Goodbye Discovery

Shuttle Discovery left Florida today for the last time...

Space Shuttle Discovery Lands At New Home Near DC

*sniff*

Bracken Cave Bats: visitors can view world's largest colony in Texas

The poor bat - another one of those creepy things that go bump in the night. A bit like my friends, the sharks, in that they prey not only on other species to maintain ecological balance, but they also prey on some of the dark, primal recesses of our minds. They also fascinate us.

In a single cave near New Braunfels, outside San Antonio, Texas, between the months of April and October, resides the largest known colony of bats in the world. Millions of Mexican free-tailed bats migrate to this one spot, known as the Bracken Cave, each year, swelling the total number of bats to as much as 20 to 40 million. Bat Conservation International (BCI), working with Natural Bridge Caverns, has opened the "Bracken Bat Flight" tour to the public for the first time in 2012 to raise awareness of these amazing animals and their importance to our ecosystem during this, the International Year of the Bat. Each night at dusk visitors can view the bats leaving their cave in numbers so dense that they are detected on airport radar.



"Negative myths and misinformation have generated needless fears that have threatened bats and their habitats for centuries," said Nina Fascione, Executive Director of BCI, the Austin-based group which owns and manages Bracken Cave site. "Our goal in opening tours to the public, is to teach more people the truth about bats and the critical need for conservation efforts."

Bats play a pivotal role in managing insect populations, which is key to not only the balance of natural plant ecology, but agricultural interests as well by controlling the number of crop-destroying moths, beetles and other insects. It has been estimated that the Bracken Cave colony consumes as much as 400,000 pounds of insects every night. Additional, bats assist indirectly with plant pollination, much like bees, and the seeds they consume from eating plants helps the spread of seeds through their droppings.

And speaking of bat poop, the Bracken Cave bat's droppings, known as bat guano, has some historical significance as it was used by Confederate soldiers who mined the guano during the Civil War to help manufacture black gunpowder. The nitrogen-rich guano has also been used as a fertilizer.

Conservation awareness of bats is important because many bats are being destroyed by a fungal infection known as the white-nose syndrome, so named because of the white patch that appears on the bats nose and face. It has been running rampant through caves in the eastern United States and researchers and state officials are working hard to get it under control but it has, so far, proven to be a difficult condition to eradicate.

You can learn more about the Bracken Bat Cave tours, managed by Natural Bridge Caverns, by visiting their website at www.brackenbatflight.com. Part of the proceeds generated from ticket sales will go to the protection and conservation of the Bracken Cave site.

Source: PR Newswire

Titanic Centennial: commemorating nature and mankind's hubris

On Sunday, April 15th, I will be attending the West Coast Explorers Club Annual Dinner. As a member of the Explorers Club, I enjoy the opportunity to meet with professional, amateur, and armchair explorers to discuss topics ranging from Arctic expeditions to tribal cultures to ocean mysteries. Part of the evening will include an award presentation to renown National Geographic photographer Emory Kristof.

But on this particular evening, there will also be time to contemplate an historic tragedy that took place in the wee hours of the morning of the same day, 100 years ago. As midnight approached on April 14, 1912, 100 years ago the luxury ocean liner, Titanic, had an unexpected encounter with nature that would seal the great ship's fate in less than three hours. A glancing blow along an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland started a sequence of events that led to one of the greatest maritime tragedies of all time.

Most of us know the particulars - we've read the stories, seen the long parade of television programs, and watched the movies, particularly James Cameron's blockbuster film of the same name. With all tragedies there are questions to be resolved and the Titanic surely had its fair share of riddles and mysteries, many of which have been solved but some still persist to this day.

There have been several Titanic-related news items that have appeared recently, timed I'm sure with the upcoming centennial. One has to do with questions regarding the Titanic's captain's seemingly casual response to reports of approaching icebergs. Captain Edward Smith was the most experienced captain in the White Star Line and many have wondered why he never took the reports more seriously and initiated corrective measures. One rumor was that he was under pressure to remain under full speed, a directive coming from J. Bruce Ismay, head of the White Star Line and a passenger on the fateful voyage. But Capt. Smith was a master of transatlantic crossings and knew the risks involved.

