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Woman Rows Herself To Hawaii, In 99 Days
Ninety-nine days after she rowed west beneath the Golden Gate Bridge, Roz Savage on landed Monday in a much different setting: Hawaii.
Savage, who set out from San Francisco on May 25 in an attempt to become the first woman to row alone across the Pacific Ocean, rowed before dawn through the choppy waters of Molokai Channel off Waikiki. After daylight she was met by supporters in a boat dispatched by the Waikiki Yacht Club. Ninety-nine days after she rowed west beneath the Golden Gate Bridge, Roz Savage on landed Monday in a much different setting: Hawaii.... more -
Climate warning from Pacific islands
The tiny Pacific nation of Niue has warned, at an annual summit of leaders from the region, that climate change is set to leave many low-lying islands uninhabitable as a result of global warming.
Some are already feeling the effects, with rising sea levels leaving arable land unuseable. The tiny Pacific nation of Niue has warned, at an annual summit of leaders from the region, that climate change is set to leave many l... more -
Raft made of plastic bottles crosses Pacific
Tanned, dirty and hungry, two men who spent three months crossing the Pacific on a raft made of plastic bottles to raise awareness of ocean debris finally stepped onto dry land.
"We made it," hollered Marcus Eriksen to a crowd of about two dozen gathered at Ala Wai Harbor on Wednesday. "Where's the food?"
Friends greeted Eriksen and fellow eco-mariner Joel Paschal with leis, fresh food and beer to celebrate the end of their 2,600-mile voyage on what they call the JUNK raft.
"We got used to eating fish and peanut butter," said Eriksen, who celebrated his 41st birthday at sea.
The pair left Long Beach, California, on June 1. Their 30-foot vessel had a deck of salvaged sailboat masts, six pontoons filled with 15,000 plastic bottles and a cabin made from the fuselage of a Cessna airplane.
While at sea they realized they were only traveling half a mile per hour and it would take them much longer to reach Hawaii than the previously anticipated six weeks.
"We had to go to half rations for awhile," said Paschal, 32.
Trading the 'necessities of life'
Without a backup plan, the two used a satellite phone to get in touch with Roz Savage, who was crossing the Pacific solo in a rowboat and happened to be in the same area at the time.
Savage, who was heading from San Francisco to Hawaii, was in dire need of water after both her potable water makers broke. When the three met up, Savage got onboard the raft, Paschal speared a mahimahi and the three dined together. Before parting, the men gave Savage a water maker and she gave them some of her extra food.
"We exchanged the necessities of life," Eriksen said. "And that kept us going."
Food wasn't the only problem the men encountered on their trip. The raft, which can only sail down wind, had a hard time leaving the Long Beach area. The raft encountered storms that tore it apart during the first two weeks. Some of the bottles that were supposed to help the raft stay afloat started to sink. Eriksen and Paschal had to anchor the raft 100 miles off shore and rebuild it, before setting sail again.
Effort to ban 'single-use plastics'
The voyage was part of Algalita Marine Research Foundation's project called, "JUNK." The third person of the group, who didn't make the trip, was Anna Cummins, Eriksen's fiancee. Cummins took care of land support, blogs and fundraising.
She said the goal of the trip was to creatively raise awareness about plastic debris and pollution in the ocean. Ironically, this was the same goal that Savage had in her trek across the Pacific.
The three want "single-use plastics" to be banned, saying they're wasteful and usually end up in the ocean.
"Recycling is one solution, but it's just a small part of the puzzle," Paschal said.
Each day the men posted online videos and blogs of their trip and kept in touch with Cummins. They also spent two to three hours a day maintaining and repairing the raft.
Unappetizing fish
The men said a variety of marine life gathered under the raft throughout the trip.
One day, said Paschal, they caught a fish after watching it grow for five weeks. They were going to eat it, but when they cut it open they found its stomach was full of plastic confetti.
The team hopes to visit schools around Oahu and share their experiences, and is working on a documentary film about the voyage to raise public awareness of the danger of plastics. Tanned, dirty and hungry, two men who spent three months crossing the Pacific on a raft made of plastic bottles to raise awareness of ... more -
U.S. Considers Protections for Stretches of Pacific Ocean
President Bush announced today that three isolated stretches of the Pacific Ocean are under consideration for national monument status, a designation that could provide vast new protections for the regions' fragile coral reefs, seabirds and ocean creatures.
