Antarctica: thousands of emperor penguin chicks wiped out

When a petrel attackes them, emperor penguing chicks stand together against it. 

From BBC by Jonathan Amos

Thousands of emperor penguin chicks drowned when the sea-ice on which they were being raised was destroyed in severe weather.

The catastrophe occurred in 2016 in Antarctica's Weddell Sea.
Scientists say the colony at the edge of the Brunt Ice Shelf has collapsed with adult birds showing no sign of trying to re-establish the population.
And it would probably be pointless for them to try as a giant iceberg is about to disrupt the site.
The dramatic loss of the young emperor birds is reported by a team from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).

Emperor penguins need a reliable and stable platform of sea-ice

 photo : Christopher Walton

Drs Peter Fretwell and Phil Trathan noticed the disappearance of the so-called Halley Bay colony in satellite pictures.
It is possible even from 800km up to spot the animals' excrement, or guano, on the white ice and then to estimate the likely size of any gathering.
But the Brunt population, which had sustained an average of 14,000 to 25,000 breeding pairs for several decades (5-9% of the global population), essentially disappeared overnight.

 The developing chasm in the Brunt Ice Shelf may have doomed the colony anyway

Emperors are the tallest and heaviest of the penguin species and need reliable patches of sea-ice on which to breed, and this icy platform must persist from April, when the birds arrive, until December, when their chicks fledge.

 2015: The guano stains at Halley colony are visible from space

If the sea-ice breaks up too early, the young birds will not have the right feathers to start swimming.
This appears to have been what happened in 2016.

Strong winds hollowed out the sea-ice that had stuck hard to the side of the thicker Brunt shelf in its creeks, and never properly reformed. Not in 2017, nor in 2018.
Dr Fretwell said: "The sea-ice that's formed since 2016 hasn't been as strong. Storm events that occur in October and November will now blow it out early. So there's been some sort of regime change. Sea-ice that was previously stable and reliable is now just untenable."
The BAS team believes many adults have either avoided breeding in these later years or moved to new breeding sites across the Weddell Sea.
A colony some 50km away, close to the Dawson-Lambton Glacier, has seen a big rise in its numbers.

  2018: The Dawson-Lambton colony has increased its numbers

Quite why the sea-ice platform on the edge of the Brunt shelf has failed to regenerate is unclear. There is no obvious climate signal to point to in this case; atmospheric and ocean observations in the vicinity of the Brunt reveal little in the way of change.
But the sensitivity of this colony to shifting sea-ice trends does illustrate, says the team, the impact that future warming in Antarctica could have on emperor penguins in particular.
Research suggests the species might lose anywhere between 50% and 70% of its global population by the end of this century, if sea-ice is reduced to the extent that computer models envisage.

  Emperors are the tallest and heaviest of the penguin species

photo : Christopher Walton

This would have consequences beyond just the emperors themselves, commented Dr Michelle LaRue, an ecologist at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.
"They're an important part of the food web; they're what we call a mesopredator. They're both prey for animals like leopard seals but they also prey themselves on fish and krill species. So, they do play an important role in the ecosystem," she told BBC News.

Dr Trathan said: "What's interesting for me is not that colonies move or that we can have major breeding failures - we know that. It's that we are talking here about the deep embayment of the Weddell Sea, which is potentially one of the climate change refugia for those cold-adapted species like emperor penguins.
"And so if we see major disturbances in these refugia - where we haven't previously seen changes in 60 years - that's an important signal."
Whether the Halley Bay colony specifically really had a future is a moot point.

The Brunt Ice Shelf is being split apart by a developing crack.
This chasm will eventually calve an iceberg the size of Greater London into the Weddell Sea, and any sea-ice stuck to the berg's edge may break up in the process.
The colony could have been doomed regardless of what happened in 2016.
Drs Peter Fretwell and Phil Trathan report their investigation in the journal Antarctic Science.

Links :

• NYTimes : An Emperor Penguin Colony in Antarctica Vanishes
• Gizmodo : 'Catastrophic' Breeding Failures Have Obliterated a Large Emperor ...
• SeattleTimes : Major emperor breeding ground gone barren since 2016 
• The Guardian : Antarctica: emperor penguin breeding ground sees sharp decline in ..
• CNN : The world's second-largest emperor penguin colony has nearly ...
• Smithsonian : One of Antarctica's Largest Emperor Penguin Colonies Has Suffered ...
  