Now, research that will appear in the April issue of Sky & Telescope presents astronomical evidence to show that possibly Capt. Smith was acting in accordance with his past experience with the occasional iceberg but could not have foreseen the ice that was moving into the normal shipping lanes because of an unusual occurrence that took place four months before. According to a team of forensic astronomers from Texas State University, a very rare and close juxtaposition of the sun and the moon to the earth in January of 1912 produced exceptionally high tides that could have dislodged icebergs normally originating in Greenland but which get stuck in shallower waters off of Newfoundland.

"The lunar connection may explain how an unusually large number of icebergs got into the path of the Titanic," said David Olson, Texas State University physicist, one of the leaders of the research.

Long before I was a diver, long before the magnitude of the Titanic disaster really meant anything to me, this ship fascinated me. As a boy, I read my parent's copy of A Night to Remember by Walter Lord over and over. And when I was older, particularly around the time that Dr. Bob Ballard found the Titanic's final resting place, my fascination grew and I collected books and videos on the subject. In fact, during one boring stretch of recuperation from some surgery, I whiled away the hours building a model of the Titanic - before and after - using two model kits, one of which I fabricated into the wreck using many of my books' photographs and drawings as a guide.

And like many scuba divers, I find diving on wrecks to be an otherworldly experience. There is something intriguing when you come upon a wreck. It seems so out of place; it's not supposed to be here, it should be gliding across the surface above. And yet, here it is, slowly being consumed by nature. Wrecks can become beautiful artificial reefs, providing a wide variety of sealife with a new and unexpected home. They can also be a hazard for divers who penetrate the hulls if they drop their guard for even just a moment. And as we have all seen with ships like the Exxon Valdez, they can be deadly to marine ecosystems.

In the grander scheme of things, like Titanic, wrecks also serve as reminders as to the limits of our mastery of the natural world. When Titanic slipped beneath the surface of the icy North Atlantic with a rush of escaping air and the groans of twisting metal, taking over 1,500 lives with it, it became a tragic symbol of industrial and technological arrogance and of an upper class/lower class society at the time whose have and have-nots ultimately meant nothing in those freezing waters.

One hundred years later, Titanic rests in two main pieces with debris strewn across a wide area (recent pictures from RMS Titanic Inc, the salvage owners, have been assembled into a startling mosaic of where the ship lies today). With its iron being consumed by microorganisms and bacteria, some say it won't be much longer before the once majestic profile will collapse into rubble.

But what Titanic represented back then - the pride, the achievement and the hubris and folly - is that still with us today? This great ship is a constant reminder that without acknowledging nature, we are masters of nothing. Nature provided the raw materials to build the Titanic, and it would seem that when mankind was at its industrial and technological zenith in self-serving luxury, nature reared up and acted swiftly to remind us who is truly the master of our domain. And since that cataclysmic moment, it has slowly been taking those resources back.

A lesson to be learned - again and again? A warning once more gone unheeded? Will our fate be, ultimately, not that different from that of the great ocean liner that passed into maritime history 100 years ago tonight?

Source: Reuters
Source: Los Angeles Times

Cat Blog Friday

For this Cat Blog Friday...

... Sammy Davis Jr.

Happy Friday, everybody.

Hope your day is better than mine.

Wind Farms: North Sea alternative energy is damaging ocean carbon sinks

The earth is a very crowded place. Maybe not for many animal and plant species that have been battered by overfishing, hunting or harvesting, but for we humans and the many ecological systems we impact, we're rubbing shoulders in a very big way. Just ask Struan Stevenson, Member of the European Parliament and president of the European Parliament's climate change, biodiversity, and sustainable development group.

Stevenson's concern is that in our attempts to address some of our energy needs and reduce our output of carbon into the atmosphere - in particular, the development of wind farms - we are damaging other natural systems that can also contribute to reducing or storing some of the 2.2 million tons of carbon being expelled into the air daily.

In Europe, wind farms are being constructed along shallow shorelines in places like Scotland to help reduce some of the continent's dependence on fossil fuels. Sounds good at first blush, but wind farms won't completely solve the carbon issue. In these cold northern waters, nature itself can lend a hand in the form of carbon sinks or carbon sequestering in sea grasses and salt marshes. Ocean acidification - the raising of the ocean's pH or acidic level through the dissolving of excess CO2 emissions into the ocean - is being accelerated by increases in ocean water temperatures, but in the North Atlantic, shallow aquatic flora can help to slow down the process.

