You don’t need to go all the way to the Caribbean to swim with Whale sharks!

http://news.discovery.com/videos/animals-swimming-with-sharks.html

This is in my budget.

Hope they aren’t napping when I am visiting…

http://news.discovery.com/videos/animals-sperm-whales-caught-napping.html

And this is just a great title…sea urchin orgies?!

http://news.discovery.com/videos/animals-preventing-sea-urchin-orgies.html

Check out the cool graphic of the path of the debris.

Check out the article:

http://news.discovery.com/earth/tsunami-debris-floating-fast-towards-hawaii-111025.html#mkcpgn=emnws1

He was following everyone around the beach.

We went down to La Jolla this weekend to check out the Children’s pool. According to the law, People do have a right to use the beach at Children’s pool, but they need to stay clear of the seals, don’t disturb them if they are hanging out sleeping, and DON”T try to pet them. San Diego Freedivers were down there to share the beach with the seals…we each had opposite sides except for the little elephant seal that was sick. He came very close to us and did not look well. Seaworld was called and he was taken back to get some much needed medical care.

A big fish was caught…7 gill shark…and was eaten right on the beach with the BBQ grill. At first, I was not keen on the idea of cooking up a shark in front of the “Friends of the seals” that are there everyday, but the Freedivers needed to show that they do actually EAT the fish they catch. It does not go to waste.

I felt bad for the “Friends” and hope they didn’t feel uncomfortable watching that, but they tend to get a little radical at times and the freedivers had to do that.

it says "Enjoy the Beach" not "stay away"

My friend just bought a new surfboard and asked me to take her out for a lesson. Of course, I agreed! However, after the first 5 minutes into the post lesson- try-out-what-I -just- showed- you part, she stepped on a stingray. Being a seasoned surfer and waterperson, I know to shuffle my feet in the water. I always tell my students to do the same, but she forgot. So…what to do? My friend is crying out in pain and I see a huge hole in the side of her foot….eeew.

EEeeeeeeeewwwww!

First, wipe the area clean and remove any booties or clothing from the area. Then, Soak the affected limb in the hottest water tolerable for at least an hour (this does not mean pee on it!). Try to do this as soon as possible to stop the venom from becoming active.  Because stingray venom is composed of heat-labile proteins, putting the stung area in hot water will alter the tertiary structure of the polypeptide protein molecule by denaturing and thereby deactivating the poison. Ultimately this means that the venom will have less effect. Not only does the hot water help with the venom, but at the same time it will significantly reduce the amount of pain the victim is experiencing.   Other sources of heat such as a high power spotlight, engine manifold covered with a damp towel or hot car hood covered with a damp towel can also be used with caution. An instant hot pack like the kind used in glove warmers may be a good thing to keep on hand in your first aid kit when venturing into stingray territory. An open flame of any kind is probably to dangerous too use due to risk of burning the skin but may be considered if great care is taken to avoid burning and nothing else is available.Beach lifeguards sometimes keep buckets of hot water around the station on busy summer days – you could ask to use it. The venom will often become gel or jelly-like and ooze from the open wound–this is desired.

Wrap the wound in a makeshift bandage from any available clean, lint-free cloth soaked in hot water once the wound has stopped oozing. Use a topical antibiotic to reduce the chance of infection and relieve pain. Don’t bother wasting time and money going to he emergency room right away since there is nothing they can do but watch you scream out in pain and charge you for a bed. The sting will go away in an hour or so. However, if the wound site shows any signs of infection, such as redness, prolonged swelling, or pus, seek medical attention immediately. Topical antibiotics are not a substitute for proper medical attention. Untreated infections can result in loss of limbs or death.

Jelly fish stings are a little different. They have tentacles that inject poison and keep pumping as long as they are attached to you. If you get stung, wash off the tentacles and stingers with rubbing alcohol. In case of sting, follow these first aide procedures;

• Remove the patient from the water.
• Try to calm the patient so they avoid extra contact with active tentacle.
• Do not rub with sand or a towel!
• Avoid getting stung yourself!
• Do not apply a compression bandage!

Inactivate adherent tentacles by the application, in copious quantities, of vinegar, which prevents further nematocyst discharge by ‘fixing’ the cells. As little as 30 seconds application of 5% acetic acid will prevent further nematocyst discharge. Most household vinegar is in the range 4.2 to 5.5% and is quite suitable for the task.

Remove adherent tentacle – ideally after full inactivation. It is wise to continue to apply vinegar during this process and to use tweezers.

Try simple methods of pain relief. Neither vinegar or methylated spirits are useful as analgesics.

If anti-venom and steroids are available they should be administered as soon as possible.

Some people are allergic, so an antihistamine would be good to take if you start to really swell up. Some jelly fish wash up on shore dead. Be careful with those as well since their stingers could still contain poison and still be active.

