Environmental Page ****************************************** The D.L.S.A. is deeply committed to keeping our Ocean, our beloved Doheny State Park, and the land we live on clean and natural, for all of us now and for the future of our children. Each year the D.L.S.A. works very hard by donating our membership's time and labor as well as money to various organizations and deserving charities. Join us in our efforts by becoming a member and being active in our causes.
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We also encourage anyone to submit environmental information and content for this page. Please use the contact page for what you would like to submit.
* * * Also, please take a little time during your day at the beach to pick up the trash that you see, no matter what beach you are at. Any effort you do to help the environment makes a big difference! Please show your love for our beaches and environment with a small personal commitment like that. Other people may take notice and hopefully make their own decision to do the same.
Scientists say plastic bits of trash may be breaking down into smaller debris
Article by By Jeremy Hsu, msnbc.com see below for link
Plastic bits that will NEVER decompose
A vast patch of garbage spanning a swath of the Atlantic Ocean has long puzzled scientists who wondered where the plastic bits came from and why there's not more of it.
Now an exhaustive study, resulting in more than 64,000 bits of plastic collected from the Atlantic Ocean over two decades, has allowed scientists to "go through the garbage" and get to the bottom of some of the mysteries.
Scientists have been particularly mystified over why the concentration of plastic in the Atlantic has not increased during the past 22 years, despite both plastic production and plastic trash increasing during that time period. Still, they have their suspicions.
"I think it's certain that the plastic is breaking down into pieces smaller than what we capture in the net," said Kara Lavender Law, an oceanographer with the Sea Education Association at Woods Hole, Mass.
As bacteria and other organisms built up on the plastic, the added weight may have dragged the debris down to lower ocean depths, according to Lavender Law and her colleagues in a study detailed in the Aug. 19 issue of the journal Science.
Sizing up the trash Ships towing long nets found the plastic pieces floating across hundreds of miles of the North Atlantic during the past 22 years. The nets only snag objects bigger than a third of millimeter, which can include plankton, seaweed and even tarballs from oil.
The sheer scale of the affected area could rival that of the " Great Pacific Garbage Patch," although Lavender Law cautioned that both regions remain poorly defined. For instance, the exact eastern boundary of the Atlantic region remains undiscovered.
"It's entirely possible that it reaches almost all the way across the Atlantic," Lavender Law told LiveScience.
The affected region in the western North Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Ocean stretches east to west between Cuba and Virginia, where a combination of wind-forced ocean circulation and the so-called Coriolis Effect of the Earth's rotation keep the plastic circling almost endlessly.
What lies on the surface The term " garbage patch " does not necessarily mean a visible island of trash floating on the waves, researchers said. Only 62 percent of net tows by ships have contained detectable amounts of plastic.
"What we're collecting are really small fragments of plastic from larger consumer items," Lavender Law explained. "If you're on the deck of a ship, you normally can't even see the plastic pieces."
Each half-hour net tow typically turned up just 20 plastic pieces equivalent to about 0.3 grams in all. By comparison, a U.S. nickel weighs 5 grams.
The vast majority of plastic pieces caught in the net turned out smaller than 10 millimeters, Lavendar Law said. She pointed to a companion study published in this week's issue of the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin that includes all the details on the plastic pieces.
But the unusual discovery of a five-gallon bucket harbored a special surprise trigger fish, which normally live around ocean reefs. That suggested the fish had found both shelter and perhaps food from the accumulated plastic scum on the bucket.
The ASTER instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft captured this image of a massive iceberg from Greenland's Petermann Glacier on Aug. 12, 2010. Credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team.
NASA has released a new image today of the chunk of ice four times the size of Manhattan that calved from Greenland's Petermann Glacier on Aug. 5.
The picture was taken by NASA's ASTER instrument on the Terra satellite on Aug. 12 and shows the enormous chunk of ice, about 97 square miles (251 square kilometers) in size, which broke off the glacier located along the northwestern coast of Greenland.
Petermann Glacier is one of the two largest remaining glaciers in Greenland that terminate in floating shelves. The glacier connects the great Greenland ice sheet directly with the ocean.
When the iceberg broke off, the Petermann Glacier lost about one-quarter of its 43-mile- (70-kilometer-) long floating ice shelf, according to researchers at the University of Delaware.
The recently calved iceberg is the largest to form in the Arctic in 50 years.
Icebergs calving off the Petermann Glacier are not unusual. Petermann Glacier's floating ice tongue is the Northern Hemisphere's largest, and it has occasionally calved large icebergs.
Scientists are monitoring the movement of the iceberg closely. If it moves out into the narrow Nares Strait, there is the potential it could interfere with or block the loss of Arctic sea ice out of the Arctic Ocean into Baffin Bay, a sea that connects the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans. The ice could also eventually pose a hazard to shipping.
It covers an area of 30.7 by 19.5 miles (49.5 by 31.5 km) and is located at 81.1 degrees north latitude, 61.7 degrees west longitude, about 620 miles (1,000 km) south of the North Pole.
The last time such a massive ice island formed was in 1962 when Ward Hunt Ice Shelf calved a 230 square-mile (600 square-km) island, smaller pieces of which became lodged between real islands inside Nares Strait. Petermann Glacier spawned smaller ice islands in 2001 (34 square miles, or 88 square km) and 2008 (10 square miles, or 26 square km). In 2005, the Ayles Ice Shelf disintegrated and became an ice island (34 square miles) about 60 miles (97 km) to the west of Petermann Fjord.
A sea of shoppers and vendors in Lagos, Nigeria. With the world population forecast to hit 9 billion people by 2050 novel ways to increase food production will be needed, say scientists. Photograph: James Marshall/Corbis
Artificial meat grown in vats may be needed if the 9 billion people expected to be alive in 2050 are to be adequately fed without destroying the earth, some of the world's leading scientists report today.
But a major academic assessment of future global food supplies, led by John Beddington, the UK government chief scientist, suggests that even with new technologies such as genetic modification and nanotechnology, hundreds of millions of people may still go hungry owing to a combination of climate change, water shortages and increasing food consumption.
In a set of 21 papers published by the Royal Society, the scientists from many disciplines and countries say that little more land is available for food production, but add that the challenge of increasing global food supplies by as much as 70% in the next 40 years is not insurmountable.
Although more than one in seven people do not have enough protein and energy in their diet today, many of the papers are optimistic.
A team of scientists at Rothamsted, the UK's largest agricultural research centre, suggests that extra carbon dioxide in the air from global warming, along with better fertilisers and chemicals to protect arable crops, could hugely increase yields and reduce water consumption.
"Plant breeders will probably be able to increase yields considerably in the CO2 enriched environments of the future … There is a large gap between achievable yields and those delivered ... but if this is closed then there is good prospect that crop production will increase by about 50% or more by 2050 without extra land", says the paper by Dr Keith Jaggard et al.
Several studies suggest farmers will be up against environmental limits by 2050, as industry and consumers compete for water. One group of US scientists suggests that feeding the 3 billion extra people could require twice as much water by then. This, says Professor Kenneth Strzepek of the University of Colorado, could mean an 18% reduction in worldwide water availability for food growing by 2050.
"The combined effect of these increasing demands can be dramatic in key hotspots [like] northern Africa, India, China and parts of Europe and the western US," he says.
Many low-tech ways are considered to effectively increase yields, such as reducing the 30-40% food waste that occurs both in rich and poor countries. If developing countries had better storage facilities and supermarkets and consumers in rich countries bought only what they needed, there would be far more food available.
But novel ways to increase food production will also be needed, say the scientists. Conventional animal breeding should be able to meet much of the anticipated doubling of demand for dairy and meat products in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, but this may not be enough.
Instead, says Dr Philip Thornton, a scientist with the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, two "wild cards" could transform global meat and milk production. "One is artificial meat, which is made in a giant vat, and the other is nanotechnology, which is expected to become more important as a vehicle for delivering medication to livestock."
Others identify unexpected hindrances to producing more food. One of the gloomiest assessments comes from a team of British and South African economists who say that a vast effort must be made in agricultural research to create a new green revolution, but that seven multinational corporations, led by Monsanto, now dominate the global technology field.
"These companies are accumulating intellectual property to an extent that the public and international institutions are disadvantaged. This represents a threat to the global commons in agricultural technology on which the green revolution has depended," says the paper by Professor Jenifer Piesse at King's College, London.
"It is probably not possible to generate sufficient food output or incomes in much of sub-Saharan Africa to feed the population at all adequately … For least developed countries there are prospects of productivity growth but those with very little capacity will be disadvantaged."
Other papers suggest a radical rethink of global food production is needed to reduce its dependence on oil. Up to 70% of the energy needed to grow and supply food at present is fossil-fuel based which in turn contributes to climate change.
"The need for action is urgent given the time required for investment in research to deliver new technologies to those that need them and for political and social change to take place," says the paper by Beddington.
"Major advances can be achieved with the concerted application of current technologies and the importance of investing in research sooner rather than later to enable the food system to cope with challenges in the coming decades," says the paper led by the population biologist Charles Godfray of Oxford University.
The 21 papers published today in a special open access edition of the philosophical transactions of the royalsociety.org are part of a UK government Foresight study on the future of the global food industry. The final report will be published later this year in advance of the UN climate talks in Cancun, Mexico.