• GeoGarage blog : 'Mega-colonies' of 1.5 million penguins discovered ... / Why did penguins stop flying? / A sneak peak of the 'Penguin Cam' robot infiltrates ...

The risks to migrants of crossing the English Channel

source : MarineTraffic

From The Economist by G.D.

Immigration checks are almost non-existent, but turbulent waters bring other problems

Stand on Britain’s southern shore, looking towards France, and your gaze will settle upon the world’s busiest shipping lane.
Over 600 cargo ships pass through the English Channel each day.

 A maritime version of Guernica realized by Javcho Savov

Many are heading to and from London or Rotterdam, separated by what amounts to a motorway-style central reservation that they may not cross (see image).
Adding to the traffic are more than 60 daily cross-Channel ferry services, as well as fishermen and private recreation vessels that can number in the thousands on a summer weekend.
To date, only small numbers of migrants have tried to reach Britain this way, but their numbers are rising: 539 migrants attempted the journey last year, according to figures from the Home Office, but around 80% of these attempts were made in the last three months of 2018.

Is Brexit driving the surge in migrants crossing the English Channel by boat?

 photo : AFP

What are the risks and rewards of making the crossing?

The risks are clear: this is a testing crossing even for an experienced sailor with a seaworthy boat.
It is not just maritime collisions that skippers have to think about.
Tides in the Channel are among the biggest in the world.
The island of Jersey has a maximum tidal range of over 12m (39ft).
At low tide up to 3km of beach and rock can be exposed.
The channel goes from 240km at its widest point to 33km at its narrowest, which is why tidal races such as the Alderney Race, a strait just off the Cotentin Peninsula of France, or the waters just off Portland Bill near Weymouth are so notorious.
These can create treacherous seas even on the calmest of days.
Then there are sandbanks, shoals, isolated rocks and other dangers to negotiate—and that’s before the weather plays its unpredictable part.

Iranian migrants being picked up by the Gendarmerie Maritime in Calais.

Photograph: Gendarmerie Maritime

Yet for migrants and traffickers this particular route also has a definite upside.
Perhaps because of longstanding assumptions about the sea’s effectiveness as a barrier, there is little in the way of security controlling the movement of pleasure craft.
Many hundreds of ports along Britain’s south coast can be entered by small boats, which are greeted by little more than a poster (see image) suggesting that a phone call to the authorities or the national yachtline may be required to declare the immigrant status of certain sailors.
Official ports of entry such as Portsmouth or Southampton are for ferries and commercial traffic and a world away from an unmanned wooden jetty or marina berth where people come and go at all hours.

The traditional flag etiquette for those arriving from a foreign trip was to fly a yellow quarantine (Q) flag before getting the all-clear from officials who would check on travellers’ health and customs matters.
The flying of the flag is still a requirement for ships coming to Britain from outside the EU (owing to concerns about disease more than migrants), but small boats do not always adhere to the rule.
And a craft registered within the EU and wishing to enter another EU port need not show the Q flag at all, so there is no indication whether it has come from abroad or from just up the coast.
On many occasions your correspondent has enjoyed a breezy daytime crossing, a berth in a French port, steak frites on shore, and a jaunt back home the next day, with never a form filed or passport asked for.

 Britain will recall two overseas border patrol boats in response to a spike in migrants attempting to cross the English Channel in dinghies.

Britain’s Border Force has four cutters that are unlikely to patrol en masse in the Dover Strait.
They may not be enough.

Links :

• DailyMail : Border Force catch nine migrants off Dover coast bringing total attempting Channel crossing to 44 in two days
• SkyNews : Rough crossings / Dozens of migrants picked up crossing Channel in boats 
• CNN : Migrants risk death at sea to reach Britain as prices spike on traditional routes
• The Guardian : Channel migrant crossings: who is coming and why?

NOAA encourages all mariners to use NOAA ENC® for latest updates and other advantages

The New Orleans Baton Rouge Steamship Pilots Association uses a portable pilot unit displaying NOAA ENC® data as it guides a tanker running upriver from New Orleans to Baton Rouge.

