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NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The creatures living in the depths of the ocean are as weird and outlandish as the creations in a Dr. Seuss book: tentacled transparent sea cucumbers, primitive "dumbos" that flap ear-like fins, and tubeworms that feed on oil deposits. A report released Sunday recorded 17,650 species living below 656 feet, the point where sunlight ceases. The findings were the latest update on a 10-year census of marine life. "Parts of the deep sea that we assumed were homogenous are actually quite complex," said Robert S. Carney, an oceanographer at Louisiana State University and a lead researcher...

Albatrosses fly many hundreds of kilometers across the open ocean to find and feed upon their prey. Despite the growing number of studies concerning their foraging behaviour, relatively little is known about how albatrosses actually locate their prey. Here, we present our results from the first deployments of a combined animal-borne camera and depth data logger on free-ranging black-browed albatrosses (Thalassarche melanophrys). The still images recorded from these cameras showed that some albatrosses actively followed a killer whale (Orcinus orca), possibly to feed on food scraps left by this diving predator. The camera images together with the depth profiles showed...

Beware of the blob—this time, it's for real. As sea temperatures have risen in recent decades, enormous sheets of a mucus-like material have begun forming more often, oozing into new regions, and lasting longer, a new Mediterranean Sea study says (sea "mucus" blob pictures). And the blobs may be more than just unpleasant. Up to 124 miles (200 kilometers) long, the mucilages appear naturally, usually near Mediterranean coasts in summer. The season's warm weather makes seawater more stable, which facilitates the bonding of the organic matter that makes up the blobs (Mediterranean map). Now, due to warmer temperatures, the mucilages...

U.S. scientists in the Gulf of Mexico unexpectedly netted a 19.5-foot (5.9-meter) giant squid off the coast of Louisiana, the Interior Department said on Monday, showing how little is known about life in the deep waters of the Gulf. Not since 1954, when a giant squid was found floating dead off the Mississippi Delta, has the rare species been spotted in the Gulf of Mexico. The squid, weighing in at 103 pounds (46.7 kg), was caught July 30 in a trawl net more than 1,500 feet underwater as it was pulled by a research vessel. The giant squid, which did...

The Somali pirates preying on shipping in the Gulf of Aden and more recently the Indian Ocean are zeroed in on their targets by well-placed informers in London, a world center for shipbroking and insurance, using satellite phones, according to a European military intelligence report. The document, which was obtained by Cadena SER, a Spanish radio station, says the "consultants" in London help the pirates select their targets, providing data on the ships' cargoes and courses... The U.N. International Maritime Bureau reported this month that there had been a dramatic surge in piracy in the waters of the Horn of...

3 great whites are ID’d off coastTags put on 2 sharks; some beaches closed By Meghan E. Irons Globe Staff / September 6, 2009 The fisherman had just one shot to mark the great white. Captain Bill Chaprales walked to the front of his 22-foot harpoon vessel, raised the 12-foot-long tagging pole, and threw it purposefully onto the back side of the enormous shark, which was 4 to 5 feet below the surface. Tagged. “He did it in one shot,’’ said state biologist Greg Skomal, whose team tagged two great whites yesterday. “We don’t swing the bat unless it’s a...

Amazing video!

In 2005, NASA's Cassini probe, orbiting Saturn, made a tantalizing discovery: Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons, was venting something -- possibly liquid water -- into the airless space around it.

Note: The following post is a quote: THE BRIEFING ROOM THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ____________________________________________________ For Immediate Release June 12, 2009 MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES SUBJECT: NATIONAL POLICY FOR THE OCEANS, OUR COASTS, AND THE GREAT LAKES The oceans, our coasts, and the Great Lakes provide jobs, food, energy resources, ecological services, recreation, and tourism opportunities, and play critical roles in our Nation's transportation, economy, and trade, as well as the global mobility of our Armed Forces and the maintenance of international peace and security. We have a stewardship responsibility to...

