Istar, “Celebrity” Humpback Whale Killed by Likely Ship Strike

Posted on by April 27, 2013

istarThe mature female humpback whale that washed ashore dead on Long Beach Island last week was well known to scientists, who have tracked her for thirty seven years.  Kimberly Durham, rescue program director of the Riverhead Foundation, described her as a “celebrity in the whale world.”  The humpback was nicknamed Istar, after the Babylonian goddess of fertility. Istar was one of the most productive female humpback whales in the Gulf of Maine population, giving birth to at least eleven known calves. Istar was reported to be at least 41 years old, 48 feet long and was estimated to weigh 30 to 35 tons.  The investigation into the whale’s death is underway but the damage to her skull suggests that she was run down by a ship.  Ship strikes are one of the greatest threats to endangered species of whales.

Humpback found dead on East Quogue beach was a celebrity whale

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The Last Swift Boat

Posted on by April 26, 2013

There has been lots of interest in the restoration of surviving  World War II PT (Patrol Torpedo) boats. The closest thing to a PT boat in service during the Vietnam War was the PCF, Patrol Craft Fast, better known as the Swift Boat. These boats, at 50 feet long, were smaller than the World II vintage PT boats and relied on machine guns and mortars as their principal armament rather than torpedoes. The Swift boats were initially intended for coastal patrol and later became part of the “brown water” Navy, patrolling the interior waterways of Vietnam.  Now, volunteers from the Maritime Museum of San Diego have restored a 1968 Swift boat. Mark Gallant, the project manager says, “When this boat is up and running at the Maritime Museum, it will probably be the only operational swift boat in the United States and probably the world.”  Thanks to Alaric Bond for passing along the story.

Milestone reached for Vietnam swift boat project 

Chinese and Japanese Ships Contest Disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea

Posted on by April 24, 2013

Things are getting tense again in the East China Sea, specifically between the Chinese and Japanese.  The dispute is over a small group of uninhabited islands that lie between Okinawa and Taiwan and are known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese.   Both natiosn claim the islands as soverign territory. Recently a Japanese nationalist group known as Ganbare Nippon sent 10 fishing boats carrying dozens of its members to the area around the islands. A representative for the group, Yasushi Watanabe, said the voyage — the third by Ganbare Nippon this year — was aimed at publicizing Japan’s territorial claim to the area, not at landing on the islands.  In response, the Chinese sent eight marine surveillance ships to the area.

Chinese and Japanese ships cluster around disputed islands

Congratulations to PortSide NewYork – Winner of the White House “Champions of Change” Award !

Posted on by April 24, 2013

Our hearty congratulations to PortSide NewYork, which today was awarded a White House Champions of Change award in recognition for the wonderful work done by the non-profit organization to assist their neighbors in Red Hook, a Brooklyn community absolutely devastated by Hurricane Sandy. The White House Champions of Change program honors everyday Americans doing extraordinary things in their communities. The award to Portside New York is indeed well deserved.

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Jersey Shore Offshore Roller Coast – Hurricane Sandy Icon – to Be Removed by Memorial Day

Posted on by April 24, 2013

starjetThe roller coasters on the Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey have long been a major attraction of the Jersey shore resort town. The latest roller coaster on the pier, the Star Jet (also referred to as the Jet Star,) was installed in 2002. It is steel, 52 feet high, had a top speed of 45 mph and a drop of 1,500 feet. Last November, storm waters from Hurricane Sandy destroyed much of Casino Pier and swept the roller coaster and three other rides into the Atlantic Ocean just off the beach. For the last six months it has become an attraction in its own right, a symbol of the power of Hurricane Sandy. Now the family that owns the amusement park has contracted with Weeks Marine to remove the roller coaster and other rides from the ocean before tourist season begins on Memorial Day. While there has been some support for leaving the roller coast in the ocean, that was vetoed by local officials over safety concerns.  Thanks to Mai Armstrong on the Working Harbor Committee blog for pointing out the news. Video of the coaster before and after the storm, after the jump.