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Plastiki: sailing the seven seas on a boat made from 12,500 plastic bottles
Article submitted by Justin Scheller
What do you do if you want to draw attention to the threats faced by the world’s oceans, in particular the huge amount of plastic waste that ends up in them? Easy, you sail across the Pacific Ocean, visiting and documenting environmental hot spots along the way. That, at least, is what the crew of the Plastiki are in the process of doing. The group of six adventurers set out from San Francisco on March 20th, with Sydney, Australia as their final destination. Three and a half months into the 11,000 nautical mile journey, they’re currently about 4,000 miles from the finish line. What makes their odyssey particularly remarkable is their sailboat, the Plastiki – a craft made almost entirely from recycled and/or recyclable plastic that gets the majority of its flotation from approximately 12,500 two-liter plastic bottles.
The material
David de Rothschild, the leader of the expedition, designed the Plastiki as a way of showcasing how waste plastic could be used as a resource. The 60 foot (18 meter) catamaran’s cabin and supporting structure are built mainly from srPET (self-reinforcing polyethylene terephthalate), a completely recyclable material made from woven plastic fibers. Its components are bonded together using an organic glue made from cashews and sugar cane. The sail is made from recycled polyethylene cloth, and the mast is a reclaimed aluminum irrigation pipe.
The bottles
The twin hulls are packed tight with the bottles, which provide 68 percent of the Plastiki’s flotation. Surprisingly, the bottles are completely open to the ocean, with no protective or streamlining skin covering them. Instead, the water actually passes between the bottles. When the boat was being constructed, each bottle had some dry ice placed inside, before having its cap sealed on. As that dry ice turned from solid to gas, its volume expanded, ensuring that the bottle would stay taught, streamlined, and not crumple from the pressure of the water.
Support systems
Power for the boat’s electrical systems comes from a combination of solar panels, two exercise bike generators, and wind and underwater turbines. A human-powered desalinator provides drinking water, collected rain water is used for showers, and the crew’s bodily wastes go into a composting toilet. Because the Plastiki has no refrigerator, fresh greens are being hydroponically grown onboard, using a urine-to-water recovery system.
The philosophy
By undertaking this voyage, de Rothschild and crew are trying not only to get people to see waste as a resource, but also to see the entire concept of waste as flawed and unnatural. When it comes to our thinking on plastics and other materials, it is hoped that the Plastiki will inspire a cyclical “cradle-to-cradle” mindset, replacing the current linear “cradle-to-grave” model.
It truly is a message in 12,500 bottles.
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Gulf Oil Spill Disaster:
Resources for current news
Articles and links submitted by Jim Coshland
Deepwater Horizon Response:
The Official Site of the Deepwater Horizon Unified Command
BP claims progress on new cap as oil spews in Gulf
NEW ORLEANS – Oil was spewing largely unchecked into the Gulf of Mexico as BP crews claimed progress Sunday in the first stages of replacing a leaky cap with a new containment system they hope will finally catch all the crude from the busted well.
There's no guarantee for such a delicate operation nearly a mile below the water's surface, officials said, and the permanent fix of plugging the well from the bottom remains slated for mid-August.
"It's not just going to be, you put the cap on, it's done. It's not like putting a cap on a tube of toothpaste," Coast Guard spokesman Capt. James McPherson said.
Robotic submarines removed the cap Saturday that had been placed on top of the leak in early June to catch the oil and send it to surface ships for collection or burning. BP aims to have the new, tighter cap in place as early as Monday and said that, as of Sunday morning, the work was going according to plan. BP hopes the capping operation will be done within three to six days.
Kent Wells, a BP senior vice president, said during a Sunday morning news briefing he was pleased with the progress but cautioned that unforeseen bumps could lie ahead.
"We've tried to work out as many of the bugs as we can. The challenge will come with something unexpected," Wells said.
If tests show the new cap can withstand the pressure of the oil and is working, the Gulf region could get its most significant piece of good news since the April 20 explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig, which killed 11 workers. Since then, between 88 million and 174 million gallons of oil have spilled into the Gulf, according to federal estimates.
It would be only a temporary solution. Hope for permanently plugging the leak lies with two relief wells, the first of which should be finished by mid-August.
And the hurricane season that lasts through November could interfere. There are no storms forecast now, but if one blows through, the ships collecting the oil may have to leave and crude would spew again for days into the water.
The work was being closely monitored at the White House, where President Barack Obama is being briefed multiple times a day, adviser David Axelrod said on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday.
"We have every reason to believe that this will work," he said.
With the cap removed Saturday at 12:37 p.m. CDT, oil flowed freely into the water, aside from a small share still collected by a pipe running to the Q4000 surface vessel, with a capacity of about 378,000 gallons. That vessel should be joined Sunday by the Helix Producer, which has more than double the Q4000's capacity.
But the lag could be long enough for as much as 5 million gallons to gush into already fouled waters. Officials said 46 large skimmers had collected about 1 million gallons of oily water from the surface above the well site as of Sunday morning.
The process begun Saturday has two major phases: removing equipment currently on top of the leak and installing new gear designed to fully contain the flow of oil.
BP on Sunday said it had successfully removed the top flange that had only partially completed the seal with the old cap, almost a day earlier than a previous estimate.
Now that the top flange is removed, BP is considering whether it needs to bind together two sections of drill pipe that are in the gushing well head. The step following that involves lowering a 12-foot-long piece of equipment called a flange transition spool onto the well head and bolting it down.
After the spool is in place, the new cap — called a capping stack or "Top Hat 10" — can be mounted. The equipment, weighing some 150,000 pounds, is designed to fully seal the leak and provide connections for new vessels on the surface to collect oil. The cap has valves that can restrict the flow of oil and shut it in, if it can withstand the enormous pressure.
That will be one of the key items for officials to monitor, said Paul Bommer, a professor of petroleum engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.
"If the new cap does work and they shut the well in, it is possible that part of the well could rupture if the pressure inside builds to an unacceptable value," Bommer wrote in an e-mail Saturday.
Ultimately, BP wants to have four vessels collecting oil within two or three weeks of the new cap's installation. If the new cap doesn't work, BP is ready to place a backup similar to the old one on top of the leak.
The company originally planned to bring the Helix Producer on site and install the new cap at different times, but combined the two following forecasts of calm weather for about seven to 10 days.
The new vessels will all be connected to the gusher through flexible hoses that will allow them to disconnect and sail away much quicker in the event of a hurricane. Prior to the new lineup at the site, officials estimated they would need five days to remove everything in advance of a major storm; the new setup should cut that to two.
The government estimates 1.5 million to 2.5 million gallons of oil a day are spewing from the well, and the previous cap collected about 1 million gallons of that. With the new cap and the new containment vessel, the system will be capable of capturing 2.5 million to 3.4 million gallons — essentially all the leaking oil, officials said.
(July 1) -- With Hurricane Alex's winds churning up waves in the Gulf of Mexico, there's only one ship believed to be strong enough to keep cleaning up the oil spill there amid stormy seas: the world's biggest oil skimmer.
The Taiwanese-flagged vessel, named "A Whale," is 3 1/2 football fields long and looms 10 stories high. It's outfitted with 12 vents on either side of its bow, which experts hope will be able to suck up as many as 21 million gallons of oil-tainted water each day.
The boat docked Wednesday in Louisiana, where most smaller skimmers have been forced off the water for days because of the threat of rough seas from Hurricane Alex. The Coast Guard is meeting with the big skimmer's owners in anticipation of giving it a whirl as soon as today.
A Whale was originally built as a conventional oil tanker earlier this year in South Korea, but its owner decided to change it into an oil skimmer after the gulf spill. It motored over to Portugal for a refitting, and then made its way across the Atlantic.
"It is absolutely gigantic. It's unbelievable," Ed Overton, an environmental sciences professor at Louisiana State University, told The Associated Press after seeing the ship last week in Norfolk, Va.
Nobu Su, the CEO and founder of TMT Group, the Taiwanese shipping company that owns A Whale, described the boat's technology to a gaggle of reporters and maritime executives last week in Norfolk. He said the vessel would roll across the gulf "like a lawn mower cutting the grass."
"A large-scale disaster needs a large-scale solution," Su said in comments carried by several news outlets.
As the ship motors along, its vents will suck up oily water and transfer it to machines on board that separate the oil from water, Su said. The oil would then be moved to another tanker for disposal, and the water would be released back into the Gulf.
But that technology has never been used or even tested, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will need to sign off on the quality of the water that's being dumped back into the Gulf.
"I don't know whether it's going to work or not, but it certainly needs to be given the opportunity," Overton said.
The Coast Guard, with approval from the EPA, will have final say on whether the ship is cleared for work in the Gulf. Its owners are also negotiating with BP, the British oil company whose rented rig exploded in April, sparking the spill. It's paying for all cleanup operations.
Between 71 million and 139 million gallons of oil have spewed into the Gulf since the April 20 explosion that also killed 11 workers. It's the worst-ever oil spill in American history, and it's on track to become the Gulf's worst-ever spill as well.
