Orcas of the Salish Sea are Dying

Posted on by July 12, 2018

The resident orcas of the Salish Sea are dying. They now number only 75, a 30-year-low. They are being starved as their primary prey, the Chinook, or king salmon, are dying off. They are also being poisoned by pollutants in their waters and hurt by noise pollution from ships and boats. For the last three years, not one calf has been born to the three orca pods in the Salish Sea  They have been listed as endangered in both the U.S. and Canada since 2005, but little has been done to reverse their steady decline.

There are three distinct groups of orcas, also known as killer whales, on the coast of the Pacific Northwest. Two groups of orcas referred to as residents, eat almost exclusively fish and return to the same areas immediately along the coast year after year. They are divided into Northern and Southern groups.

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Viking Ship Draken Harald Hårfagre — East Coast Tour 2018 Underway

Posted on by July 11, 2018

The Draken Harald Hårfagre, the largest Viking longship built in modern times, has begun its summer tour of the East Coast of the United States.  After departing from Mystic Seaport on July 9th, it is now bound for Boothbay Harbor, Maine. Only the first three ports of call have been announced as follows:

  • Boothbay Harbor, ME — July 13-15
  • Plymouth, MA — July 17-20
  • Rockland, ME — July 22-25

An additional eleven port calls will be announced. Draken Harald Hårfagre will be returning to Mystic Seaport in October. 

Politician Campaigning by Yacht Rescued by Coast Guard

Posted on by July 10, 2018

At one point in her long and storied career, the 1885 built, 131-foot schooner yacht Coronet was owned by a rather dodgy religious group which called itself “The Kingdom.” The group was led by Frank Sandford who circumnavigated the globe on the yacht in 1905. What was odd about the voyage was that no one ever went ashore. Instead, Sanford claimed to “subdue the world for Christ” through prayer and by sounding brass instruments as they passed by the various continents. He was not notably successful and on a subsequent voyage, several of his crew died of scurvy. The Coronet, however, has survived and is now being restored by the IYRS School of Technology and Trades in Newport, Rhode Island.  

A recent event not too far from Newport reminded me of the story of the Coronet and the sounding of brass offshore.  Joe Trillo, an ex-Republican state legislator is running for governor as an independent in Rhode Island this year. His campaign style is almost as unusual as Frank Sandford’s on the Coronet. He is campaigning by yacht and had rather a rocky weekend. 

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Heritage Wins Honors in Maine’s 42nd Annual Great Schooner Race

Posted on by July 9, 2018

Photo: Maine Windjammer Association

On July 6th, 11 schooners raced from Gilkey Harbor in Islesboro, Maine on Penobscot Bay to the finish line at the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse in the 42nd Annual Great Schooner Race, sponsored by the Maine Windjammer Association.  The race honors, as reported by Village Soup–Knox, went to:
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Trump Cancels Protection of Whales and Sea Turtles Proposed by Fishing Industry

Posted on by July 8, 2018

The Trump administration announced that it would cancel a rule designed to protect whales and turtles, which was first implemented in 2016, at the request of the fishing industry. The rule helped limit the number of endangered whales and turtles ensnared in fishing nets and had been recommended by the 14-member Pacific Fishery Management Council, which manages fisheries in California, Oregon, and Washington, in 2015. The rule applies only to the 20 gill-net fishing vessels still operating on the West Coast. The measure protected endangered fin, humpback, and sperm whales; short-finned pilot whales and common bottlenose dolphins; as well as endangered leatherback sea turtles, loggerhead sea turtles, olive ridley sea turtles and green sea turtles. The Trump administration has declared that the protection is unnecessary. 

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Spanish Divers Find Wreck of World War II Submarine U-966

Posted on by July 7, 2018

In June, three Spanish divers located the wreck of the German World War II submarine U-966 near the coast of Galicia in north-west Spain. The BBC reports that the submarine’s wreckage is spread widely in a very rocky area where rough weather often makes diving impossible. The debris was photographed at a depth of 24-26m (79-85ft). One of the divers, naval historian Yago Abilleira, said they had found the wreckage near Estaca de Bares. They are not revealing the exact location, as it is a war grave.

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The Monkey Fist’s Nasty Cousin — the Slungshot

Posted on by July 7, 2018

I recently learned the slungshot, not to be confused with a slingshot. The slungshot is a monkey’s fist’s nasty cousin.