Governor Charlie Crist signed CS/SB 1742 into law and repealed the resident shoreline exemption from the Florida Saltwater Fishing License. The shoreline exemption repeal was a top legislative priority for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and CCA Florida. With help from Senator Lee Constantine (R-Altamonte Springs), Senator Carey Baker (R-Eustis), and Representative Baxter Troutman (R-Winter Haven), the bill was carried through the Florida Legislature and placed on the Governors desk. "The repeal means that shoreline anglers capable of buying a license will now be contributing to marine fisheries conservation," said Bill Bird, CCA Florida Chairman. "Most importantly the...

Stupid ocean buoys fail to support global warmingThe Argos sensor buoys were deployed in hope of getting better ocean temperature data. This data was to support the anthropogenic global warming hypothesis. The actual result is the buoys have found a slight ocean cooling in the six years they have been deployed. The biggest problem with the Argos sensor buoy findings is the readings fly in the face of major climate change computer models. These models postulate that as much as 80-90 per cent of global warming will result from the oceans warming rapidly then releasing their heat into the atmosphere....

Imagine a group of Homo erectus, the earliest members of our family genus, living near a coastline on an Indonesia island and well aware of a lush island that is visible only a few miles offshore. One day while on the coast, a herd of elephants emerges from the nearby forest and crosses the beach. They enter the ocean and swim successfully to the offshore island. Could this be the experience that triggers a creative process in our ancestors who are watching nearby? Does their imagination and thinking include not only a desire to reach that island, but ideas about...

With Fernandina on the Galapagos still pouring lava into the oceans, I thought I'd post a couple of impressive ocean entry videos I found along with an image. The first video is Fernandina, the next two are Kilauea (Hawaii). Eruption in the Galapagos Islands (lava entry at night) Waikupanaha Ocean Lavafalls Kalapana ocean entry with lightning (and also a waterspout)

HATFIELD, England – In the search for Earth-like planets, astronomers zeroed in Tuesday on two places that look awfully familiar to home. One is close to the right size. The other is in the right place. European researchers said they not only found the smallest exoplanet ever, called Gliese 581 e, but realized that a neighboring planet discovered earlier, Gliese 581 d, was in the prime habitable zone for potential life. "The Holy Grail of current exoplanet research is the detection of a rocky, Earth-like planet in the 'habitable zone,'" said Michel Mayor, an astrophysicist at Geneva University in Switzerland....

Here’s a scary newspaper headline: “Could global warming turn R.I. into the under-Ocean State?” The answer to that question could only be, “Yes.” And so it was in a one-sided report in a Rhode Island newspaper. A news article in the March 22 Providence (R.I.) Journal by G. Wayne Miller details how a portion of the beautiful harbor town of Newport will be underwater due to the effects of anthropogenic global warming by the year 2100. ...more...

The remarkable journey of a green turtle from Indonesia into Australian waters is helping conservationists to track the migratory route of this species to the Kimberley-Pilbara coast - one of the few relatively pristine coastal areas left on Earth. Ana, a female green turtle, was tagged in Indonesia in November as part of a turtle tracking project by WWF and Udayana University in Bali, Indonesia, and has slowly made her way from a nesting beach in East Java, across the Indian Ocean, and is on track for the beaches of the Kimberley in Western Australia. Her journey, monitored online by...

A romantic marriage proposal on the Oregon coast turned deadly for the bride-to-be when a wave swept her out to sea. Scott Napper had taken 22-year-old Leafil Alforque to Proposal Rock near Neskowin Beach to pop the question at a place that got its name from couples ready to marry. Napper and Alforque had been dating since they met on the Internet in 2005. But Alforque had arrived in Oregon on a visa from the Philippines just three days before the fateful trip to the coast. Napper said the tide had receded around Proposal Rock on Saturday when the couple...

