Tag: Pacific

Study of the amount, spread, and impacts of radiation released into the ocean An international research team is reporting the results of a research cruise they organized to study the amount, spread, and impacts of radiation released into the ocean from the tsunami-crippled reactors in Fukushima, Japan. The group of 17 researchers and technicians from eight institutions spent 15 days at sea in June 2011 studying ocean currents, and sampling water and marine organisms up to the edge of the exclusion zone around the reactors.This map shows the sampling stations and cruise track near the Kuroshio Current (shown in yellow and red). Sampling began 400 miles offshore and passed within 20 miles of the nuclear complex. (Credit: Steven Jayne, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)Led by Ken Buesseler, a senior scientist and marine chemist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), the team found that the concentration of several key radioactive substances, or radionuclides, were elevated but varied widely across the study area, reflecting the complex nature of the marine environment. In addition, although levels of radioactivity in marine life sampled during the cruise were well below levels of concern for humans and the organisms themselves, the researchers leave open the question ...

Located in the central Kyobashi commercial district in Tokyo The 'A' rated 150 million GT North P&I club is about to consolidate its position in the Asia-Pacific region following approval from the Japanese government to open a branch office in Tokyo. The new office is due to start operating in the next few months and will complement the club's existing Asia-Pacific branches in Hong Kong and Singapore.Located in the central Kyobashi commercial district in Tokyo, the Japanese branch will be led by general manager Kunio Fukumoto. He formerly worked with Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group and brings more than 30 years of senior-level marine underwriting experience to the club.Fukumoto will be assisted by joint deputy general managers Masaki Ida and Malcolm Allinson, formerly a senior claims executive in North's UK head office, who together will be responsible for day-to-day claims handling, marketing and loss-prevention activities. General office administration will be undertaken by senior accounting and administration executive Tatsuya Nagai.North chairman Pratap Shirke says, 'We warmly welcome Fukomoto-san and his team and have every confidence they will help to realise the club's ambition to deliver the highest levels of service to the Japanese shipping community. We first started ...

IMO MEPC 1/ Circ.775 IMO issues circular MEPC1/ Circ.775 regarding Environmental Management Plan For The Clarion-Clipperton Zone Of The Central Pacific OceanA communication has been received from the International Seabed Authorityconcerning a decision by its Council at the seventeenth session (July 2011) relating to an environmental management plan for the Clarion-Clipperton Zone of the Central Pacific Ocean. It is circulated to Member States for their information and action as appropriate.For more information, click hereSource: IMO

Sub-centre, at Antananarivo, Madagascar for SAR coordination purposes A further key link in the plan to provide effective search and rescue (SAR) coverage off the coast of Africa has been established, with the commissioning of a search and rescue sub-centre that will operate in conjunction with the regional Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Cape Town, South Africa.The sub-centre, at Antananarivo, Madagascar, was commissioned on 11 December 2011 by IMO Secretary-General Efthimios E. Mitropoulos, together with Madagascar's Minister for Transports, Benjamina Ramarcel Ramantsoa and Mr. Jérôme Sambalis Director General of the Agence Portuaire, Maritime et Fluviale (APMF).The inauguration of the new facility, which will operate as a joint maritime and aeronautical centre, marks an important step in a process that began at a conference on Search and Rescue and the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System, convened by IMO in Florence, Italy, in October 2000. African Governments represented at the Conference agreed on a regional approach to the provision of SAR services in western, southern and eastern parts of the continent as well as in island States around Africa.To that effect, they adopted a resolution inviting the African countries bordering the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, as well as the nearby ...

Destruction of massive underwater mountains Startling new images from the depths of the Pacific Ocean reveal one of Earth's most violent processes: the destruction of massive underwater mountains.The pictures were created by sonar in waters up to 6km (4mi) deep.They expose how tectonic action is dragging giant volcanoes into a chasm in the seabed.The volcanoes are strung across several thousand kilometres of ocean floor and are moving westward on the Pacific tectonic plate at up to 6cm per year.The extraordinary scene was captured along the Tonga Trench during a research expedition last summer.The trench is a highly active fault line running north from New Zealand towards Tonga and Samoa.The first images have been released to BBC News as the findings are presented to the annual conference of the American Geophysical Union.They are the result of a joint project by the universities of Oxford and Durham, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council.Into the abyss Where the Pacific plate collides with the Indo-Australian plate, it is forced downwards into the trench, a subduction zone, and the volcanoes are carried with it.The trench, reaching a depth of 10.9km, forms the second deepest stretch of seabed anywhere in the world - easily large ...

