The British Royal Navy and Royal Marines recently tested a jet suit developed by the company Gravity Industries. Gravity says its suit can fly up to 80 mph and climb to 12,000 feet in the air. The absolutely amazing footage speaks for itself.
There are reports that Migaloo, an all-white humpback whale, has been sighted off the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia, on his annual migration from Antarctica to Queensland. Migaloo is considered by many to be a “rockstar” and is arguably the world’s most famous living whale.
First sighted in 1991, the all-white whale is among some 35,000 humpback whales that migrate north to subtropical waters where they mate and give birth. The timing of the migration depends on water temperatures, sea ice, predators, and the availability of food. 7news.com.au notes that this year, Migaloo is early.
Photo: Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Daniel Barker/Navy
The Marine Corps suspended Maj. Gen. Robert F. Castellvi last week as it investigates his role in the sinking of an amphibious assault vehicle (AAV) that killed eight U.S. Marines and one Navy sailor.
A Marine Corps investigation, released in March, determined that the two-star general “bears some responsibility” for the incident in which a 35-year-old armored amphibious assault vehicle (AAV) sprang numerous leaks and sank off the coast of California last July. The investigation report concluded that the deaths were the result of poor training, a vehicle in “horrible condition,” and lapsed safety procedures in a rush to deploy an operational AAV platoon.
WWLP-22News reports that at least 160 North Atlantic right whales were spotted in Cape Cod Bay and along South Shore at the end of last week. Given that the highly endangered species are estimated to number fewer than 400 animals, the right whale sightings in the area are extremely impressive.
The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries has extended the small vessel speed restriction in Cape Cod Bay through May 15, 2021. Small vessels (less than 65’) are required to travel at speeds no greater than 10 knots in this area. Right whales are highly susceptible to injury and death due to vessel collision. A complementary federal speed restriction in the area applies to vessels 65’ and greater until May 15.
The title of an article in CNN was intriguing — Why so many people in China are becoming mermaids. The article featured a recent event described as the “largest underwater mermaid show” that set a Guinness World Record at the Ambassador Lagoon inside China’s Atlantis Sanya resort on the island of Hainan.
Apparently, mermaid diving, also known as mermaiding, has become very popular in China. Akin to freediving, the would-be mermaids don’t wear a tank or use any external aids except for their mermaid tail. While the name may imply females, men are also joining in the fun.
Mermaiding’s popularity is not limited to China, however. Continue reading
Denmark is planning on building three offshore wind farms with 200 turbines with a 3 GW capacity 100 kilometers off the coast in the North Sea. Later phases of the project include an additional seven wind farms with 470 turbines. On its completion, the entire project will have a capacity of 10 GW.
To manage and service these new wind farms, Denmark has decided to build an artificial island to serve as an energy hub 80 kilometers from the shore of the Jutland peninsula. The artificial island will be owned by a public-private partnership through the VindØ consortium.
First Officer Mohammed Aisha had been stranded on the “cursed” MV Aman, for almost four years onboard, stuck off the Egyptian coast. He has finally been freed and has flown home to Syria.
The BBC reports that it began in July 2017, when the MV Aman was detained at the Egyptian port of Adabiya. The cargo ship was held because it had expired safety equipment and classification certificates.
It should have been easy enough to resolve, but the ship’s Lebanese contractors failed to pay for fuel and the MV Aman‘s owners in Bahrain were in financial difficulty.
We recently posted about the schooner Ernestina-Morrissey, ex Ernestina, ex Effie M. Morrissey, beginning a new chapter as a sail training vessel for the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. Here is a repost of a documentary, narrated by the polar explorer, Captain Bob Bartlett, describing a voyage to Greenland in the schooner he refers to as his “Little Morrissey.”
Captain Bartlett sailed with Robert Peary in his expeditions to the North Pole. Bartlett sailed the schooner Morrissey in twenty voyages to the Arctic. In total, Bartlett spent more than 50 years mapping and exploring the waters of the Arctic and led over 40 expeditions, more than anyone before or since. While this film is dated 1947, it was shot on an earlier voyage north, as Captain Bartlett died in 1946.
Effie M Morrisey (Ernestina) Coastal Schooner 1947 Classic Film
We recently posted about two “heritage desks” built for the Vice President of the United States and the Secretary of the Navy from timbers and fittings from the USS Constitution and several other historic ships. The CBC recently had an account of guitars made from shipwrecked timber:
When Greg Fleming was looking for some old wood to make a new guitar, he knew just where to look. What he didn’t know for a while was just how old that wood was.
We recently posted “No, 15 Large Ships Do Not Pollute More Than All the Cars in the World.” It was based on a claim made by Dr. James Corbett in 2009, that only addressed sulfur pollution. Enthusiastic journalists picked up on the catchy claim and said that 15 large ships create more total pollution than all the cars in the world. The problem with that assertion is that Corbett’s rough calculation did not, among other things, include the trillion-tonne gorilla in the room, the carbon footprint of cars vs ships. Cars actually produce far more greenhouse gases than ships.
Do you know what you are getting when you buy fish in a store or order it prepared in a restaurant? It isn’t always easy. An analysis of 44 recent studies of more than 9,000 seafood samples from restaurants, fishmongers, and supermarkets in more than 30 countries, performed by Guardian Seascape, found that 36% were mislabelled, exposing seafood fraud on a vast global scale.
