Plan to clean the oceans of plastic soup starts North Sea trials

DutchNews, June 22, 2016

Artists impression.

The Ocean Cleanup A project to clean the oceans of plastic soup will come a step nearer reality on Thursday when an experiment with a 100 metre long barrier begins 23 kilometres off the Dutch coast.

The project was launched by former Delft University student Boyan Slat in 2014 and uses long floating arms to capture the floating plastic but allows fish and plankton to pass through unharmed. 

On Thursday the barrier, resembling black plastic pillows, will be towed to the location of the coast of Scheveningen, where it will be monitored for the effects of real-life sea conditions. 

‘We want to see if we can build something which can withstand storms,’ Slat told broadcaster NOS. ‘The North Sea can be a violent place and if it remains whole here, it will stay whole anywhere.’ 

Funding

The Dutch government and construction company Boskalis have each put €500,000 into the experiment and the rest of the €1.5m cost has come from an anonymous benefactor. The experiment will take one year. 

The floating barriers are one of the most critical elements of the concept, since they are responsible for capturing and concentrating the plastic debris. The real life trials follow extensive computer modelling and scale model testing in controlled environments. 

A second test, off the coast of Tsushima Island in Japan, will take place in the second half of 2016, Slat said last year.

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An impression of how the system might look. Photo: Ocean Cleanup

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Obama touts environmental record on family outing to national parks

Yahoo – AFP, Jerome Cartillier, June 18, 2016

US President Barack Obama speaks while celebrating the 100th anniversary of the
 National Parks system at Yosemite National Park, California on June 18, 2016
(AFP Photo/Brendan Smialowski)

Yosemite National Park (United States) (AFP) - President Barack Obama and the first family celebrated America's cherished natural heritage Saturday during a weekend tour marking the 100th anniversary of the nation's vaunted national park system.

Obama, also using the occasion to tout his environmental record, is the first sitting president since John F. Kennedy in 1962 to visit California's Yosemite National Park.

Obama has made protecting nature areas one of the hallmarks of his presidency.

Since 2009, he has set aside as protected areas more than 265 million acres (100 million hectares) of public lands and waters across the country, more than any of his predecessors did. A large part of that involves a marine sanctuary around islands and atolls in the Pacific.

In doing so, he relied on the Antiquities Act, a law signed in 1906 by then president Theodore Roosevelt, a fervent advocate of preserving the country's natural resources.

For Obama, who has made the fight against climate change a priority of his two terms in office and complains of systematic obstructionism by the Republican-controlled Congress, the law has been key to circumventing his opponents on environmental issues.

It allows the president to move swiftly to preserve threatened areas, which can be transformed into national parks if Congress gives the go ahead.

US First Lady Michelle Obama and President Barack Obama pose with children

 after speaking in Yosemite National Park, on June 18, 2016 (AFP Photo/

Brendan Smialowski)

The Grand Canyon, Death Valley and vast swathes of Alaska have benefited from the law.

Before Obama, 16 presidents have used the measures. Only three, all of them Republicans, did not do so: Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.

Before leaving office in January, Obama could sign off on other protection projects awaiting his signature, such as an expansion of the Papahanaumokuakea marine reserve in Hawaii, declared a decade ago by George W. Bush and home to many endangered species.

Over the years, such presidential designations have often triggered conflicts because they end up prohibiting exploration and development of fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal on the protected lands or in protected waters.

Some lawmakers question the legal foundation of the Antiquities Act and what they see as a carte blanche for the president.

These lawmakers complain of poor management of federal lands and stymied economic development. They have tried in vain several times to have the law erased.

But the national park system remains hugely popular in the United States. The 400-odd parks received a record 305 million visitors last year. The system turns 100 on August 25.

"We have more work to do to preserve our lands and culture and our history. We're not done yet," Obama said in a speech against the spectacular backdrop of Yosemite Falls, the highest waterfall in the park.

US President Barack Obama speaks at Yosemite National Park, California on

June 18, 2016 (AFP Photo/Brendan Smialowski)

"For this centennial, we're asking all Americans to find your park so everyone, including those from underserved communities, can experience these wonders."

'Spectacular !'

On Friday ,the president and his family visited Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico, which features more than 100 caves, three of them open to the public.

The Obamas visited the Big Room, a large cave chamber located 754 feet (230 meters) underground and filled with stalactites and stalagmites. It is also a sanctuary for hundreds of thousands of bats.

"Spectacular," Obama said.

"How cool is this?", he added as he turned to journalists, although the comment seemed aimed more at his teenage daughters, Malia and Sasha.

Several hours later, after flying over waterfalls and granite peaks, the first family traveled to Yosemite, known for its giant redwood trees.