At the high end of the government's estimated range of the spill's volume, 140 million gallons of oil would exceed the Gulf's worst spill in history -- the record-setting Ixtoc I spill off Mexico's coast from 1979 to 1980.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Alex, which was downgraded to a Category 1 storm over Mexico, has still halted most skimming operations in the Gulf, as well as efforts to lay oil-corraling booms there.
Weather has also delayed the arrival of another ship, the Helix Producer, that BP wanted to use to collect oil siphoned off the undersea leak. Engineers had hoped to connect the ship to the blown-out well using a flexible hose on Wednesday, but the Coast Guard said waters were too choppy to attempt the operation. It's expected to take place next week once the storm passes.
But ships that help burn off oil on the water's surface a mile above the undersea leak are still operating. The drilling of relief wells nearby also continues.
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It seems like there are more and more reports of Great White Sharks at our local beaches and surf breaks.
Here are some facts and resources.
Articles and links submitted by Jim Coshland
The Florida Museum Of Natural History Shark Page. It's a different Ocean but has some general information about sharks, why they attack and how to minimize your risk of becoming dinner. But before you start worrying about being attacked,
read the chart below.
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What are the "REAL" statistics of being attacked by a shark?
With all the recent shark attacks and hysteria surrounding them in the media, I decided to look up some statistics on shark attacks and death. The International Shark Attack File has tons of good information and statistics on shark attacks. This page compares the risk of death of shark attacks to everything from an alligator attacks to a “collapsing sand hole incident.” And according to their graphbelow what you’ve heard is true, you’re far more likely to die from a lightning strike or fireworks than from a shark attack (let alone heart disease, car accident, or multiple drug-resistant bacteria). So buckle up, wear a helmet, watch out for collapsing sand hole, and surf your brains out.
This is a website to put in your favorites to look at from time to time...
The Pacific Coast Shark Research Committee
is the main reporting and informational organization with a website for up to date reports on Great White and other shark sightings and attacks for the California Coast.
It's actually pretty amazing how frequently sharks are sighted in our local area.
Gulf Oil Spill WorsensImage by DigitalGlobe via Getty Images
A satellite picture
taken Monday captures a small plane flying over rust-colored "streamers" of
crude oil visible on the surface of the Gulf.
Although thin layers mean
less oil, the extent of the spread makes it more difficult for authorities to
execute one of their planned strategies for containing the spill—controlled
burns of the oil.
Burning will work only when the oil can be
gathered into a certain thickness in long, tubelike, fireproof booms. Although
tests have shown such burning can remove 50 to 90 percent of the oil that can be
collected in this manner, it's not known if enough of the oil from the
Deepwater Horizon rig spill can be rounded up at one time.
Tom Jones, of Huntington Beach, plans to
paddle his stand up paddle (S.U.P.) board from Key West, Fla., to New York City
to raise money to remove plastic from the ocean.
Jones, 48, leaves home on Saturday and expects to
begin his voyage May 16. He’ll spend each day in the water for three months,
stopping for the night along the coast, until he arrives in New York for a SUP
race Aug. 14.
A SUP wouldn’t be most people’s first choice for
braving the elements at sea. Jones will stand on the 11-foot board, using a
six-foot paddle to propel himself along; two men on “WaveRunners” — motorized
watercraft — will shadow him for safety reasons, though even with them along
there are few guarantees, Jones said.
“It’s challenging just to stand on that damned
board,” Jones said as he prepared for his trip. “Then you get a 60 mph tail-wind
and four to five-foot waves on top of that. Then try standing on that
thing.”
Jones, who has run many marathons and took a similar,
record-setting SUP trip down the West Coast for the same cause in 2007, hopes to
raise $500,000 from sponsors to help remove ocean plastic as well as education
about the problem.
Plastic, he says, is accumulating in the ocean,
killing birds and sea creatures that ingest it and washing up on beaches. Some
experts also are concerned about toxic contaminants or endocrine disruptors
released from plastic that could harm animals or even people.
His trip will be no day at the beach. Sharks are a
worry on the open ocean. Then, when he begins to navigate the Intercoastal
Waterway, he expects plenty of trouble with insects, and possibly with
alligators in Florida and South Carolina.
On his last trip, the hand pain at the end of the day
was enough to keep him awake at night.
But Jones says one hardship looms larger than the
others.
“The biggest challenge, always, honestly, for me
personally is being away from my family,” he said — his 9-year-old special-needs
son, his 6-year-old son and his wife. He also has a 26-year-old daughter who
does not live at home.
Jones achieved noteriety during his 20-year career as
a Muay Thai boxing champion, including two world titles.
He says one thing he’s learned in a life of facing
physical duress: you have to have strong motivation to get through the tough
spots.
“I’m not going to quit on this plastic. It’s
literally threatening the human race. I’m not going to accept that. I would
rather die.”
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Acid rise in oceans could threaten the food chain
Article submitted by Justin Scheller
The level of acid in the oceans is increasing at an unprecedented rate and threatening to change marine ecosystems, says a new study by the US National Research Council.
Oceans are absorbing more than 1 million tons of carbon dioxide an hour - one-third of today's carbon dioxide emissions - and are 30 per cent more acidic than before the Industrial Revolution started roughly 200 years ago.
Unless emissions are reduced, ocean acidity could increase by 200 per cent by the end of the century and even more in the next century, said James Barry, a senior scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California and one of the study's authors.
''Acidification is changing the chemistry of the oceans at a scale and magnitude greater than thought to occur on Earth for many millions of years, and is expected to cause changes in the growth and survival of a wide variety of marine organisms, potentially leading to massive shifts in ocean ecosystems,'' Dr. Barry told a US Senate hearing.
The National Research Council report, requested by Congress, said carbon dioxide emissions were increasing so rapidly that natural processes in the sea that maintained pH levels could not keep up. The average pH of ocean surface waters has moved from 8.2 to 8.1 and while that not might seem a lot, scientists are concerned.
Scientists believed increased acidity could affect the entire marine food chain.
Tribune Media Services
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Recycled Island Article submitted by Jim Coshland
Recycled island is a research project on the potential of realizing a habitable floating island in the Pacific Ocean made from all the plastic waste that is momentarily floating around in the ocean.
The idea is as simple as it is ambitious: recycle the great pacific garbage patch – a concentration of plastic litter in the central North Pacific about the size of France – on the spot and turn it into a floating island at the size of Hawai.
Although the project is still highly speculative the people of WHIM architecture deserve kudos for their nextnatural view on plastic as a basic material in the Earths ecosystem that can be mined and used for better purposes than polluting birds.
We are keen on how the project will develop further. In cause it turns out to be too difficult we can always return our focus on designing microbes that eat plastic.
Tips on how to make your stay in the great outdoors
easy on Mother Nature...
List submitted by Justin Scheller
Tips on Green Camping
Look for a campsite that is already established, more than 200 feet from a water source.
Refrain from walking on or setting up a tent on plants as much as possible.
Use reusable camping plates and utensils instead of paper plates.
Take along reusable water bottles. Recycle aluminum cans and plastic bottles. Burning them in a campfire will release chemicals that pollute the air.
Use biodegradable camp suds to wash dishes and to wash hands, hair and body. Avoid dumping soapy water on plants.
Leave in place any plants, fossils, flowers, birds, animals or other things that you find.
Keep campfires in existing fire rings or use a cook stove instead.
Set your lantern on the table instead of putting a nail in a tree to hang it.
Do not feed wildlife.
Dispose of trash properly or take it with you when you leave and recycle it when you get home.
Be considerate of other campers by turning down your music, cell phones and other noise.
Take only photographs…. leave only foot prints.
Leave the camp site cleaner than you found it.
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Latest Beach Cleanup after the big storms
Crews clear beach debris after storms
By The Associated Press
Monday, January 25, 2010 at 2:11 p.m.
Orange County Crews using bulldozers and backhoes worked Monday to
remove tons of muck and trash from Southern California beaches and catch
basins fouled by mountains of runoff during last week's storms.
The cleanup could last into February, and several beaches remained
closed because of high bacteria counts from polluted storm runoff.
Andie Kunkel of Seal Beach watched as bulldozers pushed tree limbs,
shopping carts and other junk.
"I'm really shocked about the amount," Kunkel told KCAL-TV. "It's
just been going on nonstop since 7 a.m."
Mark Gold, president of the nonprofit environmental group Heal the
Bay, said cleaning up beaches is the easy part.
"We only see the debris that washes back ashore and the vast majority
of the debris goes to the ocean," he said. "The impact of a major storm
like this is felt in the ocean for literally centuries."
Birds, sea turtles and other wildlife can eat or get tangled in
plastic packaging and other garbage that doesn't degrade, he said.
Northeast of downtown Los Angeles, crews were working 12-hour shifts
to remove tons of debris from the basins that channel storm runoff away
from homes in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, where a
wildfire denuded 250 square miles last year.
The job could take weeks, said Bob Spencer, a spokesman for the Los
Angeles County Department of Public Works.
Last week's downpours dumped 6 inches of rain or more in mountain
areas, prompting the precautionary evacuation of more than 2,000 homes.
The storms spawned brief tornadoes and strong winds that knocked down
trees and killed two people. The body of a missing hiker was found in a
swollen creek.
To the east of Los Angeles, mountain resort towns around Big Bear
Lake remained cut off from visitors. The three roads to Big Bear Valley
in San BernardinoCounty were closed Sunday to everyone
except residents and supply trucks because of icy conditions.