From NOAA

NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey maintains a suite of over 1,000 NOAA electronic navigational charts (ENC) and paper nautical charts, and like many other chart producing nations, maintains an ENC focused production process called “ENC-first.”
That is, ENCs are the “first” or primary nautical product, and new data is compiled onto ENCs before all other products.

NOAA ENC® data was originally created by digitizing paper nautical charts – starting in the early 1990s – but ENCs are now considered NOAA’s primary nautical chart product.
NOAA’s production process is now reversed.
That is, new source data and critical corrections are compiled into NOAA’s ENC production database first and the compiled portrayal of that data is subsequently applied to the corresponding paper charts and their associated digital raster products.
This sequential compilation process ensures the consistent equivalent portrayal of data between ENCs and paper nautical charts.

In this blog, when discussing aspects of paper charts and paper chart production, the same factors also apply to all corresponding digital raster chart products.
These digital images, identical to NOAA paper nautical charts, include the NOAA raster navigational chart (NOAA RNC®) – also known as BSB format, full-size and booklet charts released as PDF files, and RNC tile service data.

Synchronization of NOAA ENC and paper nautical charts

Because new chart source data is applied to ENCs first, there can be a delay of a month or more before the same information appears on paper nautical charts and their raster chart equivalents.
This is a characteristic of the standard production process.
This enables NOAA to provide the public with updated information as early as possible – in ENCs. Strict synchronization of ENC and raster products would require holding back the release of updated ENCs to enable the paper charts to catch up.

Releasing ENCs first is in the best interest of safe navigation.

Cartographer Julio Castillo reviews controlling depths in the Canaveral Barge Canal in Florida

 on ENC US5FL82M.

Data that could appear on ENCs before paper nautical charts

Coast Survey receives many types of data to compile on its nautical chart products.
Chief among these are hydrographic surveys used to update water depth values and the positions of rocks, wrecks, and other hazards; and topographic surveys used to update shorelines and some landmarks.
The application of these surveys usually constitutes a major update for ENCs and paper charts.
After compilation, this data is released to the public at the next weekly update of ENC products, which usually occurs on Thursdays.
This same data may not appear on some paper charts for up to a month or longer, and in some cases, it may not be published until the next new edition of the chart, which could be several months or even a few years away.

NOAA strives to keep both ENC and raster products up-to-date with Notice to Mariner corrections, but again, because NOAA does not hold back the release of this critical data, there can be a variation in the timing of Notice to Mariner based correction releases between products.

ENC data that is not available on paper nautical charts

Data that is only available on ENCs includes the minimum (also called controlling) depths of navigational channels maintained by the U.S Army Corps of Engineers.
NOAA is transitioning its paper nautical charts to show only the channel project design depths in many ports.
New minimum channel depths are provided as often as monthly for some channels.
Read more about this on the “NOAA announces change in channel depths on raster nautical chart products,” blog post.

Similar to the source diagrams on paper nautical charts, ENCs also provide a graphic representation of the extents of hydrographic surveys used to compile the depth data on the ENC.
However, unlike the diagrams on a paper chart, the quality of the surveys – indicated by a number of stars – may be toggled on and off over the ENC data itself.
This is easier than trying to match an area on a chart to the chart’s source diagram and then look up a quality category keyed to a letter shown on the diagram.

A new note will soon appear on all paper nautical charts

To reinforce the new nature of our nautical chart products in the ENC-first chart production environment, NOAA has started to place a note on all paper nautical charts that will encourage nautical chart users to take advantage of the benefits of using ENCs.

Other advantages of using ENCs

Low Cost Option – NOAA ENCs and ENC updates may be downloaded for free from the Coast Survey website.
They are also available from a number of value added resellers who offer services such as increased security through encryption and managed chart updates.
Generally, NOAA paper nautical charts each cost $20 or more.

Larger Scale Coverage – As part of a multi-year transition, many areas of ENC coverage will be offered at a larger scale.
Larger scale charts will offer more detail, including features such as high-density depth contours.
This more detailed data will only be available in the ENC format.
There are no plans to create new, larger scale paper charts.

Easier to Update – No hand corrections are needed on ENCs as is the case to update paper nautical charts.
Loading ENC revision files automatically apply all the latest ENC updates.
ENC updates are available weekly from NOAA and its value added resellers.

