An international team of taxonomists has chosen the “Top 10 New
Species of 2018” from among some 18,000 new species named last
year.
They range from the large — a majestic tree that is critically
endangered — to the small — a microscopic single-celled organism
discovered in an aquarium with no obvious connection to any known
species.
They include a fish that has survived in the deepest, darkest
part of the Pacific Ocean — at record depth — with credit for its
discovery going to a team of scientists led by a University of
Washington researcher.
The list of new species also includes a rare great ape — an
orangutan that has been identified as a separate species — as well
as a prehistoric marsupial lion identified from fossils found in
Australia.
The 11th annual list is compiled by the International Institute
for Species Exploration at the College of Environmental Science and
Forestry at the State University of New York.
Hood Canal has changed colors again, shifting to shades of
bimini green, as it did in 2016, when satellite photos showed the
canal standing out starkly among all other waters in the
Northwest.
Hood Canal has changed colors
as a result of a plankton bloom, as shown in this aerial photo
taken in Northern Hood Canal.
Photo: Eyes Over Puget Sound, Washington
Ecology
The color change is caused by a bloom of a specific type of
plankton called a coccolithophore, which shows up in nutrient-poor
waters. The single-celled organism produces shells made of calcite,
which reflect light to produce the unusual color.
Observers are now waiting for the clouds to depart, so we can
get new satellite images of the green waters.
The plankton bloom started June 1 in Quilcene and Dabob bays,
according to Teri King of Washington Sea Grant. It came about a
week earlier than last year and has since spread through Hood
Canal. Observers in the Seabeck area reported seeing the bloom the
past few days. The bimini green color, which gets its name from an
island in the Bahamas, is especially noticeable when the sun comes
out.
If you notice an orange tint to the waters of Central Puget
Sound, it’s not your imagination. It is a dense plankton bloom
dominated by the dinoflagellate Noctiluca scintillans.
Noctiluca scintillans bloom
comes ashore at Saltwater State Park in Des Moines on Monday of
this week.
Video: Washington Department of Ecology
Noctiluca is often seen in some numbers at this time of
year, but it may be a bit more intense this time around, according
to Christopher Krembs, an oceanographer with the Washington
Department of Ecology. Christopher tells me that the orange color
may stick around awhile.
The orange-colored species does not produce any toxins found to
be harmful to humans, but it is not exactly a friendly organism
either. It often shows up in marine waters that are out of balance
with nutrients or impaired in some other way. It can gobble up
other plankton that feed tiny fish and other creatures, but it does
not seem to provide a food supply that interests very many species
— probably because of its ammonia content. Consequently,
Noctiluca is often referred to as a “dead end” in the food
web.
In Chicago, it has become a tradition to dye the Chicago River
bright green to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, as shown in a
timelapse video featured by
ABC News. But some waterways are naturally green, so I have
posted eight videos from throughout the world to show these natural
wonders.
Huge crowds of people visit the Chicago River each year to see
the color change, which lasts about five hours, according to a
report by Jennifer Wood in
Mental Floss.
At one time, a green dye was used as needed to identify sources
of sewage flowing into the river, Jennifer reports. The result was
an occasional green splotch seen in the river. In 1962, a member of
the local plumbers union thought it would be a good idea to dye the
entire river green for St. Patrick’s Day. It has since become an
annual tradition — although in 1966 the dye was changed to a
nontoxic vegetable-based coloring at the insistence of
environmentalists.
Today, environmentalists are still grumbling about artificially
turning the river green, not so much because of damage to the
ecosystem — which is really unknown — but because the river is much
healthier than it has been in 150 years, according to a report by
Steven Dahlman in Loop North
News.
“I think [it] sends a message to people that the river is not
alive,” said Margaret Frisbie, executive director of
Friends of the Chicago River. “Dyeing the river green does not
respect that resource.”
In a story written for
Smithsonian magazine, Jennifer Billock reports that no dye is
needed if you really want to enjoy St. Patrick’s Day in or around a
green waterway. The source of the green color varies from one place
to another and may include natural minerals, algae growth or even
optical illusions based on reflections or depth.