As most are probably aware, a monkey’s fist is a knot, shaped like a ball (or a fist), used to provide weight to the end of a heaving line. Typically one end of a moderately heavy line is tied into a monkey’s fist while the other end is finished in an eye splice. The monkey fist knot is often tied around a stone or a piece of lead or iron to give it additional weight. A light heaving line is tied to the eye splice and the monkey’s fist is thrown from a ship or boat to a line handler on the dock as the ship or boat is approaching. The heaving line is then attached to a heavier hawser. 

A monkey’s fist is a practical, as well as an attractive bit of marlinspike seamanship. These days, they often appear as decorative knots on keychains and jewelry.

But then what is a slungshot?  Continue reading →

SS Great Britain Returns to Bristol, 48 Years Ago Today

Posted on by July 5, 2018
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Forty-eight years ago today, 100,000 people who lined the banks of the River Avon in Bristol as the SS Great Britain returned to her birthplace. In the intervening years, the rusting hulk has been meticulously restored to her former glory and now rests in the drydock where she was built. As a museum ship, she is visited by between 150,000 and 200,000 visitors annually.  For Throw-Back-Thursday, here is an updated post from 2016 about the grand old ship, followed by a video about her return to Bristol in 1970.

In the spring of 2016, I visited the museum ship SS Great Britain, in Bristol, UK.  When she was launched in 1843, the iron-hulled luxury passenger steamship SS Great Britain was described as “the greatest experiment since the Creation.”

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Stopping Plastic Bags Before They Reach the Oceans

Posted on by July 3, 2018

The best way to combat plastic pollution in the oceans is to stop the plastic before it gets there.

We have been posting about the ever-growing garbage patches in the world’s oceans for the better part of a decade. The posts are beginning to have a certain sameness. Things are getting worse. The garbage patches trapped in the ocean gyres are getting growing larger. Six years ago, the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch was a wide as the Continental United States. Whales are dying from ingesting plastic.  Record levels of microplastics are being found in Arctic ice.  A popular dive spot near Bali is turned into a “sea of trash” by plastic bags. And on and on and on.

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Kayaking Through the Engine Room of MV E Evangelia

Posted on by July 2, 2018

The MV Empire Strength, a 7,355 GRT refrigerated cargo ship, was built by Harland and Wolff in 1942.  In her long career, she had seven owners and four names. When she was purchased by a Greek owner in 1965, she was renamed, MV E Evangelia.  Her sailing days ended when she ran aground in 1968 in the Black Sea on the coast of Romania near the seaside resort of Costinești. With her back broken, she was declared a constructive total loss and abandoned. Now the wreck is a local attraction.

The video below captures a kayaker who paddles through an opening into the shell into the engine room. The first diesel engine is probably a generator while the six-cylinder main engine towers above the paddler in the background. The video has a slightly otherworldly quality, like images from a video game or a steampunk dream.  Continue reading →

Diving the USS Oriskany — the Great Carrier Reef on Florida Panhandle Shipwreck Trail

Posted on by July 2, 2018

USS Oriskany is an Essex-class aircraft carrier completed after World War II. She served in both the Korean and the Vietnam wars. In 2006, the almost 900′ long  ship became the world’s largest artificial reef after being sunk 22 miles south of Pensacola in more than 200 feet of water, as part of the Florida Panhandle Shipwreck Trail. Nicknamed the “Great Carrier Reef.” The top of the ship is within 80 feet of the surface and there are considerable portions of the ship in less than 100 feet of water, making them accessible to both sport and advanced divers. Here a video of diving on the Might O, the Great Carrier Reef. Continue reading →

Testing the SeaBubble Fly-By-Wire Control System

Posted on by June 29, 2018

A year and a half ago we posted about SeaBubbles — foiling electric water taxis. The idea to develop a five-person water taxi comes from Alain Thébault, the designer and skipper of record-breaking ocean-going hydrofoil Hydroptère. The distance from an idea to implementation, however, can be considerable. The SeaBubbles feature fully submerged foils which require a sophisticated control system for the craft to remain stable. The SeaBubble team are attempting to achieve a ride as smooth as a car on a well-paved road by using an advanced fly-by-wire control system. Fly-by-wire is a term used in aeronautics to describe a semiautomatic computer-regulated system for controlling the flight of an aircraft. While the SeaBubbles will not take off, they will be flying on foils. Here is a short video about the SeaBubble fly-by-wire system. Continue reading →

SV Kwai — Cargo and Passenger Service Under Sail in the South Pacific

Posted on by June 28, 2018

We recently posted about crewing opportunities for the auxiliary-sail trading vessel Tiare Taporo operating from the Cook Islands. The Tiare Taporo is, however, not the only commercial sailing vessel serving the Cook islands. The SV Kwai will soon be departing on its 45th voyage from Hawaii calling on the islands of Kiritimati (Christmas Island), Tabuaeran (Fanning) and Teraina, (Washington Island) as well as the Northern Cook Islands of Penrhyn, Rakahanga, Manihiki, Nassau, and Pukapuka.