(IsraelNN.com) Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas promoted the 2002 Saudi initiative on Thursday in a meeting with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano. If Israel agrees to the initiative, “We could have a calm Middle East, a calm North Africa and Israel will live in an ocean of peace,” he said. The Saudi initiative promises that Arab and Muslim countries will normalize relations with Israel if Israel gives the PA all land controlled by Jordan and Egypt between 1949 and 1967, releases terrorist prisoners and accepts millions of foreign Arabs as citizens.

Steve Fossett's unfinished legacy: Deepest ocean exploration And were it not for what seems certain to be his untimely and tragic death in a small airplane crash high in the Sierra Nevada mountains, Fossett was poised to set a new record, one that could have far surpassed his many others in scope and shock value. The record? To become the first human being to dive solo to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, 36,000 feet below the ocean surface near Guam.

On the first of June, two men and a rabbit set sail from the port of Long Beach, bound for Hawaii, on a raft made of junk. Their cabin is the cockpit of a Cessna 310, white with a blue racing stripe, salvaged from the desert. It floats on a system of handmade pontoons -- 15,000 plastic bottles held together with recycled nets -- propelled by currents and wind. If it sounds dangerous and makeshift, that's the point. The pilots of Junk, as the vessel is called, want to get your attention. They are Dr. Marcus Eriksen, director of research...

Scientists discover new ocean current The North Pacific Gyre Oscillation explains changes in salinity, nutrients and chlorophyll seen in the Northeast Pacific. Credit: Emanuele Di Lorenzo Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have discovered a new climate pattern called the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation. This new pattern explains, for the first time, changes in the water that are important in helping commercial fishermen understand fluctuations in the fish stock. They’re also finding that as the temperature of the Earth is warming, large fluctuations in these factors could help climatologists predict how the oceans will respond in a warmer world....

A comprehensive national ocean governance bill written by U.S. Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, was approved this afternoon by a House subcommittee. The bill’s next stop will be before the full Committee on Natural Resources, the final step before a vote by the full House of Representatives. “I’m excited that this bill has taken the first big step toward passage,” Farr said following the vote. “We have the laws and agencies to safeguard our oceans, but we have no framework for them to function. That means our laws often intersect and our agencies are left with overlapping guidelines. This bill will...

PASADENA, Calif. -- Boosted by the influence of a larger climate event in the Pacific, one of the strongest La Ninas in many years is slowly weakening but continues to blanket the Pacific Ocean near the equator, as shown by new sea-level height data collected by the U.S.-French Jason oceanographic satellite. This La Nina, which has persisted for the past year, is indicated by the blue area in the center of the image along the equator. Blue indicates lower than normal sea level (cold water). The data were gathered in early April. The image also shows that this La Nina...

U.S. firm lays claim to nearly all of what it says will be 400 billion barrels A U.S.-based company that has controversially laid claim to nearly all of the Arctic Ocean's undersea oil said yesterday that new geological data suggest a "potentially vast" petroleum resource of 400 billion barrels. That figure is backed by a respected Canadian researcher who recently signed on as the firm's chief scientific adviser. Las Vegas-based Arctic Oil & Gas has raised eyebrows around the world with its roll-of-the-dice bid to lock up exclusive rights to extract oil and gas from rapidly melting areas of the...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - Scientists who conducted the most comprehensive survey to date of New Zealand's Antarctic waters were surprised by the size of some specimens found, including jellyfish with 12-foot tentacles and 2-foot-wide starfish.A 2,000-mile journey through the Ross Sea that ended Thursday has also potentially turned up several new species, including as many as eight new mollusks.

Has An Ocean Circulation Collapse Been Triggered?Geoscientists warn that there can be a considerable delay between the triggering of a collapse of the North Atlantic meridional overturning circulation and the actual collapse. (Credit: iStockphoto/Emmanuelle Combaud) ScienceDaily (Feb. 25, 2008) — Predictions that the 21st century is safe from major circulation changes in the North Atlantic Ocean may not be as comforting as they seem, according to a Penn State researcher. "The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that it is very unlikely that the North Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (MOC) will collapse in the 21st century. They predict a probability...

