the infamous duo has never been caught in the act—until now.
This year, a video was released showing the male anglerfish paired with his lady counterpart.

And though sharks are known for their carnivorous appetites, a new study shows even these marine predators will eat leafy greens.
About 60 percent of the bonnethead shark’s diet consists of seagrass, upending the idea that all sharks are primarily carnivores.

Also, scientists discovered not one, but two, mass octopus nurseries of up to 1,000 octopus moms deep underwater.
The second discovery assuaged doubts that the initial discovery was a case of confused octomoms, as octopuses are known to be solitary creatures.
Now, scientists are determining if volcanic activity on the seafloor provides some benefit to the developing brood.

Futuristic Resurrection

Adult Mushroom Coral (Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute)

The field of coral reef biology has weathered some hard times these past years, and while this year saw the unfortunate death of a coral reef conservation legend, Dr.
Ruth Gates, it also brought us a glimmer of hope.
For the first time, scientists were able to revive coral larvae that were flash frozen—a breakthrough that may enable the preservation of endangered corals in the face of global climate change.
Previously, the formation of harmful ice crystals destroyed the larvae’s cells during the warming process, but now the team has devised a method that uses both lasers and an antifreeze solution infused with gold particles to rapidly heat the frozen larvae and avoid crystal formation.
Soon after thawing, the larvae are able to happily swim about.
We now live in a world where oceans frequently spike to temperatures too hot for corals, and scientists hope that preserving them may buy time to help corals adapt to the rapidly changing environment.

The Impacts of Ocean Warming

Rising temperatures and diminishing oxygen levels in the oceans are a threat to all kinds of marine life.

(Maitri / Flickr via CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Just this month a study showed that the mass die off of species at the end of the Permian period, over 250 million years ago, was caused by a rapid increase in temperature and subsequent loss of oxygen in the ocean.
The oxygen deprivation caused an astounding 96 percent of ocean creatures to suffocate.
The cause of this extinction event had been long-debated, but this recent research indicates just how impactful our current climate change trajectory could be—the ocean has already lost 2 percent of its oxygen in the last 50 years.

Plastic Straws Make the News

States and companies alike take steps to reduce the use of plastic straws.

(Pixabay)

Straws make up an estimated 4 percent of plastic waste in the ocean, and though only a sliver of our plastic problem, the single use items are now a hot issue.
A shocking video that featured the removal of a straw from the nose of an Olive Ridley sea turtle seemed the catalyst for a straw revolution this year.
Despite the video being several years old (the original was posted in 2015), it helped spark pledges from a number of companies like Starbucks and American Airlines to eliminate single-use plastic straws.
Even cities, states and countries are talking about banning the ubiquitous pieces of plastic—California was the first state to enact such a rule in September, requiring that plastic straws only be provided when requested by a customer.
By not banning them outright, those with disabilities who require a straw can still enjoy their favorite drinks.

Hope for the Chesapeake Bay

An effort to restore eelgrass beds along Virginia's Eastern Shore began in 2000 with a few seeds from the York River.

Today, these seagrass meadows have grown to 6,195 acres.

(Bob Orth / Virginia Institute of Marine Science / Flickr via CC BY 2.0)

It’s not all bad news—especially for the Chesapeake Bay, an estuarine system that spans the states of Maryland and Virginia and is an important ecosystem for all of the mid-Atlantic region.
After decades of decline for seagrass, the vital plants are staging a comeback.
Reductions of nitrogen and phosphorous have brought seagrasses cover back to an area that is four times larger than what’s been found in the region since 1984.

Seagrass is vital to the life cycle of the economically significant blue crab, which has been threatened for years but currently has a healthy population despite some setbacks.
Groups are also working to return ten billion oysters to the bay, and tiny oyster spat seem to be thriving despite the danger of recent freshwater influxes.
The recovery could even be a model for similar ecosystems in parts of the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere.

A New Ocean Zone

Curasub owner Adriaan Schrier and lead DROP scientist Carole Baldwin aboard the custom-built submersible.

(Barry Brown)

Just like the layers of the atmosphere, scientists describe layers of the ocean based on the animals who live there and how much light is present.
This year, there was a new addition thanks to work from Dr.
Carole Baldwin, a research zoologist at Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.
Her team conceived of the rariphotic zone when they realized that the fish found there were not the same as those in the shallower mesophotic zone.

The newly recognized rariphotic zone ranges from 130 meters to at least 309 meters deep (427-1,014 feet).
It is too deep for corals with photosynthetic algae to grow, and it is also too deep to reach with the specialized SCUBA equipment used to explore mesophotic reefs.
Submersibles and remotely operated vehicles can explore the region, but they are expensive and generally used to scope out even deeper depths of the ocean.
As a result, most reef researchers rarely make it to the rariphotic zone.
Baldwin manages to visit it often with the help of a deep-sea submersible, the Curasub, through the Deep Reef Observation Project based at the National Museum of Natural History.

No Calves for North Atlantic Right Whales 

North Atlantic right whales are in peril, but changes to shipping routes and lobster trap design could help the large marine mammals make a comeback.

(Public Domain)

With just over 400 individuals remaining in the North Atlantic right whale population, this endangered species is on the brink.
Early in 2018 scientists announced that there had been no right whale calves sighted after the winter breeding season.
Changes to shipping lanes and speed limits over the past decade have helped reduce ship strikes, but entanglement in fishing gear has remained a problem—17 right whale deaths in 2017 were caused by entanglement.
But scientists still have hope.
There were only three recorded deaths in 2018, and the whales are now making their way back into North Atlantic waters.
We’ll keep our fingers crossed for a baby boom in 2019.

A Twitter Moment

1971 International Conference on the Biology of Whales.

(NOAA)

Social media has its downsides, with distractions and in-fighting, but it can also produce some pretty magical moments.
We watched in real time in March of this year as the search unfolded for an unidentified young woman in a photo from the International Conference on the Biology of Whales held in 1971.
An illustrator in the midst of writing a book about the Marine Mammal Protection Act, legislation from 1972 that protects marine mammal species from harm and harassment, came across the image with one African American female attendee who was practically hidden and had no name listed in the caption.
Who was this pioneer in a field dominated by white men?

The illustrator took to Twitter for help and the search was on.
Unfolding over several days, leads came and went, and the woman was eventually identified as Sheila Minor (formerly Sheila Jones) who at the time of the photo was a biological technician at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.
Even as scientists continue to make astounding discoveries in the watery depths of the world, some of our most important findings have been right here with us all along.

The first underwater film is stranger than fiction: "The Terrors of the Deep"

PopSci found the lost and forgotten first underwater film.

It's a story too strange and horrifying to be fiction (and, yes, it involves a shark and a horse).

Also, it's the first footage of a shark ever recorded. 

In 1916, the silent film adaptation of Jules Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" marked the first time the world saw below the ocean's surface in motion pictures... 

Except, actually, it was the second time.

The first movie filmed underwater was made by J.E. Williamson-thanks in large part to his invention, the photosphere.

See the lost film footage for the first time in decades, and hear the story of the making of "The Terrors of the Deep."

This video is part three of Experimentals : Nautiluses

Watch the full episode here 

IMO : shaping maritime safety and security

Over the years, the International Maritime Organization has shaped the way international shipping operates.

From codes, conventions and guidelines touching upon safety of life at sea, life-saving appliance, safety of ships in polar waters, guidelines on fatigue, maritime autonomous surface ships and more, IMO has been enhancing the safety of international shipping for decades and is ready to tackle the challenges of the future.