Each year more than 9 million tons of plastic makes its way into the oceans of the world. Plastic debris in ocean garbage patches is growing exponentially. By one estimate, there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean … Continue reading
Category Archives: Current
Here is a wonderful video of a 26′ long pyrosome, a translucent worm-like creature, videoed off the coast of New Zealand. Pyrosomes, which can grow up to 30′ long are, of course, are not actually worms. They are not even … Continue reading
Two years ago we posted about the ASW Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV), Sea Hunter, a 132′ long autonomous drone trimaran designed to track enemy submarines, being developed by the US Navy. The unmanned ship reached a major milestone recently after sailing autonomously … Continue reading
Disturbing news. An active-duty US Coast Guard lieutenant has been accused of plotting attacks “to murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country” according to court documents filed in U.S. District Court in Maryland on Tuesday. Christopher Paul Hasson, … Continue reading
We have been following the careers of the “starship sailors” Mark and Scott Kelly for several years now. The twin brothers from New Jersey are both graduates of merchant maritime academies, both became Captains in the Navy, and both subsequently became NASA astronauts … Continue reading
We recently posted that the Oliver Hazard Perry Rhode Island (OHPRI) organization had taken a “strategic pause” to rethink its strategy for the financial sustainability of the SS Oliver Hazard Perry, the largest civilian Sailing School Vessel in the United States. Now, the organization has announced a new … Continue reading
On a cold winter Sunday on the banks of the Hudson River, here is a video from the New Zealand summer about the restoration of one of the oldest yachts in the island nation, the 115-year-old Ariki. For additional photos … Continue reading
The owner of a USB memory card, which was found in a pile of leopard seal scat, has been located. Last week we posted about USB memory card that was buried in a pile of leopard seal scat near Oreti Beach … Continue reading
It was a long-shot from the beginning. The Weddell Sea Expedition 2019 had dispatched the icebreaking polar-supply and research-vessel SA Agulhas II to study Antarctica’s Larsen C ice sheet. While in the area, the expedition attempted to locate Sir Ernest … Continue reading
On Throw-Back Thursday and Valentine’s Day, here is a repost from a few years ago of a series of Valentine Islands, not all of which are tropical. Are they islands of love on the storm-tossed seas of life? Sadly, they … Continue reading
The Oliver Hazard Perry, the largest civilian Sailing School Vessel in the United States, has offered programs in New England in the Summer and headed south in colder months. Recently, however, the operation ran a deficit approaching $1 million. Rather than … Continue reading
Walter H. Munk, world-renowned oceanographer and geophysicist, has died at 101 at his home in San Diego. Referred to by many as “Einstein of the sea“, Dr. Munk’s work ranged from predicting wave heights on beaches for an amphibious landing in … Continue reading
Scientists have identified a huge magma plume under the Galapagos archipelago using an array of floating robotic seismometers. In other news, the acronym writers have been working overtime. The robotic seismometers used in study have been named Mobile Earthquake Recording in Marine Areas by Independent … Continue reading
The Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge is billed as the world’s toughest row, 3,000 miles across the Atlantic from San Sebastian in La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain to Nelson’s Dockyard, English Harbour, Antigua & Barbuda. This year an all-female Antiguan team made history by … Continue reading
Even though it was expected, it still comes as a shock. Yesterday, the Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT) Harbors Division filed a public notification that the historic windjammer, Falls of Clyde, is being offered for sale by auction. Those who … Continue reading
Recently, the media has somewhat breathlessly reported that the usually slow drift of the magnetic north pole has sped up dramatically. My favorite headline is from NPR which reads, “As Magnetic North Pole Zooms Toward Siberia, Scientists Update World Magnetic Model.” … Continue reading
According to a saying often attributed to Mark Twain, “History may not repeat itself. But it often rhymes.” This came to mind recently when posting about the sad state of the windjammer Falls of Clyde, which recently nearly sank at the … Continue reading
For the first time in 150 years, baby giant tortoises have been born on the Galapagos island of Pinzón. Biologists reported that they had observed ten tiny, newly hatched saddleback tortoises on the island early last month. They commented that … Continue reading
We recently posted an incomplete list of some of the great things that the US Coast Guard was doing while not getting paid during the government shutdown. One of the missions was the resupply of the US McMurdo Station in … Continue reading
More bad news for the Falls of Clyde. The 1878 built windjammer, the last surviving iron-hulled, four-masted full-rigged ship, recently came close to sinking at the dock in Honolulu, Hawaii. On Thursday, the ship began taking on water by the … Continue reading