World Hydrography Day and UNCLOS

This was going to be a post on Prince Rainer of Monaco. He was a great friend of hydrography and the goal of making ocean navigation safe. His generosity enabled the International Hydrographic Office (IHO) to set up in Monaco (hardly a hardship post). His son carries on support for the IHO.

In looking for some information on this, I found instead a reference to World Hydrography Day!

It is held every year on 21 June. This conflicts in Canada with National Aboriginal Day and sometimes with the summer solstice. A shared spotlight does nothing to diminish the Canadian hydrographers from popularizing the cause of safe navigation and from usually enjoying a very fine day. UNCLOS and WHD (you know, it really needs a theme song):

http://www.iho.shom.fr/MEM_STATES/WH_Day/PressRelease-ENG.pdf

Standards

Have you ever noticed that different versions of certain products tend to look similar? You may think that everyone is being lazy and just copying each other. Sometimes that is true. Other times people are painstakingly cordinating to make sure that similar products look similar. This is particularly true for electronic navigational charts. It is important for mariners (and manufacturers) that a hydrographic office's products work on a number of different platforms. Also, it is essential that navigational objects have a common attribution and graphic representation. If something is ambiguous or, even worse, incorrect then serious consequences could ensue, with potential loss of property, life, and/or damage to the marine environment.

Standards - dull as dishwater - but vitally important.

Here is a link to a snippet of the S57 standard:
http://www.iho.shom.fr/ECDIS/s57intro.htm

Evasive Species

I was at a seminar a few years ago and one of the topics was invasive species in Canadian Waters. These are non-native aquatic creatures that are introduced to our waters and find them quite to their liking. The problem is that they can mess up an ecosystem by crowding out (or devouring) a native species. They do this in the absence of their natural predators. Often they arrive here in ships ballasts. One example from this part of the world is the clubbed tunicate. It is a bane to mussel farmers because it competes with the mussels for food.

Alas, I don't have a good picture but here is a link to an article on the scourge and potential solution.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T4D-4MP567J-1&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=3ada75a5899184e6a384578fa3fedeb6

Special thanks to Kelly Bates for her permission to use a derivation of her idea. Hopefully, there will be a few more posts in the future - with pictures.

Creepy Halloween

I hope it is ok that I am doing a little 'creeping' on Halloween - between runs to dish out some tooth rot to the trick or treaters.

See, I was told that checking out someone elses blogging was called 'creeping'.

I kind of like it!

It made me envious of some folks posting craft, other peoples posting frequency! Moreover it gave me a couple of smiles and a couple of ideas. I was particulary smitten withtwoby Robert - the Dicovery Channel commercial and the Sea Turkey. The quasi-poaching idea comes from Kelly Bates and her sea creature of the week. It reminded me of a seminar that I attended. I believe I have verbal permisson to attempt a test blog. Stand by.

Newfie George

George Anderson, known to many as Newfie George, has died.

A strong native of the Burin Peninsula, he was a jackof many trades and a master of most of them. Coxswain, shipper, musician, Santa Claus ,radio personality father of Bruce, husband of Minnie and so forth - one cheerful, professional, hard-working man.

The attached obituary tells the facts more completely but still can only provide a hint at the tales that go with them. He is a great example of a life lived on and by the sea. It surely wasn't all good fortune and smooth sailing but a good life, hard won and well deserved.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/announcements/display.php?anntype=obituaries~2008/10/29~16746059

Way up North (relatively speaking)

During a recent class, we were given the opportunity to help relocate some of the fresh water mussels of Lake Banook. I am not sure if that is a good idea. Nonetheless, following this departure from things marine, I indulge in a special dispensation and I now offer my favourite Canadian geographical triva question:

Imagine yourself in Windsor Ontario. Head to the water. Look north. What do you see?

(I shall post the anwser in a comment but you should Google Earth it. Windsor is the home town of scores of famous Canadians - and many more non-famous but great Canadians)

Nominations from the floor?