Less Clutter / Smarter Data – The database within each ENC enables users to turn the display of certain features and groups of text on and off on many navigational systems or chart plotters.
This can reduce clutter and make other important features easier to see that are more relevant for a particular activity in which a ship is engaged.
The minimum scale attribute that is encoded for many ENC features also enables systems to suppress the display of certain features when a chart is zoomed out to a point where a feature’s display would clutter the chart.
ENC data also has additional information that can be accessed by a mouse click (or query) on a chart display.
This includes information about the date and origin of the source data used to compile features on the ENC, any text associated with a feature, such as place names or light characteristics for buoys and other aids to navigation, can be turned off by the user, but quickly accessed by a query.

Added Level of Safety – Many navigational systems – including all the systems used by large commercial vessels – take advantage of the ENC’s database of depth areas, dangers to navigation, and regulated or restricted areas.
These systems use information in ENCs, as well as the ship’s draft input by the mariner, and information from the ship’s sensors, such as a GPS receiver, to plot the ships position, speed, and direction; the system can then also determine if the ship is heading in to unsafe waters.
Having this data available enables these systems to initiate visual and auditory alarms to alert the crew when a ship is moving into a dangerous condition, such as deviating from its planned course, entering an area shoaler than the ship’s draft, or entering other dangerous or restricted areas.

Always Oriented Correctly – ENCs have no inherent orientation.
That means no matter if the ENC display is set to display “north up,” “course up,” or some other orientation, the symbols and text on the digital chart display will always be displayed facing up for easy reading and interpretation.

NOAA Custom Chart – This capability, currently being prototyped by Coast Survey, will enable users to define the extent, scale, and paper size of their own customized paper chart, created from the latest ENC data and output as a PDF file.
Recreation boaters may print these files to use as a backup for their chart display systems or for small scale overview planning.

Links :

• NOAA : NOAA Improves Etolin Strait Data with New NOAA ENC® Layout / Navigating the Sea is Safer, More Efficient With Digital Charts / National charting plan pdf

Bitcoin couple could face death penalty for ‘seasteading’ home off Thailand coast

The first small step to humanity’s future on the seas has been taken.

Are you ready to make the leap and live free on the sea?

In Episode 4, Chad and Nadia share what it’s like to live on the seastead and their hopes for the future.

see other episodes : Facing the storm / Raising the Spar / Lifting the stead

From TheEpochTimes by

An American bitcoin investor and his Thai partner could face life in prison or even the death penalty for alleged violation of Thailand’s sovereignty by occupying a floating home off the country’s coast.

Chad Elwartowski and Supranee Thepdet (aka Nadia Summergirl) sought to be pioneers in the “seasteading” movement, which promotes living in international waters to be free of any nation’s laws.
But Thailand’s navy said Elwartowski and Thepdet posed a threat to the country’s national sovereignty, an offense punishable by life imprisonment or death.

The cabin was situated within Thailand’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), but not its territorial sea.

Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (pdf), to which Thailand is a party, an EEZ extends 200 nautical miles from a nation’s coastline.

Within it, a state has exclusive rights to natural resources such as fish and oil but does not have full sovereignty.

It does have the latter within its territorial waters, which extend out 12 nautical miles from the shore. 

Localization with the GeoGarage platform (Thaï nautical maps) 

 More detailed localization with the GeoGarage platform (NGA nautical maps)

Thai authorities on April 13 raided the couple’s floating home in the Andaman Sea, about 12 nautical miles from shore.

Thailand’s navy claims the couple endangered national sovereignty, an offense punishable by life imprisonment or death.

The couple was not at the home at the time of the raid on April 18, 2019. (Royal Thai Navy via AP)

Elwartowski and Thepdet were not at the home at the time of the raid and have gone into hiding.
In a Facebook post on Monday—since deleted—Elwartowski wrote, “Thailand wants us killed.”
“Hunting us down to our death is just plain stupid and highlights exactly the reason someone would be willing to go out in the middle of the ocean to get away from governments,” he wrote.
“We never had any ill intentions and I even state plainly several times that I would not want to be a citizen of any seastead nation that would have me.”

