Using Antibiotics & Probiotics to Save Diseased and Dying Coral Reefs

Posted on by December 13, 2023

When we went on a family scuba diving trip to the coral reefs of Roatan, Honduras, we took the antibiotic amoxicillin as a prophylaxis for malaria.  Scientists are now using the same antibiotic to combat stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) that has ravaged coral reefs in Florida and is rapidly spreading across reefs in the Caribbean. The disease destroys the soft tissue of at least 22 species of reef-building corals, killing them within weeks or months of becoming infected.

NOAA describes stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) as a highly lethal coral disease that was first reported off the coast of Florida in 2014…The disease affects over 20 coral species and is now present on reefs in 18 countries and territories. The large geographic scale of this outbreak, high lethality of the disease lesion, and broad susceptibility among coral species make SCTLD unprecedented in its ecological impact and likely make it the most deadly coral disease outbreak in history.

The good news is that researchers are now using an amoxicillin paste to combat SCTLD in stony corals. Florida Atlantic University reports that amoxicillin treatment had a 95 percent success rate at healing individual SCTLD lesions. The less-than-good news is that it did not necessarily prevent treated coral colonies from developing new lesions over time.

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Yemen’s Houthis Rebels Rain Missiles and Drones on Norwegian Tanker & French Frigate

Posted on by December 12, 2023

Last Saturday, Yemen’s Houthi rebels announced that the organization would target any ships heading to or from Israel, regardless of their nationality, and warned all international shipping companies against dealing with Israeli ports.

On Monday, the group attacked the MT Strinda, a Norwegian bio-diesel tanker passing through the Bab-el-Mandeb, the strait that connects the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea. At least one missile struck the tanker, causing a fire. No casualties were reported in the attack.  

A Houthi spokesman said the MT Strinda was delivering oil to Israel, but the ship’s owners said it was headed to Italy with feedstock for biofuel.

French guided-missile frigate FS Languedoc shot down a drone while patrolling nearby, Naval News reported.

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Huge Skull of Sea Monster Pliosaur Discovered in Dorset Cliff on UK’s Jurassic Coast

Posted on by December 11, 2023

The BBC reports that the skull of a pliosaur, a colossal sea monster has been extracted from the cliffs of Dorset’s Jurassic Coast. The ferocious marine reptile terrorized the oceans about 150 million years ago. The 2m (6ft 5in)-long fossil is one of the most complete specimens of its type ever discovered and is giving new insights into this ancient predator. Researchers are analyzing the specimen to determine whether it could be a species new to science.

Originally spotted in spring 2022, the fossil, along with its complicated excavation and ongoing scientific investigation, are now detailed in the upcoming BBC documentary “Attenborough and the Jurassic Sea Monster,” presented by legendary naturalist Sir David Attenborough, that will air February 14 on PBS.

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Thousands of Tons of Dead Fish Wash up on Japan’s Northern Coast

Posted on by December 9, 2023

The Associated Press reports that thousands of tons of dead fish were found on the northern coast of Japan and no one seems to know why.  The sardines and mackerels were found on an over half-mile stretch of beach in Hakodate, Hokkaido on the country’s northern main island.

Some residents started collecting and selling the fish, prompting local officials to post a warning advising against doing so. Officials said Friday they didn’t know the reason behind the die-off.

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Mile-High Seamount Discovered in Pacific Off Guatemala

Posted on by December 8, 2023

There is an old saying that we know more about the Moon than we do about the deep ocean. Critics say that the notion, first recorded in 1954, is out of date. While that may be the case, it is also clear that we still have much to learn about the deep ocean. 

Recently, scientists on the Falkor (too) research vessel have discovered a mile-high mountain in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Guatemala. The 5,250-foot-tall (1,600 meters) formation is a seamount — a large, underwater geological feature typically formed from an extinct volcano. Scientists discovered the cone-shaped seamount 7,870 feet (2,400 m) below sea level during an expedition organized by the Schmidt Ocean Institute this summer, according to a statement shared with Live Science.

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Radio Broadcasts Reporting Attack on Pearl Harbor 82 Years Ago Today

Posted on by December 7, 2023

An interrupted broadcast of a football game, a newsbreak during a performance by the New York Philharmonic, a weather report followed by an announcement from President Roosevelt that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor. Reports of attacks on the Philippines. Here is a compilation of news reports from Sunday, December 7th, 1941, eighty-two years ago today.

Pearl Harbor Attacks – As It Happened – Radio Broadcasts

Sally Snowman, the Last Lighthouse Keeper in the US, Set to Retire

Posted on by December 5, 2023

Photo: US Coast Guard

For the last twenty years, Sally Snowman has worked as the keeper of the Boston Light on Little Brewster Island. She was the first woman to serve as lighthouse keeper at the lighthouse in Boston Harbor, the oldest continually used and last staffed lighthouse in the country, dating back to before the Revolutionary War. 

Boston Light, located nearly 10 miles southeast of Boston, was originally built in 1716 and has a light that flashes 27 miles across the Atlantic Ocean.

Now that she is retiring at the end of the month, she will also be the last keeper of the Boston Light and indeed the last lighthouse keeper in the United States.

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Filmmakers Discover 128 Year Old Wreck of Steamer Africa in Lake Huron

Posted on by December 10, 2023

Documentary filmmakers Yvonne Drebert and Zach Melnick were looking for invasive mussels on the bottom of Lake Huron in Canada when they came across the 150-foot-long shipwreck of the Africa.

On the morning of 4 October 1895, the Africa departed from Ashtabula, Ohio, carrying coal over Lake Huron to Owen Sound, Ontario. But it didn’t make it. The ship sank in during an early-season snowstorm. The steamer’s 11-person crew died.

Drebert and Melnick aren’t saying exactly where they’ve located the ship because it’s now considered a protected grave site, but she does say it’s off the west coast of the Bruce Peninsula in about 280 feet of water or 85 metres down.

Thanks to Alaric Bond for contributing to this post.

Film crew accidentally discovers 1800s shipwreck off Lake Huron in Ontario

Update: Researchers Claim to Positively Identify Wreck of Captain Cook’s HMB Endeavour

Posted on by November 30, 2023

Endeavour replica image: ANMM

For more than a decade, we have followed the work of researchers from Rhode Island and  Australia in their efforts to locate the wreck of  Captain James Cook’s famous barque, HMB Endeavour, that sailed from 1768-1771 on a voyage of discovery to Australia and New Zealand. 

Now, the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM)believes that its researchers have conclusively identified the wreck of the barque, in Newport, Rhode Island based on historical records and the characteristics of the much-degraded wooden hull.

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US Destroyer Mason Thwarts Attack on Tanker Central Park in Gulf of Yemen

Posted on by November 27, 2023

On Sunday, the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Mason received a distress call from the M/V Central Park, a 20,000 DWT oil/chemical tanker, in the Gulf of Aden, that reported they were under attack by an unknown entity. Five armed individuals had boarded the tanker. The tanker’s crew barricaded themselves in the tanker’s citadel, an armored panic room.

When the USS Mason and other coalition vessels arrived at the Central Park, they demanded the release of the ship. Five gunmen attempted to flee from the tanker in a skiff. The crew of Mason pursued the skiff as it headed toward Yemen with the ship’s embarked helicopter and ultimately forced the five to surrender. They were detained for questioning.

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World’s Largest and Oldest Iceberg Floats Free Drifting Into “Iceberg Alley”

Posted on by November 26, 2023

In 1986, a massive iceberg, almost five times larger than New York City, calved off West Antarctica’s Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf. The iceberg, designated A23a, immediately grounded on the floor of the Weddell Sea, where it remained stuck for almost four decades.

Now, the world’s largest and among the world’s oldest icebergs is on the move, drifting into what is known as “iceberg alley” on the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Recent satellite images reveal that the berg, weighing nearly a trillion metric tonnes, is now drifting quickly past the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, aided by strong winds and currents.

So, why, after almost 40 years, is A23a on the move now?

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Happy Evacuation Day! When the British Sailed From New York at the End of the Revolutionary War

Posted on by November 25, 2023


Happy Evacuation Day! 240 years ago today, on November 25, 1783, the last shot of the American Revolution was fired by a gunner on a departing Royal Navy ship at jeering crowds gathered on the shore of Staten Island, at the mouth of New York Harbor. The shot went wide, missing its target.  

Sir Guy Carleton had ordered his troops to sail at noon on November 25th.  George Washington and an honor guard from the Continental Army marched in shortly thereafter. Before Washington could arrive, officially ending the seven-year occupation of New York, the British flag, which had been nailed to a greased flag pole at the Battery, needed to be taken down. John Van Arsdale, a survivor of a British prison ship, climbed the greasy pole, ripped down the Union Jack, and nailed up the Stars and Stripes.  For years, greased pole climbing contests were popular in celebrations of Evacuation Day in New York.

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Thanksgiving Repost — Whaling Ships, Sarah Josepha Hale, Mary’s Lamb & a Liberty Ship

Posted on by November 23, 2023

Happy Thanksgiving to those on this side of the pond and below the 49th parallel. (The Canadians celebrated the holiday in October.)

What do whaling ships, a child’s nursery rhyme, a female magazine editor, and Abraham Lincoln have to do with Thanksgiving? An updated repost.

Until the Civil War, Thanksgiving was a sporadically celebrated regional holiday.  Today, Thanksgiving is one of the central creation myths of the founding of the United States, although not universally admired. The story is based on an account of a one-time feast of thanksgiving in the Plymouth colony of Massachusetts during a period of atypically good relations with local tribes. 

The actual history of what happened in 1621 bears little resemblance to what most Americans are taught in grade school, historians say. There was likely no turkey served. There were no feathered headdresses worn. And, initially, there was no effort by the Pilgrims to invite the local Native American tribe to the feast they’d made possible.

Thanksgiving only became a national holiday in 1863.  Before the celebration spread across the country, Thanksgiving was most popular in New England. On 19th-century American whaling ships, which sailed from New England ports, they celebrated only the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Of the three holidays, Thanksgiving may have been the most popular. On Norfolk Island in the Pacific, they also celebrate Thanksgiving, the holiday brought to the island by visiting American whaling ships.