While preparing for another class, I noticed on the Bay of Fundy ecosytem partnership web site (www.bofep.org) that it is time for their Annual General Meeting. It is scheduled for October 30th in Joggins. I've done a few AGM's in my day. This notice served to remind me that having a successful organization means having volunteers who are ready to step forward and take on a task. It also means having a necessary amount of rules and procedures, to allow the organization to persist. It is the unsexy part of democracy. A day trip to Joggins would be boffo. Alas, I am committed to a research methods lecture, a family flu shot, a middle child birthday, and the last leg of a parent-teacher day marathon. Truly, I do wish them well and will continue to check out their web site and learn more about the Bay of Fundy.

Lord Kelvin

I was checking out the atlantic cable site (see below) and the name William Thomson popped up. He was on the cable laying voyage and he came up with a way to get more bandwidth out of the cable, using a mirror galvanometer. This was just one of the many innovations and discoveries that this very sharp mind produced. Among other things, he developed an improved method of sounding the ocean and he even devised his own temperature scale!

We know him as Lord Kelvin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Kelvin

Happy Anniversary - A Cable for you (and you and..)

Going back through the class lectures, I came across a link to the

Atlantic Cable website. It is really interesting. The first investors

took a bath, so to speak, but their loss was our gain. The first

official cable was from Queen Victoria to President Buchanan

and it took over a day to send [bandwidth issues!].

Happenstance being what it is, the society is holding the 150th anniversary

of the transatlantic cable tomorrow in Manchester. I will not be able to make it .

I am tempted to call them ...

check out

http://www.cntr.salford.ac.uk/comms/transatlantic.php

Salmon survey

In the 3315 class, I made the suggestion that I might show what I know by asking politicians about Ocean policy. In today's Halifax Chronicle-Herald, I see that the Atlantic Salmon Federation beat me to the punch, by asking the federal parties about some Ocean policy.
"Good for them", I say, properly humbled.

Check it out.

http://www.asf.ca/index.php

Superfly for Super buys

Great News!
I just got my new copy of life, etc [finally got a life].It is the magazine of RBC rewards. The Royal Bank gives you'air miles' points when you use a credit card - the more you buy, the more you get (also the more you owe, but let's not step on the dream).Anyways, they have their own magazine to trump the lifestyle and they sent a copy to me!

Guess who is the featured author in this month's mag?Dr. David Suzuki, that's who. His article is called "A Day in my life".[there is that life theme again]. A busy and blessed life, as it turns out.

Basically, the good doctor takes us chronologically through a day at home and at the office. Throughout, he muses about the eco-friendly choices he makes, from re-usable chop sticks and a 'no farmed salmon' policy, and looks hopefully for future improvements in some areas such as an 'on-demand' water heater [we have timed thermostats, why not water heaters?] Dave is burdened with trying to raise enough scratch for the $6.5 million budget so he is probably missing the irony of being the feature conservationist in a magazine devoted to consumption. I, less encumbered, can spot it from clear across the continent.

As part of a fundraising boost, he is going to make fish prints to give to large donors to the foundation because - he likes fish.

I like fish too.

He will also co-author a book on a threatened species of fish [species unnamed, perhaps to protect the fish or the project] - because he likes fish.

I like fish too.

I am going to write a book and I will make sure that there are a lot of fish in it.

Should it make money, I will share some with the fish.

[not to the tune of $6.5 million per annum though. I'd be spending all my time fundraising]

P.S. Dr. Suzuki started in the field of genetics, working with fruit flies. I am not so fussy about them.

Dead Zones on the Radio

I was driving to class yesterday, listening to the CBC.
The topic was 'dead zones' in the ocean.
Not Wi-Fi dead zones, you understand - fish dead zones.

Apparently, there are hundreds of them. The researcher was looking for
fish beyond the mouth of the Mississippi (?) and not finding any.
The culprit was a huge bloom of algae that was fed by fertilzer run-off, climate,
etc., that made the water column inoxic. Scary.