The couple wrote on their website that the floating home is anchored outside Thailand’s territorial waters, at least 12 nautical miles off the coast of Phuket.
“It’s designed to ignite an entire libertarian movement of freedom seekers gearing up to live in permanent dwellings at sea—outside of the jurisdiction of any government,” wrote Thepdet.

The claim is supported by an official statement released by Ocean Builders, the company who built the couple’s floating home, officially called XLII and billed as “the first seastead.”
“Our AIS beacon is still displaying our position 13 nautical miles from Thailand outside of Thailand’s territorial waters,” Ocean Builders wrote.
“It is claimed by the Thai navy through their media mouth pieces that the seastead is in a shipping lane,” Ocean Builders wrote.
“This makes it sound like there is heavy cargo traffic coming to Phuket. If anyone knows Phuket, they have one cargo port that gets maybe one or two cargo ships a week. They also admit that the seastead is in international waters, at least 12 nautical miles from land.”

 A Royal Thai navy ship drags a floating home, lived in by a U.S. man and his Thai partner, in the Andaman Sea, off Phuket Island in Thailand, on April 22, 2019.

(Stringer/Reuters)

But a Thai deputy naval commander insisted the project was a threat.
“This affects our national security and cannot be allowed,” Rear Adm. Wintharat Kotchaseni told Thai media on Tuesday, as cited by The Associated Press.
He said the floating house also posed a safety threat to navigation if it broke loose because the area is considered a shipping lane.

Thai police Col. Nikorn Somsuk told the South China Morning Post that the authorities were seeking clarification with the attorney general on how to proceed with the case since the outpost was technically in international waters.
“We have not met the couple yet. We have sent investigators to their home but they were not there,” he told The Post. “We don’t know what their thoughts are apart from the fact that it seems a bit extreme to want to be so isolated.”

He hinted the couple may not face the most serious punishment, telling the South China Morning Post, “As of now, there is no evidence that their actions pose a risk to Thai sovereignty.”

The couple has been charged with article 119 of the Thai Criminal Code, which prohibits any acts that cause a deterioration of Thailand’s independence.

Why seastead? Joe Quirk, co-author of the book "Seasteading, How Ocean Cities Will Change the World," has more than a couple of reasons.

Joe was one of dozens who attended the Seasteading Conference 2012 in San Francisco, which brought together dedicated adventure seekers and entrepreneurs looking to transform the ocean into the next frontier for humanity.

Every great change throughout history has begun with a group of individuals who dreamt up a desire, and then acted to make their vision a reality.

The number of reasons behind the desire to seastead are as numerous as the number of people in our community.

Why are you seasteading?

‘Excited About the Project’

“We were hoping to bring tourism to Phuket with an underwater restaurant, floating hotels, and medical research, tech jobs, etc. We had 3 wealthy entrepreneurs in the past week tell us they were coming to live in Phuket because they were excited about the project,” Elwartowski wrote on Facebook.

A promotional video from March showed the couple toasting champagne on the floating home.
“Ocean Builders is selling this ocean-front property at a fraction of the cost of any other place you would get oceanfront property,” Elwartowski says in the video, plugging the project as “something completely brand new.”

He added the home was the first of an additional 20 homes planned.
“May the seastead be a beacon to freedom lovers everywhere,” Elwartowski said in the video.

Meanwhile, Ocean Builders announced that due to the raid, the sale of its seastead homes “is to be postponed until we can get everything straightened out and figure out the best path forward for everyone.”

According to the company’s website, “seasteading is the concept of creating permanent dwellings at sea, called seasteads, outside the territory claimed by any government. The term is a combination of the words sea and homesteading.”

Links :

• TheEpochTimes : Thai Navy Dismantles Floating ‘Seastead’ Home of Fugitive Bitcoin Couple
• WP : Thailand busts 'seasteading' effort by America
• Quartz : The “freest person in the world” faces a possible death penalty in Thailand
• VOA : Thailand: US Man’s Seasteading Home Violates Sovereignty
• GeoGarage blog : Floating cities, no longer science fiction, begin to ... / 'I rule my own ocean micronation' / Has the time come for floating cities? / Ocean living: A step closer to reality? / Artificial island could be solution for rising Pacific ...

Norway (NHS) layer update in the GeoGarage platform

130 nautical raster chazrts updated & 2 new insets added

see GeoGarage news