The Tabor Boy Project Bob Couttie's Maritime Accident Casebook
Here’s an amazing short video narrated by surfer Jon Rose about his adventure surfing on the Amazon River and shooting a Nissan commercial.
If you enjoyed this, you have to watch the longer version of this adventure on the Nissan website. It’s really well done and definitely worth watching.
Via Surfline.com
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It’s a proud accomplishment for any academic institution to make the front page of the NY Times. For me it’s even more exciting when it one that uses maritime culture and heritage to change the lives of inner city youth and it’s even better when I know some of the people involved.
Today’s NY Times (June 26, 2008 ) has a great front page article by Sara Rimer about the Urban Assembly’s New York Harbor School entitled Taking Lessons, and Confidence, From the Water. It’s a must read for anyone interested or involved in maritime education. Here’s a link to my previous post, The Privilege of Sailing, that I did on the Harbor School along with co-founder Murray Fisher adding a comment.
Outcomes are what matters in programs like this and here’s some interesting facts from the article:
The Harbor School has 390 students in grades 9 to 12, 70 percent Latino and 30 percent black, with many from the Caribbean. Last year’s graduation rate was 63 percent, Mr. Fisher said, nearly triple the rate of the old Bushwick High School, which once occupied the same building. The citywide average is about 50 percent.
But more importantly the voices and pictures bring this success story to life. Please don’t miss the audio clips or slide show! If you only have time to do one thing today, please listen to student Jennifer Mendez and teacher Melissa Franco and you will get a better understanding about the power of the sea to teach and change lives!
Yes, she, Jennifer Mendez, 15, the girl from Brooklyn who used to be afraid of the water and everything related to it — fish, boats, bugs — was steering the Lettie up the river, along the Upper West Side. The captain of the ship, Denise Meagher, was standing by. But with her hand on the wheel, Jennifer felt as if she were the captain, responsible for the ship and everyone on it — the crew, her ninth-grade classmates and their science teachers, Roy Arrezo and Ann Fraioli.
A little later, Jennifer would write in her class journal, “I feel as if I can do anything.” Even, she confided, make the honor roll.
“I feel so privileged to learn about the water,” Jennifer wrote in her journal. “The Hudson River is like an ancestor of our past, and if we listen to it, it just might tell tales.”
Congratulations to the Murray Fisher and Nathan Dudley and all of the professional and volunteer leadership of the Harbor School for creating something special for New York City youth and for a well deserved acknowledgement on the front page of the NY Times! Also, congratulations to all of the Harbor School students who work so hard to make this unique program a success! Like sailing a tall ship, you’re all in the same boat so keep up the great work!
Photo credit: Ruby Washington / NY Times
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Donovan Hohn wrote a disturbing article for today’s (June 22, 2008 ) Sunday NY Times Magazine entitled Sea of Trash. It’s amazing how much plastic waste can wash ashore in a place where no people actually live. This is not a good sign for our planet!
Hohn’s article reminded me about my first hand experience with litter at sea in beautiful Southwold, England. Here’s a link to my post from Blog Action Day 2007 – Litter@sea: A tragedy in the making.
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Don’t worry, it’s not what it sounds like! Check out this video of these amazing sea creatures.
National Geographic - Living Color - Photographer David Doubilet introduces the glamour slugs of the sea.
More about Nudibranchs
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The TED Conference might be out of reach of most of us but thanks to the miracle of YouTube we can experience presentations by some of the world’s greatest thinkers and doers.
Here is Bob Ballard’s great 2008 presentation. I saw him deliver a similar program at the 2006 BIF2 conference in Providence. He’s a very entertaining and passionate speaker delivering an important message. Please watch and enjoy.
Interestingly, he closes by asking why we aren’t colonizing the sea. Sounds like he’s an advocate for seasteading, too.
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One of my favorite blogs, BLDGBLOG, had a interesting post yesterday about seasteading, that is “creat(ing) permanent dwellings on the ocean - homesteading the high seas.” Deep-water city-states (May 19, 2008 )
What interests me here, aside from the architectural challenge of erecting a durable, ocean-going metropolis, is the fact that this act of construction – this act of building something – has constitutional implications. That is, architecture here proactively expands the political bounds of recognized sovereignty; architecture becomes declarative.
The stakes for design have gone up, in other words. It’s not just a question of producing better loft apartments, for which you can charge an extra $300,000, or of perfecting the art of luxury kitchen space; it’s a question of designing architecture for extreme conditions and, should your architecture survive, thus opening up room for a new form of what might be called post-terrestrial sovereignty, i.e. governance freed from landed terrain.
BLDGBLOG’s interest was piqued by an article that Alexis Madgridal wrote for Wired entitled Peter Thiel Makes Down Payment on Libertarian Ocean Colonies (May 19, 2008 ) Thiel and some of his friends seem to be pretty serious about this: they’ve put their hard cash on the table to fund The Seasteading Institute and they’ve written a 300 page how to guide which in the open source spirit is freely downloadable here in case you’re one of those DIY types.
Google’s Patri Friedman, the grandson of Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman, is the executive director of The Seasteading Institute.
Friedman estimates that it would cost a few hundred million dollars to build a seastead for a few thousand people. With costs that low, Friedman can see constellations of cities springing up, giving people a variety of governmental choices. If misguided policies arose, citizens could simply motor to a new nation.
“You can change your government without having to leave your house,” he said.
Wonder if these guys have watched this movie a few too many times.