California declared states of emergency for Los Angeles, Orange,
Riverside, San Bernardino, San Francisco and Siskiyou counties. Most of
the counties were still tallying storm damage and costs.
Long Beach city officials gave a preliminary estimate of $3 million,
and San Bernardino County estimated there was $13.5 million in damage
but that figure was expected to rise.
Another storm was expected to head into Central and Southern
California on Tuesday, but the National Weather Servicesaid it would dump only about one-half to 1.5 inches of rain
before tapering off.
The storm also caused chaos in Northern California. In San Francisco,
Mayor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency after erosion along a
storm-battered bluff forced the city to close a section of heavily
traveled coastal highway.
In snowy Siskiyou County, about 1,300 customers were without power -
some for a fifth day - as crews struggled to repair power lines. Another
snowstorm was expected Monday night.
The county estimated storm damage to buildings in the town of Mt.
Shasta alone at $2 million, mostly from falling trees.
The county also saw 11 people treated for carbon monoxide poisoning
from improperly using electric generators, said Rob Rowley, deputy
director of the county Office of Emergency Services.
The Associated Press
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Pictures and video of the mini tornado that hit Huntington Harbour in February
A sight not usually seen in Southern California
The tornado had enough force to flip over this SUV
Youtube video showing the torrential rain in Sunset Beach at the time the tornado touched down accross PCH in Huntington Harbour.
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Surf Photographer posts pictures of a mako shark he claims was aggressively stalking him at the Newport Pier
Submitted by Justin Scheller
Trash strewn beaches Article submitted by Justin Scheller
Sewage-strewn beaches often appear after Southern California is pummeled by storms, with those near river mouths hit especially hard. The rain and wind pull debris and garbage into riverbeds that eventually spit everything out into the ocean.
Seal Beach received refuse that had traveled along the 75-mile-long San Gabriel River, which begins in the Angeles National Forest, runs through the Santa Fe Flood Control Basin and empties into the Pacific Ocean. Over in Long Beach, the sand was also awash in rubbish, courtesy of the Los Angeles River that flows through the San Fernando Valley and Santa Susana Mountains.
The city's Department of Public Works is expected to begin clearing the garbage this week, with lifeguards responding over the weekend to immediate needs, such as removing the carcasses of animals that had washed ashore.
After rainstorms, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health cautions people to stay away from ocean waters near storm drains, creeks and rivers to avoid bacteria and chemicals that may have contaminated the area. ________________________________
New power plant rules raise desalination doubts
Article submitted by Justin Scheller
New rules proposed by theState Water Board would likely bring radical changes to the ocean-water cooling systems of 19 coastal power plants, two of them nuclear plants.
But the proposed regulations also throw into question future plans for seawater desalination.
Poseidon Resources hopes to build a desalination facility next to Huntington’s AES power plant by 2014, drawing its seawater from the plant’s intake pipe. It would be similar to the desalination plant being built alongside another power plant in Carlsbad.
If AES were forced to abandon its ocean-water cooling system, Poseidon would have to get a separate permit to pull in seawater on its own, said spokesman Brian Lochrie.
Lochrie said the amount of seawater needed would be far less than that for a coastal power plant, making destruction of eggs and larvae less of an issue.
But Joe Geever, California policy coordinator for the Surfrider Foundation, an environmental group that supports the proposed regulations, said he believes Poseidon’s plan is doomed.
“Poseidon is out,” he said. “Poseidon’s system is not going to work.”
Officials at AES, which also owns power plants with seawater intake systems in Long Beach and Redondo Beach, declined to discuss what options they are considering, saying only that they are in discussions with the State Water Board.
“We’re closely working with the water board, and evaluating all of our alternatives, including complying with the policy by modernizing our facility, and installing new, more efficient replacement infrastructure,” said spokeswoman Julie Gill.
Geever and others point to some non-nuclear power plants that solved the problem by going to newer, dry-cooling technology, requiring no seawater or cooling towers.I see some of them repowering with these high-efficiency generators that don’t require the kind of cooling the old generators do,” Geever said. “There will probably be a handful, or more, power plants that will just retire.”
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Scientists model a California 'Frankenstorm'
1861-1862 flooding proves that very scary scenarios are possible Article submitted by Jim Coshland
Mud blocks Big Tujunga Canyon Road in Los Angeles, Calif., last Tuesday. While the state saw heavy rains all last week, scientists hunkered down to work on a "Frankenstorm" scenario for the future.
Updated 2:29 p.m. PT,Sun., Jan. 24, 2010
LOS ANGELES - Think the recent wild weather that hammered California was bad? Experts are imagining far worse.
As torrential rains pelted wildfire-stripped hillsides and flooded highways, a team of scientists hunkered down at the California Institute of Technology to work on a "Frankenstorm" scenario — a mother lode wintry blast that could potentially sock the Golden State.
The hypothetical but plausible storm would be similar to the 1861-1862 extreme floods that temporarily moved the state capital from Sacramento to San Francisco and forced the then-governor to attend his inauguration by rowboat.
The scenario "is much larger than anything in living memory," said project manager Dale Cox with the U.S. Geological Survey.
In the scenario, the storm system forms in the Pacific and slams into the West Coast with hurricane-force winds, hitting Southern California the hardest. After more than a week of ferocious weather, the system stalls for a few days. Another storm brews offshore and this time pummels Northern California.
Such a monster storm could unleash as much as 8 feet of rain over three weeks in some areas, said research meteorologist Martin Ralph with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who is part of the project.
It makes the latest Pacific storm system look like a drop in the bucket. A weeklong siege of storms walloped California, flooding coasts and roads, spawning tornadoes and forcing the evacuation of about 2,000 homes below fire-scarred mountains for fear of mudslides. The National Weather Service said the storms dumped up to a foot in the mountains northwest of Los Angeles in a week.
Drill set for next year
Weather experts say West Coast storms could get more frequent and severe with climate change. Last fall, a team of federal, state and academic experts was formed to tackle what would happen if a series of powerful storms lashed at the state for 23 days. The scenario is expected to be completed this summer and will be used in a statewide disaster drill next year.
Ironically, the team had scheduled meetings at Caltech to learn about the fictional storm's impact to dams, sewage treatment plants, transportation and the electrical grid. About a dozen canceled due to the storms.
"They had to deal with the real thing," said chief scientist Lucy Jones of the USGS.
The next step is to estimate economic damages as well as the risk of landslides and coastal erosion and impact to infrastructure and the environment.
Several scientists on storm watch were involved in the 2008 planning of a mock "Big One" on the San Andreas Fault that was incorporated into an earthquake preparedness drill.
L.A. saw new lakes in 'Great Flood'
The Great Flood of 1861-1862 was believed to be the most powerful and longest series of storms in state history, lasting a month and causing severe flooding.
The Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys were water-logged and spontaneous lakes popped up in the Mojave Desert and Los Angeles basin. Nearly a third of the young state's taxable land was destroyed.
Since there are few meteorological records available on the 1861-1862 events, scientists stitched together data from two recent storms to create the "Frankenstorm" scenarios.
California is on the precipice of pioneering the Pacific Ocean as a critical element of its drinking water supply.
Article submitted by Justin Scheller
In response to climate change and regulatory droughts, there are more than two dozen seawater desalination plants in various stages of development throughout California, including several local projects planned for Long Beach, Dana Point and Huntington Beach. The largest and most technologically-advanced seawater desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere, capable of sustaining 300,000 residents, is now under construction in San Diego County.
San Juan Capistrano plans to raise water and sewer rates because its water wholesaler, the Metropolitan Water District, is raising the cost of imported water by 40 percent. About 75 percent of the city's water comes from MWD.
There are more than 8,000 seawater desalination plants around the world today using Reverse Osmosis (RO) to produce 10 billion gallons of drinking water. The technology is not new but it has been cost prohibitive in California where water historically has been relatively inexpensive. However, the supply of fresh drinking water in Southern California is increasingly more expensive and less reliable. Orange County boasts the internationally-renowned Groundwater Replenishment (GWR) System, which treats wastewater for consumptive use. However, responsible water managers know that recycling and conservation alone will not be sufficient to meet the needs of our residents and businesses.
Poseidon’s Carlsbad Desalination Project, which will be the largest in the country in less than three years, has faced major criticism among groups such as the Coastal Environmental Rights Foundation, and most recently, from the San Diego Coastkeeper and the Surfrider Foundation.
Despite criticism though, the project continues to move forward with the only hurdles in sight in the rearview mirror.
The plant will produce 50 million gallons of drinking water a day, enough to meet the needs of about 300,000 residents in San Diego County. For locals, the project is a drought-proof drinking water supply that helps reduce our dependence on imported water. Californians may forever changes the relationship the state has with the Pacific Ocean.
The proposal is to co-locate the desalination facility with seawater intake infrastructure for a power plant that is slated to be removed, and the state is looking into the process of making illegal ‘open ocean’ seawater intakes”
Studies report that water waste from desalination is a “heavily concentrated brine solution” that could kill marine organisms. The impact of rising water temperatures and noises from “high-pressure pumps,” among other concerns may also be a problem from desalination projects.
In related news.
