Thai Firm Pleads Guilty Over Montara Oil Spill

Jakarta Globe, August 30, 2012

This handout photo provided by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and taken on
 Sept. 28, 2009 shows a man looking at a waxy substance found in water affected
 by the Montara oil rig leak in the Timor Sea. A Thai state-owned firm on Thursday
 admitted four charges over a huge oil spill off northwestern Australia, the country’s
worst ever offshore drilling accident. (AFP Photo/HO/WWF/ Kara Burns)   

   

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A Thai state-owned firm on Thursday admitted four charges over a huge oil spill off northwestern Australia, the country’s worst ever offshore drilling accident.

Thousands of barrels of oil gushed into the sea over 10 weeks following a blowout at PTTEP Australasia’s West Atlas rig in the Timor Sea three years ago.

The slick from the Montara oil field spread as far as Indonesian waters and environmentalists said it grew to almost 90,000 square kilometers.

The firm, a unit of Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production, pleaded guilty to breaching the Offshore Petroleum Act, admitting it failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent the spill and placed rig workers in danger.

An Australian government inquiry blamed widespread and systematic shortcomings at PTTEP AA for the spill, over which Indonesia sought $2.4 billion in compensation for damage to reefs and fisheries.

PTTEP AA is facing more than Aus $1 million ($1.03 million) in fines following its guilty plea at Darwin Magistrates Court, with company chief Ken Fitzpatrick saying that “mistakes were made that should never be repeated.”

“From the outset we have admitted responsibility for the incident and deeply regret it occurring,” Fitzpatrick told reporters outside the court.

“The hearing today draws a line under the Montara incident and allows us to focus on delivering safe, clean operations in Australia now and in the future,” he added.

PTTEP paid for the clean-up and Fitzpatrick said the environmental impact was estimated to have cost the company Aus $40-50 million. It had also driven a transformation of the firm’s operations and culture, he added.

The court is expected to deliver its sentence on Friday.

PTTEP’s Australian offshore drilling license was renewed in February 2011 on a strict 18-month probation period, with the government warning it would be subject to a rigorous monitoring regime.

The Montara field has not been operational since the spill in 2009, but “PTTEP AA is in the process of finalizing a series of extensive repairs. First oil at the facility is scheduled for late 2012,” PTTEP AA told the Jakarta Globe in an e-mail statement.

Agence France-Presse & JG

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2009 Timor Sea Oil Spill ‘Just as Devastating as Gulf of Mexico’

Scientists discover ‘penis-headed’ fish in Vietnam (PHOTOS)

RT.com, 29 August, 2012

Freshly-collected specimens of Phallostethus cuulong is a new species
 of fish with a penis on its head. (AFP Photo/Koichi Shibukawa, Tran Dac
Dinh and Tran Xuan Loi)

A new species of fish discovered in Vietnam is only 2 centimeters long, but its tiny size is not the creature’s only unique trait. This fish possesses sexual organs in an unusual place: Its head.

Scientists do not yet understand the evolutionary origin of the unusual placement of the fish's reproductive system.

One theory posits that a “bilaterally asymmetric organ” under the throat is “for holding or clasping onto females and fertilizing their eggs internally.” The vast majority of fish species fertilize their eggs after they are laid.

The Phallostethus cuulong – the scientific name of the fish – has become the 22nd member of the Phallostethidae family, a group of small, slender and nearly transparent surface-swimming fish that live in the waters of southeast Asi.

The new species was first discovered near the Mekong River in July 2009 by Japanese scientist Koichi Shibukawa. He managed to catch it in a net, and began researching it alongside colleagues from Vietnam’s Can Tho University. 

The discovery of a ‘penis-headed’ fish came less than a month after a biologist in the Amazon uncovered a species of extremely rare caecilian – a legless amphibian – that was also shockingly phallic in shape.

AFP Photo/Koichi Shibukawa, Tran Dac Dinh and Tran Xuan Loi

Photographed by L.X. Tran and K. Shibukawa

Photographed by L.X. Tran

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"Clarification of the timing of Creation" – Aug 12, 2012 (a message from Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) - New

Incredible Whale Encounter - Mother Gray Whale Lifts Her Calf Out of the Water! [HD]

The gray whales in San Ignacio Lagoon frequently approach small tourist boats, seeking the human interaction. While they could easily avoid the people, whose small boats are not allowed to closely approach whales, they actually seem to enjoy making contact.

