PLANS TO DISMANTLE OCEAN MONITORING SYSTEM ABANDONED AFTER GREAT BACKLASH

FIRST CAME THIS NEWS : PBS TRUMP ADMINSTRATION DISMANTLES OCEAN MONITORING PROGRAM

Excerpt: Scientists across the country are expressing alarm as the Trump administration dismantles another tool for understanding how the planet is changing. More than 900 deep-sea ocean sensors will be pulled out of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans near Washington, Oregon, Alaska, North Carolina and Greenland. Researchers say these are critical ocean observation tools. William Brangham explains...

GO TO THE SITE TO READ THE FULL TRANSCRIPT!

THEN THIS : SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN : TRUMP ADMINISTRATION REVERSES COURSE ON PLAN TO DISMANTLE OCEAN MONITORING SYSTEM

Excerpt: The Trump administration is backing off plans to dismantle a crucial U.S. ocean monitoring system, the National Science Foundation (NSF) confirmed on Thursday. The reversal comes after the agency’s May 21 announcement of its intent to remove hundreds of deep-sea buoys and sensors employed by the $368 million Ocean Observatories Initiative had drawn congressional and international backlash.

“Effective immediately, NSF will not proceed with further removal or descoping of equipment from the remaining arrays and will continue operations including planned maintenance,” the agency said in a statement on Thursday. The plan’s reversal was first reported by the New York Times.

On Monday 11 U.S. Senators sent a bipartisan letter saying that dismantling the ocean system “threatens the safety of our coastal communities,” as well as jeopardizing oceans research. A bill blocking the removal plan in the Senate on Wednesday. ...

TWENTY THREE RECENT EAST COAST WHALE DEATHS SPARK ALARM : SHIP STRIKES KILLING MINKE, HUMPBACK, and NORTH ATLANTIC RIGHT WHALES

NEW YORK TIMES - 23 RECENT EAST COAST WHALE DEATHS 

These whales have washed ashore in recent weeks.  North Atlantic Right Whale - critically endangered. Minke whale.  Humpback whale.  Could it be that we just have to order things on line that are exported by other countries, rather than buying American made products and produce grown in the U.S. so that more ships are coming in and colliding with whales.

Well, my priority is not to buy anything from another country without an exhaustive search for MADE IN THE U.S.A. because most of the things you see for sale we really do not need.

Also windfarms offshore may be a problem for sea life.

BUT THERE IS ANOTHER ENVIRONMENTAL FACTOR

Excerpt: The population of humpbacks, hunted legally until 1985, has rebounded, thanks in part to decades of efforts to clean the Atlantic Ocean and heavily polluted tributaries like the Hudson River. As the climate changes and oceans warm, whales and favored prey, menhaden, are migrating and feeding in new locations, often closer to shore.

FAST OCEAN WARMING EFFECTS FISH PROTEIN FOOD SOURCE

NY TIMES : OCEAN WARMING FASTER THAN

EXCERPT: People in the tropics, who rely heavily on fish for protein, could be hard hit, said Kathryn Matthews, deputy chief scientist for the conservation group Oceana. “The actual ability of the warm oceans to produce food is much lower, so that means they’re going to be more quickly approaching food insecurity,” she said. 

Because they play such a critical role in global warming, oceans are one of the most important areas of research for climate scientists. Average ocean temperatures are also a consistent way to track the effects of greenhouse gas emissions because they are not influenced much by short-term weather patterns, Mr. Hausfather said.

ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON PUTS GREEN ALGAE HAIRED TURTLE on ENDANGERED LIST

NEW YORK TIMES GREEN HAIRED TURTLE BREATHS THROUGH GENITALS

EXCERPT The one with the green “mohawk” hair (actually algae), formally known as the Mary River turtle, is an Australian species that split from other living species about 40 million years ago. It has special organs in its cloaca that allow it to draw oxygen from the water. It can stay underwater for up to three days.

No. 1 on the list is the Madagascar big-headed turtle, according to the Edge site, “sits alone at the end of a branch of the tree of life which stretches back more than 80 million years to the age of the dinosaurs.”

JOHN ALDRIDGE SURVIVED FALLING INTO THE SEA BOOTS ON - AN ADVENTURE STORY

NEW YORK TIMES article SPECK IN THE SEA about JOHN ALDRIDGE

"The first thing you’re supposed to do, if you’re a fisherman and you fall in the ocean, is to kick off your boots. They’re dead weight that will pull you down. But as Aldridge treaded water, he realized that his boots were not pulling him down; in fact, they were lifting him up, weirdly elevating his feet and tipping him backward. Aldridge’s boots were an oddity among the members of Montauk’s commercial fishing fleet: thick green rubber monstrosities that were guaranteed to keep your feet warm down to minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature Montauk had not experienced since the ice age. Sosinski made fun of the boots, but Aldridge liked them: they were comfortable and sturdy and easy to slip on and off. And now, as he bobbed in the Atlantic, he had an idea of how they might save his life."


Just loved this story!  An adventure!

JAMES CAMERON (IN A SUBMARINE OF HIS OWN DESIGN) TRAVELS SEVEN MILES DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF THE TRENCH

William J. Broad's article for the New York Times is one of the best on JAMES CAMERON'S TRIP, which after seven years of planning, and a couple weeks delay due to rough seas, was cut short due to a leak. The pressure seven miles down is intense, the leak was to a hydraulic gear, but this layman scientist has reported that there was little to no visible life that far down.

"No government can send people so deep." His team includes scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of Hawaii... And National Geographic was a sponsor.

HOW FISH MADE IT TO LAND ? FISH FOSSIL EVIDENCE !

Click on the title above to get to a great article that explains what scientists believe lead fish to land!