Photo: LA Times
Roughly two hundred years ago, Lord Byron published Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, which contains a stanza that today seems sadly dated:
Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean–roll!
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;
Man marks the earth with ruin–his control
Stops with the shore;–upon the watery plain
Ten years ago Australian yachtsman Ivan Macfadyen sailed from Melbourne to the West Coast of the United States by way of Osaka, Japan. A decade later, he repeated the voyage and was stunned and saddened by the effects of over-fishing and the vast debris fields that clutter the Pacific. “The ocean is broken,” Macfadyen concluded, in shock, sadness and outrage.
Robots are being increasingly being used to gather data at sea. Here is a fascinating undersea glider design in use by the 
On Friday morning, local time, Super Typhoon Haiyan came shore in the central Philippines. With an estimated maximum sustained winds of 195 mph and gusts to 235 mph, 
On November 14th, 1863, on the Isle of Man in Great Britain, the shipyard of Gibson, McDonald & Arnold, Ramsey launched the 1,200 tonne full rigged iron ship, 
The U.S. Navy’s new supercarrier, 
In August we posted about 
My younger son, a senior in high school, mentioned to me a few mornings ago that the newest version of the historical action-adventure video game, 
In our 
Award-winning architect Dame Zaha Hadid has designed a family of super-yachts with a skeletal superstructure for the German shipbuilders Blohm+Voss. These are the first super-yachts designed by Hadid who is known for a wide range of project including the Roca London Gallery, the BMW Central Building in Leipzig, Germany, MAXXI National Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome and thethe Aquatics Centre built in London for last summer’s Olympics.
Google has been causing quite a stir on the waterfront. Two mysterious barges have appeared, one on the Pacific in 
Today is the first anniversary of 
Last week, two rare oarfish washed up (or in the case of the first was dragged up) on the shores of Southern California. Yesterday, Japan was stuck by a 7.3 magnitude earthquake. A coincidence? It seems that there is Japanese folklore that says that sighting of oarfish portends a coming earthquake. Oarfish are the longest bony fish in the ocean and can grow up to around 17 meters or 56 feet long. The two that washed up in California were only 18′ and 14′ long, which is still very impressive. Oarfish, which tend to stay in deep water, are rarely seen on the surface. When they do make an appearance they are understandably often referred to as “sea serpents,” given their long snake-like bodies. It is easy to understand how they might be useful in folklore as a predictor of ill-tidings. If sea serpents start appearing, something bad must be coming. In Japan, the oarfish is traditionally known as the “Messenger from the Sea God’s Palace.” (If the Sea God is sending you a message, it is better sent by a sea serpent rather than a sea bass.)