Messing About In Sailboats

This Qingdao algae thing is no joke

I was jumping around some of the Olympic blogs and came across these pics on McNay-Biehls' 470 Blog. (Hope you don't mind me borrowing your photos guys but these are frickin' scary). First the fog now this. How the bloody hell are they going to sort this out? It's not like it's going to stop growing. If anything it will get worse. If it's like Chesapeake Bay, there will be dead fish floating all over the place too.

In their blog McNay and Biehl reference an article that I think this probably spurred the NY Times article today. This one is unbelievable.

eeeeugh!

c/o BBC
The carcass of a humpback whale lies on an Alaskan beach. Scientists believe its death was down to its enormous deformed tongue, "the size of a small car". What caused the grotesque swelling is a mystery, but a ship strike and infection are the principal theories.

New species discovered in Antartica

As the Antartic ice shelves collapse, new species are being discovered, like this psychedelic octopus. My favorite is the discovery of a new species called Shackletonia. As a Shackleton buff it seems a bit of a shame to name a small crustacean after him. Excerpt below: 

Several strange creatures including a psychedelic octopus have been found in frigid waters off Antarctica in one of the world’s most pristine marine environments.

Others resembled corals and shrimps. At least 30 appear to be new to science, said Julian Gutt, chief scientist of an expedition that was part of the International Polar Year research effort set to launch on March 1. The researchers catalogued about 1,000 species in an area of the Antarctic seabed where warming temperatures are believed to have caused the collapse of overlying ice shelves, affecting the marine life below.

“This is virgin geography,” said expedition member Gauthier Chapelle. “If we don’t find out what this area is like now following the collapse of the ice shelf, and what species are there, we won’t have any basis to know in 20 years’ time what has changed and how global warming has altered the marine ecosystem.”

Well they cleared that up then...

From BBC.co.uk
Thank heavens they cleared this up. I was beginning to wonder.

Humans blamed for climate change 

                                  Global climate change is "very likely" to have a human cause, an influential group of scientists has concluded.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said temperatures were probably going to increase by 1.8-4C (3.2-7.2F) by the end of the century.

It also projected that sea levels were most likely to rise by 28-43cm, and global warming was likely to influence the intensity of tropical storms.

The findings are the first of four IPCC reports to be published this year.

"We can be very confident that the net effect of human activity since 1750 has been one of warming," co-lead author Dr Susan Soloman told delegates in Paris.                                                                       

More

There is something scary going on

This was pointed out by my new favorite blog Bits and Pieces

Birds are falling from the sky left and right.  All in the last few days.  Something is going on here…and it’s a little scary.

THOUSANDS of birds have fallen from the skies over Esperance and no one knows why.
Is it an illness, toxins or a natural phenomenon? A string of autopsies in Perth have shed no light on the mystery.

All the residents of flood-devastated Esperance know is that their "dawn chorus" of singing birds is missing.

The main casualties are wattle birds, yellow-throated miners, new holland honeyeaters and singing honeyeaters, although some dead crows, hawks and pigeons have also been found.

Wildlife officers are baffled by the "catastrophic" event, which the Department of Environment and Conservation said began well before last week's freak storm.

On Monday, Esperance, 725km southeast of Perth, was declared a natural disaster zone.

Australian story

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Police shut down 10 blocks of businesses in the heart of downtown early Monday after dozens of birds were found dead in the streets, but officials said preliminary tests showed no dangerous chemicals in the air.

As many as 60 dead pigeons, sparrows and grackles were found overnight along Congress Avenue, a main route through downtown. No human injuries or illnesses were reported.

Austin Texas story

Sailing round the world in a chip-fryer

Great article about Peter Bethune a Kiwi environemtalist/sailor who has built a boat that runs on bio-diesel. That's recycled oil from deep-fat fryers.

Sadly his project is very short of the $4 million needed to leave California so he doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

I am not sure that this will catch-on as a major form of transportation as the boat has a distinct aroma

"Then there are the curious smells that follow biodiesel vehicles in general, often reflecting the fuel’s origins. “You may smell doughnuts, you may smell French fries,” said Josh Tickell, of the advocacy group Biodiesel America. “People say they smell fried catfish, but that might be a stretch.”

Link: A Boat Racing on Biodiesel, but Running Low on Money - New York Times.

Dead Fish

A couple of month's ago I went sailing in Chesapeake Bay. For anyone who hasn't sailed there, it's a beautiful, protected sail area bordered by a green and leafy coastline. OK that's the nice bit. The not so nice bit is the dead fish.

It was early August and very hot. Not a lot of breeze so we were motoring. On our way back to Annapolis, we saw a big dead fish floating on the surface. At first we thought maybe some aquamoron in a cigarette-boat had whacked it near the surface. Then we saw another one. Then another one. In fact we probably saw a big bloated dead fish every hundred yards or so.

I did a bit of digging around. Here's the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's web site had to say.

"The Chesapeake Bay’s “dead zone,” stretching for hundreds of square miles during the summer, has too little oxygen to support a healthy ecosystem.  Though you can’t see it as you drive across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge outside of Annapolis, or across the Rappahannock River on Route 3, the “dead zone” has a devastating impact on the creatures living in the Bay and its tributaries.

Like animals on land, nearly all of the Chesapeake Bay’s aquatic life, from worms and crabs on the bottom, to perch and striped bass above and underwater grasses in between, depend on oxygen to survive. Low dissolved oxygen (DO) levels, called hypoxia, can impair growth and reproduction and stress living resources, making them vulnerable to disease.  Water with no oxygen, called anoxic, will kill most aquatic animals."More

Basically the run-off from sewage treatment plants and farms further upstream is fertilizing algae in the Bay. When these algae die, they sink to the bottom and take up oxygen from the water. Less oxygen, less for the fish so fish die. 

In June 2000, the State of Maryland instituted a law to get the offenders to clean up. Sadly it doesn't seem to be making much difference. In fact it seems to getting worse.

We can help by joining the Chesapeake Bay Society

 

Ernesto Hits Larchmont, NY

Another picture on the impact of Hurricane Ernesto on Larchmont, NY. This pic is of Larchmont Yacht Club taken by local sailor and kayaker Chris Marquardt.

Hurricane hits Larchmont NY

Larchmont, NY is a beautiful town at the northwestern end of Long Island sound. It's a short train ride form NY. They were surprisingly badly by Hurricane Ernesto.

The surge tides did extensive damage to Larchmont Yacht Club at the Horseshoe Harbor Yacht Club, tearing several boats off their moorings, sinking one boat at LYC and damaging the trees on the shore front.

Given how far up Long Island sound Larchmont is, it was particularly unlucky to get this badly slammed.