At one point, he and first lady Michelle stopped to chat with some kids at a park facility under bright, sunny skies and Mrs Obama asked them what they would do to scare away bears.

As the kids started yelling, the president said: "Oh, I would get out of here!"

President Barack Obama, and family, daughters Sasha and Malia Obama, and

 first lady Michelle Obama, depart Roswell, N.M., Friday, June 17, 2016, after

 touring Carlsbad Caverns National Park. The President is touring several of the

 nation's national parks to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the creation of 

America's national park system. (AP Photo/Juan Labreche)

The Obamas then sat on the ground for a photo with the group, with the president making sure all kids were smiling.

"Everybody say cheese," he said. "Everybody say 'national parks.' Everybody say 'happy birthday,'" he added, mentioning a birthday girl in the group.

"Who is going to help me up now?" he added.

The family outing is reminiscent of one the Obamas made in 2009 to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.

With seven months left in Obama's second and final term, environmental groups are urging the president not to rest on his laurels when it comes to protecting nature.

"What he has done so far has been significant," said Sharon Buccino of the National Resources Defense Council.

"But the real measure of his conservation legacy is going to be judged based on what he does with his remaining time."

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The existing boundaries of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument

 are outlined in light blue. The other Monuments, outlined in purple and green, are

not being changed. Photograph: Noaa

Dozens of pilot whales stranded in Indonesia, eight dead

Yahoo – AFP, June 16, 2016

Indonesian environmental activists try to help a group of short-finned pilot whales
that became stranded during a high tide in Probolinggo, East Java province on
June 16, 2016 (AFP Photo/Juni Kriswanto)

Eight pilot whales have died after a mass stranding on the coast of Indonesia's main island of Java that sparked a major rescue operation, an official said Thursday.

Thirty-two of the short-finned pilot whales came ashore during high tide early Wednesday in Probolinggo, East Java province.

"At first there were just one or two whales swimming near the shore, and the nature of whales is that if they are sick they will come near the shore," Dedy Isfandi, the head of the local maritime and fisheries office, told AFP.

"But whales have such high social interaction -- when one fell ill, they approach the sick one to swim back to sea... when the tide fell all of them were trapped," Isfandi added.

Hundreds of local fishermen and government officials tried to take them back out to sea overnight, but in the morning eight whales had returned to shore and died, Isfandi said.

About 23 others were already out at sea while one disoriented whale was accompanied by some rescuers to make sure it did not return to shore.

Indonesian environmental activists, military and police personnel and villagers

 try to help a group of short-finned pilot whales stranded during a high tide

in Probolinggo, East Java province on June 16, 2016 (AFP Photo/Juni Kriswanto)

Rescuers used tarps to wrap around the beached sea mammals and pull them out to sea while swimmers plunged into the water to drive others out of the area.

Vets and scientists conducted autopsies on the dead whales to find out why they were stranded, but fishery officials said it could be due to turbulent waters in the Indian Ocean or they had eaten something poisonous.

Over the last decade or so, whale sharks and orcas were also found stranded in the area, Isfandi said.

Conservation group International Union for Conservation of Nature said there was insufficient data to classify the risk of extinction of short-finned pilot whales, which are found in warm temperate to tropical waters.

Related Article:

Kryon Q&A

Question: Dear Kryon: I was wondering about the way I feel about whales and dolphins. I've had a feeling that I have to go to them sometime, but I don't know how or what I'm to do when I get there. Please help.

Question: Dear Kryon: I'm a Turkish/Islam woman of 57. I live in Ankara and work for the European Commission's project in Turkey. I've read almost all of the Kryon books twice, and I'm planning to read them once more. My question is about the whales. Why do they commit mass suicide? What is the reason for this very sad event? Is it a kind of protest against Human Beings?

Answer: Dear ones, we've channelled many times about the whales of this planet. In review, they're the living portions of an actual grid-system! They contain the "history of Earth" within their beings, and they're sacred for that reason. They coordinate and cooperate with the crystalline grid of your planet, which is currently being rewritten (see Kryon channelling on the Website: "What's Next?" December 8, 2002). Doesn't it strike you odd that these mammals are the only ones protected against hunting by more than 90 percent of the countries of Earth... even the places without oceans? Do you think that this is an accident or a coincidence? No. It's cellular information for all humanity to protect the whales and keep them safe. Dolphins are their cousins and support group, and they play a role in the whales' development. This is why you're so attracted to them.

Whales do not commit mass suicide. They have no consciousness to allow for this, and it has never happened. Instead, you see whales often beaching themselves and then being saved by Humans, only to re-beach themselves and die. This takes place mostly on the coastlines of your continents, and often on those areas of topography that "stick out," such as a peninsula or isthmus. Your Cape Cod is a good example in America, and is also a place where this has recently happened (up to 47 whales on a beach).