Jennifer talked to Rick Stumpf, an oceanographer who said one of
his favorite places is Florida Bay in the Keys, where the green
color is a reflection of seagrass just a few feet underwater.
Our tour of green waterways begins with Lake
Carezza, in South Tyrol, Italy. The lake is fed from
underground springs, and the level of the lake changes with the
seasons.
According to a local fairy tale, a wizard fell in love with a
beautiful water nymph while watching her braid her hair at the edge
of the lake. To get her attention, a witch advised him to dress up
as a jewel merchant and cast a rainbow across the lake. He followed
her instructions except that he forgot to change his clothes. The
water nymph realized his true identity and disappeared into the
lake. In frustration, the wizard destroyed the rainbow, which fell
into the lake, and then he tossed all of his jewels into the water,
leaving the lake with its unusual colors.
Wai-O-Tapu is a lake in an 18-square-mile
geothermal area in New Zealand’s Taupo Volcanic Zone. The green
color of the water, which is somewhat milky and yellowish, is due
to particles of sulfur floating in the water.
The area has been protected as a scenic reserve since 1931 and
includes a tourism attraction known as Wai-O-Tapu Thermal
Wonderland. Marked hiking trails provide visitors access to natural
hot springs and mud pools.
The Verzasca River in Switzerland is a 19-mile
river known for its turquoise-colored water and colorful rocks. The
swift river, which flows into Lake Maggiore, is popular with scuba
divers.
The green colors are provided by natural algae growing in the
water as well as the reflection of vegetation along the
shoreline.
Ambergris Caye, the largest island in Belize,
offers the sea-green colors of a tropical paradise. It is mainstay
for tourists who wish to swim or dive in the Caribbean Sea.
Visitors can enjoy the marine life of Belize Barrier Reef, the
longest reef system in North America, second in the world after the
Great Barrier Reef of Australia.
Blue Spring State Park features the largest
spring on Florida’s St. Johns River, a critical winter refuge for
manatees. To protect the manatees, the spring pool is closed from
Nov. 15 to March 15.
From the pool, a vertical cave plunges down to a room about 90
feet deep. At about 120 feet down, the cave constricts and water
pours swiftly out of the spring, which produces about 165 million
gallons of water per day.
In addition to the pool, the park includes a historic home and
offers boat tours, hiking trails and camping sites.
Lake Quilotoa in Ecuador is a deep crater lake
in the Andes formed by the collapse of a volcano following an
eruption about 600 years ago. The green color is caused by
dissolved minerals.
In five hours, visitors can hike around the volcano’s caldera,
which is about two miles across. Pack mules and guides are
available in and around the village of Quilotoa.
Sproat Lake is located in the center of
Vancouver Island in British Columbia. In addition to lakeside
homes, three provincial parks are located along the shore.
Sproat Lake Provincial Park features a variety of trails,
including one trail that reaches the eastern side of the lake. A
wall of rock carvings, named K’ak’awin, depict mythological
creatures. The age of the petroglyphs is unknown.
Abyss Pool is the name of a hot spring in the
West Thumb Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park. In 1883, a
visitor to the park called the pool “a great, pure, sparkling
sapphire rippling with heat.”
The pool is about 50 feet deep. A geyser in the pool had no
record of eruption until 1987, when the first eruption was followed
by several others until June 1992. The eruptions were up to 100
feet high.
In a way, some of Puget Sound’s most serious ecological problems
have been hiding in plain sight. I have been learning a lot lately
about plankton, an incredibly diverse collection of microscopic
organisms that drift through the water, forming the base of the
food web.
Sources of nitrogen in Puget
Sound (click to enlarge)
Graphic: Washington Department of
Ecology
To put it simply, the right kinds of plankton help to create a
healthy population of little fish that feed bigger fish that feed
birds and marine mammals, including the endangered Southern
Resident killer whales. On the other hand, the wrong kinds of
plankton can disrupt the food web, stunt the growth of larger
creatures and sometimes poison marine animals.