In the future….remember to SHUFFLE YOUR FEET WHEN WALKING in the sandy shallows and don’t go near stingrays even if they are dead on the beach.

Because water has a specific heat approximately 1000 times greater than that of air and a thermal conductivity 24 times greater than that of air, the body loses heat much faster in water than in air of the same temperature.

Use of apparently adequate thermal protection in prolonged dives, or repeated dives over several days, may produce long slow cooling and undetected hypothermia even in tropical water.

At the end of a dive, a cold diver should be re-warmed.  Cold divers should not make a second dive on the same day, because it is difficult to know when body heat has been restored. However, if a second dive is necessary, it is advisable to overdo the re-warming until sweating occurs, which indicates that body heat has been restored.  The diver should then change into warm, dry clothing and continue some mild exercise to improve heat production and circulation.

Five Strategies for Preserving Body Heat:

For a more comfortable and ultimately safer dive follow these tips for conserving body heat.

 Stay warm before the dive. Heat loss is gradual and can start long before you get to the dive site.

 Stay warm between repetitive dives. Standing around in wet gear between dives can add to your body’s deprivation of warmth through evaporative heat loss.

 Get warmed up as soon as possible after a dive. You can start on the dive boat by toweling off and getting into dry clothes.

 You can develop hypothermia without immediately recognizing it. When choosing your exposure suit, err on the side of thermal protection.

  Become an educated consumer. Visit your local dive shop and have them show you the different styles of protective garments and accessories. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.

This is a case for the Surf-fur!!!

WASHINGTON It’s one of the most treacherous stretches of water in the world, where 1 million cubic feet of water a second collides with 20- or 30-foot ocean swells over a four-mile stretch of shifting sand.

A small band of pilots braves often-treacherous conditions to guide ships across the Columbia River Bar.

The pilots who work the “Graveyard of the Pacific” have a deep respect for the relentless forces they face daily as they ride out to tankers, bulk carriers, car carriers, and cargo and passenger ships standing offshore. They commute in 72-foot self-righting boats that can roll over 360 degrees as winter gales and sometimes hurricane-force storms blast out of the North Pacific.

The pilots also confirm what marine scientists have just started talking about: Ocean waves are becoming bigger and more powerful, and climate change could be the cause.

“We’ve been talking about it for a couple of years now,” said Capt. Dan Jordan, who served in the merchant marine for 30 years before becoming a Columbia River Bar pilot. “Mother Nature has an easy way of telling us who is in charge.”

Using buoy data and models based on wind patterns, scientists say that the waves off the coast of the Pacific Northwest and along the Atlantic seaboard from West Palm Beach, Fla., to Cape Hatteras, N.C., are steadily increasing in size. And, at least in the Northwest, the larger waves are considered more of a threat to coastal communities and beaches than the rise in sea level accompanying global warming is.

Similar increases in wave height have been noticed in the North Atlantic off England.

Unclear is whether the number and height of “rogue” waves beyond the continental shelf have increased. The existence of such freak waves, which can reach 100 feet or more in height and can swamp a large ship in seconds, wasn’t proved until 2004, when European satellites equipped with radar detected 10 of them during a three-week period. According to some estimates, two merchant ships a month disappear without a trace, thought to be victims of rogue waves.

“Obviously, this is an issue we are interested in,” said Trevor Maynard of Lloyd’s of London’s emerging risk team, which tracks global climate-change developments. “We are seeing climate change fingerprints on a lot of events.”

Since the mid-1970s, buoy data show the height of the biggest waves off the Northwest coast has increased an average of about four inches a year, or about 10 feet total, according to Peter Ruggiero, an assistant geosciences professor at Oregon State University and the lead author of a study published recently in the journal Coastal Engineering.

Ruggiero and his colleagues also estimated how high a 100-year wave might be. These would be the largest waves expected to come along every 100 years. The estimate has increased 40 percent since the 1970s, from 33 feet to 46 feet. Some calculations estimate a 100-year wave might be 55 feet high, taller than a five-story building.

“We are assuming the trends will increase in the future,” Ruggiero said.

The future already may be here, however.

Jordan, the Columbia River pilot, said a 44-foot wave was recorded off the river in October. In a major spring storm in 2007, a 54-foot wave was recorded.

“After that the buoy quit recording,” Jordan said.

On the East Coast, a yet-to-be-published study also has showed that average wave heights have been increasing, by a couple of centimeters or so a year.

“The averages aren’t very exciting,” said Peter Adams, an assistant professor in the University of Florida’s Department of Geological Sciences who used wind data from the past 20 to 30 years to develop a wave height model. “Given that there are 3 million waves a year, one wave every 10 seconds, it’s not so alarming.”