Laguna San Ignacio is on the Pacific coast of Mexico's Baja peninsula and is the destination for hundreds of gray whales, who migrate annually to the region from their feeding grounds in the Arctic. Here, where the water is shallow and warm, they give birth to their young. It lies within El Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve and is the gray whale's last undisturbed nursing and breeding ground, largely thanks to an environmental victory in 2000 that stopped the development of an industrial salt plant.

Whale watching here is highly regulated, with limits on how many boats can be on the water, how long they can stay, and how close they can get; rather than closely approaching the whales, they must idle their engine and wait for the whales to approach the vessel, which is a common occurrence.

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"Update on Current Events" – Jul 23, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: The Humanization of God, Gaia, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Benevolent Design, Financial Institutes (Recession, System to Change ...), Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Nuclear Power Revealed, Geothermal Power, Hydro Power, Drinking Water from Seawater, No need for Oil as Much, Middle East in Peace, Persia/Iran Uprising, Muhammad, Israel, DNA, Two Dictators to fall soon, Africa, China, (Old) Souls, Species to go, Whales to Humans, Global Unity,..... etc.) 

Cambodia Creates Safe Zones for Mekong Dolphins

Jakarta Globe, August 24, 2012

The tail of a critically endangered Irrawaddy dolphin is shown off the coast
 of West Kalimantan in this undated photo released by WWF-Indonesia
on Feb. 7, 2012. (AFP Photo/WWF-Indonesia/Syahirsyah)

Phnom Penh. The Cambodian government on Friday said it would limit fishing in a zone in the Mekong River to protect critically endangered freshwater dolphins.

The Irrawaddy dolphin conservation area will cover a 180-kilometer-long stretch of river from eastern Kratie province to the border with Laos, the government said after the measure was approved in the weekly cabinet meeting.

Fishing will still be allowed inside the zone but the use of floating houses, fish cages and gill nets will be banned as they risk endangering the dolphins.

The government estimates there are between 155 and 175 Irrawaddy dolphins left in Cambodia’s stretch of the Mekong River, while WWF last year put the figure at just 85.

The newly created zone “will serve the eco-tourism sector and sustainably preserve dolphins,” the statement said.

Entanglement in gill nets is seen as the leading cause of death in adult Irrawaddy dolphins, according to conservation group WWF. The animals also suffer from high calf mortality rates, the cause of which remains unclear, and from habitat degradation.

Acting WWF-Cambodia country director Michelle Owen said the creation of the protection zone was “welcome news” that “demonstrates the commitment of the Cambodian government to conserve this iconic and endangered species.”

The Mekong River Irrawaddy dolphin has been listed as critically endangered since 2004, according to WWF.

Irrawaddy dolphins are also found in coastal areas in South Asia and Southeast Asia, in the Irrawaddy river in Myanmar and in the Mahakam river in Indonesia.

Agence France-Presse

Record Radiation Found in Fish Near Damaged Fukushima Plant

Jakarta Globe, August 22, 2012

This 2011 file photo shows buyers inspect frozen tuna prior to an auction
 at Tsukiji Market in Tokyo. Record levels of radioactive caesium were detected
 in fish caught within 20 kilometers of Japan’s damaged Fukushima Daiichi
Nuclear Power Station, news reports said Wednesday. The operator Tokyo
 Electric Power Co said Tuesday it had found 25,800 becquerels per kilogram
 of radioactive caesium in greenling, 258 times higher than the government
safety standard. (Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg)

               

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Tokyo. Record levels of radioactive caesium were detected in fish caught within 20 kilometers of Japan’s damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, news reports said Wednesday.

The operator Tokyo Electric Power Co said Tuesday it had found 25,800 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive caesium in greenling, 258 times higher than the government safety standard.

Fishing in waters off the plant has been voluntarily restricted since the nuclear disaster at the plant, which went into meltdown after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Less than a month after the start of the disaster, Tokyo Electric dumped more than 11,000 tons of wastewater containing radioactive substances into the Pacific.