The past decade has been the warmest and ocean acidity levels continue to increase New research providing critical information about how climate change is affecting Australia's Pacific island neighbours and East Timor has been released by the Australian Government's Pacific Climate Change Science Program (PCCSP).The landmark, peer-reviewed publication, Climate Change in the Pacific: Scientific Assessment and New Research, presents the most comprehensive scientific analysis to date of climate change in the Pacific region.Co-editor of the report, the Bureau of Meteorology's Dr Scott Power, said the findings would be presented at an event during the 2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference being held from next week in Durban, South Africa."The research provides clear evidence of how the climate has changed across this region. For example, the past decade has been the warmest on record and ocean acidity levels are continuing to increase in response to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations," Dr Power said.According to co-editor, CSIRO's Kevin Hennessy, the research indicates future decreases in droughts in most parts of the Pacific and decreases in the frequency of tropical cyclones by the end of the century."We also expect widespread increases in extreme rainfall events, large increases in the incidence of hot days ...

It is expected to reach 3 million tons - record volume since the late 1980's This year the cargo transportation of the Northern Sea Route (NSR), a shipping lane from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean along the Russian Arctic coast, is expected to reach 3 million tons, which is a record volume since the late 1980's, Andrei Smirnov, an official with the parent navigation company Rosatomflot said.In the late 1980's the cargo transportation volume on NSR amounted to 7 million tons. However, in the 1990's it declined almost five times down to 1.5 billion tons. Later the growth resumed and in 2010 the volume of cargo transportation reached 2.3 billion tons. The leap is explained by a number of factors, Smirnov says."Though the Northern sea route was open for foreign ships navigation 20 years ago, only in 2009 foreign ship-owners got interested in this route. Three foreign ships used the route and last year transit along the route already reached 100,000 tons. This year a Russian icebreaker has convoyed the Affinity tanker. It is likely that two-three more ships will sail the NSR this year. Many foreign shipping companies are interested in the transportation of cargos to Asia ...

New legislation within three years to protect Pacific marine environments Legal experts hope to have new legislation in place within three years to protect Pacific marine environments from possible damage caused by new deep sea mining projects.Deep seabed minerals have the potential to be a major economic resource for countries across the Pacific but there is concern about the lack of laws governing the practice.The world's first seabed mining project in waters off Papua New Guinea is expected to begin in 2013. And Tonga and Nauru have sought exploration licenses in international waters in the east Pacific through their sponsorship of companies Tonga Offshore Mining Limited and Nauru Offshore Resources Inc.Hannah Lily, a lawyer for the Secretariat of the Pacific Community's Deep Sea Minerals Project, is working with 15 Pacific nations to establish the regional framework before mining begins.Ms Lily told Pacific Beat a regional standard would be developed that every country could agree to."Once we've developed some regional standards that we think we can apply, which will be quite high level, they're going to need to be implemented in quite different ways in each of the countries.""That's why I'm really looking forward to working with the government and legal ...

Deep ocean was not an important source of carbon during glacial times After the last ice age peaked about 18,000 years ago, levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide rose about 30 percent. Scientists believe that the additional carbon dioxide -- a heat-trapping greenhouse gas -- played a key role in warming the planet and melting the continental ice sheets. They have long hypothesized that the source of the gas was the deep ocean.But a new study by a University of Michigan paleoclimatologist and two colleagues suggests that the deep ocean was not an important source of carbon during glacial times. The finding will force researchers to reassess their ideas about the fundamental mechanisms that regulate atmospheric carbon dioxide over long time scales."We're going back to the drawing board. It's certainly fair to say that we need to have some other working hypotheses at this point," said U-M paleoclimatologist David Lund, lead author of a paper in the journal Nature Geoscience."If we can improve our understanding of the carbon cycle in the past, we will be better positioned moving forward as CO2 levels rise due to anthropogenic causes," said Lund, an assistant professor in the U-M Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. ...

Strengthened into a small, but powerful Category 4 storm in the pacific Forecasters say Hurricane Hilary has strengthened into a small, but powerful Category 4 storm in the Pacific.Hilary's maximum sustained winds were near 135 mph (217 kph) Thursday. The hurricane is not forecast to make landfall, though officials say it is expected to rake Mexico's coast with wind, rain and heavy surf.The U.S. National Hurricane Center says a tropical storm warning is in effect for Mexico's coast from Lagunas de Chacahua to Punta San Telmo. A tropical storm watch is in effect for west of Punta San Telmo to Manzanillo.Hilary is centered about 85 miles (137 kilometers) southwest of Acapulco, Mexico, and is moving west-northwest.In the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Ophelia is weakeningSource: Huffington Post