Some 3.6 millionfish wind up in San Onofre’s intake system each year, though most are caught by screens and returned to the ocean largely unharmed. There are also some6 billionfish larvae caught up in the works that presumably perish, two sea turtles that have died there since 1983 and 558 sea lions and seals entrapped over 15 years, of which 429 died. How much are these lives worth? If new rules barring power plants from using ocean water to cool their systems take effect next year, the bill will be some $3 billion- just to retrofit San Onofre alone. Each of its two reactors would have to be shut down for almost twoyears to make the changes.
And the cost of all this will ultimately fall to the good customers of Southern California Edison (which runs the nuclear plant). The numbers are so big that no one wants to translate it into cost-per-average-household just yet.
The state’s no-ocean-water-to-cool-power-plants rule would apply to18 other plants in California - including the one in Huntington Beach - and the total bill for retrofitting them is estimated to be well over $7.6 billion.
One-of-a-kind fish protection technologies built into San Onofre’s ocean water intake system protects 94 percent of fish drawn into the plant’s intake system, and the SCE’s artificial reef project off San Clemente and its wetlands restoration project in Del Mar help compensate for the rest as well as for fish eggs and larvae that are drawn into San Onofre’s cooling water system.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
December 14, 2009 American Swimming Stars Participate in Swim4Humanity to Support SurfAid International Programs to Save Lives in Indonesia Article submitted by Justin Scheller
**Indonesian Surf Trip awarded to the person who raises the most money!**
Events held in California, New York and New Jersey March to May 2010
San Diego, CA. – Swim4Humanity 2010 fundraising event will have top American swimmers Jessica Hardy, Fran Crippen and Caroline Burckle participating to support SurfAid International, a non-profit humanitarian organization dedicated to improving the health, wellbeing and self-reliance of people living in isolated island regions of Western Sumatra. www.surfaidinternational.org
“It means a lot to be a part of an organization and an event that is really making a difference in the lives of people, especially children, who are often overlooked even though they are in one of the most beautiful surfing and swimming destinations in the world,” says world record holder Jessica Hardy.
The annual Swim4Humanity fundraising event will take place in seven cities in California (San Diego, Malibu, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz and San Francisco), New York, and New Jersey. Participants ask friends and family to sponsor them in a 30-minute lap swim, and may also choose to participate in a competitive freestyle lap swim and fun relay race. Participants win prizes for levels of money raised as well as for the fun relay and competitive swim races. SurfAid will give an Indonesian surf trip thanks to World Surfaris and Joyo’s Surf Camp (worth $5,000) to the person who raises the most money! Swim4Humanity 2010 is now open for individual and team registrations. www.surfaidinternational.org/swim4humanity2010
“SurfAid International shares my passion for the ocean and giving back. I look forward to participating in Swim4Humanity 2010 and working with SurfAid on other fundraising initiatives through swimming such as swim clinics and possible ocean swim events,” says top American open water swimmer Fran Crippen.
“I encourage people to sign up for Swim4Humanity and help fundraise with us! Together we can make the world a better place by stopping the needless suffering of children and families in these isolated communities,” says Olympic bronze medalist Caroline Burckle, “and we get to help with this great work through participating in the sports we love….swimming and surfing.”
“This event was a great success last year raising over $60,000 and we hope to raise over $100,000 this year to support our health and nutrition, water and sanitation, and emergency preparedness programs in Indonesia,” says SurfAid International, USA director Javier Guerrero.
About SurfAid International - Celebrating Our 10th Anniversary in 2010
In 1999, physician and surfer Dr Dave Jenkins went on a surf charter to the Mentawai Islands, off Sumatra, Indonesia. The surf proved to be everything he had hoped for but he also found the Mentawai people suffering and dying from preventable diseases. Dave found that he was unable to just walk away. It was a defining life moment. He sought support from like-minded individuals and went on to establish SurfAid International in 2000.
SurfAid’s mission is to improve the health, wellbeing and self-reliance of people living in the Mentawai and Nias islands, where it runs water and sanitation, disaster preparedness, and health programs. With the support of the New Zealand and Australian Governments, the global surfing and wider community, and most importantly the Mentawai and Nias people of the affected areas themselves, SurfAid has come to exemplify the healing power of cross-cultural partnerships.
About Caroline Burckle
Caroline’s career highlights include 2008 Olympic Bronze Medalist in 800 Free Relay, American Record Holder, NCAA Record Holder, 3-Time NCAA Champion, 2008 Honda Sports Award Recipient, 2008 NCAA Swimmer of the Year, Gold Medalist 2007 Pan American Games, Gold Medalist 2005 World Championships, 23-Time NCAA All America. Caroline is from Louisville, Kentucky and lives in Newport Beach, California. Support or sign up for Caroline's team!
About Fran Crippen
Fran’s career highlights include the 10K Open Water Swimming World Championship Bronze Medalist, Six time US National Champion, Pan Pacific Championships Silver Medalist, Pan American Games Gold Medalist and Two-Time silver medalist, 11-Time NCAA All American. Fran is from Conshohocken, PA and lives in Philadelphia, PA. Support or sign up for Fran's team!
About Jessica Hardy
Jessica’s career highlights include World Record in the 50m and 100m breaststroke, Two-Time World Champion, American Record Holder, and Two-Time National Champion. Jessica is from Long Beach, CA and lives in Los Angeles, CA. Support or sign up for Jessica's team!
For more information about events and signing up: call 760-931-1199 or email usa@surfaidinternational.org
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Is the Sushi that you love safe to eat?
Article submitted by Justin Scheller
According to an article by Dr. Ben Kim on Nov 29, 2009
If you're a fan of sushi, it's worth noting that some types of fish tend to contain more mercury than others; by choosing wisely, you can minimize your risk of experiencing mercury toxicity.
In a relatively unpolluted setting, raw fish is an excellent food choice for most people - few other foods provide the same abundance of healthy protein, healthy fatty acids, and micronutrients.
Unfortunately, many decades of global industrialization have led to high levels of environmental pollutants in just about every corner of our world, including deposits of mercury in fish.
In January of 2008, The New York Times published an article that reported the findings of random tests performed on sushi from several Manhattan stores and restaurants. Their investigative study found that 25 percent of the sushi tested had dangerously high levels of mercury, high enough to warrant confiscation by the FDA. Store and restaurant owners were just as surprised by the results as their patrons.
Why is it important to avoid mercury toxicity?
Mercury is highly toxic to your nervous system. Mercury poisoning may lead to:
Memory loss
Tremors
Loss of vision
Nerve dysfunction in your extremities, most commonly presenting as numbness of your fingers and toes
Problems with fertility
Mercury toxicity is especially dangerous for pregnant women and young children because exposure to mercury while in the womb and/or during the first few years of life may cause:
Blindness and deafness
Mental retardation
Cerebral palsy
Learning disabilities
Retarded physical development
Some points worth noting from The New York Times article:
Generally, the more expensive the variety of tuna, the higher its potential mercury content, as premium varieties of tuna tend to come from larger species that eat a lot of fish and accumulate mercury with each fish eaten.
Bluefin tuna tends to have higher levels of mercury than yellowfin or albacore tuna.
Cooking fish doesn't alter its mercury content.
In order to reduce risk of mercury toxicity while consuming fish for its health-promoting nutrients, it's best to eat smaller fish that are lower in the food chain.
As mentioned above, larger fish act as predators to a larger quantity and greater variety of smaller fish, so larger fish tend to have the highest concentrations of mercury in their flesh. Unfortunately, many of the fish that are selected for sushi and sashimi are the larger predators.
What follows are two lists - compiled by the Natural Resources Defense Council - that highlight sushi choices that tend to contain high levels of mercury and those that tend to contain low levels of mercury.
Sushi that Tend to be High in Mercury (More than 0.3 parts per million)
* Mercury levels in these fish were not available - their levels were extrapolated from those of fish with similar feeding patterns.
Again, please note that cooking fish doesn't change its mercury content, so all of this information is relevant to meals that include cooked fish.
If you eat sushi and/or sashimi once in a while, you likely have nothing to worry about. If you eat sushi, sashimi, or cooked fish on a daily basis, it's definitely in your best interest to choose fish from the low mercury list and to be on alert for symptoms of mercury toxicity.
Women who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant should take special care not to eat fish from the high mercury list.
Generally, the following fish tend to be low in mercury and safe choices for adults and kids alike:
Wild pacific salmon
Anchovies
Sardines
Arctic char
Please consider sharing this post with family and friends who regularly eat seafood. Thank you.
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Three new interesting articles from various news sources
Submitted by Rachael Calkins
PUBLIC ASKED TO PAY FOR PRIVATE CARLSBAD DESALINATION PLANT
Tax-payer watchdog groups are up in arms over a decision by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to pay $350 million dollars to Poseidon Resources LLC, to construct a desalination plant in Carlsbad, CA. Poseidon would then sell the water back to the very same people whose taxes paid for the project. In addition to the public financing issues, Surfrider Foundation opposes the project on the grounds that the intake and discharge from the plant would harm the near shore ecosystem.
One I've been following closely fro a few years now, very glad to hear seals won out . . .
SEALS ALLOWED TO REMAIN AT BEACH IN SAN DIEGO
A colony of harbor seals that took over Children's Pool, a beach in La Jolla that had been willed to children, will be allowed to stay, a judge ruled Friday, possibly bringing an end to the prolonged legal tug-of-war over the cove.