OK, that’s a bit of an oversimplification, but Puget Sound
researchers are just beginning to understand the profound
importance of a healthy planktonic community to support a large
part of the food web. That’s one of the main points that I try to
bring out in five stories published today in the Encyclopedia of Puget Sound. I
am grateful to the many researchers who have shared their knowledge
with me.
Average daily nitrogen coming
in from rivers and wastewater treatment plants (1 kg = 2.2
pounds)
Graphic: Washington Department of
Ecology
These stories tie together several major issues all related to
nutrients — mainly nitrogen — that feed the marine phytoplankton,
which use their chlorophyll to take energy from the sun as they
grow and multiply. In the spring and summer, too much nitrogen can
mean too much plankton growth. In turn, excess plankton can lead to
low-oxygen conditions, ocean acidification and other significant
problems.
The complex interplay of planktonic species with larger life
forms in Puget Sound is still somewhat of a mystery to researchers
trying to understand the food web. As part of the effort, the
Washington Department of Ecology is working on a computer model to
show how excess nitrogen can trigger low-oxygen conditions in the
most vulnerable parts of the Salish Sea, such as southern Hood
Canal and South Puget Sound.
Areas of Puget Sound listed as
“impaired” for dissolved oxygen (click to enlarge)
Graphic: Washington Department of
Ecology
Stormwater is often cited as the most serious problem facing
Puget Sound, and we generally think of bacteria and toxic chemicals
flowing into the waterway and causing all sorts of problems for the
ecosystem. But stormwater also brings in nitrogen derived from
fertilizers, animal wastes and atmospheric deposits from burning
fossil fuels. Stormwater flows also pick up natural sources of
nitrogen from plants and animals that end up in streams.
Sewage treatment plants are another major source of human
nitrogen. Except for a few exceptions, not much has been done to
reduce the release of nutrients from sewage-treatment plants, which
provide not only nitrogen but also micronutrients such as vitamins
and minerals. Some experts suspect that nutrients other than
nitrogen help to determine which types of plankton will dominate at
any given time.
I plan to follow and report on new scientific developments
coming out of studies focused on the base of the food web.
Meanwhile, I hope you will take time to read this package of related
stories:
Does Puget
Sound need a diet: An overview of the nutrient problem with its
biological, legal and practical implications.
Understanding the chemistry of Puget Sound may be as important
as understanding the biology. Let me put that another way: Biology
as we know it in Puget Sound wouldn’t exist without the right
chemistry.
Tiny krill, one of many
organisms affected by ocean acidification, demonstrate how water
chemistry can affect the entire Puget Sound food web. For example,
krill are eaten by herring, which are eaten by Chinook salmon,
which are eaten by killer whales.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Ocean acidification is altering the chemistry of the oceans on a
worldwide scale, but the Pacific Northwest and Puget Sound are
being hit with some of the most severe problems, as experts point
out in a new report by the Washington
State Marine Resources Advisory Council.
For years, I have written about the low-oxygen problems in Hood
Canal and other areas of Puget Sound. Of course, oxygen is
essential to life as we know it. Major fish kills, in which dead
fish float to the surface, have generated a lot of attention. At
the same time, it has been harder to report on the animals dying
from lack of oxygen when their carcasses are at rest in deep water.
And it has been nearly impossible to keep track of the “dead zones”
that come and go as conditions change.
It wasn’t until more research was conducted on the effects of
ocean acidification that researchers realized that low-oxygen
conditions — which were bad enough — had a dangerous companion
called low pH — the increased acidity that we are talking about.
Low pH can affect the growth and even the survival of organisms
that build shells of calcium, including a variety of tiny organisms
that play key roles in the food web.
As the oceans absorb carbon dioxide from the air, we see an
increase in carbonic acid in the water, which has an effect on the
ability of organisms to take up calcium carbonate. For a more
complete explanation, check out “What is aragonite saturation?” on
page
17 of the report.
Increased acidification is a special problem for Washington and
the West Coast of North America, where deep acidified water in the
Pacific Ocean hits the coast and rises to the surface.
