Ninety nine years ago today, the RMS Titanic sank after striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic with the loss of 1,517 passengers and crew. The sinking of the Titanic had a major impact on ship operations. The first International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) was adopted in 1914 as a direct response to the sinking. The International Ice Patrol and AMVER also trace their beginnings to the Titanic disaster.
In the almost 100 years since the sinking, however, the Titanic has moved from being a maritime tragedy to becoming a cultural icon. The subject of hundreds of books and over twenty movies, the Titanic is also the basis of “Museum/Attractions” in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee in the Great Smokey Mountains and in Branson, Missouri. In some respects, the actual sinking seems a backdrop to the movies and books. “Earlier this month a sketch of Kate Winslet, used in the Hollywood blockbuster Titanic, was auctioned off for more than $16,000 in the US.” In the next year’s run-up to the centennial of the sinking, the number of Titanic memorial events will only increase, including a memorial cruise on the MS Balmoral.
I can imagine a couple of bird watchers who become excited when they sight puffins on Pembrokeshire’s Ramsey Island. There haven’t been puffins on the island since the 1890s when they were killed off by rats. The rats are gone now, but the only puffins on the island are plastic decoys, installed on the cliffs in hopes of luring real puffins back to their former home. Apparently the use of plastic decoys has been successful on other islands, so the folks on Ramsey are hoping that their plastic puffins will do as well.
For those in the area this looks like fun. 
One hundred and eleven years ago today the US Navy accepted its first successful submarine, the 
Hundreds of dead dolphins and sea turtles are washing ashore on the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico. No one knows exactly what is killing them though many point to the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill of a year ago. In the mean time, BP is spending roughly $100 million in advertising to “clean up” its image.
Reports now indicate that 