In January, a new state law will take effect giving local authorities greater discretion over whether the seals may stay.
MORE INFO: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/us/15seals.html?_r=1
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And on a non-environmental note:
Nudity at Trails hits the big news,
from USA Today:
California nude beaches take cover
By William M. Welch, USA TODAY
SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. — California is telling skinny-dippers to put some clothes on, and the message is sending a chill through lovers of sunning-in-the-buff across the country.
In what one national nudist organization calls "a tremendous setback" for its cause, California's Department of Parks and Recreation has tossed aside a longstanding policy of toleration and is warning of a crackdown on nude sunbathers at San Onofre State Beach.
Bob Morton, executive director of the Naturist Action Committee, a Wisconsin-based organization that fought the nudity ban in court, worries that other beaches where nudity is allowed could follow California's lead.
"There are other states in which there are sanctioned nude beaches," he says. "They're all looking to see what California is doing."
Beachgoers say a secluded 1,000-foot section of shoreline here has been a popular spot for nude sunbathing for more than 30 years. It even attracts tourists from out of state who seek all-over tans.
Nude sunbathers have been coming here since the 1970s after President Nixon, whose Western White House was nearby, ordered the Marine Corps to open 6 miles of Camp Pendleton's oceanfront to the public.
Protected from prying eyes and busy Interstate 5 by 300-foot cliffs, the section closest to the Marine base boundary "presented itself as a perfect place for a clothing-optional beach," says Allen Baylis, a lawyer who says he has enjoyed nude sunbathing here since the 1970s.
Park Superintendent Richard Haydon began efforts to halt the nudity after receiving reports of sexual activity and solicitation for sex. Morton's group sued the department.
Morton says the department acted illegally when it abandoned a long-standing policy of moving against nudity only when it received specific complaints from the public on the day an offending incident occurred.
The nudists won a first round in court but lost on appeal. Late last month, the California Supreme Court refused to hear the case, leaving in place "nudity prohibited" signs along the long, steep trail from the parking lot to the beach.
Park rangers have yet to issue citations. The infractions would be considered misdemeanors, Baylis says, and carry a fine of up to $500.
Beachgoers are shedding their clothes despite the ban. Half a dozen middle-aged men were sunning in the buff one recent November weekday when temperatures were in the 70s. On hot summer weekends, several hundred nude sunbathers may show up, Morton and Baylis say.
Haydon warns rangers will begin issuing citations but won't disclose when.
"We are going to be moving forward with starting to enforce the nudity statute down at San Onofre, and basically returning that portion of the beach to all people who want to go down there without fear of running into something they didn't think they would," Haydon says. "People should very well be under notice."
Baylis says nudists are ready to be arrested.
"If they really want to come down there and issue citations, we have people willing and able to be cited in order to take it up in the criminal courts as a matter of civil disobedience," he says. "It's a very important issue for a lot of people."
The sex allegations are "a red herring," Baylis says. Nudists don't want sexual activity around their beach either, he says, and solicitation for sex takes place at public beaches, rest areas and parking lots regardless of whether there is nude sunbathing nearby.
Roy Stearns, deputy director for communications of the Department of Parks and Recreation, says that the state has never designated any place as a clothing-optional beach and that state law specifically bans nudity in state parks. San Onofre, he says, is one of several public beaches in the state that have become known as clothing-optional by practice and tradition.
"What's happened is some people over the years just went there and took their clothes off, sat down and had a nice time," Stearns says. "They kind of carved this place out for themselves."
A second Southern California beach, a section of Torrey Pines State Beach in San Diego called "Black's Beach," remains popular among nude sunbathers. Stearns says that although the practice is illegal there, too, a similar crackdown is not imminent.
"We aren't going to go on a campaign through the rest of the state and shake things up," he says. "At all places, we will look on a case-by-case basis."
The dispute comes as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, has been struggling to keep state parks open in the face of huge budget deficits and spending cuts. Visitors to San Onofre pay a $15-a-day access fee (which the state does not charge at some other beaches), and defenders of nude sunbathing say their dollars are supporting the park's operation. "Now we're going to criminalize the only group of people that has been keeping this particular boat afloat," Morton says.
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US Senate bill hopes to save
Sharks
Submitted by Justin Scheller
Sharks have been swimming in the world’s oceans for more than 400 million years. Many shark species hold the top position in the ocean food chain, and therefore, play a critical role in the ocean. While sharks have been able to survive periods of global mass extinctions, they have not evolved to withstand overfishing by humans. The growing demand for shark products, especially for shark fins, has led to drastic declines in shark populations around the world. Some populations have declined by as much as 99% in the past 35 years. The increased catch of these top predators has resulted in devastating changes throughout the world oceans.
The Shark Conservation Act of 2009 (S. 850) is awaiting action in the U.S. Senate. This bill would require that sharks be landed with their fins still attached. This would solve enforcement issues and facilitate better data collection for use in stock assessments and quota monitoring. It also closes a loophole on the transfer of fins at sea, which allowed some to circumvent the current law. Additionally, the bill allows the U.S. to take actions against countries that have weaker protections for sharks.
Sharks are in trouble and we cannot afford to lose such a vital part of the world's oceans. Please support the S. 850, the Shark Conservation Act. Our oceans depend on it.
Mad science?
Growing meat without animals
Pork chops or burgers cultivated in labs could eliminate multiple problems
Article submitted by Jim Coshland
Winston Churchill once predicted that it would be possible to grow chicken breasts and wings more efficiently without having to keep an actual chicken. And in fact scientists have since figured out how to grow tiny nuggets of lab meat and say it will one day be possible to produce steaks in vats, sans any livestock.
Pork chops or burgers cultivated in labs could eliminate contamination problems that regularly generate headlines these days, as well as address environmental concerns that come with industrial livestock farms.
However, such research opens up strange and perhaps even disturbing possibilities once considered only the realm of science fiction. After all, who knows what kind of meat people might want to grow to eat?
Advantages touted
Increasingly, bioengineers are growing nerve, heart and other tissues in labs. Recently, scientists even reported developing artificial penis tissue in rabbits. Although such research is meant to help treat patients, biomedical engineer Mark Post at Maastricht University in the Netherlands and his colleagues suggest it could also help feed the rising demand for meat worldwide.
The researchers noted that growing skeletal muscle in labs — the kind people typically think of as the meat they eat — could help tackle a number of problems:
* Avoiding animal suffering by reducing the farming and killing of livestock.
* Dramatically cutting down on food-borne ailments such as mad cow disease and salmonella or germs such as swine flu, by monitoring the growth of meat in labs.
* Livestock currently take up 70 percent of all agricultural land, corresponding to 30 percent of the world's land surface, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. Labs would presumably require much less space.
* Livestock generate 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, more than all of the vehicles on Earth, the FAO added. Since the animals themselves are mostly responsible for these gasses, reducing livestock numbers could help alleviate global warming.
Need to scale up
Stem cells are considered the most promising source for such meat, retaining as they do the capacity to transform into the required tissues, and the scientists pointed to satellite cells, which are the natural muscle stem cells responsible for regeneration and repair in adults. Embryonic stem cells could also be used, but they are obviously plagued by ethical concerns, and they could grow into tissues besides the desired muscles.
To grow meat in labs from satellite cells, the researchers suggested current tissue-engineering techniques, where stem cells are often embedded in synthetic three-dimensional biodegradable matrixes that can present the chemical and physical environments that cells need to develop properly. Other key factors would involve electrically stimulating and mechanically stretching the muscles to exercise them, helping them mature properly, and perhaps growing other cells alongside the satellite cells to provide necessary molecular cues.
So far past scientists have grown only small nuggets of skeletal muscle, about half the size of a thumbnail. Such tidbits could be used in sauces or pizzas, Post and colleagues explained recently in the online edition of the journal Trends in Food Science & Technology, but creating a steak would demand larger-scale production.
Dark thoughts
The expectation is that if such meat is ever made, scientists will opt for beef, pork, chicken or fish. However, science fiction has long toyed with the darker possibilities that cloned meat presents.
In Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson's epic sci-fi satire "Transmetropolitan," supermarkets and fast food joints sell dolphin, manatee, whale, baby seal, monkey and reindeer, while the Long Pig franchise sells "cloned human meat at prices you like."
"In principle, we could harvest the meat progenitor cells from fresh human cadavers and grow meat from them," Post said. "Once taken out of its disease and animalistic, cannibalistic context — you are not killing fellow citizens for it, they are already dead — there is no reason why not."
Stressed Seaweed Clouding Coasts By University of Manchester
Article submitted by Justin Scheller
Scientists at The University of Manchester have helped to identify that the presence of large amounts of seaweed in coastal areas can influence the climate.
A new international study has found that large brown seaweeds, when under stress, release large quantities of inorganic iodine into the coastal atmosphere, where it may contribute to cloud formation.
A scientific paper published online May 6 2008 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) identifies that iodine is stored in the form of iodide -- single, negatively charged ions.
When this iodide is released it acts as the first known inorganic -- and the most simple -- antioxidant in any living system.