The previous record of radioactive contamination in fish was 18,700 becquerels per kilogram detected in cherry salmon caught in March, according to the Fisheries Agency.

Wakao Hanaoka, a Greenpeace Japan official, said the government now needs to carry out a full investigation of radioactive contamination in a wide range of sea areas off Fukushima, which has not been done yet.

The organization’s surveys show higher levels of radioactive contamination were found in fish and seaweed sampled in areas further from the Fukushima plant.

Factors that affect the spread of contamination include ocean currents and seabed configuration, Hanaoka added.

Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Humpback Whale VS 2 Women in kayak's

Ok Everyone, Check out this video I filmed while Kayaking in Port San Luis today! The real action starts at 20 secs, the video is 31 sec long. If your speakers are on TURN them DOWN. I scream in the end! Thank you and Enjoy! :)

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Kayaker Alan Brady is surprised by two humpback whales Oct. 25. 

Biologists believe whales have followed food closer to shore, leading 
them to feed just a mile from land this year. (Paul Schraub / AP)

Climate Change Driving Australian Fish South: Report

Jakarta Globe, August 17, 2012

This 2010 image has been flipped horizontally, and shows placards of
environmentalists are reflected in black balloons (representing pollution)
outside the offices of the New South Wales state government during an
Earth Day rally in Sydney. Australian scientists said Friday there was now
“striking evidence” of extensive southward migration of tropical fish and declines
 in other species due to climate change, in a major ocean report card from
the government science body CSIRO. (AFP Photo/ Torsten Blackwood)

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Sydney. Australian scientists said Friday there was now “striking evidence” of extensive southward migration of tropical fish and declines in other species due to climate change, in a major ocean report card.

Compiled by more than 80 of Australia’s leading marine experts for the government science body CSIRO, the snapshot of global warming’s effects on the island continent’s oceans warned of “significant impacts.”

“Climate change is already happening; widespread physical changes include rapid warming of the southeast and increasing flow of the east Australia current,” the report said.

“There is now striking evidence of extensive southward movements of tropical fish and plankton species in southeast Australia, declines in abundance of temperate species, and the first signs of the effect of ocean acidification on marine species with shells.”

The report described southeast Australia as a “global warming hotspot,” with the contraction south and strengthening of southern hemisphere winds causing the eastern current to become more intense and also warmer.

“A range of species including plankton, fish and invertebrates are now found further south because of the enhanced transport of larvae and juveniles in the stronger [current] and the high rate of regional warming,” it said.

Sea snakes were declining and warmer beaches were changing turtle breeding habits and seabird and marine mammal feeding and mating, it added.

Coral reefs had experienced increasing thermal bleaching in the past 30 years and that was projected to become more frequent and severe, “leading to chronic degradation of most coral reefs by the middle to late parts of the century.”

Though there were some “concerning findings,” project leader Elvira Poloczanska said there were some positives, with new research suggesting that certain tropical fish species were better equipped to adapt to warming than previously thought.

“Whether such acclimation capacity is widespread in tropical marine fishes and whether some critical processes [such as] reproduction remain significantly impaired is unknown.”

Poloczanska said Australia had some unique marine ecosystems and they provided “irreplaceable services including coastal defense, oxygen production, nutrient recycling and climate regulation.”

“Every second breath of oxygen we breathe is provided by marine plants; they provide protein when we eat fish and also relaxation such as when we go swimming,” she said.

“It’s important we make decisions about the future.”

Agence France-Presse

Scott's wrecked ship Terra Nova discovered in Arctic

BBC News, by Paul Rincon, Science editor, 16 August 2012

The Terra Nova carried Captain Scott and his party on their ill-fated
expedition to the Antarctic

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The wreck of the ship that carried Captain Robert Scott on his doomed expedition to the Antarctic a century ago has been discovered off Greenland.

The SS Terra Nova was found by a team from a US research company.

Scott and his party set off from Cardiff aboard the Terra Nova in 1910 with the aim of becoming the first expedition to reach the South Pole.

The ship had a life after the polar trek, sinking off Greenland's south coast in 1943.

It had been on a journey to deliver supplies to base stations in the Arctic when it was damaged by ice. The Terra Nova's crew was saved by the US Coast Guard cutter Southwind. 