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Yemen’s Houthi Rebels Hijack Vehicle Carrier Galaxy Leader in Red Sea — 25 Crew Taken Hostage

Posted on by November 19, 2023

Yemen’s Houthi rebels seized the vehicle carrier Galaxy Leader in the Red Sea on Sunday, officials said, taking over two dozen crew members hostage. 

The Iran-backed Houthi rebels said they hijacked the ship over its connection to Israel. The group warned that it would continue to target ships in international waters that were linked to or owned by Israelis until the end of Israel’s campaign against Gaza’s Hamas rulers.

The government of Israel denies that the ship is Israeli. The Times of Israel reports that the Bahaman-flagged vessel is registered under a British company, which is partially owned by Israeli tycoon Abraham Ungar, who goes by Rami. The vessel was leased out to a Japanese company at the time of the hijacking.

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Don Walsh, Record Breaking Deep Sea Naval Explorer, Dies at 92

Posted on by November 18, 2023

Don Walsh, a pioneering US Navy explorer, died on Nov. 12 at his home in Myrtle Point, Ore. He was 92. On Jan. 23, 1960, Walsh was a Navy lieutenant in command of the bathyscaphe Trieste, when he and Swiss oceanographer Jacques Piccard dove to the bottom of the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, reaching and measuring the deepest point in the world’s oceans.

Walsh and Piccard spent 20 minutes at the ocean floor, taking measurements and peering through the super-fortified viewing holes in the Trieste. What they saw opened new frontiers in deep-sea marine biology. They reported spotting fish, shrimp, and jellyfish at depths below 30,000 feet. The observations were the first eyewitness clues to the range of life that could survive in the most extreme depths.

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The Star of India — 160 Years Old & Still Sailing

Posted on by November 17, 2023

Over the Veterans’ Day weekend, the iron-hulled sailing ship Star of India left her dock at the Maritime Museum of San Diego, setting sail, for the first time in five years, to celebrate her 160th birthday.  A short news video:

World’s oldest active sailing ship, Star of India, sets sail for 160th birthday

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US Tourist, 75, Dies After Ferry Boat to Blue Lagoon Island Sinks in the Bahamas

Posted on by November 16, 2023

A popular, full-day excursion to Blue Lagoon Island, from a cruise ship docked in Nassau in the Bahamas, ended in tragedy on Tuesday when a ferry boat loaded with 100 passengers rolled over and sank in choppy waters. A 75-year-old American woman from Colorado died in the partial capsize.

The NY Post reports that the ferry was nearing its destination when conditions on the water began to deteriorate.

“One of the crewmembers who was downstairs ran upstairs and was crying, absolutely bawling, and grabbing a life jacket. That’s when everybody was like … this is real, something’s happening,” American tourist Kelly Schissel said in a TikTok. 

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Saildrone Issued First-Ever Classification For A Commercial Autonomous, Uncrewed Vehicle

Posted on by November 13, 2023

Intriguing news from Saildrone. The developer of ocean data collection using autonomous vehicles announced that it has received the first-ever classification for an autonomous, uncrewed surface vehicle (USV).

From their announcement:

The American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) has been a driving force in shaping the standards for safety and excellence in design and construction for the maritime industry for over 150 years. Saildrone is excited to announce that ABS has issued the first-ever class certificate for a commercial, uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) for the Saildrone Voyager.

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World’s Newest Island Rises Off Iwo Jima After Undersea Volcanic Eruption

Posted on by November 12, 2023

The world’s newest island has risen from the Pacific Ocean off the Japanese island of Iwo Jima after an underwater volcanic eruption that began toward the end of October. In just 10 days, volcanic ash and rocks built up on the shallow seabed, forming an island that emerged from below the water’s surface. The eruption has now subsided.

By early November it was approximately 100 meters in diameter and had reached a height of 20 meters above sea level, according to Yuji Usui from the Japan Meteorological Agency’s volcanic division.

How long the island will remain is unclear. The fragile nature of its composition, described as “crumbly” by Usui, makes it susceptible to erosion by ocean waves. Ongoing analysis by experts includes an examination of the deposits to determine exactly what it is made of.
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Repost: On Armistice Day, Remembering the German High Seas Fleet Mutinies of 1918

Posted on by November 11, 2023

Soldiers’ council of the Prinzregent Luitpold

In the US, today is Veteran’s Day, when we honor those who have served in the military. It coincides with Armistice Day, the anniversary of the signing of the armistice which ended World War I, on the 11th hour of the 11th day, of the 11th month of 1918, when the guns finally fell silent after four years of bloody conflict.

Today is a good time to recall the mutiny of the German High Seas Fleet, which played a significant role in finally ending the war. Here is an updated repost of an article from a few years ago about the naval mutinies.

The mutinies at Wilhelmshaven on October 29th and at Kiel on November 3, triggered the German revolution and swept aside the monarchy within a few days. The naval mutinies led directly to the end of the German Empire and to the establishment of the Weimar Republic.

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