"When kelp experience stress, for example when they are exposed to intense light, desiccation or atmospheric ozone during low tides, they very quickly begin to release large quantities of iodide from stores inside the tissues," explains lead author, Dr Frithjof Küpper from the Scottish Association for Marine Science.
"These ions detoxify ozone and other oxidants that could otherwise damage kelp, and, in the process, produce molecular iodine.
"Our new data provide a biological explanation why we can measure large amounts of iodine oxide and volatile halocarbons in the atmosphere above kelp beds and forests. These chemicals act as condensation nuclei around which clouds may form."
The paper's co-author, Dr Gordon McFiggans, an atmospheric scientist from The University of Manchester's School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences (SEAES) said: "The findings are applicable to any coastal areas where there are extensive kelp beds. In the UK, these are typically place like the Hebrides, Robin Hood's Bay and Anglesey. The kelps need rocky intertidal zones to prosper - sandy beaches aren't very good.
"The increase in the number of cloud condensation nuclei may lead to 'thicker' clouds. These are optically brighter, reflecting more sunlight upwards and allowing less to reach the ground, and last for longer. In such a cloud there are a higher number of small cloud droplets and rainfall is suppressed, compared with clouds of fewer larger droplets.
"The increase in cloud condensation nuclei by kelps could lead to more extensive, longer lasting cloud cover in the coastal region -- a much moodier, typically British coastal skyline."
The research team also found that large amounts of iodide are released from kelp tissues into sea water as a consequence to the oxidative stress during a defence response against pathogen attack. They say kelps therefore play an important role in the global biogeochemical cycle of iodine and in the removal of ozone close to the Earth's surface.
This interdisciplinary and international study -- with contributions from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Switzerland, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the USA -- comes almost 200 years after the discovery of iodine as a novel element -- in kelp ashes.
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Orange County Officials cut funding for ocean water quality testing.
Article from the local O.C. Register Seal Beach newspaper. See the link for the article.
Funding to test bacteria in ocean suspended in Seal Beach
County halts winter month testing in 97 beach locations, including Seal Beach and Sunset Beach.
By JAIMEE LYNN FLETCHER
The Orange County Register
Submitted to website by Jim Coshland
SEAL BEACH–The Orange County Health Care Agency will suspend funding to test ocean water for bacteria in 97 locations in Orange County, including Seal Beach, officials said.
The HCA announced last week it will pull its funding to test ocean water during off-season months for potentially harmful and disease-causing bacteria as a cost-saving measure.
Areas in Sunset Beach and Seal Beach will no longer be tested from Nov. 1 to March 31, said Rick Francis, chief of staff for Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach.
The health agency for the last 40 years has partnered with the Orange County Sanitation District and South Orange County Wastewater Authority to test local waters. State funding picked up the tab for ocean water testing from April 1 to Oct. 31 and the county covered testing costs in the fall and winter months.
The county is not required by law to test in off-season months but the HCA will continue to test for bacteria in summer months, Francis reported.
Seal Beach City Manager Dave Carmany said he is exploring ways the city could foot the bill to continue ocean water testing during the off-season, including possibly using a private lab to test coastal waters.
"I think this cut-back is indicative of a soft collapse of government infrastructure that may portend changes to the way Seal Beach must conduct government business," Carmany wrote in an e-mail. "That is, as other agencies cut back, our city will be forced to step up."
Thousands of threatened and endangered sea turtles are injured or killed every year because of destructive fishing gear and pollution, while the effects of climate change compound the problem. Our sea turtle campaign has won significant victories for sea turtles, like saving 60,000 per year from shrimp nets, and we can do so much more with your help.
Sea turtles have been swimming in the world’s oceans for more than 100 million years. While they have been able to survive many challenges over
the years, sea turtles are not equipped to withstand the threat humans pose.
Untargeted or discarded catch, also known as bycatch, is an enormous problem throughout the world. Trawl fisheries indiscriminatingly catch everything in their path, including sea turtles.
The National Marine Fisheries Service recognized this problem and issued
an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on February 15, 2007. The proposed rule would be the first step to get in the water requirements to protect turtles from trawl nets. But more than two years later the rule has
yet to be released. In the meantime trawls continue to catch sea turtles.
Please ask Dr. Lubchenco - head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Organization (NOAA) - to rapidly complete a rule to reduce sea turtle takes in trawl fisheries.
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Orange County Coastkeeper, an organization that shares our philosophy for clean oceans, healthy sea life and sea life populations.
The following is some information about one of their causes.
See the link below for the Coastkeeper website and all of their information
Article submitted by Rachael Calkins
Marine Protected Areas are now being determined for Southern California's coast. Of the proposed alternatives, Map 3 does the best job protecting the critical areas and high quality habitats. Your input supporting this option will help create MPAs that are effective, based on science, and good for fishing.
MPAs Work!
Currently, 13% of land on earth is protected. However, less than 0.5% of the oceans are protected. As a valuable tool for both ecosystem protection and fisheries management, Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are likely to help replenish depleted fish populations. MPAs have shown to be effective in parts of California, the Florida Keys, New Zealand, and in close to 50 other countries around the world.
What is Being Proposed?
Proposal 3 - Map 3 was prepared by conservation and science-oriented stakeholders and includes high quality habitats and areas of conservation priority, designed to provide rapid and profound increases in the number, size, and diversity of ocean wildlife. Map 3 is the ONLY alternative which meets all the conservation goals of the Act and all the guidelines established by the Science Advisory Team.
Proposal 2 - Map 2 was prepared by fishing interests and falls short of scientific recommendations for MPA size, habitat inclusion, and space between MPAs for critical habitats like kelp forests and shallow rocky reefs. Map 2 will not produce the benefits envisioned by the Act.
Proposal 1 - Map 1 was prepared by a cross-section of ocean users, and proposes a compromise between the two other options; it best demonstrates the balance of interests involved while performing well according to the science guidelines. However, Map 1 may not be as effective as Map 3 at protecting southern California's coastal resources.
Have you ever wondered about where
"The Man In The Grey Suit" has been hanging around lately? **10/09 - Many recent local sightings including an eyewitness account by some of our club members. See the article on the "Club News" page
The Pacific Coast Shark Reasearch Committee is the main reporting and informational organization and website for up to date reports on Great White and other shark sightings for the California Coast. It is actually pretty amazing how frequently sharks are sighted in our local area.
San Onofre nuclear operator cites fish-saving costs
Submitted by Justin Scheller
SAN ONOFRE — It was reported last week the utility that owns Southern California’s only nuclear power plant estimates it would cost $2.5 billion to build a new cooling system to avoid killing the billions of fish that it currently sucks out of the ocean. But ocean advocates say weaning the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station off of the 1.6 billion gallons of ocean water sucked through the plant every day would cost half that and is necessary to preserve sea creatures that are killed in order to keep the twin reactor systems working.
The North County Times newspaper reported that the twin nuclear units, straddling the Orange-San Diego county line near San Clemente, may be affected by a state Water Resources Control Board plan to eliminate the flushing of ocean water through power plants to cool them. Along with San Onofre, a pair of nuclear plants near San Luis Obispo and 17 natural gas-fired power plants along California’s coast would be affected. Southern California Edison says its twin nuclear piles at San Onofre are hemmed in by a state park, and it would need to build giant tunnels under Interstate 5 to reach some of the 32 cooling towers it would need if it were denied ocean water flushes.
The utility advertisement estimates it would cost $2.5 billion. But a study conducted for the state says there is room on the ocean side of the freeway to build the cooling towers, cutting the likely cost to $1.2 billion. A director at the California Coast Keeper organization says that would be money well spent. “The two nuclear power plants withdraw the most water and kill the most fish of all the once-through cooled plants in California,” said Angela Haren in an interview with the North County Times. The San Onofre plant is reportedly responsible for the death of 28,700 pounds of fish, and 6.8 billion fish larvae, per year.
Southern California Edison’s environmental director says the cost would be passed on to ratepayers, and said he is not sure the state Public Utilities Commission would find that a good idea. Complicating the matter is a promise made by the utility to the California Coastal Commission in the late 1970s, when it expanded the nuclear station and committed itself to never ask to expand the San Onofre station. The Coastal Commission’s executive director said Coastal has already required Edison ratepayers to build new fish habitat to compensate for the fish kill, and said the Coastal Commission would be reluctant to approve new power plant construction there.
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State Parks Threatened
Submitted by Justin Scheller
San Diego has 14 state parks, any of which could be threatened with closure next month as a result of the state budget cuts. Three of San Diego’s state parks are among the top ten revenue generating parks in the state. Old Town, Carlsbad and San Onofre State Beach each raise more than $2 million a year. This puts them in a stronger position than parks like Palomar Mountain and Anza Borrego Desert Parks. Sheryl Watson of California State Parks says with a 10 percent budget cut, the department may have to close up to 100 of its 278 parks statewide. "It will be a business decision." she says, "We would look at the cost to operate the park, as well as the revenue. Some parks are extremely popular but they are also expensive to operate. We’re working on a matrix to break down how much it costs to operate each of our parks." Six of San Diego’s state parks are beaches. Watson says cuts will almost certainly mean fewer seasonal lifeguards will be hired next summer. She says the department has 50 full-time lifeguards and 600 who are trained but are hired seasonally.
The list of parks to be closed won’t be released till after Labor Day.