“By accident of geography, we have this upwelling that … forces
us into dealing with ocean acidification before almost anywhere
else on the planet,” said Jay Manning, chairman of the Puget Sound
Leadership Council. “I don’t believe I’m exaggerating when I say
that Washington is leading the world in terms of science and
monitoring…”
Jay, who serves on the Marine Resources Advisory Council, was
quoted in a story I wrote for the
Puget Sound Institute, later republished by the
Kitsap Sun. The story describes some of the problems resulting
from ocean acidification in Puget Sound, where an entirely
different mechanism connects ocean acidification closely to
low-oxygen conditions.
Researchers have concluded that an excessive growth of plankton
in Puget Sound can be triggered, in part, by the release of
nutrients from sewage treatment plants, septic systems and the
heavy use of fertilizers. When plankton die and decay, bacteria use
up oxygen while releasing carbon dioxide, thus increasing
acidification.
Although the details still need to be sorted out, it is clear
that some creatures are more sensitive than others to low oxygen,
while low pH also affects animals in different ways. This “double
whammy” of low oxygen and low pH increases the risks to the entire
food web, without even considering the added threats of higher
temperatures and toxic pollution.
Ongoing actions emphasized in the new report fall into six
categories:
Reduce carbon emissions
Cut back on nutrient releases into the water
Improve adaptation strategies to reduce the harmful effects of
ocean acidification
Invest in monitoring and scientific investigations
Inform, educate and engage Washington residents and key
decision makers
Maintain a coordinated focus on all aspects of ocean
acidification
“The updated report reinforces our federal, state and tribal
partnership to combat ocean acidification by working together,
modifying and expanding on approaches we have developed through
ongoing research,” said Libby Jewett, director of NOAA’s Ocean
Acidification Program in a news
release (PDF 166 kb).
“For instance,” she continued, “in the new plan, scientists in
the state of Washington will be asked not only to test hands-on
remediation options which involve cultivating kelp as a way to
remove carbon dioxide from local waters but also to explore how to
move this seaweed into land agriculture as a way of recycling
it.”
“Global and local carbon dioxide emissions, as well as local
nutrient sources beyond natural levels, are significantly altering
seawater chemistry. We are the cause for the rapid accumulation of
30 to 50 percent of the enriched CO2 in surface waters in Puget
Sound and 20 percent of enriched CO2 in deep waters off our shores.
Washingtonians understand what is so dramatically at stake. We are
not standing by waiting for someone else to inform or rescue
us.”
The year 2016 may be regarded as a transition year for Puget
Sound, coming between the extreme warm-water conditions of 2014 and
2015 and the more normal conditions observed over the past year,
according to the latest Puget Sound
Marine Waters report.
Click on image to view
report
Photo: Todd Sandell, WDFW
The report on the 2016 conditions was released this past week by
the Marine Waters Workgroup, which oversees the Puget Sound
Ecosystem Monitoring Program (PSEMP). The report includes data
collected in 2016 and analyzed over the past year.
Some findings from the report:
Water temperatures were well above normal, though not as
extreme as in 2015.
A warm spring in 2016 caused rapid melting of mountain snowpack
and lower streamflows in late spring and summer.
Dissolved oxygen levels were lower than average in South Puget
Sound, Central Puget Sound and Hood Canal, with the most intense
oxygen problems in southern Hood Canal, although no fish kills were
reported.
It was a year for the growth of Vibrio
parahaemolyticus, a bacteria responsible for 46
laboratory-confirmed illnesses, including intestinal upset, among
people who ate oysters in Washington during 2016.
Paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP), diarrhetic shellfish
poisoning (DSP) and domoic acid (DA) resulted in shellfish closures
in 18 commercial and 38 recreational growing areas. But no illness
were reported in 2016.
DSP was detected at 250 micrograms per 100 grams in blue mussel
tissues sampled from Budd Inlet near Olympia last year. That is the
highest level of DSP ever detected in Washington state.
Overall, zooplankton populations were high in 2016 compared to
2014, but generally not as high as in 2015.
