Operation Squid Skin: Team To Mimic Camouflage Skill Of Marine Animals In High-Tech Materials

Underwater Times: Operation Squid Skin: Team To Mimic Camouflage Skill Of Marine Animals In High-Tech Materials
WOODS HOLE, Massachusetts -- Camouflage expert Roger Hanlon of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is co-recipient of a $6 million grant from the Office of Naval Research to study and ultimately emulate the exquisite ability of some marine animals to instantly change their skin color and pattern to blend into their environment.

Hanlon, who has spent more than three decades studying the camouflage artistry of squid, octopus, and cuttlefish (a class of animals known as the cephalopods), is collaborating with materials scientists and nanotechnologists at Rice University toward the goal of developing materials that can mimic cephalopod camouflage.

"Our internal name for this project is 'squid skin,' but it is really about fundamental research," says Naomi Halas, an expert in nano-optics at Rice University and the principal investigator on the four-year grant. "Our deliverable is knowledge, the basic discoveries that will allow us to make materials that are observant, adaptive, and responsive to their environment."

In 2008, Hanlon and MBL colleagues Lydia Mäthger and Steven Roberts discovered that cephalopod skin contains opsins, the same type of light-sensing proteins that function in the eyes.

"This project will enable us to explore an exciting new avenue of vision research – distributed light sensing throughout the skin," Hanlon says. "How and where that visual information is used by the nervous system is likely to uncover some novel neural circuitry."

Hanlon and his team will perform experiments with cephalopods to determine how opsin molecules receive light and aid the animal's visual system in adjusting skin patterns for communication and camouflage. A wide range of techniques will be used to accomplish these aims. The MBL team, which includes scientists Mäthger and Alan Kuzurian, will be collaborating with marine biologist Thomas Cronin of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, on these investigations.

"This is inherently a multidisciplinary problem," Halas says. "What can we, as engineers, learn from the way these animals perceive light and color?" The project team's engineers will focus on emulating cephalopod skin using new metamaterials—materials that blur the line between material and machine.

Divers find 'oldest shipwreck in the Caribbean'

DailyMailOnline: 'We've just scratched the surface': Divers find 'oldest shipwreck in the Caribbean'.... and treasure that could be worth MILLIONS

Silver coins and jade figurines from 1500s discovered off Dominican Republic
A chance encounter with a fisherman has led one team of treasure hunters to discover what they believe is the oldest shipwreck in the Caribbean.
And after only diving the site - located off the Dominican Republic coast - a handful of times, the team at Deep Blue Marine has unearthed some serious treasure.
At the last count Captain Billy Rawson and his crew had uncovered 700 silver coins that could be worth millions, jade figurines and even a mirrored stone that was possibly used in Shamanic rituals.

Everything was in pretty good condition, despite dating back to the 1500s.

'We only started diving last autumn and haven't gone down that much because it's been the winter,' said Randy Champion, vice president of the Utah-based company.

'We have just scratched the surface,' he added. 'All of the stuff we've found is just from mucking about really.'
Although the team haven't officially confirmed which ship they are diving, Mr Champion said they had a pretty fair idea - but were keeping quiet for now.

'If it's the ship we think it is, she probably went down in a hurricane,' Mr Champion said.
'We have looked at the prevailing currents and wind directions in archives and found a cannon and ballast stone on the wreck that was all going in the wrong direction.
'That suggests it was probably a hurricane as winds go counter clockwise.'
The Blue Water Marine team believe this ship was heading back to Spain with a haul of newly minted coins.

It would have been quite small, around 50ft to 60ft, with 25 to 45 people on board, Mr Champion said.
Enlarge Map: The dive site is a closely guarded secret, but is off the north side of the Dominican Republic
There were almost certainly a few dignitaries on board hitching a lift, and they wouldn't have made the journey all the way back to Spain with just 700 coins.

'There are thousands and thousands down there,' Mr Champion added.

