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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...