The 57m length of the ship matched
that of the ill-fated Terra Nova

On arriving at the geographical South Pole in January 1912, Scott and his party discovered they had been beaten to it by a Norwegian team led by Roald Amundsen.

The polar team led by Scott died on their return journey from the pole; their bodies were found by a search party eight months later.

A crew from the Schmidt Ocean Institute discovered the Terra Nova whilst testing echo-sounding equipment aboard its flagship vessel - the R/V Falkor.

One of the scientists noticed an unidentified feature during sonar mapping of the sea bed.

Team members then noted that the 57m length of the feature matched the reported length of the Terra Nova. 

A camera package called Shrimp
was sent down to film the wreck

Technicians dropped a camera package called Shrimp to just above the presumed wreck to film it.

Camera tows across the top of the target showed the remains of a wooden wreck laying on the seabed.

Footage from an underwater camera also identified a funnel lying next to the ship.

Taken together, the features of the wreck closely matched historical photos of the Terra Nova, leading to the identification.

Brian Kelly, an education officer from the Discovery Point museum in Dundee, where the ship was built, told the Daily Record newspaper: "The Terra Nova has such a story.

"She went through a lot in her lengthy history and really was the pinnacle of Scottish wooden shipbuilding.

"It is incredible that one of the most famous ships in history has been found 100 years after the race for the pole and in the year commemorating the event."

Sonar mapping revealed an unidentified feature on the seafloor

Japan to take S. Korea islands row to international court

Deutsche Welle, 11 Aug 2012

Japan says it will take a territorial dispute with South Korea to the International Court of Justice. This comes a day after the South Korean president fueled tensions with a trip to the islands at the center of the row.

A spokesperson for Japan's foreign minister said in an e-mailed statement on Saturday that Tokyo would bring the dispute over the islands to the international court following what was described as an "unacceptable action" on the part of the South Korean president.

"Japan decided to act to peacefully solve the issue by bringing it to the International Court of Justice," the statement said.

It said that in view of the visit to the islands by President Lee Myung-bak, presenting Japan's position to the international community was "more important than holding back, giving consideration for the whole Japan-ROK [Republic of Korea] relations."

The action would be taken in the "not too distant future," the statement said.

Constant bone of contention

Lee on Friday raised Japan's ire by visiting the islands - known as Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea - which lie equidistant from the two mainlands and have been an ongoing source of tension between the two countries for decades. The islands, currently under Seoul's control, are thought to have rich frozen natural gas deposits.

Japan recalled its ambassador to South Korea on Friday, after Lee visited the disputed islands, the first South Korean leader to have done so. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda described Lee's trip as "extremely deplorable."

South Korean officials said the surprise visit was meant solely to underline the islands' importance as a natural reserve.

Relations between the two countries continue to be marred by historical disputes, despite close economic ties in recent times. Korea was under Japanese colonial rule from 1910 to 1945, something many Koreans still resent.

Japan may find it hard to bring the issue to the court, as it requires an agreement between the disputing parties to make its ruling binding. In the past, South Korea has several times rejected Japanese proposals to let the court rule on the dispute.

tj/slk (Reuters, AFP)

Vast volcanic 'raft' found in Pacific, near New Zealand

BBC News, 10 August 2012 

A navy officer described the floating spectacle as the "weirdest thing"

he had seen at sea

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A vast "raft" of volcanic rock covering 10,000 sq miles (26,000 sq km) of ocean has been spotted by a New Zealand military aircraft.

A naval ship was forced to change course in order to avoid the cluster of buoyant rocks, located 1,000 miles off the New Zealand coast.

The unusual phenomenon was probably the result of pumice being released from an underwater volcano, experts said.

One navy officer described it as the "weirdest thing" he had seen at sea.

Lieutenant Tim Oscar told the AFP news agency: "As far ahead as I could observe was a raft of pumice moving up and down with the swell.

"The [top of the] rock looked to be sitting two feet above the surface of the waves and lit up a brilliant white colour. It looked exactly like the edge of an ice shelf," the officer said.

Researchers aboard the ship, HMNZS Canterbury, suggest that the source of the pumice was an underwater volcano (seamount) known as Monowai, located to the north of New Zealand.