The SV Kwai is 43 meters (140 ft), with a beam of 7 meters (23 ft), draws 3 meters (10 ft), has a tonnage of 179 RT and is ketch rigged. While equipped with a main engine and generator, the goal is to operate under sail 90% of the time. SV Kwai has been carrying cargo and passengers between Hawaii and the Line and Cook Islands since 2006. 

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Grouper Eats Lionfish — Does the Invasive Fish Face Local Predators?

Posted on by June 28, 2018

Sometime in the 1990s, two different species of lionfish made it into the waters of the Atlantic off Florida. Native to the Indo-Pacific, the venomous, predatory fish spread rapidly, decimating local reef fish in the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean. Lacking local predators to stop its spreading, the lionfish have been described as “one of the most aggressively invasive species on the planet“. So far, the most effective means of slowing the spread of the fish is for divers to spear them, a relatively slow and challenging approach.

I recently came across a video from 2015, showing a grouper eating a lionfish. Groupers and sharks are natural predators for the lionfish in the Pacific, but the Atlantic and Caribbean groupers have been slow to adapt to considering the new invader as a food source. Are local groupers and other predators developing a taste for lionfish? About the video: Continue reading →

Trade War Hits Maine & Alaskan Fishermen

Posted on by June 26, 2018

Photo: Greta Rybus for The New York Times

We recently posted about concerns that the current Maine lobster boom may collapse in time due to climate change. The fishing industries in Maine and Alaska are facing a far more immediate challenge, however. New US tariffs on steel and aluminum and retaliatory tariffs on lobster imports by China could drive up costs and cut lobster exports while giving Canadian lobstermen an advantage. Likewise, retaliatory tariffs on salmon and other Alaskan seafood could seriously hurt their fishing industry. 

As of July 6th, China will impose an additional 25% tariff on Maine lobster. China buys about a fifth of American lobster exports, valued at $137 million. The tariff is expected to give Canadian lobster exporters, who are not subject to the tariff, an advantage in the Chinese market.

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Antarctica Melting Three Times as Fast as a Decade Ago

Posted on by June 25, 2018

Photo: BARON REZNIK/FLICKR

A new study from the journal Nature makes a terrifying observation — the rate at which Antarctic ice is melting has tripled from only a decade ago. This is significant as more than 60 percent of the freshwater on Earth is locked in Antarctica’s ice sheets. The continent has lost nearly three trillion tons of ice since 1992.

The New York Times reports that the continent is now melting so fast, scientists say, that it will contribute six inches (15 centimeters) to sea-level rise by 2100. That is at the upper end of what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has estimated Antarctica alone could contribute to sea level rise this century.

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Looters of Wreck of HMS Hermes Found Guilty

Posted on by June 24, 2018

HMS Hermes

Last year we posted about warships from World War II that had vanished after illegal scrappers literally cut them up and hauled the steel away. Here is a news item on theft on a different scale and with a better outcome. Recently two divers, Nigel Ingram, 57, and John Blight, 58, were found guilty of looting items from the World War I wreck of the HMS Hermes in the English Channel. The two divers stole more than 100 items,  including a torpedo hatch, launch panels, and chinaware. The total value of items stolen from the wreck was reported to be more than £150,000.

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Maud Returns Home — Home Trip 2018

Posted on by June 23, 2018

Maud Returns Home – Facebook

For several years, we have been following the attempts to raise Arctic explorer Roald Amundsen‘s research ship Maud from where it has been sitting in ice and mud for close to 90 years. To say that the conditions in Cambridge Bay off the Nunavut territory of northern Canada have been challenging would be an understatement. Over the last eight summers, a team of Norwegians has been working to raise and ultimately return Maud back to Norway. In the summer of 2017, they achieved a major milestone — successfully towing the Maud on the barge Jensen out of  Cambridge Bay to Aasiaat on West Greenland. They are now preparing for the final leg of the journey.

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