In the summer of 2004 I woke up one night, couldn't go back to sleep, rode out to Walmart, and bought a new camera. It was an Olympus C4000Z, only 4MP, but twice as big as the little Kodak I had. The auto focus was super, auto exposure and white balance were excellent, I took 10s of thousands of pics with it. It is still going, I passed it on to a beginner, no point in keeping it in a drawer. These pics are from November, 2004.

Ocean rocket returns to business The firm's Zenit rockets launch from a converted oil platform The Sea Launch company has returned to flight with a mission to loft a telecoms satellite to serve the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region. The firm's Zenit 3SL rocket lifted off from its converted oil rig platform stationed in the Pacific at 1149 GMT. The Thuraya 3 satellite separated from the vehicle some 98 minutes later. The flight was the first for Sea Launch since the catastrophic explosion in January 2007 which destroyed a Zenit and its passenger on the pad. Sea Launch is...

Reportedly built to make it easier to drive along the scenic southern coast without the significant possibility of a rock crashing through your windshield.

On December 20, 2007, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued its weather prediction for the winter of 2007-2008. In forecasting weather for the continental United States, NOAA examines several factors, but first among them is the state of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which leads to El Niño and La Niña. For the coming winter, NOAA predicted a moderately strong La Niña. During La Niña, sea surface temperatures in the eastern tropical Pacific are below average, and temperatures in the western tropical Pacific are above average. This pattern is evident in this temperature anomaly image for November...

Ocean Plankton Reducing Greenhouse Gases By Using More Carbon DioxideMicroalgae under the microscope: CO2-feeders in the ocean. (Credit: A. Stuhr/ IFM-GEOMAR) ScienceDaily (Nov. 17, 2007) — Microscopically tiny marine organisms known as plankton increase their carbon uptake in response to increased concentrations of dissolved CO2 and thereby contribute to a dampening of the greenhouse effect on a global scale. An international group of scientists led by the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences in Kiel, Germany documented this biological mechanism in a natural plankton community for the first time. In simulations of the future ocean, they measured an increased CO2 uptake...

Two Russian deep-sea submersibles made a test dive in polar waters on Sunday ahead of a mission to be the first to reach the seabed under the North Pole, Itar-Tass news agency said. Tass said it took an hour for Mir-1 and Mir-2, each carrying one pilot, to reach the seabed at a depth of 1,311 meters (4,301 feet), 47 nautical miles north of Russia's northernmost archipelago, Franz Josef Land in the Barents Sea. Tass said Mir-1 resurfaced at around 1030 GMT after five hours underwater while Mir-2 spent some more time on the seabed collecting samples. "It was the...

Found: The clearest ocean waters on Earth 12:38 29 June 2007 NewScientist.com news service Catherine Brahic As clear as the clearest lakes on the planet, salty as ocean waters, and roughly the size of the Mediterranean – this, say researchers, is the clearest and most lifeless patch of ocean in the world. And it is in the middle of the Pacific. "Satellite images that track the amount of chlorophyll in ocean waters suggested that this was one of the most life-poor systems on Earth," explains Patrick Raimbault of the University of the Mediterranean, in Marseille, France. In October 2004, Raimbault...

SCITUATE -- Just off the Massachusetts coast is one of the richest marine habitats in the United States, an arc of shallow ocean called Stellwagen Bank, where whales, tuna, cod, and dozens of other species have dined on an underwater smorgasbord for thousands of years. Recognizing the critical importance of Stellwagen Bank in 1992, Congress designated the area a national marine sanctuary, a nature preserve where sea life and habitat would be protected while allowing compatible commercial uses such as fishing and whale watching. But today Stellwagen Bank is a sanctuary in name only, according to conservationists and other observers....