The pumice is likely to have been formed when lava from the seamount came into contact with seawater, and as it is less dense that water it quickly rises to the surface of the ocean.

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Second Whale Shark Dies After Washing Up on Java Beach

Jakarta Globe, August 04, 2012

People look at a dead 13-meter whale shark at Pandansimo beach in
 Yogyakarta on Thursday. A nine-meter whale shark died early on Saturday
morning after it was stranded on a beach in Yogyakarta, making it the
 second big fish to perish on a South Java beach during the past week.
(AP Photo/Slamet Riyadi) 

     

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Bantul, Yogyakarta. A nine-meter whale shark died early on Saturday morning after it was stranded on a beach in Yogyakarta, making it the second big fish to perish on a South Java beach during the past week.

Ali Sutanto, an official with the Yogyakarta office of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas), said on Saturday that the whale shark was first spotted at Pelangi beach in Bantul, Yogyakarta, on Friday evening.

“Our post received a report [of the shark] from the locals at about 7 p.m.,” Ali said, as quoted by Indonesian news portal tempo.co.

He added that the shark was initially still a half of kilometer away from the beach, but at midnight it washed ashore.

“The local SAR team immediately dispatched our entire 56 members to pull the shark to the beach. Police at Parangtritis and surrounding areas also helped us,” he said.

Ali said that rescuers initially tried to pull the huge whale shark toward the beach to keep it from being battered by waves in the  shallow water.

The shark was still alive as rescuers finally managed to pull it shoreward, but the big fish struggled for breath, and died four hours later.

“We tried to pull it away from the waves all night. But it was difficult; [the shark] was too heavy,” Ali said. The remains of the shark sat on the beach on Saturday, drawing hundreds of spectators.

Animal Friends Jogja said the whale shark was about nine-meters long and two meters in width.

On Wednesday, another whale shark that  was 13-meters long and weighed 3 tons — among the largest size of the species — died after it was stranded on Pandansimo beach, also in Yogyakarta.

And on July 28, rescuers managed to return a stranded sperm whale to sea in West Java after it spent four days trapped on Karawang beach. But the animal was found dead hours later.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) regards both whale sharks and sperm whales as “vulnerable.”

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Lost northern fur seal shows up on Hawaii beach

Associated Press, by Audrey McAvoy, Aug. 1, 2012

In this July 31, 2012 handout photo provided by the National Oceanic
 and Atmospheric Administration, a northern fur seal is seen in a cage in
Haleiwa, Hawaii. Northern fur seals live in waters around the Aleutian Islands
 and California, but NOAA officials found an emaciated, underweight and
 weak member of the species thousands of miles away on Oahu's North Shore.
 (AP Photo/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

HONOLULU (AP) — A seal that would normally live in waters around the Aleutian Islands and California has shown up thousands of miles away on a beach in Hawaii, officials said Wednesday.

People found the northern fur seal resting on the sand near Sunset Beach on Oahu's North Shore. It was emaciated, underweight and weak.

It's the first time on record that a wild fur seal has come to Hawaii, said David Schofield, a marine mammal response coordinator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Hawaii's only native seal is the endangered Hawaiian monk seal. Elephant seals have made their way over from California in the past, but only very rarely, Schofield said.

"We were all pretty surprised," he said.

It's not clear how the female visitor, a young adult, got so far south.

Some theorize it may have hitched a ride on a cargo ship or even rode over on some debris from Japan's 2011 tsunami, but Schofield said both were unlikely. The seal may have wandered off and gotten caught in a strange current that brought her to the islands.

"The bottom line is we'll never know," he said.

NOAA officials took her to the Honolulu Zoo to be cared for and to prevent her from spreading any diseases to Hawaiian monk seals.

Northern fur seals are known to carry the measles-like virus morbillivirus, which could devastate the already shrinking Hawaiian monk seal population. Hawaiian monk seals haven't been exposed to diseases like this and don't have any resistance because they've been living in isolation from other seals for so long.

NOAA officials hope to send the northern fur seal to the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, Calif., which has extensive experience nursing sick and injured seals back to health.

"We'll do our very best to provide it with the best care that we can," said Jeffrey Boehm, the center's executive director. The center hopes to return the seal to the wild, he said.