The Immortal Jellyfish and a Coming Jellyfish Apocalypse ?

Posted on by September 27, 2011

Photo: John Lee / Aurora Select

When Diana Nyad was stopped by repeated jellyfish stings in her most recent attempt to swim between Cuba and Florida, it brought to mind two articles, one about the discovery of the “immortal jellyfish” and another which raised the question whether the world’s oceans will become dominated by jellyfish.

As global warming and pollution degrade the oceans are we being faced by a jellyfish apocalypse? Consider – on the night of December 10, 1999, 40 million people, abruptly lost power on the Philippine island of Luzon, home to the capital, Manila. Was it a terrorist attack? A coup? No, it was masses of jellyfish blocking cooling lines of a local power plant. An editorial in the Philippine Star noted, “Here we are at the dawn of a new millennium, in the age of cyberspace, and we are at the mercy of jellyfish.”

Jellyfish: The Next King of the Sea
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Wreck of the S.S. Gairsoppa with 240 Tonnes of Silver Aboard Found Three Miles Down

Posted on by September 26, 2011

Almost three miles beneath the surface of the Atlantic, deeper than the Titanic,  Odyssey Marine has located the wreck of the S.S. Gairsoppa, which was torpedoed in February of 1941 by a German U-boat.  When she sank, the ship was loaded with silver, pig iron and tea. The 240 tonnes of silver aboard are believed to be worth aproximately $200 million (around £155 million.)  Odyssey plans to begin recovery operations in the spring which, if successful, will be the deepest and largest retrieval of a precious cargo lost at sea in history.

Shipwreck of SS Gairsoppa discovered with £155m silver haul onboard

Thanks to David Rye, Phil Leon and Irwin Bryan for passing the story along.

“Those Damned Jellyfish” – Diana Nyad’s Second Attempt at Cuba-Florida Swim Ends Due to Jellyfish Stingsks

Posted on by September 26, 2011

In August, Diana Nyard attempted to become the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without the aid of a shark cage.  She gave up that attempt after 29 hours of swimming when adverse winds blew her off course.    Late last week she attempted the swim for a second time but was stopped this time by jellyfish, specifically multiple Portuguese Man o’ War  stings.  Two thirds of the way through her second recent attempt at swimming from Cuba to Florida, 62-year-old Diana Nyad was advised to get out of the water by her doctors after being stung repeatedly by jellyfish and Portuguese Man o’ War. Nyad had covered about 92 statute miles over the 40 hour swim, two-thirds of the journey from Cuba to Florida, but her doctors were concerned that toxins were building up in her body from the repeated stings.

Diana Nyad quits Cuba-to-Florida swim
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Dolphin Sunday – Part 3: The Wild Dolphin Project

Posted on by September 25, 2011

A fascinating look at the research of Denise Herzing, who has been studying dolphins in the Bahamas for 25years. Next year she is beginning an attempt to use technology to engage in two way communication with dolphins.

The Wild Dolphin Project

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Dolphin Sunday – Part 1: Dolphin Tale, a Review

Posted on by September 25, 2011

Today, we have three posts about dolphins and humans interacting. I went to high school on the Gulf Coast of Florida, which has some of the largest bottlenose dolphin populations in the world.  When I am in Florida visiting family, I always look forward to kayaking between the mangrove islands of Boca Ciego Bay where pods of dolphin and porpoise fish and play along the edges of the channels, often swimming around and under my kayak.  Magnificent creatures.  On Friday, Warner Brothers released Dolphin Tale, a movie about the first dolphin ever to be fitted with a prosthetic tale.  It is set in Clearwater, Florida, not far from where I went to high school.  A review:
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Jean-Marc Allaire Dies on the Way to the Charente-Maritime/Bahia Transat 6.50 Race

Posted on by September 24, 2011

Photo: DR

Tommorrow, the Charente-Maritime/Bahia Transat 6.50 sets off from La Rochelle, France bound for Salvador de Bahia, Brazil via Funchal, Madeira.  Roughly eighty sailors from sixteen countries will sail the Open/Mini 6.5, a 21 foot long ocean racer, across the Atlantic.

One experienced competitor, Jean-Marc Allaire, will not be sailing. Last week, his boat, Karantez VI, was found under full sail off Cap Ferret with no one aboard.  A short time later a body was found on Lège-Cap-Ferret’s beach, which was identified as Allaire.  Allaire was on his way to the start of the race when he apparently fell overboard.  The  Charente-Maritime race began 34 years ago in 1977, which was also the year of  Jean-Marc Allaire’s birth.  Our sincere condolences to his family and friends.

Thanks to Michael Kingdom-Hockings for pointing out the story.