My personal fascination with columnar basalt, waterfalls, waterfalls that enter bodies of water, and waterfalls associated with columnar basalt all converge here in Scotland. Kilt Rock (click for full-size): Kilt Rock (distance) and Mealt Falls And another one:

Sea lions, dolphins and birds are being slowly poisoned off the California coast, despite efforts by volunteers to save them. So far, 50 stricken mammals have been brought ashore alive but nearly all have died or have had to be put down. Whales are also thought to have been affected.

HOBOKEN, N.J. - He's a veteran of long-distance sailing voyages in all kinds of weather. She's never sailed outside the Hudson River. But together, 55-year-old Reid Stowe and his 23-year-old girlfriend, Soanya Ahmad, are embarking on a voyage that they intend to take them three times around the globe and last 1,000 days and nights — nonstop, with no port calls for supplies or a walk on solid ground. They were ready to set sail Saturday aboard his 70-foot, two-masted schooner, named the Schooner Anne, from a Hudson River marina in North Hoboken. "This will be my first time sailing...

The Texas Clipper will not see the ocean floor just yet, but Texas Parks & Wildlife Department officials will celebrate the ship’s history today at the South Padre Island Convention Centre. The 473-foot vessel was scheduled to be sunk 17 miles south of the Brazos Santiago Pass today, but has been rescheduled for late April or early May said Dale Shively, TPWD’s artificial reef program coordinator. During a cleanup on the ship, a tar-like substance called polychlorinated biphenyls was discovered between the steel walls and ceilings. PCB is used as a fire retardant or insulation resistant to heat and...

Huge Underground "Ocean" Found Beneath Asia Richard A. Lovett for National Geographic News February 27, 2007 A giant blob of water the size of the Arctic Ocean has been discovered hundreds of miles beneath eastern Asia, scientists report. Researchers found the underground "ocean" while scanning seismic waves as they passed through Earth's interior. But nobody will be exploring this sea by submarine. The water is locked in moisture-containing rocks 400 to 800 miles (700 to 1,400 kilometers) beneath the surface. "I've gotten all sorts of emails asking if this is the water that burst out in Noah's flood," said the...

Pristine seascapeA previously unexplored section of Antarctic sea floor lured marine scientists and their vessel Polarstern to the frozen continent for a voyage of exploration over Christmas and New Year.The trip yielded, said researchers, a wealth of useful information and some undiscovered species.(Image: G Chapelle, IPF/ Alfred Wegener Institute) Unexpected giantAmong the new species was this giant amphipod, a type of crustacean, which researchers caught in baited traps. About 10cm (four inches) long, it is one of the biggest amphipods found in the region.(Image: C d'Udekem, Royal Belgium Institute for Natural Sciences) Key creatureAlready well known to science is...

Why So Dry? Ocean temperatures alone don't explain droughts Patrick L. Barry The western United States continues to struggle with the worst dry spell since the 1930s, and an international report on climate change predicts more and worse droughts to come (see "From Bad to Worse," in this week's issue). As scientists work to understand what triggers droughts, a new finding suggests that the causes may be more complex than many have supposed. DUNE DATA. Beneath these grassy hills of Nebraska lie the remains of ancient sand dunes, remnants from centuries-long droughts that have stricken this area several times in...

GRANTS PASS, Ore. - Using fire scars on nearly 5,000 tree stumps dating back 450 years, scientists have found that extended periods of major wildfires in the West occurred when the North Atlantic Ocean was going through periodic warming. With the North Atlantic at the start of a recurring warming period that typically lasts 20 to 60 years, the West could be in for an extended period of multiple fires on the scale of those seen in 2002 and 2006, said Thomas W. Swetnam. He's the director of the Laboratory of Tree Ring Research at the University of Arizona and...

