WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

9-13 June 2014

DataStreme Ocean will return for Fall 2014 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 25 August 2014. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

Items of Interest:

Celebrating National Ocean Month -- A Presidential Proclamation has designated June as National Ocean Month. NOAA's National Ocean Service has a website entitled 30 Days of the Ocean that provides links to a variety of websites containing facts, images and video designed to highlight both the beauty and importance of the nation's oceans and marine environment. [NOAA National Ocean Service]

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics -- Organized tropical cyclone activity was limited to the eastern North Pacific basin, where Tropical Storm Boris, the second named tropical cyclone of the 2014 hurricane season in that basin, formed at the start of the week from a tropical depression located off the southern Mexican coast approximately 150 miles to the south-southeast of Salina Cruz, Mexico. This tropical depression strengthened to a tropical storm as it traveled north toward the coast. By midweek, Tropical Storm Boris made landfall along the Mexican coast before weakening to a tropical depression as it moved inland. Accompanied by heavy rain, remnants of Boris moved across southern Mexico and merged with a low pressure system over the Bay of Campeche in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico. Additional information and satellite imagery on Tropical Storm Boris are available on the NASA Hurricane Page.
Mapping the sea-surface temperatures at start of Northern Hemisphere hurricane season -- As the hurricane seasons begin in the eastern North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, a global map was prepared of the sea surface temperatures across the tropical ocean basins from microwave data NASA's TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) Microwave Imager (TMI), the U.S. Navy's WindSAT instrument on the Coriolis satellite and the AMSR2 instrument on Japan's GCOM-W satellite. The map highlights those areas of the tropical ocean basins that have sea surface temperatures exceeding 27.8 degrees Celsius (approximately 82 degrees Fahrenheit), considered to be the threshold for tropical cyclone development. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Another hurricane forecast released -- At the start of this month, scientists at Florida State University Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS) released their sixth annual Atlantic hurricane forecast for 2014. This COAPS forecast, which utilizes a computer model based upon individual seasonal forecasts, calls for a 70 percent probability of five to nine named tropical cyclones (tropical storms and hurricanes with sustained surface winds of at least 39 mph), with two to six of these reaching hurricane strength (maximum sustained winds of 74 mph or higher). The mean forecast is for seven named storms and four hurricanes. They also calculated an average Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) of 60, which represents a measure of the strength and duration of storms accumulated during the season. Their forecast is lower than the 1995-2010 average of 14 named tropical cyclones and eight hurricanes, which reflects the recent 15-year increase in tropical cyclone activity in the North Atlantic Basin. Comparison is invited to the 2014 seasonal forecast made by the NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, which calls for 8 to 13 named tropical cyclones and three to six hurricanes. [Florida State University]
Report nation's deep sea coral research program made to Congress -- NOAA Fisheries recently produced a report entitled "Deep-Sea Coral Research & Technology Program Report to the Congress 2014" that provides an overview of the Program's ongoing regional three-year field studies in all of the nation's marine waters. This program provides information needed by Regional Fishery Management Councils and other resource managers in conserving structurally complex habitats formed by deep-sea corals. [NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service-Habitat Conservation ]
Assessing impact of fishing on sensitive ecosystems in Bering Sea canyons -- Several questions are addressed by NOAA Fisheries concerning the potential need to close fishing in some of the Bering Sea canyons off the western coast of Alaska in order to protect sensitive habitats, including deep water corals. In addition, the scientific research conducted by NOAA Fisheries scientists and the necessary decision-making processes to be made by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council are considered. [NOAA Fisheries News]
Lowering ship speeds in areas with endangered whales by educating and citing mariners -- Personnel from the NOAA Fisheries Office of Protected Resources and Vanderbilt University have completed a study entitled "Compliance with Vessel Speed Restrictions to Protect North Atlantic Right Whales" in which they have found that the number of endangered North Atlantic Right Whales struck by ships or entangled by fishing gear has decreased because of education efforts and the policy of notifying of mariners by warning or citations. [NOAA News]
Acidification of modern ocean outpaces ancient counterpart -- Scientists at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Observatory and colleagues claim that the current rate of acidification of the modern ocean due to human activity may be ten times more rapid than the acidification following the rapid increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide approximately 56 million years ago during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), a period of relatively high global temperatures. These scientists used the chemical composition of fossils to reconstruct the acidity of surface ocean waters. [Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory News]
An All-Hazards Monitor -- This Web portal provides the user information from NOAA on current environmental events that may pose as hazards such as tropical weather, drought, floods, marine weather, tsunamis, rip currents, Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) and coral bleaching. [NOAAWatch]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Historical Events:

9 June 1534...The French navigator Jacques Cartier became the first European explorer to discover the river that he named the St. Lawrence in present-day Quebec, Canada. (The History Channel)
9 June 1966...Hurricane Alma made landfall over the eastern Florida Panhandle near Alligator Point during the evening-- the earliest land-falling hurricane on the U.S. mainland on record. Peak sustained winds were near 90 mph. Highest winds reached 125 mph and lowest pressure 970.2 millibars (28.65 inches) were reported at the Dry Tortugas on the 8th. (Intellicast) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
9 June 1990...San Diego, CA set a new record rainfall amount on this date, as 0.38 inches of rain fell breaking the old record of 0.13 inches established in 1892. Moisture from the remains of Hurricane Boris was responsible for this rare rain event. (Intellicast)
10 June 1909...The International Distress Call (SOS distress signal) was used for the first time in an emergency. The Cunard liner SS Slavonia used the signal when it wrecked off the Azores. Two steamers received her signals and went to the rescue.
11 June 1644...The Florentine scientist, Evangelista Torricelli described in a letter the invention of a barometer, or "torricellian tube." (Today in Science History)
11 June 1764...The Sandy Hook Lighthouse, at the south point of the entrance to New York Harbor, was first lighted. Today, its octagonal tower, built by Mr. Isaac Conro of New York City with money collected by a group of New York merchants, is the oldest original light tower still standing and in use in the United States. (USCG Historian's Office)
11 June 1770...The British explorer Captain James Cook discovered the Great Barrier Reef off Australia when he ran aground. (Information Please)
11 June 1847...The English naval officer and an Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin died in Canada while attempting to locate the Northwest Passage.
12 June 1925...Lake Huron Lightship radio fog signal was placed in commission, the first signal of this kind on the Great Lakes. (USCG Historian's Office)
12 June 1991...On the same day that Mt Pinatubo in the Philippines awakened from its 635-year slumber, Typhoon Yunya crossed Luzon province. Mudslides and flooding caused many deaths and when added to the impacts of Pinatubo left more than a million homeless. (The Weather Doctor)
13 June 1415...Henry the Navigator, the prince of Portugal, embarked on an expedition to Africa.
13 June 1881...The steamer USS Jeannette was crushed in Arctic ice pack north of Siberia as the 1879-1881 Jeannette Arctic Exploring Expedition under the command of Lieutenant Commander George Washington DeLong, USN, attempted to reach the North Pole by ship. (Naval Historical Center)
13 June 1977...A tropical cyclone crossed the Arabian Sea from near the Laccadive Islands off southwest India and slammed into the island of Masirah, sultanate of Oman. Winds reached at least 104 mph and the 24-hour rainfall total was 16.95 inches. About 99% of buildings were damaged. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
14 June 1834...The first US patent for a practical underwater diving suit was issued to Leonard Norcross of Dixfield, ME. One month earlier, he tested his suit, an airtight leather outfit with a brass helmet connected via a rubber hose to an air bellows pump on a boat, in the Webb River. (Today in Science History)
15 June 1744...British Admiral George Anson returned to England after circumnavigating the globe in an expedition that lasted nearly four years.
15 June 1990...The first use of bioremediation in open waters was to treat an oil slick from the supertanker Mega Borg following an explosion and fire on 8 June 1990 approximately 70 miles south-southeast of Galveston, TX. The 3-day bioremediation tests were conducted using oil-metabolizing bacteria and nutrients. The results of the tests were inconclusive. (Today in Science History)