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Sunday VOW’s (Videos of the Week - April 13, 200 
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Houston ship pilot Lou Vest (aka OneEighteen) is one of my favorite Flickr photographers. Here are a couple of pictures from his Dolphins and Ships set.
“We’ll probably go to the next life and discover that we only exist to make ships so porpoises will have bow waves to ride.”
“Porpoises must think the bulbous bow is mankind’s greatest invention.”
Check out all of OneEighteen’s amazing photos on Flickr.
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For some strange reason I really love these crazy ocean adventures. I’ve written about a few in the past. (100 Days at Sea - Mars Ocean Odyssey, Abora 3, Roz Savage) On Messing About In Ships podcast we also recently talked about the adventures of Nick from Big Oceans Tiny Boat as he sails solo across the Atlantic in his 26ft boat, Constellation.
Next month a new ocean adventure will get underway in order to raise awareness about plastic marine debris. The Algalita Marine Research Foundation is dedicated to the protection of the marine environment and its watersheds through research, education, and restoration.
“We hope to share our clear message that this mounting issue is no longer “out of sight, out of mind.”
Dr. Marcus Eriksen, the foundation’s research and education director, will embark on voyage from Los Angeles to Hawaii in a 30′ vessel constructed from 30,000 plastic bottles held together by fishing net. The vessel will be called Junk and it will sport a cabin fashioned from the fuselage of a Cessna airplane.
You can follow the expedition on their blog.(http://junkraft.blogspot.com/) and if you are interested in supporting this worthwhile mission, you can sponsor one of the 30,000 plastic bottles for $5. (here).
We wish Junk fair winds and following seas. Godspeed.
Via Neatorama
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BLDGBLOG had a great post today about a giant eddy recently discovered off the coast of Australia.
Somebody better get the word out to Reid Stowe on Schooner Anne so that he can make sure not to sail into it and never be seen again.
Speaking of Stowe, earlier this week he passed 333 of his planned 1,000 days at sea. Strangely, his post for that day didn’t even mention this major milestone. Ever since Soanya evacuated from the Mars Ocean Odyssey, the writing style and tone of the blog have take strange turn. The marvels of modern technology gives us a regular glimpse into the life of long distance/duration solo sailor. It’s getting darkly interesting.
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Following up on yesterday’s Surfwise post, I thought I’d stick with the surfing theme since I recently read about an interesting new surfing location:
Perfect waves all day every day for all levels of ability will be created in the multiple pools…Half metre unbroken barrel waves are perfect for body boarding and learning to surf, while breaking waves up to three metres high are ideal for elite surfers and international competitions. Beach bars and surf shops will surround the surf pools; there will be an events stage, a video download area and ‘cool’ places to hang out and watch the action.
California’s Malibu? No. Hawaii’s Waikiki? No. Australia’s Bondi? No.
At the same time that marine scientists sighted a white killer whale off the Aleutian Islands of Alaska last week, a group of fifth graders were testifying to members of the Massachusetts legislature about a bill up for consideration that would make Moby-Dick: or,The Whale by Herman Melville the official book of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
According to an Associated Press article:
The whale was spotted last month while scientists aboard the Oscar Dyson, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research ship, were conducting an acoustic survey of pollock near Steller sea lion haulout sites.
It had been spotted once in the Aleutians years ago but had eluded researchers since, even though they had seen many of the more classic black and white whales over the years.
NOAA press release: Rare White Killer Whale Spotted in Alaskan Waters From NOAA Ship Oscar Dyson March 6, 2008 (Photo credit: NOAA)
Last Friday, March 7, 2008, nine students from several fifth grade classes from 2 New Bedford elementary schools made their case before legislators, VIPs, teachers, fellow classmates and parents, at the New Bedford Whaling Museum that Moby-Dick be designated the official book of the State of Massachusetts. (Students testify on behalf of ‘Moby-Dick’, New Bedford Standard Times March 8, 200
Unfortunately Massachusetts already has an official book and it’s William Bradford’s “The History of Plimouth Plantation” which was adopted by the Commonwealth in 1897. But I would venture a bet that none of you have read Bradford’s tome; I certainly haven’t. Actually, even though it’s an American classic, I bet few have read Moby Dick from cover to cover. Here, affirmative.
But these kids are right. A State like Massachusetts needs and deserves an American classic like Moby-Dick. I’m sure our white whale friend in Alaska made his recent appearance in support of this too. So if you live in the Bay State, write your state senators and representatives and let them know that you support House Bill 3964, making Moby-Dick the official book.
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High seas confrontation this week between Japanese whalers and eco-activist Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
Sea Shepherd /Paul Watson profile in the New Yorker magazine.
Technorati tags: Sea Shepherd, Paul Watson, Nisshin Maru, whaling, protest, ship
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In today’s NY Times (Feb. 19, 2008), Carl Zimmer wrote a fascinating article about the “spectacular deceptions of cephalopods” (aka octopus, squid and cuttlefish). “Revealed: Secrets of the Camouflage Masters” tries to explain the magic of these mysterious sea creatures which have been researched over three decades by Dr. Roger T. Hanlon of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA. There’s a great video profile of the D. Hanlon’s work on the NY Times website, check it out.
Despite thousands of dives, Dr. Hanlon still considers himself a novice in spotting cephalopods. Once, after following an octopus for an hour and a half, he looked away a moment to switch cameras. When he looked back, the animal was gone.
Check out my previous post Underwater Astonishments with David Gallo from TED Talks which ends with some spectacular footage that was shot by Dr. Hanlon.
On CNN today there was some amazing video of another mysterious sea creature: giant sea spiders. Check it out for yourself.