Animals seem to have found a way to make a living just about everywhere," said Jesse Ausubel of the Sloan Foundation, discussing the findings of year six of the census of marine life. Added Ron O'Dor, a senior scientist with the census: "We can't find anyplace where we can't find anything new." This year's update, released Sunday, is part of a study of life in the oceans that is scheduled for final publication in 2010. The census is an international effort supported by governments, divisions of the United Nations and private conservation organizations. About 2,000 researchers from 80 countries are...

Southern Ocean Could Slow Global Warming The Southern Ocean may slow the rate of global warming by absorbing significantly more heat and carbon dioxide than previously thought, according to new research. This image shows the oceans and continents that surround Antarctica. The tip of South America is on the upper left, the tip of Africa is at the upper right and Australia is at the bottom right. The ocean colors indicate temperature, with the darkest blue indicating the coldest water. The black arrows show the direction the Southern Hemisphere westerly winds and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current take as they swirl...

That the Gulf Stream is responsible for Europe's mild winters is widely known and accepted, but...it is nothing more than the earth-science equivalent of an urban legend... The countries of northern Europe do indeed have curiously mild climates...why do so many people credit the Gulf Stream? Like many other myths, this one rests on a strand of truth. The Gulf Stream carries with it considerable heat when it flows out from the Gulf of Mexico and then north along the East Coast before departing U.S. waters at Cape Hatteras and heading northeast toward Europe. All along the way, it warms...

GRANTS PASS, Ore. - An ocean dead zone off Oregon that killed fish, crabs and sea worms in an area bigger than Rhode Island last summer lasted nearly three times longer than any of its predecessors before dissipating with autumn's change in the weather, scientists said Monday. This year's dead zone off Oregon ran for 17 weeks, compared to the previous high of six weeks in 2004, and saw oxygen readings near zero that left the ocean bottom littered with dead crabs, sea stars and sea anemones. This is the fifth straight year the dead zone returned. It covered 70...

Several days ago, the 'Maria S Merian' returned from her second Arctic expedition with data confirming trends of Arctic warming. "Compared to last summer, the water that flows from the Norwegian Sea to the Arctic has been an average 0.8 degrees Celsius warmer this summer," says expedition leader Dr Ursula Schauer of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research. "This is in addition to the last two years already having been warmer than the previous 20 from which we have regular measurements. Over the Yermak Plateau, an oceanic ridge, the oceanographers documented water of more than four degrees...

Mystery of the Missing Heat: Upper ocean has cooled slightly in recent years, despite warming climate Sid Perkins Between 2003 and 2005, the top layers of the world's oceans cooled slightly, but scientists aren't sure where the heat went. According to climate data gathered worldwide, 2003, 2004, and 2005 are three of the five warmest years since reliable record keeping of global air temperatures began more than a century ago. However, oceanographic surveys suggest that on average, the upper 750 meters of the world's ice-free oceans cooled about 0.03°C during that 3-year period. This cooling reverses an oceanic-warming trend observed...

A new analysis of 50 years of changes in freshwater inputs to the Arctic Ocean and North Atlantic may help shed light on what's behind the recently observed freshening of the North Atlantic Ocean. In a report, published in the August 25, 2006 issue of the journal, Science, MBL (Marine Biological Laboratory) senior scientist Bruce J. Peterson and his colleagues describe a first-of-its-kind effort to create a big-picture view of hydrologic trends in the Arctic. Their analysis reveals that freshwater increases from Arctic Ocean sources appear to be highly linked to a fresher North Atlantic. "The high-latitude freshwater cycle is...

A network of reserves to protect California's rich array of marine wildlife moved closer to becoming a reality on Tuesday after a state panel selected a plan to put large swaths of coastal waters off-limits to fishing. The Fish and Game Commission voted at a packed meeting in Monterey to ban both commercial and recreational fishing across more than 200 square miles between Santa Barbara and Half Moon Bay, just south of San Francisco. The plan still must undergo a final environmental review before it goes into effect. The new protected areas likely would not become official until at least...