Adams said he finds it startling that the height of the biggest waves has increased nearly a foot in 10 years.

“In a lifetime, that can be profound,” he said.

A scientific debate is raging over what’s causing the increase in wave size. Possible causes include changing storm tracks, higher winds and more intense winter storms – all signs of global climate change.

“While these increases are most likely due to Earth’s changing climate, uncertainty exists as to whether they are the product of human-induced greenhouse warming or represent variations related to natural multi-decadal climate cycles,” Ruggiero’s study said.

Among the weather phenomenon that could be affecting wave heights in the Pacific, Ruggiero said, are El Nino – warmer surface temperatures in the tropical eastern Pacific – and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation – 20- to 30-year patterns of warmer or cooler surface temperatures in the Pacific.

“There is a lot of speculation, a lot of reading of tea leaves,” he said.

Others are skeptical about any link to climate change.

Richard Seymour, the head of the Ocean Engineering Research Group at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California, said any connection between increased wave height and climate change is tenuous. In fact, Seymour said, there aren’t enough data on wave heights to provide the “statistical reliability” to predict any trends.

Seymour and others said too little is known about the oceans.

“It always struck me as odd we know more about the surface of Mars than the floor of the Pacific Ocean,” he said.

Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/11/14/1836887/ocean-waves-getting-bigger-and.html#ixzz15kYBj4Km

http://www.riseaboveplastics.org/

Write to your Senator. Click on the link that reads “Click here for more info” and it will take you to the page of your local senator. You just need to fill in your name and send it off. It takes two seconds…maybe three.

Carol Browner, White House Representative for Energy and Climate Change.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/bp-oil-spill-white-house-worst-american-history/story?id=10735137

The Environmental Protection Agency last week ordered BP to use a less toxic chemical dispersant but the company failed to comply. There are fewer dispersants being manufactured in the quantities needed, Browner said, and scientists are continuing to examine how the particular dispersant interacts with the environment.  

“What the EPA did yesterday was direct BP to use less of this dispersant while they continue to study what other alternatives may be available,” Browner said.

In response to questions being raised about whether BP will follow orders given by the administration, Browner said that BP will “absolutely comply” and is already complying with Monday’s order.

Basically, it is a toxic soup of oil and chemical dispersant that formed large underwater plumes as deep as 25 feet. The worst chemical disaster in U.S. history.

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill is expected to strike the Louisiana coastline today, and officials are bracing for impacts to shorebirds, turtles, shellfish and other endangered wildlife. But many ocean scientists are now raising concerns that a powerful current could spread the still-bubbling slick from the Florida Keys all the way to Cape Hatteras off North Carolina.

These oceanographers are carefully watching the Gulf Loop Current, a clockwise swirl of warm water that sets up in the Gulf of Mexico each spring and summer. If the spill meets the loop — the disaster becomes a runaway.

“It could make it from Louisiana all the way to Miami in a week, maybe less.” said Eric Chassignet, director of the Center for Ocean Atmospheric Prediction Studies at Florida State University. “It is pretty fast.”

Right now, some computer models show the spill 30 to 50 miles north of the loop current. If the onshore winds turn around and push the oil further south: “That would be a nightmare,” said Yonggang Liu, research associate at the University of South Florida who models the current. “Hopefully we are lucky, but who knows. The winds are changing and difficult to predict.”

Imagine the loop current as an ocean-going highway, transporting tiny plankton, fish and other marine life along a watery conveyor belt. Sometimes it even picks up a slug of freshwater from the Mississippi River — sending it on a wandering journey up to North Carolina.

The Gulf Loop Current acts like jet of warm water that squirts in from the Caribbean basin and sloshes around the Gulf of Mexico before being squeezed out the Florida Strait, where it joins the larger and more powerful Gulf Stream current.

Fishermen follow the current as a harbinger of good catches. It has also transported algal blooms — toxic “red tides” — from the Gulf of Mexico to beaches and bays along the southeast Atlantic coast.

Oceanographer George Maul worries that the current could push the oil slick right through the Florida Keys and its 6,000 coral reefs.

“I looked at some recent satellite imagery and it looks like some of the oil may be shifted to the south,” said Maul, a professor at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Fla. “If it gets entrained in the loop, it could spread throughout much of the Atlantic.”

In fact, new animation from a consortium of Florida institutions and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, predicts a slight southward shift in the oil over the next few days.

Emergency responders are working to cap the oil spill at its undersea source, but admit it could be weeks before the well is shut down.

Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are expected to release their predictions of the spill and the loop current early this week. A spokeswoman for the agency did not respond to requests for comment by Discovery News.

-Eric Niiler is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C. ]]> http://officialwatermangroup.com/blog/206/feed/ 0