THE GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH ? WHERE IS IT? WHAT IS IT? (THE SIZE OF TEXAS!)

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EDU : GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. Marine debris is litter that ends up in oceans, seas, and other large bodies of water.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also known as the Pacific trash vortex, spans waters from the West Coast of North America to Japan. The patch is actually comprised of the Western Garbage Patch, located near Japan, and the Eastern Garbage Patch, located between the U.S. states of Hawai'i and California.

These areas of spinning debris are linked together by the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone, located a few hundred kilometers north of Hawai'i. This convergence zone is where warm water from the South Pacific meets up with cooler water from the Arctic. The zone acts like a highway that moves debris from one patch to another....

Keep reading! Go to that link above! 

OFFICIAL HAWIIAN OUTLOOK ON THE ENDANGERED MONK SEAL : HIGH ESTIMATE IS 1600 INDIVIDUALS

Excerpt: These seals are generalist feeders, meaning they eat all sorts of prey, including sea cucumbers, eel, octopus, lobster, and various reef fish. Seals have never been observed hunting pelagic fish, such as mahi-mahi, ahi, aku, etc. Monk seals can hold their breath for up to 20 minutes and dive to depths of more than 1,800 feet [1]. When searching for food they often flip rocks with their noses to find more cryptic prey [2]. Sometimes sharks and large predator fish follow the seals around and snatch up fish that seals spook into the open [3]. Monk seals spend about one-third of their time resting on land, preferring sandy beaches, tidepools, or rocky intertidal areas to rest away from the crashing surf.

Excerpt: Although they are now protected by federal and state laws, current drivers of this decline are not certain; however, the most likely culprit is inadequate prey availability

DIVISION OF AQUATIC RESOURCES HAWAII : ENDANGERED MONK SEAL

HAWAIIAN MONK SEALS ENDANGERED SPECIES

DRONES RECORD HUNDREDS OF WHALES : CHANGES IN SIZE OF FEMALES AND CALVES : DROP IN BIRTHRATE : HEATWAVES EFFECT

SEATTLE TIMES : DRONES RECORD HUNDREDS OF WHALES by Brendan Rascius  of McClatchy News 

EXCERPT: ... scientists documented dramatic changes in the size of the mothers and calves and in humpback birthrates.
Changes in size

Between 2018 and 2022, “a total of 2,410 measurements were taken from 1,659 individuals, with 405 repeat measurements from 137 lactating females used to track changes in maternal body volume over migration,” Martin van Aswegen, one of the study authors, said in a news release from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

In six months, they decreased in body volume by 17% on average. Specifically, the mothers off Hawaii — where the whales breed — lost about 214 pounds of blubber each day.

Comparatively, nonpregnant and pregnant females off Alaska — where the whales feed — gained size much faster than new mothers, putting on weight between two and six times the rate of lactating females.

Calves, in contrast, rapidly put on weight. They increased their body volume by about 395%, and their length increased by nearly 60%.

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KEEP READING! 

ROAD TO ATLANTIS NORTH OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS? YELLOW BRICK ROAD

Excerpts: PMNM is one of the largest marine conservation areas in the world, larger than all the national parks in the United States combined, and we've only explored about 3 percent of its seafloor. 

SCIENCE ALERT : YELLOW BRICK ROAD

Go to the website to find out about the fractured rock.

SANCTUARY OCEAN COUNT HAWAII'S HUMBACK WHALES

 The 2025 Ocean Counts are scheduled for the following Saturday’s:

January 25

February 22

March 29

SIGN UP STARTS JANUARY 6TH.

Ocean Count ORG

MAURICE and MARALYN IS A RIVITING SURVIVAL STORY and a PAGE TURNER by SOPHIE ELMHIRST

A WHALE A SHIP A LOVE STORY

Halfway to New Zealand, Maurice and Maralyn Bailey's boat got struck by a sperm whale and from then on they struggled to survive. This is a riveting story of of how much humans can endure. Yes, they were rescued, which was improbable after so many ships passed them by without seeing them in the inflatable dinghy that had become their home.  At that point they were skeletal and near death, though they had captured turtles and sharks by hand and had also used the flesh as bait to catch fish. 

