Hailing from Florida, I am a huge fan of brown pelicans. I was therefore very pleased to hear that after several years where brown pelicans on the West Coast of the US have been mysteriously dying off, this year the flocks of pelicans have been unprecedentedly large.
Two years ago the headlines were dire – “California Brown Pelicans in Peril,” and “Mystery Malady Strikes California Brown Pelicans.” The pelicans appear to have recovered with a vengence. And no one quite understands why.
I am always amazed by how well darkness, cold and a lack of oxygen can preserve a wooden ship wreck. Thanks to Badewanne, a non-profit group of divers that has been documenting shipwrecks in the Gulf of Finland for more than 15 years, we have a close up of an as yet unidentified 18th century ship wreck. The wreck is more than 60 meters (over 200 feet) down and is in remarkably good condition.
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Last August, we posted about the collision of the containership MSC Chitra and the bulk carrier Khalijia 3 which resulting in the sinking of the Chitra with a significant oil spill, a loss of cargo containers and the blockage of the port of Mumbai for five days. Maasmond Maritime’s Clipping Service recently publish dramatic photos of the scuttling of the MSC Chitra, after a six day tow to deep water by Titan Maritime approximately 385 miles off of the coast of Mumbai, India. Click the thumbnails for larger images.
The Ohio River may just be too high to allow the running of the Great Steamboat Race on May 4th, between the Belle of Louisville and the Belle of Cincinnati on May 4. If the river doesn’t fall, officials are considering several options including not leaving the dock and simply having a party.
Ohio River conditions could cloud outlook for Great Steamboat Race
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In yesterday’s New York Times, Rose George of Leeds, UK was an Op-Ed Contributor. In her essay, Flying the Flag, Fleeing the State, she starts off by calling many ship operators criminals and comparing them to Somali pirates: But maritime lawlessness isn’t confined to pirates. Thanks to a system of ship registration called “flags of convenience,” it is all too easy for unscrupulous ship owners to get away with criminal behavior. It is a shame that she is so free in making such inflammatory and factually inaccurate comparisons. Ms. Rose is apparently writing a book about the merchant marine. Her previous book was about sewage. (No, I am not making that up.)
In a limited sense, Ms. George has a point – too many sailors are still not treated well or fairly by their employers and some ship owners are not scrupulous in obeying environmental laws. The problem is that Ms. Rose lacks the context to understand what she is complaining about. Simply put – she misses the point.
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A sign of changing times. A Russian submarine will be participating in a NATO undersea rescue exercise off the Spanish coast scheduled for next month.
Russian submarine to participate in first-ever naval exercise with NATO warships
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For hundreds of years, coastal schooners carried cargoes up and down the hundred harbored coast of Maine. By the early part of the last century, the schooners were being replaced by trucks and trains. In 1936 Captain Frank Swift started buying laid up schooners to cruise in the Maine summers. Schooners that had carried stone, lumber, hay and all manner of goods, began carrying vacationers. Now 75 years later the Maine windjammer fleet is still going strong, preserving the schooners and their heritage while delighting tens of thousands who have sailed on them.
On Thursday, April 28 at 6:30 p.m, Capt. Ray Williamson of Camden will be speak at the Camden Public Library on the history of Maine Windjammer Cruises, a company he and his wife Ann have owned for the past 25 years.
75 years of Maine Windjammer Cruises
Thanks to Alaric Bond for the passing article along.
As the sands of Fire Island are swallowing Le Papillon, Cyclone Yasi has uncovered a mysterious shipwreck on an island off the Queensland coast.
Cyclone Winds Unbury Island’s 130-Year-Old Shipwreck
The huge cyclone’s intense winds blew away sand on one Queensland island, unearthing the outline of a mysterious shipwreck. It’s a 100-foot (30-meter) longboat, stuck in the sand on Hinchinbrook Island’s beach. The vessel may have been buried under the sand for more than 130 years, reported the Brisbane Times.
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Bagged oysters catching the train to Philadelphia
If Detroit was and is the “motor city,” then perhaps Bivalve, New Jersey was the Oyster Capital of the World. By the late 1880s, 90 railcars full of oysters were shipped from Bivalve every week. Oysters were once the largest fishery product in the United States and Bivalve was its center. This weekend Bayshore Discovery Project will celebrate the history and heritage of Bivalve on the dock and in the sheds where the oyster industry once thrived.
Storytelling at Bayshore Discovery Project will bring Oyster Sheds to Life
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The Ducks have returned to the Delaware River. Not mallards, but duck boats. Last July a tug pushing a barge ran down a disabled “Duck boat” DUKW 34 at anchor in the Delaware River off Philadelphia. Two of the 35 passengers on the duck boat drowned in the collision. The mate on the tug was apparently talking to his mother on a cell phone during the collision. The duck boats have now been allowed back on the river under a new set of safety rules.