The reason is that whales, dolphins, amphibians, birds, and even insects all navigate to their breeding ground or migration areas each year via the magnetic grid of the planet! Each group follows the ley lines of magnetic influence, almost as if they had a built-in compass. In fact, they actually do!

The magnetic grid of this planet has changed so much, so quickly, as we told you it would in 1989, that there hasn't been time for the pods of whales to adjust with time to these changes. Instead, many simply follow the old magnetic lines of migration, only to find themselves on a beach instead of the open ocean, as the old magnetic direction used to take them. They're confused, and they simply line up and try again, just as they have for years. These things are temporary, and as tragic as you might see them, it's all part of "pruning" the system, and the calves will go around in the future, establishing new instinctive information for the new whales regarding the grid changes. This information has even now been validated this year (2003) by your scientists.

Dolphins to get coastal sanctuary in US

Yahoo – AFP, June 16, 2016

The National Aquarium in Baltimore has decided to transfer its dolphins to a
marine sanctuary - a protected coastal habitat, where the animals will continue
to live under human care (AFP Photo/Justin Sullivan)

Washington (AFP) - After years of research on dolphin behavior and under pressure from animal rights groups, the National Aquarium in Baltimore has decided to move the marine mammals to a sanctuary, officials said Wednesday.

It will be the first sanctuary for dolphins in North America.

The transfer from the aquarium in the Atlantic coast port city will not be done before 2020, they said.

The venue for the dolphins will be a protected coastal habitat, where the animals will continue to live under human care.

"We now know more about dolphins and their care, and we believe that the National Aquarium is uniquely positioned to use that knowledge to implement positive change," said John Racanelli, chief executive officer of the National Aquarium.

"This is the right time to move forward with the dolphin sanctuary."

Management and the board of directors at the aquarium in Baltimore, near Washington, started working on a strategy for the dolphins five years ago.

Many ideas were floated, including rebuilding the existing marine mammal facility, which is 25 years old, to create a more natural-style setting.

Transferring the dolphins to other licensed facilities was also considered.

But officials ultimately decided to set up a coastal refuge with National Aquarium staff continuing to take care of the dolphins and interacting with them.

"This is a special time in history concerning evolving attitudes about treating all forms of life with dignity and respect -- other humans very much included," said Sylvia Earle, a marine biologist, explorer and author.

"The idea of providing sanctuaries for elephants, chimpanzees, big cats -- and now dolphins -- is a sign of a maturing ethic of caring unthinkable in past millennia, centuries and even decades."

The venue, in a tropical or subtropical location, will also contain natural stimuli for the dolphins, such as fish and sea plants. Its location was not immediately announced.

The National Aquarium is seeking donations to fund the sanctuary.

Fish eyes life inside a jelly's belly

Yahoo – AFP, June 9, 2016

A small fish is seen swimming inside the belly of a jellyfish off the coast of Byron
Bay in New South Wales, eastern Australia (AFP Photo/Tim Samuel Photography)

A fish has been pictured swimming inside a jellyfish off Australia's east coast in a remarkable and rare image that has gone viral, with more than two million online views.

Underwater photographer Tim Samuel was in the water with a friend near popular tourist resort Byron Bay in December when they came across the little creature trapped inside the only slightly larger jellyfish.

The expression on the golden fish's face -- visible through the transparent jellyfish -- appears to be one of fear.

"He was trapped in there but controlled where the Jellyfish was moving," Samuel wrote in a post on Instagram.

After the image was reposted by @discoverocean on Monday, Samuel said his phone started "going crazy".

"When @franny.plumridge and I stumbled upon it we knew we had found something special, but no idea just how unique and rare this sighting was," he wrote.

A small fish swims inside the belly of a jellyfish off the coast of Byron Bay in

New South Wales, eastern Australia (AFP Photo/Tim Samuel Photography)

"I'm completely blown away by all the attention it is getting from all over the world."

Some speculated that the fish was being stung, while others pointed out that part of its tail appeared to be still outside the jellyfish, providing a clue to its apparent ability to steer.

Marine life expert William Gladstone confirmed the rareness of the shot which has been viewed more than 2.3 million times on imgur.

The academic from the University of Technology in Sydney told The Sydney Morning Herald he had seen a young trevally -- a species of fish -- hide among jellyfish, but had "never seen one like this where the fish is just a little smaller than the jellyfish".

Samuel said he had considered whether to "set the little guy free", but ultimately decided it was best to "just let nature run its course".