OCEAN: New Fresh Water Source & more – 9th Sep 2025

Ahoy from BA! This is the Rorshok Ocean Update from the 9th of September twenty twenty-five. A summary of what's going down in the 70% surface of the Earth covered in saltwater.

Quenching the thirst of North America’s east coast, ABC reported on Friday, the 5th, that scientists drilled off Cape Cod near the Atlantic and extracted fresh water from a vast undersea aquifer stretching in the US from New Jersey to Maine.

Expedition 501 recovered thousands of liters for analysis, suggesting a new source that could supplement drought-hit coasts when rivers, wells, and desal plants fall short.

The potential is huge, but so are questions: ownership, ecology, cost, and whether pumping would draw down onshore supplies or disrupt seafloor ecosystems. However, the scientists still hope that the newly found undersea aquifer will be a potential water supply for a metropolis, like New York, for up to 800 years.

While the East Coast enjoys a possible fresh water source, North America’s west coast may need fresh air, as Global News Canada reported on Friday, the 4th, that researchers recorded a sharp drop in oxygen off Canada’s British Columbia coast, warning hypoxia, or a state of low oxygen tension, could become widespread by mid-century.

Using ocean gliders in Queen Charlotte Sound, the Hakai Institute found low-oxygen events spiked in twenty twenty-two and twenty twenty-three, especially during summer seasons, with bottom waters hypoxic from June to October. The current findings were compared to the research data collected in the region over twenty years, and the changes in oxygen levels were dramatic.

Floor-dwelling species, including Pacific hake, are already disappearing locally; slower invertebrates like crabs and sea cucumbers are facing mass die-offs.

The University of California, Santa Barbara, or UCSB, warned on Thursday, the 4th, that human impacts on the ocean could double by twenty fifty, pushing coasts, tropics, and poles toward dangerous thresholds.

A Science study led by marine ecologist Ben Halpern models warming seas, fisheries biomass loss, sea-level rise, acidification, and nutrient pollution compounding fastest near shores—where people rely on fisheries, tourism, and protection from storms.

He emphasized that “people track issues in the oceans, one at a time, but not everything together,” which undermines the total harm of human activity.

The message: act now to bend the curve.

With the collective human-made impact on the ocean and its resulting disturbance to the ocean ecosystem, marine life may have shown off a strong protest, as CNN reported on Sunday, the 7th, that a fatal shark attack at Long Reef Beach in Australia killed fifty-seven-year-old surfer Mercury Psillakis, triggering beach closures and a drone search along the Northern Beaches.

Police and biologists are analyzing his board and injuries to identify the species, while lifeguards keep swimmers out of the water.

Sydney has recorded only one other fatality in sixty years — in twenty twenty-two, a great white shark killed Simon Nellist, a diving instructor and experienced surfer.

While one marine species rises above sea level to protest, other species slowly sink in numbers. The European Commission reported on Thursday, the 4th, that EU Commissioner Kadis visited Poland’s port cities to shore up Baltic fisheries as stocks decline.

The trip aimed to deepen cooperation with the country, deploy the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund, and tackle overcapacity while speeding a sustainability transition.

Kadis met producer groups and Polish officials, toured vessels, and held a briefing on plans for compensation, greener gear, and stricter management.

Problems in European waters are troubled on more than one front, with migration turning deadly. On Sunday, the 7th, the Daily Sabah reported that five people died and one was critically injured when a migrant boat collided with a Turkish Coast Guard vessel off western Türkey.

Thirty-four migrants and a suspected smuggler were aboard, and one person remains missing as searches continue. Authorities opened an investigation.

The Aegean route to nearby islands remains short but deadly, with recent drownings in Greece underscoring the risk.

As crossing boundaries is just a part of other emerging threats, such as piracy and terrorism, maritime security is more important now than ever. As it happens, Marine Tech News reported on Friday, the 5th, that Saildrone’s uncrewed surface vessels are reshaping ocean security and mapping as instability rises.

The firm has logged over 2,000,000 nautical miles or over 3,700,000 kilometers, built three USV classes, and now fields fifty vessels, with Voyager and Surveyor doing most missions.

Powered by in-house autonomy and AI, the fleet can spot vessels, ice, and hazards in real time, while Surveyors map seabeds and cable routes at a fraction of a ship’s cost and carbon.

In other news, more unmanned vessels are sailing away to shape forecasts. The World Meteorological Organization reported on Wednesday, the 3rd, that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and partners launched five mini uncrewed surface vehicles, or C-Stars, near the U.S. Virgin Islands to capture real-time data that sharpens hurricane forecasts.

Two more stand by in Mississippi for Gulf storms. The wind-propelled, solar-powered robots beam measurements of wind, pressure, humidity, and sea temperature to global forecasters, with remote pilots positioning them ahead of developing systems.

This offers highly accurate scientific results while keeping our scientists safe from the perilous elements. If successful, unmanned vessels like these can also take over other dangerous data-gathering methods so that the human workforce can focus on safer work.

From ocean’s technological successes to technical failures, BBC reported on Sunday, the 7th, that Microsoft’s Azure cloud slowed after undersea cables in the Indian Ocean’s seawater inlet were cut, with traffic via the Middle East rerouted to other paths.

Undersea cables within the Red Sea, the internet’s backbone, can fail due to anchors dropped by ships or by sabotage from insurgent groups. For instance, several were cut in February last year, suspected to be a result of terrorism.

NetBlock, an independent organization for monitoring internet connections, as well as national operators, flagged disruptions from India to Pakistan, with the Pakistan Telecommunication Company warning of peak-hour slowdowns near Saudi Arabia. The company said services not crossing the Middle Eastern region were unaffected.

Tradewinds News reported on Friday, the 5th, that the shipping giant, Maersk, is marking fifty years in container shipping, after a late start that became an overhaul.

The Danish group launched its first containerized service on the 5th of September, nineteen seventy-five, deploying the 1,800-TEU Adrian Maersk on the Panama Line, and scaled to become the world’s second-largest carrier.

Historian Charlotte Andersen explains that Maersk first delayed containerization after internal studies warned that it was too costly, but nineteen seventy-two reports called it unavoidable. This shift spurred the company to order nine ships and begin its rapid expansion.

Maersk is not the only one that deserves a celebratory toast this week, as BBC reported on Saturday, the 6th, that sixty-eight-year-old Plymouth sailor Barry Perrins has returned to England after a nine-year solo circumnavigation aboard his thirty-six-foot or about 10-meter steel yacht, Shadow of Poole.

He crossed the Atlantic, transited the Panama Canal, and sailed the Pacific and Indian Oceans, often making split-second survival decisions.

Trained as a lifeboat volunteer, he credits meticulous self-rescue planning and modern navigation tech. Next, he plans to refit and sail around the UK and Ireland.

From the sailor’s homecoming to a seaturtle’s farewell, Yahoo News reported on Sunday, the 7th, that Westie, a rehabilitated loggerhead seaturtle, returned to the ocean at Tybee Island’s North Beach, Georgia, in the US, after three years as a conservation ambassador.

Staff fitted a satellite tracker funded by ocean activist Liddy Clever’s nonprofit, Save Sea Life with Liddy, making Westie the center’s first-tracked release.

Found as a hatchling in twenty twenty-two, she grew to fifty-five pounds or nearly twenty-five kilograms and helped educate over 300,000 visitors. The release boosts beach stewardship, which shows how the science center staff wishes her a long life once Westie is back in her natural habitat.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

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See you next week!