Oil Slick from space

Oil & Water STILL Don’t Mix.  June 27, 2010 satellite imagery:

This high-resolution image shows Petit Bois Island (top right) and the eastern end of Horn Island (top left) on June 26.  Oil-covered waters are silvery and cleaner waters are blue-gray. This pattern is especially consistent farther from the islands.

>> Click for full screen image >>

A total of 674 sea turtles have been verified stranded from April 30 to July 16 within the designated spill area from the Texas to Florida. Of the 674 turtles verified from April 30 to July 16, a total of 464 turtles were found dead, 58 stranded alive.

The good news (if there is such a thing): There have been no confirmed observations of oil from the Deepwater Horizon near South Florida. Monitoring presently consists of daily overflights by trained observers to check for oil near the Loop Current, and vessels searching for tar balls approaching the Florida Keys.

What Could Move the Oil to South Florida? Ocean currents in the Gulf of Mexico determine where the oil spilled from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead will go, and how quickly the oil will travel. The current that most influences whether the oil could reach South Florida is the Loop Current. This current flows west-to-east through the Gulf, first pushing up into the Gulf from the Caribbean Sea, then looping south and eastward to pass between the Florida Keys and Cuba (eventually merging with the Gulf Stream). It often spins off large eddies.

At present, the main slick and the Loop Current are separated by about 300 miles. Southerly winds could  push the oil north to Florida’s shorelines while being swept by the Loop Current through the Florida Straits. The worst news: Presently, some oil has entered an eddy, which is about 60 miles from the main slick. This oil will remain within the eddy, circling and weathering in the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Eddies sometimes reattach to the Loop Current. If this happens, the oil within the eddy may enter the Loop Current and be transported eastward.

While we are all thrilled no oil is currently being released into the Gulf of Mexico that is only the beginning of the recovery. Now comes the appropriate action to keep it that way. It is important that all decisions are driven by the science; not politics. Ultimately, we must ensure no irreversible damage is done which could cause uncontrolled leakage from numerous points on the sea floor.

Sadly I report that my team did not get the National Park Service contract to provide high-speed catamaran service to Dry Tortugas. [ read about it from the NPS]

Dry Tortugas from Space

Recently the National Park Service re-issued a ten year contract to provide high-speed ferry service from Key West, FL to Fort Jefferson at The Dry Tortugas. In the next 60-days Congress will be asked to approve the contract, but they should take another look. http://keysnews.com/node/20390

Click the image for full screen. Image was requested by Captain Ghidoni and was taken by the Int’l Space Station.

The Keys from higher

In this specific case it seems remarkable the incumbent was awarded another ten years. Public outcry locally is well documented. http://keysnews.com/node/20390 The public is overwhelmingly negative because Key West locals know the history.

Does it serve the community for this large entity to grab yet another long-term contract in such a small town? The incumbent operates in several cities. In tough times which of their operations will suffer first? Maybe the smallest, least significant  - Key West? This is exactly why we feel our smaller footprint could do it better, faster, cheaper.

Are we disappointed?  You bet, it has been a long, long, competitive process with 18-months of delays, but they are the better company.

We carry forward the experience and we fully support the decision of the National Park Service. If you get to Key West; plan a day for Fort Jefferson.

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Northern Lights, Aurora Borealis on a long cold night must have freaked out Ancient Man.

[slideshow id=11]

When do you use recur in stead of reoccur? Recur means - to repeat or reappear periodically, like a actor in a Recurring Roll. Reoccur - is a more random occurrence and less controlled. A Reoccurring Dream or nightmare can’t be scheduled. While the words recur, recurring, and recurrence are more often used, the words are subtly and distinctly different…

Do the Northern Lights recur or reoccur? Geomagnetic storms that ignite auroras happen more often during the months around the equinoxes; from September to October and from March to April, so Auroras recur.  And that is excellent.

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Shipwrecks have captured the imagination of scuba divers with each person alone with their thoughts to wonder what may have happened, who was on board, how many died, and if other divers may have tempted the interior to find a watery grave since. Most wrecks are as safe as underwater safety can be, and most divers use extreme caution when entering a ship’s interior, totally aware of what could be. This wreck is mostly skeletal with very few interior spaces to explore, but that doesn’t diminish the experience.