Duck boats to make return to Delaware River
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The Coast Guard released a report yesterday that was highly critical of Transocean, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon drill rig, which exploded and sank last year.
Transocean contributed to Gulf disaster, Coast Guard report says
Flaws in Transocean Ltd.’s emergency training and equipment and a poor safety culture contributed to the deadly Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion that led to the Gulf oil spill, according to a Coast Guard report released Friday.
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It is not champagne, but whiskey bottles which are still appearing from the sands where the sailing ship Stuart wrecked 110 years ago on Easter Sunday off the Llyn peninsula of Northern Wales.
Whisky bottles still being washed up on the Llyn Peninsula
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In July of last year we posted about the discovery of 30 bottles of champagne thought to pre-date the French Revolution in a wreck on the Baltic seabed. In November, wine experts tasted the “world’s oldest champagne” which was judged to be quite palatable. Recently it was announced that two bottles of 200-year old champagne will be auctioned off in June.
‘World’s oldest champagne’ to be sold at June auction
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Photo: Cape Cod Times/Steve Heaslip
I recall many years ago how excited the guide was on a whale watching trip out of Provincetown when we sighted a mother right whale and her calf not long after leaving the dock. I can only imagine how researchers are reacting to the arrival of an unprecidented number of right whales in Cape Cod Bay near Provincetown. During a seven-hour research flight, 100 right whales were observed today. Northern Right whales are highly endangered. Only an estimated 450 North Right whales are known to exist, and yet almost a quarter of them have shown up to the party off Cape Cod. Scientists say that the whales were probably attracted by an unusually large and long lasting plankton bloom in the bay. The whales feed on the surface and have been sighted from shore from beaches at Truro, Herring Cove and Race Point in Provincetown.
Record number of right whales in Cape waters
Endangered whales gather in unprecedented numbers
Jim Luce recently wrote an article in the Huffington Post titled, Khubilai Khan’s Lost Fleet Found in Japan. The title makes it sound like a new discovery. Not so much. The site of the “lost fleet” was discovered in the 1970s, while the wreckage of the lost fleet was located in 2000. Maritime archaeologist Jim Delgado wrote about the discovery in his book, Khubilai Khan’s Lost Fleet: In Search of a Legendary Armada, in 2008. The paperback edition was published last summer. It is a fascinating story.
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Thanks to Irwin Bryan and Alaric Bond for the passing article along.
Douglas Faulkner, who died recently, had a varied and highly accomplished career as a naval and marine architect. He was involved in the design and testing of the first British nuclear submarine, HMS Dreadnought. He was later an assistant professor at the Royal Naval College, a structural advisor at Bath, and appointed to the John Elder chair of naval architecture at Glasgow University. He will be probably best remembered, however, for his work in solving the mystery of the sinking of the MV Derbyshire, which disappeared with all hands in the Pacific September 9, 1980 during Typhoon Orchid.
There appears to be both good and bad news exactly one year after the explosion and fire that sank the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, killing eleven, and triggering the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. The good news, if it can be called that, is that the ecological doomsday initially feared by many has not come to pass. This is not to say that the environmental impact of the spill will not be significant and long lasting. We have posted previously about the unexplained deaths of significant numbers of dolphins and sea turtles in the Gulf. Nevertheless, the consensus seems to be, “It could have been worse.”
BP Oil Spill: How Bad Is Damage to Gulf One Year Later?
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The MV Asphalt Venture was hijacked by Somali pirates on September 28, 2010. After negotiating and being paid a multi-million dollar ransom, the pirates released the ship and part of the crew yesterday, but continued to hold seven Indian seafarers hostage, reportedly in retaliation for the arrest of Somali pirates by the Indian Navy in recent weeks. ‘It is a major shift in the pirate-hostage equation which will need to be considered and addressed by the international community,’ said general secretary Abdulgani Y. Serang of the National Union of Seafarers of India (NUSI).
Until fairly recently, every springtime, American shad made their annual runs up the Delaware, Hudson, Connecticut and other rivers of the East and Northeast to spawn. The shad fishery in the Hudson lasted until the 1970s when their numbers dropped precipitously. After dropping off in early 1900s, the shad have returned to the Delaware River. This Saturday, April 23rd, in the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia, they are holding the 3rd Annual Fishtown Shad Fest at the beautiful Penn Treaty Park along the Delaware River. Sounds like a great time.
Photo: Dustin K. Ryan
Brad Van Liew sailing Le Pingouin is expected to cross the finish line in Charleston, SC, his adopted home town, some time today, continuing to dominate the Velux Five Oceans singlehanded around the world race. Thus far, he has won all four legs of the around the world race thus far. Following Van Liew are Derek Hatfield, sailing Active House, and Chris Stanmore-Major sailing Spartan. Zbigniew ‘Gutek’ Gutkowski sailing Operon Racing was forced to put into Forteleza after his boat’s forestay broke. ‘Gutek’ was also suffering from a broken rib.