US, Australia Join Search for Kiribati Ferry Survivors
United States and Australian aircraft joined the search for passengers of a missing ferry off Kiribati on Tuesday, as rescuers scoured the central Pacific Ocean for a liferaft believed to be carrying survivors. Eight people rescued from an drifting dinghy on the weekend said the ferry broke up soon after setting out on Jan. 18 and that they had seen other passengers scramble aboard a liferaft. "There is a definitely a possibility that the people in the liferaft are alive given that only a short while ago we found people in an open dinghy alive…
Research Shows Iron's Long Ocean Journey
A new study led by scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) points to the deep ocean as a major source of dissolved iron in the central Pacific Ocean. Researchers found that iron can travel long distances, highlighting the vital role ocean mixing plays in determining whether deep sources of iron reach the surface-dwelling life that need it to survive. Iron is readily soluble in low oxygen regions at hydrothermal vent sites and along continental margins, but it was believed iron remained in these localized spots and contributed minimally to the ocean's overall iron content.
USCG Cutter Rush Returns
The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Rush returned to its homeport following a successful 72-day deployment in the Central and Western Pacific, Monday. Rush departed in July 2014 and spent the last two months conducting operations in the Central and Western Pacific. During the deployment, Rush’s crew coordinated with multiple countries and partner agencies to conduct fisheries boardings in support of the Coast Guard’s living marine resources mission. Rush also participated in international engagement activities in American Samoa, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Palau, and the Federated States of Micronesia. Rush enforced U.S. foreign fishing laws utilizing embarked shipriders from Tonga, Tuvalu, and Nauru. Rush also enforced Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission regulations.
Obama Plans to Create World's Largest Marine Protected Area
The proposed Marine Protected Area (MPA) is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean where the White House intends to extend an existing protected area, known as the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, where fishing and drilling would be banned over an area of about 2-million sq. km. The Pacific Remote Islands Area is controlled by the US and consists of seven scattered islands, atolls and reefs that lie between Hawaii and American Samoa. In the main uninhabited, the waters that surround these remote islands are home to a wide range of species including corals, seabirds, sharks and vegetation not found anywhere else in the world.
Strange But True: Sea Levels Dropped Due to More Rainfall
Research scientist explains how it rained more yet the global average sea level fell for eighteen months up to mid-2011. Current perception of climate change leads us to believe that sea levels, measured by bouncing microwaves off of the ocean at many points around the globe, are constantly rising due to thermal expansion and melting ice caps. However, from the beginning of 2010 until mid-2011, the average level of the world's oceans dropped by 0.2 inches, reports ENN (Environmental News Network). According to a recent study by Carmen Boening, a researcher at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, this sea level decline was due to an increase in the amount of rainfall in Australia, northern South America and Southeast Asia.
Australia Helps Curb Illegal Pacific Fishing
The Australian Defence Force mission against illegal fishing in the Pacific is progressing well after the successful completion of multi-national Operation RAI BALANG. Operation RAI BALANG is the first of four annual regional monitoring, control and surveillance missions involving Pacific Island nations. The operation counters illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing activities in the area. Chief of Joint Operations Lieutenant General Ash Power said an Australian AP-3C Orion provided surveillance of 60 per cent of Palau’s exclusive economic zones in an eight hour sortie. “This intelligence, once analysed by the Regional Fisheries Surveillance Centre…
USNS Amelia Earhart's Honors Ship's Namesake
Military Sealift Command dry cargo/ammunition ship USNS Amelia Earhart paused its maiden MSC mission to pay respect to the ship's namesake at the site where the famed aviator disappeared July 2, 1937. As the sun began to set over Howland Island in the Central Pacific Ocean, the ship's crew took a quiet moment to hold a wreath laying ceremony in the area where Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan are believed to have perished during an attempt to circumnavigate the globe. "Despite all of her accomplishments, Amelia Earhart was known as a very private person," said Capt.
Boeing Installs Sea-Based Radar's Mooring System
The Boeing Company announced that the Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX) mooring system has been installed at SBX's homeport in Alaska, completing a key piece of infrastructure for the missile defense sensor. Manson Construction, a Boeing subcontractor, used tugs, barges and cranes to place the mooring system's eight anchors on the bottom of Kuluk Bay. Heavy machinery aboard a barge then dragged the 75-metric-ton anchors, embedding them into the sea bed. The construction team completed the installation three weeks ahead of schedule. When SBX visits its homeport of Adak, Alaska, a small island in the Aleutian Islands, it will be chained to the anchors to keep it stationary in Kuluk Bay. SBX is a new sensor developed by Boeing for the U.S.