Deputy White House Press Secretary Tony Fratto said Bush has asked cabinet secretaries to assess the need for new protections for the large regions of U.S. territorial waters.
"These areas are host to some of the world's most bio-diverse coral reefs and habitat, and some of the most interesting and compelling geological formations in all of our oceans," he said at briefing near the President's Crawford ranch, where Bush is vacationing.
One area under consideration is the waters off the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, including the 36,000 foot deep Mariana Trench, the deepest canyon in the world.
"It's like Yellowstone Park and the Grand Canyon rolled into one," said Joshua S. Reichert, managing director of the Pew Environment Group, an advocacy organization that has urged the designation.
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According to Reichert, one survey found 19 different types of whales and dolphins in the area, which has the highest density of sharks anywhere in the Pacific, and 250,000 seabirds.
Reichert's group has recommended that protections be imposed on about 115,000 square miles of ocean, which would make it the second-largest protected marine preserve in the world. Bush established the largest in 2006, when he gave similar distinction to 140,000 square miles of ocean surrounding the Northwestern Hawaiian islands.
The other two areas under consideration for designation are the Rose Atoll, near American Samoa, which Reichert said is known as a nesting ground for green sea turtles and a rare giant clam, and the oceans surrounding a series of islands and atolls in the central Pacific.
While the three areas now will be vetted for designation as a national monument or a marine sanctuary, many environmental experts believe the process will culminate with a grant of some protection for all of them. Reichert said the level of protection could vary. He called for a prohibition on both commercial fishing and oil and gas exploration.
Though environmentalists have been critical of Bush's record, his willingness to protect new ocean areas has gained him widespread praise.
Reichert said that if the same kind of protections Bush granted in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands preserve are extended to the Northern Marianas Islands region, Bush will have established environmental protections for more of the earth's surface than anyone else in history.
"He will have led the nation into a new era of ocean conservation," he said. President Bush announced today that three isolated stretches of the Pacific Ocean are under consideration for national monument status... more -
Epic Fail: Rocket carrying three satellites crashes into Pacific Ocean
Update: they found most of the crash debris in South Pacific
Saturday was a bad day for science, as a privately funded rocket carrying three $atellites was lost on its way to space, bringing a third failure in a row to an Internet multimillionaire's effort to create a market for low-cost space-delivery.
Falcon 1 is a two-stage, liquid oxygen and rocket-grade kerosene powered launch vehicle, and the world's first new orbital rocket in more than a decade.
Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO, said after the launch that although it was an obvious disappointment not to reach orbit, the flight of the first stage with the new Merlin 1C engine, which will be used in Falcon 9, was “picture perfect.”
It appears that a problem occurred during separation on Saturday, which caused the stages to be held together. The matter is still under investigation, and more details will be available as soon as the engineers realize what happened.
“The most important message I'd like to send right now is that SpaceX will not skip a beat in execution going forward,” said Musk, adding that flights four and five for Falcon 1 are almost ready, and that he's already given green light to begin fabrication of flight six. The Falcon 9 development is still on track.
Even with a failed launch, SpaceX said they have more than sufficient funding to continue launching Falcon 1 and develop Falcon 9 and Dragon. “For my part, I will never give up and I mean never,” said Musk.
The Falcon 1's mission is to deploy three separating satellites that will orbit at an inclination of 9 degrees: the Trailblazer satellite developed by SpaceDev, and two smaller NASA satellites. The three satellites attach to the Falcon 1 second stage via the Secondary Payload Adaptor and Separating System developed by ATSB, which is owned by the Government of Malaysia.
Space X is the winner of the NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services competition (COTS), and will contribute to help the American mission on the International Space Station after the Space Shuttle retirement in 2010. Update: they found most of the crash debris in South Pacific ... more -
Season's first hurricane forms in Pacific off Mexico
Forecasters say a tropical storm in the Pacific is now a hurricane over the ocean far to the west of Mexico.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Tuesday that Boris strengthened into the first hurricane of the season.