I am not sure that I caught all of the discussion, focused as I was on the
insane traffic machinations of the HRM. However, have a gander
at the podcasts and see for yourself.

BTW, the link is to their 'hungry planet' series. There is also a pod on
Canadian Seafood.

http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/hungryplanet2.html

Batting Cleanup, so to speak

Going back in time ....

I joined SMUGS (for less than cost of a coffee at Starbucks, home of the three dollar cookie) - and then I missed the beach cleanup.

Feeling guilty and hoping to prime the 'show what you know' resume for Geog 3315, I took in the one at McCormacks Beach in Eastern Passage (beside Fisherman's Wharf) the following Saturday morning, whilst the youngest was at dance class.

I was pleasantly suprised by the size of the group - perhaps a dozen and a half volunteers.

There didn't seem to be too much garbage but once you start looking you start finding it: plastics, cups and bottles, personal products and so forth.

Still, not too bad - although I have developed a mild digust for those tipped cigar things that littered the boardwalk, I had my faith in humanity uplifted. There are worse ways to spend part of a Saturday morning than walking on the beach with the eager and the energetic.

BIO Tour

Road Trip!

No, not to DC - to Dartmouth.
(Ok, so I don't get out much).

Even so, the Bedford Institute of Oceanography is a world class facility.
There are even a couple of Nobel Laureates walking the halls:

http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/science/Publications/annualreport-rapportannuel/ar-ra0607/sect3_e.html

(see the bit on the Nobel Peace Prize)

Whenever ocean science conferences are held in the region, a tour of BIO is

often requested. Equally, it is a popular destination for schools and youth

groups. That is part of what makes the place special - it is accessible science

at many levels. It is also very cool that the mailroom staff and the prize

winning scientists and every one in between see each other as peers

because there is no reason not to. I'd love to see the Smithsonian too but

you get my point, I trust.

Jacques

Last week, it occurred to me that we hardly hear the name Jacques Cousteau anymore.
Maybe it is because he is dead.

Still, when I was a youngster, Cousteau was the oceanographer. At least he was the individual that was popularizing ocean exploration. I would bet that if one was to interview marine biologists of a certain age, they would give credit to Jacques for inpsiring them onward. No vessel ramming for this garcon - he was a class act.

Check him out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques-Yves_Cousteau

Thanks, eh

It is Thanksgiving Day today.

I heard a radio program on CBC yesterday (http://www.cbc.ca/tapestry/) on the topic of the importance of saying Thank You.

The best line was when the author said (and I paraphrase), "If you don't think it is important to say thank you then try not saying it for a whole day and watch what happens"

I had a delightful trip to the Bay of Fundy last month - a glorious September morning, fresh air, post card scenary and crisp valley apples down the road. Here is a shot from the "Look Off".

Taking a cue from the program, I offer a belated "Thanks for the day, eh."

Non Addictive Ocean Snacks

This blog, although created for the Geography 2305 class, will contain snippets and thoughts that have arisen in other classes, from discussions, issues from work and random bits of wonder.

To that end ...

I had promised myself that I would try a new ocean product before the end of the term. Since I am not normally a fish/seafood eater (how can we protect the fish if we keep eating them?) I had to either swallow my reticence or else get creative. Thanks to the good folks at S*store Sushi section, a compromise presented itself - seaweed salad! The biologists amongst us would know exactly what it was that I ate but I do not. I can tell you that it was awful. It had a strange straw and nodule like texture - kind of like the bottom of a gerbil's cage. It continues to be stocked in the stores so I presume that there are people who enjoy it. That is our big old water world for you.

Craig

P.S. I do occasionally enjoy a [very small] piece of Dulce and I have been carrying around a bag of it since our trip to the Bay of Fundy. Just ask if you would like to try some.

Hello (water) world

A (modified) old joke.
This is my first post ever and, as has been done while learning various computer
programs, "Hello World" is echoed to test the process.

Water world is a Ocean's related pun on that theme.

Waterworld is a Kevin Costner opus:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114898/