The BENWOOD was sunk in 1942 after WWII. Some say she was hit by German U-boat torpedoes and could not limp back to port. Other say she was laid to rest and used for target practice. Either way the BENWOOD is a shallow dive in reasonable current in the Florida Keys Marine Sanctuary as a wonderful artificial reef to explore… and wonder.

Choose the 640 or 960 HD clips. Our HD PodCast on iTunes offers an excellent viewing experience.

 

 Shipwreck BENWOOD: Play Now | Play in Popup

 

 Shipwreck BENWOOD - HD clip: Play Now | Play in Popup

Music by Garry Lee Rosenberg, appropriately titled; Sea Anemone.

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sub titled: Get your fat white ass outside of the cage with that hand full of chum for a real shark thrill!

Video Podcast - While researching the Hawaiian monk seal for a potential documentary with NOAA I stumbled on the ugly exploitation of sharks in the region. It is shocking to realize with all the research on sharks shark tours are becoming an even MORE popular visitor attraction. A recent scuba-moron to Oahu’s North Shore called it ‘exhilarating’. With an attitude, “I just wanted to do it once.” They headed for the hotel with a small polite group of Native Hawaiians on their heels. They were explaining to the fat backsides that Hawaiians consider the shark to be ancestral Gods. Feeding them for entertainment is disrespectful to their culture. Heck, it’s disrespectful to all things in the Ocean, in food chain and the ecological balance. Hawaiians and Hawley alike want the operators to stop.

To be clear: There is nothing wrong, in fact it is smart to use a shark cage. It is very wrong when a dive operator is feeding sharks for people in a cage.

[caption id="attachment_582" align="alignright" width="280" caption="No food today? Let's head to the beach for a bite."][/caption]

Surfers and environmentalists fear the tours will teach sharks to associate people with food. When the sharks don’t find tourists in the little ‘happy meal’ steel cage what do you think will happen next?  While the tourists watch the news from the Lazy Boy some surfer or diver will be missing a limb. The sad part is sharks don’t even like the taste of human, but when confused and taunted the shark will snap and strike at anything.

Sharks sit at the APEX of the World Food Chain. Sharks will gather in areas of tour feeding. The additional shark population will also create great competition for natural prey and cause stress or deplete other marine life in the process.  But that’s of little concern to the impatient tourist who wants a rush right now.  Want a rush? Go down without a cage, see how a shark reacts to a hand full of chum.  Oh, that isn’t as pleasurable? The disrespect may seem temporary by the ‘only once’ gang o’ fools but the damage lives on long after the thrill is gone.

Joe Pavsek, owner of North Shore Shark Adventures, said, “If you read the law, you’ll understand that I’m not breaking any laws.”  (Dhaaaa, why am I an idiot?)  Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Joe Pavsek then revealed this jewel, “We don’t have to feed the sharks. We do it for the customers.” That’s why Joe is an idiot. What would be wrong with the anticipation that you might be lucky and see a shark? Not stimulating enough for an over-stimulated couch potato. The same potatos think they are great athletes because of their dozens of hours with a video game.

More than 400 Hawaiian residents packed a town hall meeting and successfully launched the anti-shark tour movement. State lawmakers have vowed to draft legislation to shut down the tours. Listen to world renowned underwater photographer Stephen Frink has to say about the state of this magical animal.

 

 Legendary Photographer Stephen Frink on Sharks: Play Now | Play in Popup

For the record: Federal law clearly prohibits feeding sharks 200 miles off Hawaii to include the Pacific territories and Samoa. The only exceptions are made for fishermen who harvest them for food, and scientific research for the benefit of the shark.

Ever hear of unintended consequences? Joe is dead wrong and needs to be stopped before someone innocent is declared dead right.

It’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature!