Conditions, known or unknown, were responsible for various
effects on fish and wildlife in 2016:
It was the worst year on record for the Cherry Point herring
stock, which has been decline for years along with more recent
declines in South and Central Puget Sound. Five local stocks had no
spawn that could be found in 2016. Herring were smaller than
average in size.
The overall abundance and diversity of marine bird species in
2015-16 were similar to 2014-15.
Rhinoceros auklets, however, were reported to have serious
problems, which experts speculated could be related to a low
abundance and size of herring. On Protection Island, breeding
season started out normal, but fledgling success was only 49
percent, compared to 71 percent in 2015. Auklet parents were seen
to feed their chicks fewer and smaller fish than usual.
Including the Washington Coast, more than 1,000 carcasses of
rhinocerous auklets were found by volunteers. The primary cause of
death was identified as severe bacterial infections.
If you are an average person concerned about environmental
conditions in and around Puget Sound, the two-page summary and
four-page highlights section near the beginning of the report will
leave you better informed. To dig deeper, peruse the pages that
follow.
The report is designed to be easily compared with previous
years:
In the latest “Eyes
Over Puget Sound” report, one little note caught my attention:
“Puget Sound is fresher than it’s ever been the past 17 years.”
Jellyfish are largely missing
this fall from Puget Sound. Some patches of red-brown algae, such
as this one in Sinclair Inlet, have been observed.
Photo: Washington Department of Ecology
At least temporarily, something has changed in the waters of
Puget Sound over the past few months. It may not last, but it
appears to be a good thing.
The monthly EOPS report, compiled by a team of state
environmental experts, lays out recent water-quality data for the
Department of Ecology. The report also includes personal
observations, aerial photographs and scientific interpretations
that keep readers abreast of recent conditions while putting things
in historical context.
The “fresh” conditions called out in the report refers to the
salinity of Puget Sound, which is driven largely by the freshwater
streams flowing into the waterway. The reference to 17 years is a
recognition that the overall salinity hasn’t been this low since
the current program started 17 years ago.
Dissolved oxygen, essential to animals throughout the food web,
was higher this fall than we’ve seen in some time. Hood Canal,
which I’ve watched closely for years, didn’t come close to the
conditions that have led to massive fish kills in the past. The
only problem areas for low oxygen were in South Puget Sound.
Water temperatures in the Sound, which had been warmer than
normal through 2015 and 2016, returned to more average conditions
in 2017. Those temperatures were related, in part, to the warm
ocean conditions off the coast, often referred to as “the blob.” In
South Puget Sound, waters remained warm into October.
Why is the water fresher this fall than it has been in a long
time? The reason can be attributed to the massive snowpack
accumulated last winter, according to oceanographer Christopher
Krembs, who leads the EOPS analysis. That snowpack provided
freshwater this past spring, although rivers slowed significantly
during the dry summer and continued into September.
“We had a really good snowpack with much more freshwater flowing
in,” Christopher told me, adding that the Fraser River in southern
British Columbia was well above average in July before the flows
dropped off rapidly. The Fraser River feeds a lot of freshwater
into northern Puget Sound.
Freshwater, which is less dense than seawater, creates a surface
layer as it comes into Puget Sound and floats on top of the older,
saltier water. The freshwater input fuels the circulation by
generally pushing out toward the ocean, while the heavier saltwater
generally moves farther into Puget Sound.
“The big gorilla is the upwelling system,” Christopher noted,
referring to the rate at which deep, nutrient-rich and low-oxygen
waters are churned up along the coast and distributed into the
Puget Sound via the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Lately, that system has
been turned down to low as a result of larger forces in the
ocean.
In an
advisory issued today (PDF 803 kb), NOAA’s Climate Prediction
Center says a weak La Niña is likely to continue through the
winter. For the northern states across the country, that usually
means below-average temperatures and above-average precipitation.
(It’s just the opposite for the southern states.)
With a favorable snowpack already accumulating in the mountains,
experts can’t help but wonder if we might repeat this year’s
conditions in Puget Sound over the next year.