The Guardian reports that many of the studies used relatively new DNA analysis techniques. In one comparison of sales of fish labeled “snapper” by fishmongers, supermarkets, and restaurants in Canada, the US, the UK, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand, researchers found mislabelling in about 40% of fish tested. The UK and Canada had the highest rates of mislabelling in that study, at 55%, followed by the US at 38%.
In 2009, Dr. James Corbett, a professor of marine policy at the University of Delaware, came up with what he describes as a thought experiment. He compared the sulfur dioxide produced by the largest container ship burning the dirtiest bunker fuel with that of an automobile burning the cleanest fuel. He concluded that under this hypothetical case, 15 of the world’s largest container ships produced as much sulfur pollution as all the world’s 760 million cars. A memorable factoid, but of questionable veracity.
BBC’s program/podcast More or Less: Behind the Stats with Tim Harford, examines the shortcomings of this thought experiment. To listen to the podcast, click the banner below. Otherwise, read on.
The Indonesia Navy announced that it has located debris from the missing submarine KRI Nanggala 402, indicating that the submarine sank with the loss of 53 crew.
API reports that military chief Hadi Tjahjanto said the presence of an oil slick, as well as the discovery of debris near the location of KRI Nanggala 402′s last dive on Wednesday off the island of Bali, were clear proof the vessel had sunk. Indonesia earlier considered the vessel to be only missing.
The Indonesian submarine KRI Nanggala 402, with a crew of 53, disappeared on Wednesday during exercises off the coast of Bali, sparking a frantic search to locate the stricken vessel. Australia, India, Malaysia, Singapore, and the United States have sent specialized ships or aircraft in response to Indonesian requests for assistance.
If the submarine was still intact, officials said it would only have enough air to last until early Saturday morning.
I realize that I am in a rut. Every Earth Day, I say the same thing. Over 70% of the surface of this planet is covered by water, so referring to the planet as “earth” is just wrong. But be that as it may, the misnamed planet is still called “earth” and Earth Day is a worthwhile celebration of protecting the planet, both the dirt and the watery portions.
Below is a repost of a TED talk by one of the world’s great sailors, Dame Ellen MacArthur, about what she learned when she was sailing around the world alone. As she circled the globe, she began thinking about the idea of “the circular economy,” an intriguing insight. Definitely worth watching.
The surprising thing I learned sailing solo around the world | Dame Ellen MacArthur
Photo: Susan S. Bank
The schooner Ernestina-Morrissey, ex Ernestina, ex Effie M. Morrissey, will soon begin a new chapter in her long and storied career as a sail training vessel for the Massachusetts Maritime Academy.
The schooner was built in 1894 at the James and Tarr Shipyard for the Gloucester fishing fleet. Following a successful career as a fishing vessel, the schooner was skippered by Robert Bartlett for many years on numerous scientific expeditions to the Arctic, sponsored by American museums, the Explorers Club and the National Geographic Society. She also helped survey the Arctic for the United States Government during World War II. She would later carry cargo and immigrants from Cape Verde in the packet trade. Returned to the US in 1982 as a gift from the newly independent Cape Verdean people, she sailed as an educational vessel until 2005.
Vice Adm. Linda L. Fagan was nominated as the next Vice Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, the Department of Homeland Security announced on Monday.
The nomination by President Biden, pending approval by the U.S. Senate, would make Fagan the Coast Guard’s first female four-star admiral, the branch said in a press release.
Vice Adm. Fagan’s Coast Guard career has taken her to all seven continents. In 2010, she became the first woman to command Sector New York.
For several years now we have followed the progress of the autonomous sailing drones developed by the aptly name firm, Saildrone, in oceanographic service in the Pacific and Bering Seas. In January, we posted about Saildrone’s new 72’ long Surveyor, which is described as the world’s most advanced uncrewed surface vehicle (USV), equipped for high-resolution mapping of the ocean seafloor.
Now, Saildrone is broadening its mission and geography to study the Atlantic’s Gulf Stream. Funded in part by a grant of roughly $1 million from Google.org, the 12-month mission is expected to yield insights into the impact of the Gulf Stream on weather forecasting and global carbon models. Saildrone will be launching a half dozen of its 23-foot Explorer model drones to roam the North Atlantic.
Antarctica’s iceberg A68 has broken up into a myriad of small pieces so that the US National Ice Center says are no longer worth tracking. Once the world’s biggest iceberg in existence, A68 became an unexpected social media star in its own right. A brief look back at the journey of this remarkable berg.
The American Bureau of Shipping completed its survey and concluded that the ultra-large container ship Ever Given, which had blocked the Suez Canal for almost a week at the end of March, was fit for onward passage. Unfortunately, the ship will remain at anchor in the canal’s Great Bitter Lake, as the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) had the ship arrested the day before.
The ship is being held in the waterway as authorities pursue a $916 million compensation claim against its owner, according to the vessel’s insurer. The SCA claim includes $300m for salvage and $300m for “loss of reputation”, which appears set to be rejected by the vessel’s insurer.
The UK P&I Club, an insurer for the Ever Given, said in a statement Tuesday that the ship’s Japanese owners received a claim from the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), which runs the canal, on April 7. The insurer revealed it had already made a compensation offer to the SCA this week. The $300 million for salvage is in addition to the actual charges for services by the salvage contractors who freed the grounded ship.