In Shetland’s Lerwick Harbor, the grey stone buildings stand close together. Rows of houses line streets that march downhill in curving lines to meet the sea. They buttress against the cold winds that race across the northernmost fetch of the North Sea. On the first Sunday of October, Saint Columba’s Church of Scotland fills with…
My first experience with a right whale was as a college student alone on the deck of a twenty-seven-foot sailboat. Suddenly, beside me was what looked like a sandbar the length of the boat. Yet, it was alive and moving forward. Those below decks thought I was having an epileptic attack. I had never imagined…
Phytoplankton in the Gulf of Maine have become 65% less productive. The Gulf of Maine is home to the North Atlantic right whale, a critically endangered species with less than 350 left alive. Right whales feed on zooplankton, krill, and other small crustaceans. These animals are fed by phytoplankton, organisms at the base of the…
None of us are strangers to the reports of the Gulf of Maine heating 97% faster than the world’s oceans. However, the actual reasons for this can be lost in the constant headlines about global warming and rising greenhouse gases. To explain this extraordinary phenomenon, let’s look closely at four factors: surface seawater temperatures, heat…
As if the ocean wasn’t scary enough, some of its dangerous inhabitants lurk unseen beneath the surface. And they’re not only limited to oceans but also rivers, ponds, and other bodies of water. Micro-pests have a significant impact on other water creatures as well as humans, sometimes causing serious illnesses. Here’s how micro-pests are tracked…
With climate change, a 1% increase in watts per square meter of heat energy is warming the ocean, causing seawater to swell, currents to flow stronger, and greater storms to rage. Ancient Greeks believed Oceanus, the ocean river, separated the known world from the unknown where sea monsters like the Kraken dwell. The ocean remains…
The tall ship Tecla, a Dutch North Sea sailing herring dragger built in 1915, was bound for Tenerife in the Spanish Canary Islands. It was tied by three heavy hawser lines to the ferry quay in Ullapool, Northwest Scotland, a town of white-washed buildings packed together for the herring fishery. We were ready to sail…