Christopher told me that during aerial flights this fall, he has
observed fewer jellyfish and blooms of Noctiluca (a plankton known
to turn the waters orange) than during the past two years. Most
people think this is a good thing, since these organisms prevail in
poor conditions. Such species also have a reputation as a “dead
end” in the food web, since they are eaten by very few animals.
Christopher said he noticed a lot of “bait balls,” which are
large schools of small fish that can feed salmon, birds and a
variety of creatures. “I assume most of them are anchovies,” he
said of the schooling fish.
I would trade a jellyfish to get an anchovy on any day of the
year.
“I have just watched the moon set in all her glory, and
looked at those lesser moons, the beautiful Pyrosoma, shining like
white-hot cylinders in the water.” — English biologist
Thomas H. Huxley, 1849
Warmer-than-normal waters off the coast of Oregon, Washington
and British Columbia may be responsible for an invasion of all
sorts of creatures normally found to the south in more tropical
waters. None of these animals has attracted more attention than the
bright bioluminescent pyrosomes, which showed up last spring as the
waters of the Pacific Ocean were returning to normal
temperatures.
Pyrosomes — which comes from the Greek word “pyro,” meaning
fire, and “soma,” meaning body —are large colonies of small
tunicates. These are invertebrates that feed by filtering sea
water. The individual tunicates, called zooids, hook together to
form tubes. The intake siphon of each zooid is aligned to the
outside of the tube, while each discharge siphon is aligned to the
inside.
The pyrosomes seen in Northwest waters so far are relatively
small, thus fitting their nickname “sea pickles.” Nevertheless,
they have impressed scientists who have observed them. The first
video, above, was made in late July during the 2017 Nautilus
Expedition along the West Coast (Water
Ways, Sept. 4).
Hilarie Sorensen, a University of Oregon graduate student,
participated in a research cruise in May, traveling from San
Francisco to Newport in search of jellyfish that had invaded
Northwest waters over the previous two years. She didn’t find the
jellies she hoped to see, but she was blown away by the pyrosomes,
some more than two feet long, and she wondered what they were up
to.
“I am interested in how short- and long-term physical changes in
the ocean impact biology,” Hilary was quoted as saying in a
UO news release. “With all of these pyrosomes this year, I
would like to further explore the relationship between their
distribution, size and abundance with local environmental
conditions.”
Reporter Craig Welch wrote about the recent findings for
National Geographic. He quoted Laurie Weitkamp, a biologist
with NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center: “For something
that’s never really been here before, the densities are just
mind-boggling,” she said. “We’re just scratching our heads.”
Even more impressive are the giant pyrosomes that have not shown
up in Northwest waters, at least so far. They are rare even in
tropical locales. Check out the second video, which shows a
pyrosome found in the Canary Islands in North Africa and estimated
to be about 12 feet long.
The third video was filmed in Tasmania south of Australia by
Michael Baron of Eaglehawk Dive Centre. It shows both a giant
pyrosome and a salp, another colonial creature formed of larger
individuals. For the full story on the pyrosome, go to the BBC Two
program, “Unidentified glowing
object: nature’s weirdest events.”
Oddly enough, pyrosomes seem to light up in response to light,
according to information posted on an
invertebrate zoology blog at the University of California at
Davis. The colonies may also light up in response to electrical
stimulation or physical prodding.
When an individual zooid has activated its luminescence, it will
trigger a chain reaction throughout the colony with nearby zooids
lighting up in turn.
“When many pyrosomes are present in the same general area it’s
possible to observe a vivid array of bright, pale lights produced
by the many animals,” said Ian Streiter in the blog post.
“It was just this sort of observation that led the great Thomas
Huxley (‘Darwin’s Bulldog’) to remark in 1849: ‘I have just watched
the moon set in all her glory, and looked at those lesser moons,
the beautiful Pyrosoma, shining like white-hot cylinders in the
water.’
Ian concluded, “For those lucky enough to be at sea when they’re
around, I imagine there are few sights as pleasant as that of the
‘moonlight’ produced by the fire bodies.”
