November, 2008

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Thank-you Snailfish

Sunday, November 23rd, 2008

Lipari-m Snailfish

Sometimes I get so linked in to doing things that I forget to stop and enjoy the show. This October OceanLab and University of Tokyo sent a camera down to one of the world’s deepest trenches and came up with some fantastic film footage of a group of snailfish feeding on camera bait. These critters get to be about 120 mm – or 6″ long and are “sociable and active – possibly even families.”

An article link is here: http://planetearth.nerc.ac.uk/news/story.aspx?id=194

The footage is here: http://planetearth.nerc.ac.uk/multimedia/story.aspx?id=9

These little guys have tiny eyes – probably just suitable to collect bioluminescent light in an otherwise pitch-dark abyss. They were filmed at 7700 meters deep – over 25,000ft. The pressures here are over 700 atmospheres, or about 10,000 psi. While the pressures are hell on stuff coming down from the surface, these abysmal animals are pressure-neutral to their surroundings, so the pressures don’t squish them.

Thus just gets me thinking about what a fabulous planet we live on, with so many stunning mysteries to explore. Something to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted in Ocean Life, Uncategorized | No Responses »

Bristol Bay Oil Leases

Friday, November 21st, 2008

bristol bay salmon-jj-001

Alaska’s Bristol Bay is the world’s most productive fishery – 40% of all wild fish eaten in America are pulled from these waters. So it is a puzzlement to many of us that the Minerals Management Service (MMS) is considering an oil lease that would open up a large portion of Bristol Bay to offshore oil drilling – or that there would even be a debate about this ill-conceived proposal.

Unfortunately there is a debate and it is pitting the fishermen against the oil men. The stakes are high, so today I find myself in Seattle Washington at the Pacific Marine Expo talking about the acoustical impacts of offshore oil extraction on commercial fisheries – focusing on seismic airgun surveys and the noise of seafloor processing equipment (see http://ocr.org/research/impacts/SeafloorProcessing.pdf ).

The Pacific Marine Expo is a trade show that caters to commercial fishermen with exhibits by manufacturers and representatives of marine engines, nets and winches, refrigeration and processing equipment, power trains, boats, hooks and line, sonars and communications equipment, and net navigators – to name a few.

I was honored to be on a presentation panel with Norwegian fisherman Ian Kinsey, Eskimo fisherman Tom Tilden, John Goll with Minerals Management Service, Crabber Keith Colbum and Alaskan “catcher boat” captain Brent Paine. We ‘held court’ for a couple of hours to a largely supportive audience of Alaska Fishermen, and a few oil men.

My thanks go out to David Aplin from World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) and Kelly Harrell of Alaska Marine Conservation Council (AK Marine) who coordinated the event and hosted the post-presentation reception. The whole affair, including my expenses were sponsored by WWF and AK Marine, who are doing all they can do to save a vital and abundant fishery from the pillaging of the oil men.

I will let you know when the Environmental Impact Statement needs our input. Stay tuned. Meanwhile please let me know if you want to track this issue and I will send you links to media, power points and other ‘collateral’ about the preservation of our nation’s most productive fishery.

Posted in Fossil Fuel Industry, Noise Pollution, Ocean Life, Uncategorized | No Responses »

Supreme Court rules in favor of the Navy

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008

justices-topperSadly the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the US Navy in the recent gambit on the mitigation measures proposed by the California Coastal Commission.

The vote was 6-3, with Justices Alito, Scalia, Thomas and Kennedy joining an opinion written by Chief Justice Roberts. Justice Breyer filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, in which Stevens joined as to the concurrence. Ginsburg and Souter dissented outright.

The opinion can be read here:

http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/08pdf/07-1239.pdf

The first few pages are the Syllabus and condense the arguments in the opinion. These pages are a good read and explain much of what the case was about, and how the Court viewed the arguments.

Some of the highlights (or low points) include the court deferring to the Navy’s expertise:

“Military interests do not always trump other considerations, and the Court has not held that they do, but courts must give deference to the professional judgment of military authorities concerning the relative importance of a particular military interest.”

This would not be so troubling to me if we could trust the Navy’s true motives and their record of being forthright and honest in matters of “National Security.”

The judgment also compromises the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) around the mechanisms and needs to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS):

“There is accordingly no basis for enjoining such training pending preparation of an EIS—if one is determined to be required—when doing so is credibly alleged to pose a serious threat to national security.”

So we have a situation here where the Navy Experts can determine the value of the public (environmental) interest in their training exercises, and determine if delaying them with an EIS would “threaten national security.”

Greg Stohr gives some wider ranging considerations here: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=agB_f1yIavFo&refer=home

His article refers to the executive powers issue inasmuch as he mentions that the pesticide, forest products, agricultural and home building industries were behind the Bush administration’s position on the case

I don’t know what to say here except “oh well…”

Much appreciation goes to the NRDC team who have done a sterling job on this entire case – even in the face of a challenging Supreme Court.

Posted in Navy Noise, Noise Pollution | No Responses »