Most of the coins don't have dates on, so the team have been busy cleaning them up and trawling through reference books to identify them.
'These coins could be worth just $1,000,' Mr Champion said. 'But then one similar to ours sold for $132,000 the other day.

'They could be worth millions. But they aren't worth anything unless someone buys them.'
One set of coins could be worth $1million on its own. The crew won't know whether they have it until the clean up operation is complete.

The pre-Columbian carved jade figurines, all approximately 2in to 3in high, could be 500 years older than the wreck itself.

Mr Champion said some had holes in the back side suggesting they could have been part of a head piece.

This also suggests the crew of the 1500s ship probably weren't altogether that straight laced and almost certainly stole a lot of their booty.

'They had to satisfy the king's request, but would have taken other things too,' said Mr Champion.
The crew also found what were thought to be mirrors made out of iron pyrite, but Mr Champion isn't convinced.

'Mirrors weren't common at the time,' he said. 'They could have been used in a Shaman-type ritual.'
But he insists that they don't dive the site just for the money.

'We're not just looking for things that glitter and things that are real pretty,' he said. 'We're trying to find out what happened to this ship.'

Deep Blue Marine are contracted by the Dominican Republic to search and uncover treasure from the wreck. They then split the proceeds 50/50.

They had been surveying 42 miles of coastline with high-tech equipment in an effort to find the wreck.
But they got lucky after the chance encounter with a local fisherman who sold them an old coin he had found while diving.

To their astonishment the team discovered it was one of the oldest coins ever minted and knew they had found what they were looking for.
'We said to this guy: "If you show us where you found the coin you can come and work for us",' said Mr Champion.
The team are planning another dive in two weeks but it is a gruelling process as the wreck is covered in sand and coral.

It takes them 12 hours to sail around the island to the dive site. They then drop anchor and take smaller boats out to dive from.

It's a 6am start and the team often don't return until 8pm. They can be out there for weeks at a time.

And it's not without its dangers. 'There are just as many pirates right now as there were then,' Mr Champion said.

The crew have been fired upon by the Dominican Republic's Navy - 'a case of mistaken identity' - and have even been pillaged by a gang of thieves who boarded their boat in the middle of the night.
They made off with thousand of dollars worth of diving equipment - despite an armed guard, provided by the government, being on board.

Sharks too are always in the back of their minds, Mr Champion said, as are the treacherous diving conditions, waves and being crushed by rocks.
'It's better than being stuck at a desk,' Mr Champion added.

And it's certainly worth it when the crew strikes gold - or, in this case, silver.

Recovery ship arrives at Air France crash site

The crash occurred in 2009, and now, 2 years later, a recovery ship has arrived to search for black boxes? Surely it couldn't have taken them 2 years to find out the location where the plane wreckage lay!

ArabNews.com: Recovery ship arrives at Air France crash site
SAO PAULO: A French investigation agency says a recovery ship has arrived in the area where an Air France jet crashed off Brazil's coast about two years ago. All 228 people aboard the Airbus aircraft were killed when Air France Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed June 1, 2009.

The cause of the crash remains unclear. The agency said in a statement that the private cable-laying ship Ile de Sein arrived at the wreckage spot early Tuesday morning and that an underwater robot will be used to help locate and recover the flight recorders in the jetliner's rear section.

Experts have said that without retrieving the voice and data recorders there would be almost no chance of determining what caused the crash - the worst disaster in Air France's history.

Hidden World Offers Exclusive Dive In Riviera Maya Experience

The Open Press (press releases): Hidden World Offers Exclusive Dive In Riviera Maya Experience
Ridgefield, WA (OPENPRESS) March 31, 2011 -- Hidden World is a family amusement park, settled in the midst of the many exotic cenotes of Riviera Maya. It offers exclusive cenote diving experience to the tourists.

Riviera Maya has recently shot to popularity as an exotic destination for vacationers who want to enjoy an adrenaline rushing holiday. Hidden World has arranged many adventure sports around the most exotic cenotes where the visitors can enjoy activities like- rides, snorkelling, scuba and diving into the cenotes of Riviera Maya.

The landscape of the Hidden World encompasses the most famous cenotes of the world- Takbeha, Takbelum, The Church, and Halarios well. These cenotes are full of marine life which help amplifying the excitement of diving into them. Hidden World also arranges diving into the Caribbean. Their combo pack deal offers excitement of both diving in Riviera Maya and in the Caribbean, which is a treat to the adventure seekers.

Hidden World has ensured that people visiting in their park in Riviera Maya would go on talking about their experiences to their peers and therefore the list of excitement that they offer is endless. Along with diving into the World famous centoes of Cancun they also offer- cenote rappel, zipline, skycycle, snorkelling, scuba diving and even swimming with the whale sharks. The management of the park is continuously trying to offer more excitement to the visitors to make their Riviera Maya experience one of a kind.

One can check out the various packages offered by Hidden World in their website where they promise to offer the lowest price for the deals. For more information check out their website at http://www.hiddenworlds.com/.

About Hidden World
Hidden World is the famous family amusement park situated in the midst of the many cenotes of Riviera Maya area. They offer wide range of adventure sports and activities to the visitors. They arrange for diving into the cenotes as well as in the Caribbean.

Contact Details:
Hidden World
Street: 2515 NE 163
City: Ridgefield
State: WA
Country: USA
Pin: 98364

Sea Shepherd: how we sank the Japanese whaling fleet

This is an interesting article at teh Ecologist - an interview with Sea Shepherd's Paul Watson.

Sea Shepherd: how we sank the Japanese whaling fleet

In one sense you've got to laugh at the guy and his macho-ness. He went up against civilized people - Japanese and Canadians - who wouldn't shoot him out of the water without facing censure from the rest of the world.

I'd like to see him go up against the Somalian pirates. Let's see him talk big then!

(Frankly, I'd like to see somebody , anybody go up against the Somalian pirates. The fact that the US doesn't have an aircraft flying high overhead, shooting any and all Somalian ships out of the water the instant they leave land, is just ridiculous. Kill a couple of boatloads - that ends the piracy problem.)

Shipwreck of the California Gold Rush Steamship Winfield Scott

Santa Barbara Independent: Shipwreck of the California Gold Rush Steamship Winfield Scott
The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum is pleased to unveil its newest permanent exhibit, Shipwreck of the California Gold Rush Steamship Winfield Scott.

During the California Gold Rush, ships propelled by steam regularly carried passengers and cargos between San Francisco and Panama. One such vessel was the Pacific Mail Steamship Company’s side-wheel steamer, Winfield Scott. In 1853, the steamer was en-route from San Francisco south bound to Panama with over 500 passengers and a cargo of gold and mail when it ran aground on Anacapa Island becoming permanently stranded.

“Several passenger steamships were lost in 1853. Winfield Scott was the final act that plagued the movement of passengers and cargo. Few shipwrecks have been lost while on their way to Panama, and the Winfield Scott furthers our understanding of what people were taking away from California” said Robert Schwemmer, Maritime Heritage Coordinator for Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary.

This new exhibit will feature intriguing stories of shipwreck survival as told by the marooned passengers, historic artifacts and imagery. Robert Schwemmer will be presenting “Winfield Scott, Life and Death of California Gold Rush Steamship” May 3 at 7pm, in the Museum’s Munger Theater. Local historian Willard Thompson will be presenting “Going for the Gold; how Pacific Mail Steamship Company brought miners to California” May 17 at 7pm, in the Museum’s Munger Theater.

For additional information, call (805) 962-8404, ext. 111 or visit www.sbmm.org.

Opening April 21, 2011

Reception 5-7pm

Santa Barbara Maritime Museum

113 Harbor Way

Santa Barbara, CA 93109

Secretary Mabus Indicates He Is Open to Women Joining the SEALs

Secretary Mabus Indicates He Is Open to Women Joining the SEALs
We have seen it happen before – albeit only on the silver screen. Many will remember witnessing actress Demi Moore take a clipper to her head, shaving off her glorious, dark mane, which was documented in a scene for the movie G.I. Jane. In the film, Ms. Moore played the first woman to undergo SEAL training, Lt. Jordan O’Neil.

More than a decade after the movie hit theaters, the SEALs remains to be a team that is open exclusively for male applicants.

In an interview with the Navy Times, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus confided that he believed that all Navy jobs should be open to women – including submarine attack crews, as well as the elite SEALs – if they qualify. Incidentally, the plot of the movie G.I. Jane also begins with a candidate for Secretary of Navy, who was being pressured to fully integrate the service.

Secratry Mabus was quoted by the Navy Times: “It’s my notion that women should have the same opportunities as men in the Navy… They should be able to go as far as their talents take them. They should be able to serve in whatever communities. The only reason I’m being a little hesitant for the SEALs is some of the physical things you’ve got to go through to be a SEAL. I think women ought to have whatever opportunities men do.”

While that was not exactly a full blessing, the statement does indicate a certain level of openness to that possibility.

In addition to SEAL teams, special warfare combatant-craft crewmen (SWCC), Fleet Marine Force corpsmen serving in direct combat units and riverines, are also closed to women. Enlisted women are also barred from serving on board coast patrol craft and frigates.

Shipwreck Believed to be Oldest Known Found Near Dominican Republic

Fox News Latino: Shipwreck Believed to be Oldest Known Found Near Dominican Republic
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - Utah based Deep Blue Marine believes they located the oldest known shipwreck off the coast of the Dominican Republic.

Divers have uncovered gold coins, jade statues, and ancient Mayan jewelry.

The company still believes there are greater treasures.

President of Deep Blue Marine, Wilf Blum says, "This is the history and the birthplace of America and here we are lucky enough to finding the shipwrecks from that time era."

Just a few years after Christopher Columbus discovered the new world, the ship sank into the dark waters off the Dominican coast.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - Utah based Deep Blue Marine believes they located the oldest known shipwreck off the coast of the Dominican Republic.

Divers have uncovered gold coins, jade statues, and ancient Mayan jewelry.

The company still believes there are greater treasures.

President of Deep Blue Marine, Wilf Blum says, "This is the history and the birthplace of America and here we are lucky enough to finding the shipwrecks from that time era."

Just a few years after Christopher Columbus discovered the new world, the ship sank into the dark waters off the Dominican coast.

Rawson used technology such as side scan sonar to search the area where the old local liked to dive.

Little by little he uncovered parts of the wreckage.

“This is pretty incredible when you think about it. This has been on the ocean floor for 450 years," Rawson said.

Divers found gold coins that date back to 1535. One particular set of four coins is valued at a million dollars. Deep Blue Marine gets to keep 50-percent of the recovered items. The Dominican government gets the rest.

"We found these two mirrors made out of iron pyrite. And they've been lying on the ocean floor for 450 years, but you can still take and turn them and see your face in them," said Rawson.

President Blum says the Spanish ship likely sank during a hurricane.

"If it's the ship we believe it is, she went down in a very violent storm. And the evidence is pointing in that direction. We're finding spikes that were bent completely right around back on themselves," Blum said.

He says never has a shipwreck turned up artifacts so old.

"The only other fleet we know of that's older than this is the 1502 fleet and it's never been discovered," he continued.

Deep Blue Marine is currently salvaging thirteen shipwrecks.

The company built a museum in the Dominican Republic and plans to put some of the items from the most recent find on public display.

Others will go to auction to the highest bidder.

HMAS Adelaide laid to rest

TheAge.au.com: HMAS Adelaide laid to rest
YEAR of rolling legal action and 80 minutes of dancing dolphins were not enough to save HMAS Adelaide from a watery grave.

Thousands of spectators watched yesterday as the decommissioned warship broke up and sank in less than a minute, 1.8 kilometres off Avoca Beach on the New South Wales central coast.

The sinking marked the end of more than 12 months of delays caused by protests, court proceedings, cleaning operations and finally a pod of dolphins that temporarily held up the detonations. Local Aboriginal elder Lila Kirby had performed a whale-calling ceremony on Sunday in a bid to delay the sinking.

Advertisement: Story continues below The Adelaide will now form an artificial reef and dive site. An exclusion zone will remain in place until April 15 while divers assess the vessel and its position on the ocean floor.

Nazi warplane lying off Kent coast is intact

Stuff.co.nz: Nazi warplane lying off Kent coast is intact
A rare World War Two German bomber, shot down over the English Channel in 1940 and hidden for years by shifting sands at the bottom of the sea, is so well preserved a museum wants to raise it.

The Dornier 17 - thought to be world's last known example - was hit as it took part in the Battle of Britain.

It ditched in the sea just off the Kent coast in an area known as the Goodwin Sands.

The plane came to rest upside-down in 15 metres of water and has become partially visible from time to time as the sands retreated before being buried again.

Now a high-tech sonar survey undertaken by the Port of London Authority (PLA) has revealed the aircraft to be in a startling state of preservation.

Ian Thirsk, from the RAF Museum at Hendon in London, told the BBC he was "incredulous" when he first heard of its existence and potential preservation.

"This aircraft is a unique aeroplane and it's linked to an iconic event in British history, so its importance cannot be over-emphasised, nationally and internationally," he said.

"It's one of the most significant aeronautical finds of the century."

Known as "the flying pencil," the Dornier 17 was designed as a passenger plane in 1934 and was later converted for military use as a fast bomber, difficult to hit and theoretically able to outpace enemy fighter aircraft.

In all, some 1,700 were produced but they struggled in the war with a limited range and bomb load capability and many were scrapped afterwards.

Striking high-resolution images appear to show that the Goodwin Sands plane suffered only minor damage, to its forward cockpit and observation windows, on impact.

"The bomb bay doors were open, suggesting the crew jettisoned their cargo," said PLA spokesman Martin Garside.

Two of the crew members died on impact, while two others, including the pilot, were taken prisoner and survived the war.

"The fact that it was almost entirely made of aluminium and produced in one piece may have contributed to its preservation," Garside told Reuters.

The plane is still vulnerable to the area's notorious shifting sands and has become the target of recreational divers hoping to salvage souvenirs.

The RAF museum has launched an appeal to raise funds for the lifting operation.

Submersible completes 1,000th dive off Hawaii

MotherNatureNetwork: Submersible completes 1,000th dive off Hawaii
Marine scientists recently celebrated the 1,000th dive of one of their twin manned submarines off the coast of Hawaii.

Scientists from the University of Hawaii and the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory (HURL) have now spent nearly 9,000 hours underwater around the Hawaiian Islands and U.S. Pacific territories since 1981, studying marine creatures.

This dive was a tad more crowded than normal. Nearly 500 students from more than 35 classrooms "virtually" accompanied the researchers.

During the dive, HURL researchers used their three-person submersible, named Pisces, to study coral reefs that occur in the deeper half of sunlit waters, called mesophotic reefs. Near Hawaii, these elusive corals live about 230 to 500 feet (70 to 150 meters) underwater.

The submersible dove in the 'Au'au channel, off the island of Maui, during the mission. HURL operates Pisces IV and V, deep-diving submersibles capable of descending nearly 6,600 feet (2,000 m) below the water's surface.

The students were part of the Creep into the Deep program. They sent emails and shared photos and video with the scientists aboard Pisces V. This is HURL's third Creep into the Deep mission.

"My second-grade class is so excited to be part of this amazing virtual tour. We are grooming future scientists and with this experience I can see that your team has sparked the interest in my students," said Yvonne McCarty, a teacher at Felicita Elementary School in Escondido, Calif., whose students dove virtually. "Thank you for letting us set sail aboard with you. And congratulations on the 1,000 dives. Way to go!"

Could man soon be able to breathe underwater? Scientists eye possibility of merging human and algae DNA

Daily Mail UK: Could man soon be able to breathe underwater? Scientists eye possibility of merging human and algae DNA

It looks like the gillyweed from the Harry Potter films could one day be a reality.
Scientists have discovered a way for humans to potentially breathe underwater by merging our DNA with that of algae.
In research on salamanders they found that oxygen-producing algae have bonded with their eggs so closely that the two are now inseparable.
By studying the mechanism further, they hope that the same process could be applied to humans one day too.

This would allow us to swim without coming up for air like Harry does in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
In the film the slimy plant gives Harry gills on the side of his neck and lets him breathe underwater like a fish.

The real-life version however could work on a more fundamental level and change our DNA so that we are more like algae, which actually give off oxygen even though they are on the sea bed.
Researchers from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, found that human DNA is packed with hundreds of viruses we have absorbed since mankind came to be.
They applied this theory to salamanders because algae often got stuck in their embryos - and found that some salamanders are literally part algae.
The algae does not leave as the salamander grows, meaning that by the time they are fully formed adults, salamanders are part plant.

The discovery is the first documented case of a plant living in partnership, or symbiosis, with a vertebrate.

Scientists have said that potentially it could mean that bioengineers could one day use algae as a source of oxygen for other organisms that it pairs with - including humans.

Such a jump would require substantial testing but given we are vertebrates like salamanders, it is possible.

Lead researcher Dr Ryan Kerney said: ‘The algae inside the egg capsules provide oxygen to the embryo and the algae gets waste from the embryo which is rich in the nitrogen the plant needs.

‘We also found algae DNA in the reproductive organs of the adult salamanders, so it seems possible that it is being inherited.

‘We call that vertical transmission, but there is probably a mixture of this and the algae being absorbed from the environment.’

The study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Ghosts of Seattle's maritime past lie at bottom of Lake Union

Best preserved wooden vessel discovered so far - a cannery tender

The Seattle Times: Ghosts of Seattle's maritime past lie at bottom of Lake Union
Beneath Lake Union's inky surface is a graveyard of old boats, an underwater museum of waterlogged artifacts of Seattle's industrial and maritime history that have mostly lain untouched for decades — until now.

The Center for Wooden Boats, on the south end of the lake, is leading an underwater archaeology project to locate and document vessels and other historic artifacts. With little fanfare, using the latest in underwater technology, divers and amateur archaeologists have been scouring the 40-foot-deep lake, looking at more than 20 spots where sunken vessels may lie.

"What I feel that we're uncovering is a new museum under the water," Center for Wooden Boats founder Dick Wagner said.

Peter Lape, an associate professor at the Burke Museum and one of two archeologists involved in the project, said the lake provides a valuable opportunity to see tangible pieces of Seattle's history.

"It's such a weird, interesting lake, being right in the middle of a big city with thousands of years of maritime history that have dropped things into the bottom of that mud," Lape said. "It's surprising and cool that there are these major shipwrecks just sitting down there that you can rent a kayak and paddle over."

Teams of highly trained and well-equipped volunteer divers have found a dozen shipwrecks — some stacked on top of each other. Those include old sloops, a cannery tender, a powerboat that once was a liveaboard, a 1942 minesweeper named Gypsy Queen, a 1908 Navy barge named Foss 54 and an 1888 tugboat, the J.E. Boyden.