Finally, there is this audio report, “Millions of tropical sea
creatures invade waters off B.C. coast,” with commentary from
Washington state fisherman Dobie Lyons and zooplankton taxonomist
Moira Galbraith of the Institute of Ocean Sciences in Sidney, B.C.
They appeared on
All Points West, CBC Radio, with Jason D’Souza of Victoria.
Exploration Vessel Nautilus has completed its journey north to
the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, where the research
team captured plenty of intriguing video, including a close look at
the sunken submarine USS Bugara (first video below). All videos are
best in full screen.
EV Nautilus, operated by Ocean Exploration Trust, conducts
scientific research along the sea bottom throughout the world,
specializing in biology, geology and archeology. Education is a
major part of the effort, and school curricula are built around
live and recorded telecasts from the ship. In addition, a select
group of educators and students are invited to go on the
expeditions each summer.
This year’s expedition began in May in California, where the
ship took data for high-resolution maps of offshore areas never
surveyed before. That was followed by an examination of the
Cascadia Margin, a geologically active area off the Oregon
Coast where the researchers identified bubbling seeps with
multibeam sonar.
Dives using remotely operated vehicles began in June when the
ship arrived off the Canadian Coast west of Vancouver Island. One
dive, which went down to 2,200 meters, captured images of a
hydrothermal vent, where water gets expelled after being
superheated by the Earth’s magma. Watch the video saved on the
Nautilus
Facebook page. In another
video, the temperature at one vent got so hot that the
researchers found themselves cheering as the temperature at the
probe kept going up.
I am easily amused, but I have to say that I was intrigued by a
9,000-year-old living reef made of glass sponges that was
discovered off the coast of Galiano Island, British Columbia
(second video this page).
One amusing video was created while watching a six-gill shark in
the Channel Islands off California. Suddenly, a crab came into view
carrying another crab (third video below). “It’s an Uber crab!” one
researcher commented. “Is that lunch?” another wondered.
Another great shot from the Channel Islands showed a big ball of
shimmering anchovies along with a select group of predators,
including several fish, a six-gill shark and a sea lion. This video
can be seen on the Nautilius
Facebook page.
The examination of the submarine Bugara (first video on this
page) occurred Aug. 25 off Cape Flattery in Olympic Coast National
Marine Sanctuary. The event was live-streamed with commentary from
scientists, archaeologists and historians, as well as veterans who
served on the submarine. Bugara was built during World War II and
later became the first American submarine to enter the Vietnam War
after Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
After its decommissioning in California, Bugara was being towed
to Washington state to serve as a target for a new weapons system.
On June 1, 1971, the submarine took on water during transit and
sank to the bottom, where it has rested ever since. No injuries
occurred during the incident. For historical details, go to
Bugara.net, which
was set up for former sailors and others associated with the
submarine.
A longer 1.5-hour video of the Bugara inspection by ROV can be
viewed on the Nautilus
Facebook page. This is basically what was viewed online in real
time by observers — including a group gathered at Naval Undersea
Museum at Keyport.
Another interesting video shot in Olympic Coast National Marine
Sanctuary shows a siphonophore, a colony of specialized organisms
that work together to form a chain of individuals that together are
capable of swimming, stinging, digesting and reproducing.
Researchers working the 4-to-8-p.m. shift were able to observe more
than their share of these interesting colonies, so the group became
known as the “Siphono4-8” (video below).
Nautilus currently is moored in Astoria, Ore., where it is
scheduled to begin the next leg of its expedition on Wednesday. The
goal is to search near Oregon’s Heceta Bank for ancient coastal
landscapes that may have been above sea level 21,000 to 15,000
years ago. More live sessions and archived video are planned.
Follow these Nautilus links for details:
The Ocean Exploration Trust was founded in 2008 by Robert
Ballard, known for his discovery of RMS Titanic’s final resting
place. The 2017 Nautilus expedition, which will continue into
November, marks the third year of exploring the Eastern Pacific
Ocean. The expedition has been covered by these news media:
