Category: Marine

Underwater sensors for monitoring sea life (and where to find them)

12/14/2018

UW News

Paul Gibbs, a mechanical engineer at the UW’s Applied Physics Laboratory, inspects the newest Adaptable Monitoring Package, or AMP, before a test in a saltwater pool. AMPs host a series of sensors that allow researchers to continuously monitor animals underwater.

Harvesting power from the ocean, through spinning underwater turbines or bobbing wave-energy converters, is an emerging frontier in renewable energy.

New tool lets citizens help reveal toxic cause of salmon death

10/30/2018

The WSU Insider -

Salmon exposed to toxic stormwater runoff can die in a matter of hours, and scientists are asking for Puget Sound area residents’ help in identifying affected streams to study the phenomenon.

Big ships asked to slow down to reduce noise for iconic whales

7/18/2017

Alaska Public Media-

If you think trying to carry on a conversation in a noisy restaurant or bar is difficult, imagine how whales in the noisy waters of the Salish Sea feel. Whale scientists think rising levels of underwater noise are having a harmful effect on the Northwest’s iconic killer whales. Now the Port of Vancouver, in British Columbia, is spearheading an experiment to temporarily slow down big ships to reduce noise.

Seattle seawall’s novel fish features are a potential model for the world

5/18/2017

UW Today ~

As tourists and residents visit Seattle’s downtown waterfront, it may not be immediately apparent they are walking on arguably the largest, most ambitious urban seawall project in the world that prioritizes habitat for young fish and the invertebrates they feed on.

Construction of region’s largest-ever infrastructure project to have major economic impact in Pensacola.

3/16/2017

The Pulse ~

The largest public infrastructure project in the history of Northwest Florida is off to a big start, with staging and preliminary construction to replace the 57-year-old Pensacola Bay Bridge already beginning.

On the banks of Bayou Chico west of downtown Pensacola, towering cranes have arrived, becoming part of the skyline as preparations are underway along the eastern shore of the waterfront.

Telltale Tsunami Sounds Could Buy More Warning Time

3/15/2017

Scientific American ~

Scientists are figuring out how to detect a tsunami-generating earthquake’s unique, fast-traveling sound waves.

Buoys operate as today's state-of-the-art tsunami-detection system. Seismic data can tell officials that an underwater earthquake has occurred, but strategically placed floating sensors often give the key warning if the earthquake has created a potentially devastating series of waves. Even so, warnings are often issued only minutes before a tsunami hits—if at all. Aiming to buy more time for evacuations, scientists have begun decoding a new aspect of the sounds that underwater earthquakes produce. Sound waves can travel at upward of 1,500 meters per second through water—more than 10 times faster than a tsunami.

Recovery plan for Cook Inlet belugas focuses on biggest threats

1/5/2017

Alaskan Dispatch ~

A new recovery plan for endangered Cook Inlet belugas focuses on counteracting what federal regulators believe are the biggest threats to Alaska's most urban whales, but none that would stop local economic activity.

Eelgrass in Puget Sound is stable overall, but some local beaches suffering

1/4/2017

Phys.Org ~

Eelgrass, a marine plant crucial to the success of migrating juvenile salmon and spawning Pacific herring, is stable and flourishing in Puget Sound, despite a doubling of the region's human population and significant shoreline development over the past several decades.

Urban Waters Surprisingly Rich In Marine Life Finds High-Tech Sampling

9/16/2016

Northwest Public Radio ~

Researchers from the University of Washington and NOAA's Northwest Fisheries Science Center found the opposite of what they expected when they used a new scientific method to sample the waters of Puget Sound.

Arctic Ocean shipping routes 'to open for months'

9/6/2016

BBC News ~

Shipping routes across the Arctic are going to open up significantly this century even with a best-case reduction in CO2 emissions, a new study suggests.

University of Reading, UK, researchers have investigated how the decline in sea-ice, driven by warmer temperatures, will make the region more accessible.

They find that by 2050, opportunities to transit the Arctic will double for non ice-strengthened vessels.

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