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Rapidly changing technology can make last year’s great idea into a slumdog, and that is certianly the case with HDV. The 2009 show seemed to be a sort of catch up year, in that innovations of recent years are now very usable and ready to work.  RED for example: a few years ago the camera was a prototype. This year the accessories were out in big numbers.  3D is big. More on that in years to come.  It’s cool, but the technology has to develop to attract an audience.

NAB camera report

My favorite camera is from Silicon Imaging. Slumdog Millionaire Shot with the SI-2K Cinema Camera. The SI-2K series combine a DCI-spec 2K sensor with CineForm’s revolutionary Visually Perfect® CineForm RAW™ codec. All that- embedded Intel Core 2 Duo powered architecture. It delivers a direct-to-disk recording platform with unprecedented image quality, 11-F stops of dynamic range, an intuitive 7” LCD touchscreen interface that is off the charts, sharp OLED electronic viewfinder option, IT-friendly connectivity, battery powered operation, and up to 4-hours of continuous shooting on its hot-swap 160GB notebook hard drive. My friend Steve Waterford of ZennaTek has already invented an ingenious waterproof housing that has interior climate control and lens clearing airflow for housing lens.  This partial submersion bag is for taking it to the extreme.

Please note: There is no up-side benefit to my company if you shoot a specific camera.  In fact; I’d like to see all ocean videographers using HDV please. This is my NAB 2009 review of cameras I personally would deploy underwater.

Google Maps Enhance Ocean Images - WSJ.com.  Good news for Ocean lovers, Google Inc. added imagery for the ocean floor to its popular 3-D mapping service Google Earth, which allows users to browse satellite images of the Earth’s terrain.

Google executives announced the enhancements at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, highlighting partners ranging from the U.S. Navy to National Geographic. The partners contributed data and tools to make the multiyear project possible.

Video Post: Stupid people in South Africa sell the chance to jump into a cage for a cheap thrill while they jerk food from the sharks, from the safety of a boat. They take tourist to ’shark alley’ and tease these majestic animals. Sharks are the top of the food chain, and the operator is teasing them calling it Eco-Tourism.  If this is somehow appealing to your ego? Imagine someone knocked your lunch on the floor. Then your friends come along and they jerk their lunch too.  Would you bite back? What happens to the next diver who doesn’t feed the shark? Now resident sharks in these fast food feeding zones expect man to show up with fast-food which might one day be a human life. This activity has altered the sharks behavior.

Take a look at what happens in this video. I can only hope the government of South Africa takes immediate action against the exploitation of Nature’s most magnificent predator before the next…

Every spring leads scuba divers to Honduras, Belize, or the Philippines to catch a glimpse of the largest fish in the sea. The massive yet passive whale shark is mostly harmless despite their massive size, just watch out for stroking of their massive fins. Despite easy access, scientists know little about the whale shark numbers, migration patterns, or breading, but that is about to

Hello from Key West, went out fri. to shoot some u/w footage for Florida Keys CC w/the Panasonic HVX 200. We did some test shots for color balance. It was a 100 ft viz day!

GO DIVE!

Not much wild life but we saw a nurse shark, beautiful scorpion fish, spotted eel, bunch of divers stirring it up…
It was fun and felt good to get wet. I got the shots

Hello to all,

It has finally cleared up way down here in Key West. The cold winds stopped blowing and the sun is shinning! I know you desert types are feeling sorry for me, LOL.

Another day in Paradise! Go Dive!

Upcoming projects are on hold ’til the wind’s affect on ocean visibility clears. Visibility is about 45 feet but worst in areas of high current. It’s fine for scuba diving, you won’t have any regrets going down with Captian’s Corner Dive Shop. Their awesome dive boat The Eagle was featured in a James Bond film, License to Kill but the camera, especially HD, sees all the impurities born of the rough surface conditions and tends to exaggerate.

In the next few weeks (weather determined) I’ll be traveling to Key Largo to dive with Captain Jeff and the H.M.S. Minnow. Can’t wait to report on that.  Here’s a frame of Paul I shot last year on the Minnow.  Why is he so happy?  Can you say, “SCUBA”?  And we were heading out of the harbor.

Joe

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