Their adventure began in March of 1973. Seven years earlier they'd considered giving up their ordinary suburban lives, their average jobs, to sail instead.  To do so they would sell their house, quit their jobs,  move into a rental in the Southhampton port area, take other jobs, and learn to sail by making runs across the English Channel and such. They were sensible as they made progress to their goal.  Well researched, Maralyn stocked the boat with enough food, rationed, to last their journey, most of which they would not be able to get into the raft or dinghy when the time came. Maurice studied books on life at sea and wanted to navigate by the stars as mariners had done before there were radios. They made a plan that would involve sailing the Pacific to New Zealand, going to the Canary Islands, the Caribbean Sea, and also the Galapagos. They knew that they would find themselves alone without another vessel in sight for days and would have to rely on all their knowledge and personal resources. They had to believe they were ready for the adventure. Their first stop was to be the Canary Islands.

But the challenge they could not have expected came when a sperm whale, likely surfacing, hit their boat. The sperm whale was about forty feet long and had a tail that spanned about ten feet.  Their boat, the Auralyn, was a thirty-footer. The collision between boat and whale was likely fatal for the whale who was bloody and in obvious pain when it dove back down into the ocean. The hole in the boat below the water line was not massive but it allowed ocean water to flood in. The couple quickly took action to seal the hole but their efforts didn't work. As the boat rapidly flooded, they realized they would have to get off their boat or sink with it. Quickly they got the life raft and the dinghy loaded with fresh water and other survival supplies, including nautical navigation tools. Maralyn managed to have her camera and diary. The boat sank before their eyes. 

The couple spent 118 days adrift on the Pacific Ocean and the experienced challenged them in every way, physically, mentally, emotionally.   They lived to get another boat and sail again.

C 2024 Book Review  Siren's Link to Sea

PACIFIC WHALE FOUNDATION DOES THE WHALE COUNT FOR THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS

PACIFIC WHALE ORG 

A recent article on the whale count (lots of other marine animals noted too!) 

KAUAI NEWS : JANUARY 2024 HAWAII WHALE COUNT

Excerpt:  n Saturday, 402 volunteers gathered data statewide from 44 sites across the Hawaiian Islands. A total of 315 whales were observed from 9 to 9:15 a.m., the most of any time period throughout the day’s count.

On the islands of Kaua‘i, O‘ahu, Molokaʻi and Hawai‘i, Ocean Count volunteers collected data from 32 sites; a total of 174 whales were observed during the 9 to 9:15 a.m.

On Maui and Lānaʻi, Great Whale Count volunteers collected data from 12 sites during 15-minute intervals between 8:30 and 11:50 a.m. A total of 141 whales were observed during the 9 to 9:15 a.m. time period.

On Kaua‘i, the total number of whales observed during the day’s count was 292, on O‘ahu, the total was 604, on Molokaʻi, the total was 30 and on Hawai‘i 324.

The total number for the Great Whale Count on Maui was 821, and on Lānaʻi was 53, for a grand total of 2,124 throughout the state. This number may represent duplicate sightings of the same whale by different observers or at different time periods or different locations throughout the day.

NOAA PRESENTS HAWAIIAN HAWKSBILL TURTLES

WAIKIKI AQUARIUM ! GIANT CLAMS CORAL FARMS : OCEAN AQUACULTURE THE PACIFIC SIX FINGERED THREAD FIN

WAIKIKI AQUARIUM ORG : EXPERIENCE

In all the years that I've been blogging I have never heard the term OCEAN AQUACULTURE!

Check out the exhibit for the PACIFIC SIX FINGERED THREAD FIN. (Locally called Moi which was once bread exclusively for Hawaiian Royalty.)

TERRIBLY INJURED HUMPBACK WHALE

Excerpt:

The whale, BCX1232, also called Moon, was spotted recently off the Kona coast by the crew of the Hawaiian Adventures Kona. When she was sighted in B.C. waters, experts said she would likely not make it to the warmer Hawaii ocean due to her severe spinal injury. However, she made the more than 4,000-mile migration once again. Now, experts are very worried about her condition, which they believe was the result of a ship strike.

WHALES LISTEN TO VIOLIN MUSIC

WHALE- DOLPHIN HYBRID EXTREMELY UNUSUAL

YAHOO NEWS - DOLPHIN WHALE HYBRID

EXCERPT: The hybrid was especially rare because of its melon-headed genes: The toothed-whales are rarely seen in these Hawaiian waters, the researchers wrote. Both species belong to the Delphinidae (oceanic dolphin) family, but the report notes that cross-species unions between them are unusual: It's only the third recorded example in the Delphinidae family, and the first between these two species.

The hybrid, however strange, certainly wasn't treated as an outcast. The marine scientists tagged the hybrid with satellite tracking GPS, along with a companion, to see where they might go. And it appears they stayed together, travelling some 475 miles over eight days, and diving thousands of feet beneath the surface.

FIVE MONTHS ADRIFT - TASHA and JENNIFER SURVIVED with DOGS, FOOD, WATER

YAHOO - ABC - WOMEN SURVIVE FIVE MONTHS AT SEA ADRIFT


EXCERPT:

But while well-fed and nourished, the experience was "very depressing and very helpless" said Appel who noted that "you do what you can and what you have, you have no other choice."

"You're alive, you're fed, you have water, the boys are happy and there's love, and there are different sunrises and sunsets every day," said Fuiava.

"And you're around for a reason, so you may as well use the time you have to do something beneficial," added Appel.

But both said there were "absolutely" days when they despaired they would never be found.

GHOST LIKE OCTOPUS DOWN 5000 FEET - NEW SPECIES - NECKER ISLAND - RIDGE AREA OFF HAWAII

HONOLULU SUN TIMES - NEW GHOST-LIKE OCTOPUS SPECIES OFF HAWAII

EXCERPT:

According to NOAA’s Michael Vecchione, the ROV was traversing a flat area of rock interspersed with sediments at 4,290 meters when it came across an octopod sitting on a flat rock dusted with a light coat of sediment.
         
The animal didn’t appear to be very muscular and lacked pigment cell, causing it to appear “ghost-like,” according to Vecchione, who also noted that the octopod was “unlike any published records and was the deepest observation ever for this type of cephalopod.”

The octopod is believed to be a member of the incirte octopods. These octopods lack fins and cirri. They are also similar in appearance to shallow water Octopus.

Cirrate octopods have been reported in depths of over 5,000 meters. However, the deepest published reports for incirrates are all less than 4,000 meters. ...

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National Geographic Video

ARE HAWAII's WHALES "MISSING" OR JUST FEEDING ELSEWHERE

WHALE WATCHING TOURISM is big in Hawaii, but what about the Hump Backed Whales.  Various articles suggest that they have died, or are feeding elsewhere because of the changes in water temperatures of the ocean due to Global Warming. 

INQUISITOR - MISSING WHALES - ALASKA DEATHS RELATED?

EXCERPT:

Hawaii’s humpback whales are missing in large numbers based upon early 2016 reports. Normally, beginning in early November, around 10,000 humpback whales travel from Alaska to Hawaii in order spend the winter in the warmer waters off the Hawaian islands. But, so far, officials at the Humpback Whale Marine Sanctuary say they have not been seeing the usual number of humpback whale sightings, making it a mystery to be solved. While it’s possible the El Nino weather patterns are a factor, earlier in the fall of 2015 other researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration (NOAA) noticed an alarming number of whale deaths near Alaska.
Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/2679321/hawaii-humpback-whales-missing-in-2016-are-alaska-whale-deaths-related/#OajoED1ETQryOwgl.99

WORLD WAR II ERA JAPANESE SPY SUB FOUND OFF HAWAII

FOX NEWS - SPY SUB  full article including cool pictures!

"The I-400 was one of the “Sen-Toku” class submarines, which were the largest submarines ever built until nuclear-powered subs were invented. It is 400 feet long and could travel one and a half times around the world without refueling."

PEARLY SHELLS : THE WAIKIKIS

RARE DOUBLE WATERSPOUNTS FORM OFF SHORE OF HAWAII

Like the tornados that touched down in the American South last week, there are tornados at sea, called water spouts. Click on the title above to get to a video and report!

"The spouts lasted for about 12 minutes. Waterspouts can become twisters if they reach land, but are usually weak."

SOUL SURFER : A TRUE STORY FILM

I love it that WOMEN IN SURFING are finally getting more attention in the sport but BETHANY HAMILTON'S STORY which was made into a movie called SOUL SURFER, is one of the most amazing. I'm linking to the movie web site and will be covering Bethany in later posts. It's a TRUE STORY. YES! I did go to the movie and enjoyed it. The title SOUL SURFER comes because Bethany herself says her Christian beliefs are what made all the difference as she survived the attack of a shark that bit off her left arm and went on to be a tournament winning surfer anyway. I thought the movie downplayed that aspect of her challenging recovery.