News clips November 6-11, 2009

National Ocean Policy

• Economic Value of Alaska Waters Stressed by Begich during Oceans Subcommittee Hearing-Alaska Report.com
• Will ocean task force benefit Lake Erie and Northeast Ohio? Maybe- Plain Dealer- About Cleveland NOP hearing on October 29^th.
• As oceans fall ill, Washington squabbles- St. Louis Post-Dispatch- Article about NOP interim report with quotes from congresswomen, Lubchenko, Sutley, and Thad Allen.
• Senate Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Ocean Governance (from The CSO Weekly Report- November 6): On November 4, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard held a hearing, The Future of Ocean Governance: Building Our National Ocean Policy. Majority statements were made by John D. Rockefeller, IV (WV) and Maria Cantwell (WA). The hearing consisted of two panels, the first including: the Honorable Nancy Sutley, Chair, Council on Environmental Quality; the Honorable Jane Lubchenco, Administrator, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; the Honorable Thad Allen, Commandant, U.S. Coast Guard; and the Honorable Laura Davis, Associate Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of the Interior. The second panel consisted of: Mr. Billy Frank, Jr., Chairman, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission; Dr. Dennis Takashi-Kelso, Executive Vice President, The Ocean Conservancy; Mr. Matthew Paxton, Government Relations Counsel, Coastal Conservation Association; and Ms. Carolyn Elefant, Legislative and Regulatory Counsel, Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition. To view the video webcast of the hearing: http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_ID=a190dda5-770e-46dd-bfba-4ee64342897e

Corals

• Coral Reefs Inspire Rare Consensus -- Just Save Them- Science Daily (press release); see also: Efforts to save reefs backed- Honolulu Advertiser-Visitors and recreational ocean users who enjoy Hawaii's coral reefs generally support whatever management is needed to protect them — even if it means closing off public access, according to a study by researchers from the University of Hawaii-Manoa and Oregon State University.
• NOAA and TNC Partner to Preserve Coral Reefs (from The CSO Weekly Report- November 6): NOAA and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) have entered into an agreement to protect the health of the nation's valuable but increasingly vulnerable coral reef ecosystems in the Caribbean, Florida, Hawaii and the Pacific Islands. The four-year agreement will dedicate $3.6 million in NOAA funding and $3.6 million in matching funds from TNC to address the top three threats facing coral reef ecosystems: climate change, overfishing, and land-based sources of pollution. The agreement is the result of a competitive request for proposals issued by NOAA in late 2008. To read the full press release: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2009/20091030_corals.html.

Fisheries

• ICCAT`s Last Chance to Prove Capable of Controlling Fisheries- Reuters
• Using a double codend to reduce discard mortality- Oxford Journals | 04 Nov 2009
• Marine Reserves Can Be An Effective Tool For Managing Fisheries- Science Daily (press release)

Endangered Species

• Whale Watch: Endangered Designation in Danger- Wall Street Journal
• Ships Sailing U.S. Atlantic Coast Must Slow for Whales- Environment News Service- All vessels 65 ft (19.8 m) or longer must travel at 10 knots or less in coastal waters from Rhode Island to Georgia beginning November 1, 2009 and continuing through April 30, 2010 to reduce the threat of ship collisions with critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.

Marine Spatial Planning

• Oregon leads the way on ocean planning- Hillsboro Argus - OregonLive.com - Oregon is gaining a well-deserved reputation as one of three coastal states that have seized the lead in a process called marine spatial planning.
• Can Offshore Winds Spin a Market for U.s.-Made Turbines?- New York Times | 09 Nov 2009
• Map of proposed marine reserves published- Telegraph.co.uk

Science

• Oceanographers Develop "Swarms" of Robotic Ocean Explorers- National Science Foundation (press release)

Afloat in the Ocean, Expanding Islands of Trash

By LINDSEY HOSHAW
The New York Times

ABOARD THE ALGUITA, 1,000 miles northeast of Hawaii — In this remote patch of the Pacific Ocean, hundreds of miles from any national boundary, the detritus of human life is collecting in a swirling current so large that it defies precise measurement.

Light bulbs, bottle caps, toothbrushes, Popsicle sticks and tiny pieces of plastic, each the size of a grain of rice, inhabit the Pacific garbage patch, an area of widely dispersed trash that doubles in size every decade and is now believed to be roughly twice the size of Texas. But one research organization estimates that the garbage now actually pervades the Pacific, though most of it is caught in what oceanographers call a gyre like this one — an area of heavy currents and slack winds that keep the trash swirling in a giant whirlpool.

Scientists say the garbage patch is just one of five that may be caught in giant gyres scattered around the world’s oceans. Abandoned fishing gear like buoys, fishing line and nets account for some of the waste, but other items come from land after washing into storm drains and out to sea.

Plastic is the most common refuse in the patch because it is lightweight, durable and an omnipresent, disposable product in both advanced and developing societies. It can float along for hundreds of miles before being caught in a gyre and then, over time, breaking down.

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For Elephant Seals, a Restful Downward Spiral

By HENRY FOUNTAIN
The New York Times

Northern elephant seals are long-distance mariners, voyaging for two to eight months at a time without making landfall. And when they are at sea, they spend up to 90 percent of their time on underwater dives.

So this question arises: How and when do they sleep, or even just rest?

Past research had identified certain types of dives that include a period of slow descent that might be a siesta of sorts, for resting or digesting. Now a study has revealed more information about these so-called drift dives that strongly suggests they are a resting period, with the animals spiraling down in the water like a falling leaf through the air.

Yoko Mitani of Hokkaido University in Japan and colleagues attached special data loggers to six young northern elephant seals off the California coast. In addition to the usual information like depth and water temperature, the loggers capture acceleration and magnetism data along three axes, providing a profile of a dive in three dimensions.

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