Seaside Heights roller coaster could be out of ocean in a month

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Mississippi River – the Big Muddy Whips From Record Drought to Floods

Posted on by April 23, 2013

floodwarningA few months ago, the Mississippi River was showing the effects of a near record drought. There was talk in December of shutting down barge traffic on key sections of the river due to the low water levels. In January, the level of the water at St. Louis was 4.57 feet below the river gauge.  Today it is expected to rise to 39.4 feet above the river gauge, a forty five foot swing in water level in only four months.  Over the weekend, the river was closed to barge traffic, this time not due to low water but to high.  Several locks were shut down due to flood waters.  Also a 15-mile stretch of the Mississippi River near St. Louis was closed late Saturday after 114 barges broke free from a fleeting area and 11 of them, all containing coal, sank. A second barge accident, apparently unrelated to  flooding, also shut down the river near Vicksburg where about 30 barges broke free from a string under tow Sunday morning and struck a railroad bridge.  The river is expected to climb another 2½ feet in St. Louis before cresting Tuesday at 35 feet. That would be its highest level in nearly three years, though still nearly 15 feet below the record set in 1993.

Magnus Olsson, Ocean Racing Legend, 1949 – 2013

Posted on by April 22, 2013

Sad news, reported by The Daily Sail:

Much loved Swede Magnus Olsson, 64, one of the greatest sportsmen in the world of sailing and one of the coaches and mentors for the Volvo Ocean Race’s Team SCA, has passed away at a hospital in Spain. His family and friends were by his side.Magnus suffered a stroke during the week and, despite initial positive signs, deteriorated over the following days.

Magnus Olsson 1949 – 2013

USS Guardian and the Writ of Kalikasan

Posted on by April 21, 2013

Last week, high level representatives of the Philippine Coast Guard met with the representatives of the US Navy in their investigation of the grounding of the mine sweeper USS Guardian on Tubbataha Reef on January 17, 2013.  At roughly the same time, a group of environmental activists filed a citizen suit before the Philippine Supreme Court asking for a writ of kalikasan over the grounding.  “Kalikasan” is a Filipino word meaning “nature.” A writ of kalikasan is a unique legal remedy under Philippine law which provides for the protection one’s right to “a balanced and healthful ecology in accord with the rhythm and harmony of nature,” as provided for in Section 16, Article II of the Philippine Constitution.

Groups seek writ of kalikasan on USS Guardian grounding

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A Video for a Saturday Morning – Picton Castle Sailing Out the Anchor at Palmerston Island

Posted on by April 20, 2013

Remind me again why jobs, homes and careers are so important. After watching this video it is awfully easy to question one’s priorities. Here is the Barque Picton Castle sailing out the anchor at Palmerston Island in the Cook Islands in the South Pacific. Click here to learn more.

How to sail from a tropical island

The Strange Voyage of Nakuru, the Giraffe

Posted on by April 19, 2013
nakuru-truck

Photo: Becky Rutherford

It is the classic story of young lovers separated by the briny deep, of a young heroine on a storm tossed voyage with unexpected adventure. Oh, yes, and the young heroine is a giraffe.

The Aukland Zoo has been trying to setup Nakuru, a fifteen month old Rothschild giraffe, with the Melbourne Zoo’s male giraffe,  Makului.  Rothschild giraffes are among the most endangered of giraffe sub-species and the hope is that the two giraffes will mate.  Nakuru was born in in the Aukland Zoo in New Zealand, the daughter of resident giraffes Rukiya and Zabulu.   To get Nakuru across the Tasman Sea to Melbourne, Australia, the Aukland Zoo arranged for a special shipping container to be fabricated to fit the young giraffe, which, at over 3 meters tall, exceeds the dimensions of most containerized cargoes.  Last Monday, Nakuru, accompanied by zoo vets and handlers, was loaded aboard the container ship, JPO Scorpius, for the four to five day voyage  to Melbourne.  The voyage has been neither smooth, nor uneventful.

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The Texas City Disaster – the Explosions of the SS Grandcamp & the SS High Flyer

Posted on by April 19, 2013
texascity

Ship Wilson B. Keene sunk by the explosion of the SS Grandcamp and SS High Flyer in Texas City 1947

On Wednesday night, a huge explosion ripped through West, Texas; a small central Texas town, south of Dallas. The fertilizer factory caught fire and exploded, leveling homes and buildings for a five blocks area, killing from 5 – 40 people and injuring more than 180 others. The scope of the damage and the number of dead and injured are still being tallied. The fertilizer company had over a half million pounds of ammonium nitrate stored at the facility. Ammonium nitrate is a common fertilizer and was also the chemical used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

This recent explosion happened within a day of the 66th anniversary of a massive ammonium nitrate explosion in Texas City, Texas on April 16-17, 1947, when the ammonium nitrate cargoes of two ships, the French SS Grandcamp & the Lykes Lines SS High Flyer both caught fire and blew up. The explosions and fires killed close to 600 and injured more than 5,000 in the port of Texas City. The disaster is considered to be the worst industrial accident in the history of the United States.  Sixty six years after the Texas City disaster, we seem not to have learned much from history.

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Who are Jonathan & Mary? A Mystery from a 28 Year Old Letter in a Bottle

Posted on by April 18, 2013

ns-letter-320A 23 year old Croatian kite surfer, Matea Medak Rezic, found a letter in a broken bottle on a beach at the mouth of the Neretva River in the southern Adriatic. The letter was brief:

“Mary, you really are a great person. I hope we can keep in correspondence. I said I would write. Your friend always, Jonathon, Nova Scotia, 1985,” said the message. 

If the bottle was launched in Nova Scotia, it traveled on the winds and currents over 6,000 across the Atlantic into the Mediterranean to the Adriatic Sea. No last names or addresses were given, so the identity of Jonathan & Mary remains a mystery.  If anyone knows who these two may be, please drop us a line. E-mail is preferred. Messages in bottle can take a while.  Thanks to Alaric Bond for passing the story along.

Clearly, Jonathon could have learned a thing or two from Harold Hackett on neighboring Prince Edward Island, who has launched 4,800 bottles into the sea since 1996 and has received 3,100 responses. Harold always put his full name and address in the bottles.  See our post from September 2011 – The Original Social Networking – Harold Hackett and His Messages in Bottles.

A Swan Adrift – Abandoned Sailing Yachts Drifting on the Deep Blue Sea

Posted on by January 24, 2015

In February, Wolfhound, a 48′ Nautor Swan sailing yacht, was abandoned in a storm just north of Bermuda by her Irish owner, Alan McGettigan, and a crew of three. The sailors were rescued by a passing freighter. The boat was reported to have sunk. Instead, Wolfhound was recently spotted very much afloat, drifting around 800 miles southeast of Bermuda.  From a photograph, taken by Martin Butler from a passing ship, the yacht appears to be floating on her lines and doesn’t look in bad shape. It appears that her forestay and backstay have parted, yet the carbon fiber mast is still standing. The current market price of a Nautor Swan 48 is around a half million dollars based on recent brokerage listings on Yachtworld.com. Thanks to Portside New York for pointing out the story on Facebook.

The reappearance of Wolfhound got us thinking about all the other sail boats abandoned when their crews were rescued.

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Chinese Boat Loaded with Illegal Cargo of Endangered Species Ran Aground on Protected Tubbataha Reef

Posted on by April 15, 2013

PhilippinesChinaReefBoatYou can’t make this stuff up. Only a week after the last wreckage of the minesweeper USS Guardian was removed from the reef in the Philippines’  Tubbataha National Marine Park, a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site, where it ran hard aground on January 17th, a Chinese fishing vessel, Min Long Yu, ran aground on the same reef.  Not only did the ship have no business being anywhere near the protected reef, but Philippine officials found 22,000 pounds of of pangolin meat, a protected species of scaly anteater, aboard the fishing vessel.

“It is bad enough that the Chinese have illegally entered our seas, navigated without boat papers and crashed recklessly into a national marine park and World Heritage Site,” said Word Wildlife Fund-Philippines chief executive officer Jose Ma. Lorenzo Tan. “It is simply deplorable that they appear to be posing as fishermen to trade in illegal wildlife.” 

Chinese smugglers nabbed carrrying endangered anteaters in Phillipines