That is, unless these vital marine ecosystems are being destroyed by well-intentioned builders of wind farms.

"Recent research has indicated that a tiny part of the marine environment – the mangrove swamps, salt marshes and seagrasses that cover just 0.5 per cent of the seabed – account for the capture of at least half, and maybe three-quarters, of this blue carbon [carbon stored in ocean environments]. They are our blue carbon sinks and keeping them in good shape could be one of our most important undertakings to control climate change. While most mangrove swamps are in the tropics and subtropics, the United Kingdom possesses large areas of the other blue carbon stores with its seagrass meadows and salt marshes. Government agency Scottish National Heritage has noted that the vast majority of the UK's seagrass meadows are located in Scottish waters, accounting for some 20 per cent of Europe's total," said Stevenson in Public Service Europe.

Due to the northern water's overall reduced visibility, salt marshes and sea grasses tend to grow in fairly shallow waters, less than 16 feet in depth. So, it would seem reasonable that offshore wind farms should be constructed and placed in deeper water. Apparently though, in a rush to establish wind energy technology as a viable alternative, the farms are being located in shallow areas and destroying a vital source of natural carbon storage. Stevenson says nearly 200 turbines have already been built in shallow waters in the North Sea.

"At present, a number of developers are preparing applications to site huge wind farms in the Moray Firth development area as the Scottish Government has noted that the region 'has favourable conditions and significant potential for the development of offshore wind both within Scottish territorial waters and beyond into Scottish offshore waters'. The government does not mention either saltmarshes or seagrasses in its 'sectoral marine plan for offshore wind energy in Scottish territorial waters', though they do note that there are potential adverse effects on bottlenose dolphins," Stevenson said.

Of course, the development off alternative energy sources like wind and solar needs to be maximized to help reduce the level of CO2 emissions. But it can't be at the expense of the planet's natural carbon sinks that help to sequester excess carbon. We wouldn't level a forest to build a solar energy farm, and so it is the same for offshore alternative energy and the ocean's natural devourers and holders of carbon. Mankind has assaulted nature with this problem of its own invention and now, as we struggle to come up with solutions, we must ensure that we give nature enough room to do its thing and be part of the solution, too.

"The message to policy-makers is clear - we cannot afford to sanction the continued destruction of our remaining blue carbon habitats merely to fast-track wind farm development. Blue carbon sinks are far more effective in the battle against climate change than turbines can ever be and it is time they received full protection."

Source: Public Service Europe

Sydney Brooke Simpson

It's been a while since I posted about the subject that never fails to bring me the
highest hit count...

"If You Were Sydney Simpson Could You Forgive OJ?"

OK, bring on the hits I like so much.

:-)

Illegal Shark Fins: officials arrest fishermen and not where you might expect

Two local fishermen got their comeuppance when they were arrested on April 8th for having on board their fishing boat a total of 2,073 shark fins. Government officials said that the catch represented as many as 529 sharks (which included 11 whole sharks they had on board).

The fishermen had the fins stored in a hidden compartment in the bow of the ship, which means they were aware that their catch was illegal. The limit for sharks in the waters they were apparently fishing in is 33. So, they were off by only a mere 496 sharks.

Hung Anh Tiet and Rick Nguyen, both from Texas, face fines totaling more than $26,000 and potentially 2 months in jail. Seems they're getting off pretty light compared to the sharks.

The interesting facet to all this is where this took place. Far away in the South Pacific, perhaps? Or maybe in the Mediterranean or Northeastern Atlantic? Try Louisiana. Right smack dab in U.S. waters, in an area that has been both trying to recover from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and wrestling with overfishing concerns of other Gulf fish species.

Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Enforcement reported that law enforcement officials board the vessel Lady Lyanna in the Delta National Wildlife Refuge in Venice, Louisiana. In a wildlife refuge no less.

Just two local fishermen. 529 sharks. Now imagine what could be carried out by a large commercial fleet. Can't blame the sharks for biting back every once in a while. . . while they still can.

Source: MailOnline
Source: Lone Star Outdoor News