The storm is moving farther toward the west and packing maximum sustained winds near 75 mph (120 kilometers per hour). Forecasters say a tropical storm in the Pacific is now a hurricane over the ocean far to the west of Mexico. ... more -
Plastic Junk to Sail the Pacific
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So was born the idea to build Junk–a raft made from 15,000 plastic bottles and a Cessna 310 fuselage—and sail it from Long Beach to Hawaii.
“We’re hoping that this somewhat unusual, ambitious journey will get people talking about solutions to the plastics problem,” Eriksen says. “We see this voyage as a risk worth taking, to push the idea of statewide action to end the disposable plastics plague.”
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Guate Mania!
Guatemala is an amazing country, the people, culture, food etc. It's the gem of Central America, even if tourists get robbed there all the time. We had a great time, until we got attacked by locos with machetes. But even then, Guatemala didn't lose it's charm. Guatemala is an amazing country, the people, culture, food etc. It's the gem of Central America, even if tourists get robbed the... more
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More on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
The so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a stewy body of plastic and marine debris that floats an estimated 1,000 miles west of San Francisco, is a shape-shifting mass far too large, delicate and remote to ever be cleaned up, according to a researcher who recently returned from the area.
But that might not stop the federal government from trying.
The Garbage Patch is not a solid island, as some people believe, Moore said. Instead, it resembles a soupy mass, interspersed with large pieces of junk such as derelict fishing nets and waterlogged tires - "an alphabet soup," he called it. The so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a stewy body of plastic and marine debris that floats an estimated 1,000 miles west of San ... more -
Contintent made of Trash floating in Pacific
If it's twice the size of Texas, why cant we see it on Google Satelite?
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Harbor seals become lab rats
Studies in West Coast estuaries have found mercury in harbor seals because they eat fish contaminated by leaking mines, atmospheric pollution and discharges from sewage plants. Levels of PBDEs - the flame retardants used in soft foam furniture and carpets - have been rising in harbor seals and other organisms over the past decade. Studies in West Coast estuaries have found mercury in harbor seals because they eat fish contaminated by leaking mines, atmospheric po... more
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Coastal Calamity
Coastal Dreams is a documentary/expedition which will have a profound effect on the future health of California's coastal environment. A small group of lifelong friends and surfers will embark on a journey along the entire 1100 mile length of the California coast.
Putting in at the Oregon-California border our adventurers will use only paddleboards and surfboards to paddle and ride waves down the coast to southern California and finish the journey at the California-Mexico border.
They need your support... please spread the word.
The journey begins in August 2008. http://www.coastaldreams.org/ Coastal Dreams is a documentary/expedition which will have a profound effect on the future health of California's coastal environ... more -
Maverick's: Riding for Their Lives
This story is amazing!!
Two water safety patrollers on Jet Skis at Maverick's reef turned around to see deadly 100-foot waves crashing toward them. They had just seconds to figure out how to stay alive.
Make sure to check out the accompanying graphic and other media...insane! This story is amazing!! ... more -
Whoa. The Nothwest Passage is fully navigable. Whoa.
It's OPEN, ya'll. This is a true landmark. And scary as hell.From Wikipedia, FYI:The Northwest Passage is a sea route through the Arctic Ocean along the northern coast of North America via the waterways amidst the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The various islands of the archipelago are separated from one another and the Canadian mainland by a series of Arctic waterways collectively known as the Northwest Passages or Northwestern Passages.Sought by explorers for centuries as a possible trade route, it was first navigated by Roald Amundsen in 1903-6. In September 2007, the European Space Agency announced that the area covered by sea ice in the Arctic has shrunk to its lowest level since satellite measurements began nearly 30 years ago, making the Northwest Passage navigable. This and the contested sovereignty claims over the waters may complicate future shipping through the region: the Canadian government considers the Northwestern Passages part of the Canadian Internal Waters, but various countries maintain they are an international strait or transit passage, allowing free and unencumbered passage It's OPEN, ya'll. This is a true landmark. And scary as hell.From Wikipedia, FYI:The Northwest Passage is a sea route throug... more
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Pacific Ocean
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Pacific Ocean