Russian Nuclear Sub, Svyatoy Georgiy Pobedonosets, Damaged in Collision with Fishing Vessel

Posted on by September 23, 2011

Photo: RIA Novosti. Sergey Guneev

What is interesting about this story is how it has been reported.  Here is what we know: The fishing boat, Donets, ran into the Russian nuclear submarine, Svyatoy Georgiy Pobedonosets (St. George the Victor,)  in the Avachino Bay on the far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, causing minor damage,  K-433 Svyatoy Georgiy Pobedonosets (St. George the Victor) is a Delta III class nuclear-powered submarine that has been in service with the Russian Navy since 1980.

Most other details of the story get a bit hazy.
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Happy Autumnal Equinox !!! Put on Warm Socks and Watch out for Falling Satellites

Posted on by September 23, 2011

Happy autumnal equinox. The first day of Fall.  I know of no good sailor’s tradition for the autumnal equinox. It seems to be too busy a time to stop for such foolishness.  Everyone is trying to get the last trips of the season in or is already getting ready for winter.  In the Northeast, I always wondered why I didn’t have at least as much sense as the geese, who were all flying south to warmer climes.

I would like to suggest an autumnal equinox tradition of putting on warm socks. There is a sailor’s ritual of burning one’s socks at the vernal equinox socks, presumably the socks one wore all winter. (See: Spring equinox – Sailors burn their socks)  Putting on a warmer pair now, has a certain seasonal symmetry.  If anyone has other, and no doubt better, autumnal equinox traditions I would love to hear of them.

All sailors should be watching the sky this afternoon and evening. NASA’s Upper Atmosphere Research satelitte, about the size of a bus and weighs 6.5 tons is expected to plunge to earth sometime this afternoon or early evening Eastern time.  NASA isn’t sure where it will land but thinks that it will miss North America. Odds are that the space junk will land in the ocean.  (UPDATE: 2:PM EST –  NASA now thinks that it may land in North America after all.)  Let us hope that crashing satelittes do not become an equinox tradition.  To have a satellite fall on the first day of Fall seems wholly unnecessary.

Of Painting Forth Bridge, Paddles and Creeks, Sand and Tides

Posted on by September 22, 2011

The Forth Bridge - Painted at Last

I recently learned a new figure of speech – “like painting the Forth Bridge,” which refers to a job which is never completed. Or at least it used to mean that. The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge over the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland. It is is a marvel of British engineering, so large that for the last 121 years, teams of painters have been continuously painting the bridge. The job took so long that by the time the painters were finished, they needed to start again. Now however, the bridge will be coated with glass flake epoxy paint, which is similar to that used in the offshore oil industry. This improved paint technology will mean that the bridge will not require painting for 25 years.  A good figure of speech bites the dust, to coin a phrase.
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Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is No More – A Navy Marriage and New Places to Recruit

Posted on by September 21, 2011

The US military’s previous policy toward gay service members; “don’t ask, don’t tell; officially came to an end yesterday.   Naval officer, Lt. Gary Ross, chose the day to marry his partner of eleven years, Dan Swezy, in Duxbury, Vt.   In Tulsa, Oklahoma, Marine recruiters who had been invited to set up a recruiting booth on the first day of the end of “don’t ask, don’t tell” at the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center, a gay community center, were pleasantly surprised by the reception, which was friendly, even if the number of potential recruits was modest.   Over the 18 years which DADT was official policy, the US Navy, Marines and Coast Guard  discharged  over 4,200 gay officers and enlisted personnel.   The Army and Air Force discharged more than 6,000.  Thanks to Alaric Bond for passing along one of the articles.

Updates: Murderer on HMS Astute Sentenced, Kidnapped Briton in Somalia & MSC Luciana Refloated

Posted on by November 19, 2011

Updates on three previous posts:  On Monday, Able Seaman Ryan Donovan was sentenced to life imprisonment after pleading guilty to murdering a senior officer on board the HMS Astute last April.   Submariner’s grudge turned proud day into tragedy

British tourist Judith Tebbutt, kidnapped last week from an exclusive Kenyan resort, is believed to be being held in central Somalia, by a pirate gang. Her husband, David Tebbutt, was killed in the pirate attack last week.  British Tourist, Kidnapped in Kenya, May Be in Central Somalia

The containership MSC Luciana which ran aground on Monday on a sand bar in the Westerschelde was towed off the sand bank at high tide that evening with the assistance of around nine tugs, and proceeded to Zeebrugge for underwater hull inspection.

Thanks to Dirk Bal and  Alaric Bond for providing updates.

The Wired Oceans – Cables Beneath the Deep Blue Sea

Posted on by September 21, 2011

Click for a larger image

For something so relatively new, we take the internet very much for granted.  The first graphical web browser is less than 20 years old.  Nevertheless, the internet seems ubiquitous in most of our lives.  But on a world that is over 70% ocean, how do we communicate from one continent to another?  Primarily, by sub-sea cable. TeleGeography has put together a map of the submarine cables that link us together on-line.