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Could public lose access to San Onofre State Beach?
Submitted by Justin Scheller
Could the public lose access to Trestles in 2021? To San Onofre Surf Beach? To the San Onofre bluffs campground and six trails to the beach? To the San Mateo Valley, its hiking trails and campground?
San Onofre State Beach is home to those recreation areas and occupies 2,100 acres of Camp Pendleton property under a 50-year lease that expires in 2021.
"We don't know what's going to happen in 2021," said Steve Long, a retired 34-year state parks official who now helps run the San Onofre Foundation. The government and the military have not indicated whether they would extend all or part of the federal lease, he said.
"There have been no discussions held nor recommended courses of action considered with respect to what the Marine Corps position may be as it applies to renewal or nonrenewal of the current state park lease," Larry Rannals, community planning and liaison officer for Camp Pendleton, stated in an e-mail. "Since the state park lease is not due to expire until the year 2021, that's a little too far out on the planning horizon."
Long made his comments during a lecture at Casa Romantica Cultural Center in San Clemente. He said he feels Surf Beach and Trestles are so entrenched in the public eye that he doubts the military would remove public access. "And certainly as good neighbors, which they truly are, they would not want to do that," Long said.
The San Onofre bluffs south of the nuclear power plant and San Mateo Valley could be a different story, he said. He added, however, it's all speculation.
Long urged people who treasure the park to join the San Onofre Foundation, a nonprofit organization intent on preserving the park, protecting its resources and enhancing public recreation.
"It is a world treasure," Long said, calling it California's fifth most-visited state park, with nearly 2.5 million visitors per year.
"Surfers come from around the world," he said. "We host the three most significant surfing events in the nation. It is a very careful balancing act. It is an environmentally sensitive area. But we've found a way to do that without inflicting damage, showcasing what a world treasure this is."
He suggested that people who last year packed public hearings to oppose putting a toll road through the park now need to focus on saving the park in 2021.
"It'll be here before we know it," Long said. "There's discussion that perhaps the bluffs will be given back … for security reasons around the nuclear power plant. (Or) we could have an access coming from another direction. We don't know what the future is, but we need to be vigilant, and the community of people that love this park needs to remain active."
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Pacific Ocean gyre.
Submitted by Justin Scheller
By now, most of us are aware that there is a large patch of floating plastic in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. What you may not know is that it’s not made up of plastic bags and empty bottles. It’s made up of billions of tiny pieces of plastic, and it’s basically invisible unless you’re floating in it. While this might seem better, it’s actually much worse for the environment—and for you. Our latest Transparency is a look at the Pacific Gyre and the plastic floating in it.
Plastic is just like radioactive waste — it doesn't go away. Plastic bags do break up but they simply become smaller and smaller pieces of plastic. Those microscopic pieces of plastic are now entering the food chain earlier as they are ingested by marine life.
Plastic bags are convenient but so, too, are the alternatives. The key issue is the habit we've formed. Just as taking groceries home in a plastic bag has become habit, so, too, would using the cheap, practical alternatives, such as reusable bags made out of washable non plastics, which we already have.
500 billion plastic bags manufactured each year. Of that, just 3 per cent are recycled and the rest end up in our environment or in landfill.
David de Rothschild will soon set sail on the Plastiki, a boat constructed out of re-purposed plastic bottles.
In 1947, Thor Heyerdahl and a crew of five men traveled across the Pacific Ocean to Peru on craft comprised of natural materials modeled after ancient Inca rafts. Using that as inspiration, David de Rothschild, the banking scion and the founder of Adventure Ecology, is embarking on The Plastiki Expedition, and will soon set sail on another curious vessel: one comprise almost entirely of re-purposed plastic bottles. The journey will take de Rothschild and his crew from San Francisco to Australia’s Sydney Harbor, passing through the North Pacific Garbage Patch. It’s part of an effort to raise awareness not only about the problems of plastic waste in our oceans (using the single-use plastic water bottle as the focal point), but also to showcase the potential for plastic as a versatile, reusable material, one that doesn’t need to be recycled but that transforms what we currently think of as waste into resources.
The plastic sailboat is taking shape in an old pier building not far from this city's famous Fisherman's Wharf. Here, thousands of two-liter soda bottles are being stripped of their labels, washed, filled with dry-ice powder and then resealed. The dry ice sublimates into carbon dioxide gas and pressurizes the bottle, making it rigid.
The vessel's twin hulls will be filled with 12,000 to 16,000 bottles. Skin-like panels made from recycled PET, a woven plastic fabric, will cover the hulls and a watertight cabin, which sleeps four.
"This actually is the same material that is made out of bottles," said de Rothschild of the PET fabric. "We actually wrap the PET fabric over the PET foam and then basically put it under a vacuum, heat it, press it and create these long PET panels. So that means the boat is, technically, one giant bottle."
Two wind turbines and an array of solar panels will charge a bank of 12-volt batteries, which will power several onboard laptop computers, a GPS and SAT phone.
Only about 10 percent of the Plastiki will be made from new materials, de Rothschild said. He declined to reveal how much it's costing him to build the boat.
"We could potentially put together a boat that costs a fraction of what normal conventional boats are made of," he said. "The idea is to take the Plastiki, break it down [after the voyage], and put it back into the system. So, it may come out being a jacket, a bag, and more bottles. It's infinitely recyclable."
The ultimate goal of the Plastiki voyage is not just to encourage people to embrace clean, renewable energy but also to see consumer waste as a potential resource.
That's what this is all about -- showcasing cradle-to-cradle products rather than cradle-to-grave," de Rothschild said.
Whether the Plastiki will successfully complete its unique journey remains to be seen. But to conservationists concerned about the amount of energy required to manufacture and distribute plastic bottles, its symbolic message is a welcome one.
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UPDATE-
Dana Point Desalination Plant
Submitted by Justin Scheller
Metropolitan Water District of Orange County has been conducting testing at Doheny State Beach to evaluate the feasibility of constructing an Ocean Desalination plant. The conceptual design of this facility would be to use several “beach wells” to withdraw water from underneath the ocean floor. The wellheads would be completed below grade to avoid any visual or access impacts to Doheny State Beach. The water would be pumped to a desalination plant which would be located just south of San Juan Creek and just east of the transition road from PCH to the I-5. Two phases of hydrogeologic testing have been completed. In the first phase, conducted in 2004-2005, MWDOC drilled four test borings on or near the beach at Doheny and installed monitoring wells in two of the borings. This testing indicated that subsurface conditions were promising for a high yield of filtered water.
A second phase of testing was performed in 2006 to drill, construct and pump a test “slant well” to further evaluate the quantity and quality of water obtainable from a well directionally drilled to a depth of about 150 feet below the ocean floor. As with the first phase of testing, this testing yielded generally favorable results.
A third phase of testing is planned for 2009-2011. The objectives of these “extended pumping and pilot studies” are to validate the beach wellfield capacity; assess water quality, microbial fouling and corrosion; conduct a pilot plant study to convert a portion of the extracted seawater to high quality water using reverse osmosis; and to refine project coast estimates.
A decision on building the full-scale plant (currently planned to produce 15 million gallons per day of drinking water with an estimated cost of $136 million) is anticipated to be made in 2011-2012.
The Surfrider Foundation has supported the hydrogeologic testing that has been conducted and supports the planned third phase of testing. A desalination plant using beach wells for intake of ocean water avoids the destruction of marine life that is inherent in the open ocean intake designs that are part of other projects, such as facilities proposed in Huntington Beach and Carlsbad. Surfrider has not yet taken a position on the final project.
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Some important information about the health of your eyes and the harsh beach environment
Submitted by Steve Ryan
Hi Everybody,
For your consideration:
Most people I have talked to have no idea what Pterygium (pronounced Ter-i-gium) is. I knew about it before I even had it and now I realize how common it is.
I had developed pterygium many years ago and just ignored it. For me though, it became a problem when it spread over my cornea and obscured my vision. I had surgery to remove it. The procedure was simple and took only 8 minutes. I was left with bright red eye for a month but well worth it. My vision was restored. Mickey Munoz had the same procedure done last year.
Pterygium a growth of raised tissue, often triangular shaped, that usually starts in one corner of the eye and can grow onto the cornea.
Pterygium can occur in both eyes and although they can look unsightly and cause some discomfort, they are benign lesions and are usually not dangerous.
The most common cause of pterygium is UV radiation, usually from sunlight. Harsh condtions such as heat, dryness, wind, dust and smoke can cause inflammation and irritation of existing ptyerygium and heredity is thought to play a role in its development.
The best way to reduce your risk of developing a ptyerygium is to wear sunglasses whenever you are outdoors.
In cases where the pterygium grows onto the cornea and distorts vision, the only effective treatment is surgical removal. Fortunately, this requires relatively minor surgery, which is usually performed under a local anesthetic. As pterygium can grow back after surgery, prevention is better than cure. With new surgical techniques though, the reoccurrence rate drops from 50% to 5%
If you have an area of raised tissue on or around your eyes, have it checked out by your Optometrist.
For more information, go to www.harvardeye.com, select "Other Topics" and click on "Pterygium" to watch a short video (It has surfing in it).
Steve Ryan
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Image by DigitalGlobe via Getty Images
Tom Jones
