OCEAN: Amelia Earhart’s Plane & more – 6th Feb 2024

Ahoy from BA! This is Rorshok’s Ocean Update from the 6th of February twenty twenty-four A summary of what's going down in the 70% surface of the Earth covered in saltwater.

The ocean exploration company Deep Sea Vision may have discovered the long-lost plane of iconic aviator Amelia Earhart, missing for eighty-seven years. The team found an airplane-shaped anomaly while mapping the ocean floor using sonar imaging at 16,000 feet (almost five kilometers) underwater in the Pacific Ocean. The object could be Earhart's Lockheed 10-E Electra, the plane she piloted during her ill-fated attempt to fly around the globe. The team found the plane-like anomaly 100 miles (around 160 kilometers) away from Howland Island, where Earhart should have landed. The expedition took place between September and December twenty twenty-three, and the company announced the discovery on Saturday the 27th of January. Tony Romeo, CEO of the company, said: “We have an opportunity to bring closure to one of the greatest American stories ever”. But the marine archeologist Andrew Pietruszka suggested additional investigation before confirming the discovery.

Still in the Pacific Ocean. Biologists conducting marine research on the R/V Falkor, a vessel from the Schmidt Ocean Institute, found four new species of deep-sea octopus off Costa Rica in twenty twenty-three. During two expeditions, one in June and one in December, the scientists discovered two active octopus nurseries connected to hydrothermal springs. Only one of the new species, the Dorado octopus, was brooding eggs at the hydrothermal springs. The discovery shows the evolution of its genus into brooding eggs in warm waters. Other discoveries from the scientists were a deep-sea skate nursery, nicknamed Skate Park and other hydrothermal springs in the same area. Considering the important findings of twenty twenty-three, the Schmidt Ocean Institute plans to expand its area of research off Peru and Chile in twenty twenty-four.

Odyssey Marine Exploration, a US mining firm, sued Mexico for billions in twenty nineteen for using the investor-state dispute settlement (or ISDS) process after Mexico rejected its seabed mining project. Journalist Laura Paddinson recently explained in her article published by The Guardian that the ISDS is a controversial mechanism that corporations use to bypass domestic courts. The project consisted of phosphate mining off Baja California Sur, on the Pacific coast, and faced local opposition led by fishermen who spotted the mining vessel in twenty twelve for the first time. After six years of protests, the state of Mexico rejected the mining project in twenty eighteen because of the damage it can cause to the ocean environment. One year later, though, Odyssey sued Mexico, citing political bias and seeking compensation for possible future profits.

During the weekend of the 2rd and 3rd of February, Morocco's Royal Armed Forces (or FAR) caught hundreds of migrants in their attempt to cross the Atlantic Ocean and reach the Canary Islands archipelago in Spain. FAR intercepted several different boats, most of them with sub-Saharan migrants onboard, in different locations along the Moroccan coast. The route from Morocco to the Canary Islands as an entrance to Europe is becoming more popular among migrants from the sub-Saharan region: in January twenty twenty-four, there were 1,000% more arrivals than in January twenty twenty-three, reaching a total of over 7,000.

We have been following the World’s Toughest Row race in the Atlantic Ocean in our updates. On Saturday the 27th of January, Lauren "Nini" Champion from Annapolis and the Canadian Lisa Roland, participating in the race as the Team Ocean Grown, broke the world record for the fastest women's duo to row across the Atlantic Ocean. With their boat Invictus, it took them forty-five days, one hour and twenty-seven minutes to surpass the previous record (set in twenty twenty-one) by six hours. The women carried ninety days' worth of food and had a desalinator onboard for the water. The race started in La Gomera, Spain, and finished after 3,000-nautical-miles (more than 5,500 kilometers) in English Harbour, Antigua.

Moving on to the Indian Ocean. Its naval forces freed two fishing boats from Somali pirates. The Indian Navy rescued an Iranian fishing boat in the Gulf of Iman with seventeen crew members onboard, on Monday, the 29th of January. Two days before, the Seychelles forces saved a Sri Lankan trawler and its six crew members onboard, 840-nautical-miles (more than 1,500 kilometers) from Mogadishu. The three pirates who attacked the Sri Lankan vessel have been detained.

Still in the Indian Ocean. The arrival of the Chinese research ship Xiang Yang Hong 3 in the Maldives worried India, which, as we talked about in previous shows, is concerned about the Chinese military use of the collected data. The Maldives’ Foreign Ministry ensured that the ship would not conduct research in Maldivian waters. The situation followed India's discontent with the Maldivian election of President Mohamed Muizzu, whom India perceives as pro-China, and created political tensions. The geopolitical situation between India and China is now tense as both countries aim to assert power in the Indian Ocean Region.

In other news, Ukraine is sending a researcher aboard the Namibian fishing vessel Helena Ndume in the Southern Ocean, under the framework of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (or CCAMLR) activities and in collaboration with Namibia. The researcher comes from Ukraine's State Fishery Agency’s Institute of Fisheries, Marine Ecology, and Oceanography and will collect data and biosamples, and tag fish to monitor the fish population. This marks the first time in fifteen years that a Ukrainian researcher will be onboard a Namibian vessel for fisheries reasons, as it’s necessary to have an international observer to submit the report to the CCAMLR.

Moving on, the Panama Canal Authority (or PCA) is predicting a loss between $600 and $800 million dollars due to the ongoing drought conditions we have been talking about in previous episodes. Increased limitation of ship transits and size of vessels justifies the projection. Ricaurte Vásquez, the PCA administrator, is worried about the $100 million dollar loss in toll revenues during October, November and December twenty twenty-three. If the trend does not change direction, PCA is expecting a loss of $800 million dollars. The increased price for auction passage spots is partially reducing the loss, but it’s not enough to reassure the PCA.

The Suez Canal is also losing transits and income. January twenty twenty-four registered a 40% decrease in vessel transits compared to January twenty twenty-three. There were almost 800 vessel transits fewer than last year. Osama Rabie, president of the Suez Canal Authority, believes this will be only a temporary set-back due to the Red Sea's dangerous situation for vessels resulting from the Houthi rebels’ attacks. To avoid the attacks, many vessels are re-routing, preferring circumnavigating Africa.

Researchers of Australia’s national science agency, or CSIRO, found out in a recent study that ocean heat waves are altering the food chain in the waters, endangering ecosystems and, maybe, even global food supplies. For twelve years, scientists monitored microorganisms, the base of the food chain, discovering that they developed smaller cells that are impacting bigger animals because they are not easy to consume. The study reflects on the huge impact this might have long term. Due to climate change, strong heatwaves are transforming significantly microbes. This will probably have a domino effect, affecting fish stocks worldwide.

Closing with engineers spotting nanoplastics in the ocean for the first time. According to a study published in the journal Science Advances on Friday, the 26th of January, research conducted off the coasts of China, South Korea, the United States, and in the Gulf of Mexico revealed the shape and chemical composition of the nanoplastics,. These microplastics exhibit different shapes, unlike the lab-synthesized versions that are uniform. The discovery brings more knowledge on the toxicity of the nanoplastics and the threat it poses to our oceans.

Aand that is for this week.

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