Submarine Cable Map
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The William Main Doerflinger Memorial Sea Shanty Session – September 18th, 2011

Posted on by September 22, 2016

Fifteen years ago, a group of sea shanty enthusiasts got together for an old fashioned shanty sing. Their first meeting was, fittingly enough on the windjammer Peking at South Street Seaport. For many years they met monthly at the Seaman’s Church Institute near South Street, until the church sold the building and moved out of Manhattan. Since May the group has been hosted by the Noble Maritime Collection at Snug Harbor in Staten Island. Snug Harbor was once a destitute sailor’s retirement home. The shanty sessions are dedicated to the memory of William Main Doerflinger who “collected” many of the old shanties from retired sailors at Snug Harbor. Last Sunday the shanty singers got together again. Here is a short video I shot of the session.

The William Main Doerflinger Memorial Sea Shanty Session – September 18th, 2011

Jack Tar Magazine’s “The New Conrads” Storytelling Challenge

Posted on by September 20, 2011

The folks at Jack Tar Magazine are sponsoring a writing contest, “The New Conrads” Storytelling Challenge, with some serious prize money attached.  Whether you enter or not, it is an interesting exercise to consider what the world of shipping would look like in a post petroleum world.

“The New Conrads” Storytelling Challenge
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Linda Collison Interviews Alaric Bond

Posted on by September 21, 2011

I have really enjoyed Linda Collison‘s two books in her Patricia MacPherson nautical adventure series. (See our reviews of Star-Crossed and Surgeon’s Mate.)  She is also an excellent interviewer. Here she interviews another favorite nautical writer and frequent contributor to this blog, Alaric Bond.  (See also Linda’s interview of Margaret Muir.) From her blog, linda collison’s Sea of Words:

I’m pleased to be under the same publishing house (or in this case, aboard the same publishing vessel – Fireship Press) as historical naval fiction author Alaric Bond, a man with a wry and dry sense of humour who likes to sail, plays the trombone, lives in a 14th century Wealden Hall house in Eat Sussex and has a penchant for many things historic, including old SAAB convertibles.  
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Your Father’s America’s Cup – Sailing the Stars and Stripes

Posted on by September 19, 2011

Last Wednesday, we posted Not Your Father’s America’s Cup – Plymouth Capsize Club. This video is about “your father’s America’s Cup.” The yacht is Stars and Stripes/ US34, captained by Dennis Connor in the America’s Cup. The contrast between the current AC45 catamarans and the old 12 meters and the IACC boats could not be more stark.

How to sail an America’s Cup Yacht

Container Ship MSC Luciana Aground on Sand Bank Southwest of Amsterdam

Posted on by September 19, 2011

If you think that you are having a bad Monday morning, consider the plight of the master of the container ship MSC Luciana. The ship was bound from Antwerp to Felixstowe when it ran aground on a sand bar in the Westerschelde, the sea-channel that connects the port of Antwerp with the North Sea, about 140 kilometres (87 miles) southwest of Amsterdam. The MSC Luciana is one of the larger container ships in the world at 1,200 feet long and a container capacity of 11,600 TEU.   The ship reportedly ran aground at high tide. Zeeland Region Safety’s Aart Oosten is quoted as commenting, “She is well and truly stuck and we are also going into low tide, causing further difficulties.  At the moment, we have several groups including the Dutch maritime authorities in a meeting to see how we will proceed,” Oosten said, adding the Panamanian-registered ship posed no immediate danger to the environment. “There is no danger and her crew remains on board,” he said.”

Container ship stuck on Dutch sandbank

Thanks to Dirk Bal for passing the story along.

Tom Grundner, Owner of Fireship Press

Posted on by September 18, 2011

There aren’t many publishers with a special interest in nautical fiction.  Tom Grundner, the owner of Fireship Press, who died suddenly on September 11th, was one.  I never had the chance to meet him in person, but I genuinely liked the man I knew only through emails and over the internet.  In addition to serving as Senior Editor of Fireship, he was also the author of the Sir Sidney Smith Nautical Adventure Series. (See our review of his book, The Temple.)  Prior to entering publishing, he had an impressive and varied career in academia and business.  For a complete obituary of this remarkable man, see David Haye’s Obituary: Tom Grundner (1945-2011).   See also An Interview with Tom Grundner.

Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea – Tanker Mattheos I Hijacked, 23 Crew Taken Hostage

Posted on by September 27, 2011

MATTHEOS I , Photo: J Dohrn, MarineTraffic.com

Earlier this week the 45,000 DWT tanker, Mattheos I, with a crew of 23, was hijacked off Benin in the Gulf of Guinea.  According to the IMB Piracy Center, this year there have been 19 pirate attacks on ships in the Gulf of Guinea as compared to zero last year.

Armed Pirates Hijack a Fuel Tanker Off Benin and Take 23 Crew Members Hostage
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