The 85-foot Boyden was used to help square-rigged merchant ships transit the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound. In one of its more memorable chapters, the tug was off Cape Flattery when its crew spotted a Makah tribal canoe towing a whale carcass. The tribe members asked for help, and the Boyden towed the whale and canoe to Neah Bay, where a feast was held that evening, according to documents found in the Museum of History & Industry.

The Boyden later served as a lumber and coal tug before it was retired in 1935 on Lake Union, where it eventually sank.

Because native people once lived on the shores of Lake Union, Lape said, undiscovered native watercraft likely lie at the bottom of the lake.

"I think our city has been great at bulldozing over its history whenever it has a chance," he said. "This is a place where the physical objects of that history are there to look at, at least through video."

The wrecks found in the lake have been identified by comparing divers' observations with archival documents, historical photos, Coast Guard records and news articles.

This is not work for the claustrophobic. Underwater visibility can be fewer than two feet.

Not your typical divers

Not surprisingly, the divers who are interested in this are not your casual, vacation-in-the-tropics types. Pretty fish, colorful coral — they're not interested in all that. For them, combing the murky depths in 45-degree water is worth it if there's a chance to explore a wreck.

A group of divers belonging to the Maritime Documentation Society, whose focus is finding and documenting maritime wrecks, has been diving Lake Union for years. The group recently joined forces with the Center for Wooden Boats on the archaeology project, sharing information about wrecks they've discovered.

Diving in Lake Union requires a permit.

A core group searches the lake several times a week, using their underwater scooters to move to and from wreck sites. Employing an approach they call "mowing the lawn," they go back and forth along a small area, shooting video and taking photos.

Video footage of the wrecks — complete with creepy organ music — can be seen on the website of DCS Films, a company founded by a trio of wreck-obsessed Seattle divers. Among the core group of divers is Chris Borgen, who said it's exciting to go on each dive with no idea what he might find.

"It's kind of like jumping back in history," Borgen said.

Some days the divers will descend at a location where a target has been identified and find nothing.

"Sometimes we get right where the coordinates are and can't find it," diver Erik Foreman said. "But some days we'll do an hour-and-a-half dive and find seven wrecks."

What lies beneath

The Duwamish people once had a winter village on Lake Union's shores, building longhouses and traversing the waters of the lake by canoe.

By the late 1800s, the winter village was mostly abandoned and the lake had become a center of commercial activity. Railway tracks were built around the lake to serve nearby sawmills and villages, and steamboats carried farmers, loggers and schoolchildren across the lake.

Houseboats became popular summer homes on Lake Union in the early 1900s, occupied by a new middle class created by the Klondike Gold Rush. After the Ship Canal opened in 1917, the lake quickly became a hub for mills and boatbuilding. A spate of boat shops opened between 1919 and 1929, building pleasure yachts as well as tugs, trawlers and halibut schooners.

Each successive wave of development left its mark on the lake bottom.

Over ensuing decades, boatbuilding waned and new types of developments sprung up around the lake. Dick and Colleen Wagner, who later founded the Center for Wooden Boats, were living in a houseboat on the lake in the 1960s. Dick Wagner recalls a neighbor once telling him that he sank someone's tugboat on the lake out of spite. Wagner began wondering how many sunken boats were concealed beneath the surface.

Several decades later, those musings led to the archaeology project now under way. The center received a federal grant to research the lake's history. That led to Wagner writing a book, "Legends of the Lake," a series of essays chronicling the lake's geological and cultural history that further stoked his curiosity.

"I decided we ought to look at the inside of the lake, too," Wagner said.

The archaeology project began more than a year ago and started with studying sonar scans done by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. With the help of Ross Laboratories, a Seattle company that makes hydrographic survey equipment, the lake was scanned to identify archaeological targets. Divers then started combing the lake to try to find them.

The diving is expected to take another year or so. In the meantime, the center has set up a website to provide information about the project and plans to develop videos and publications about the artifacts found. Some of the artifacts later could be recovered for curation.

John Goodfellow, co-manager of the project, said the goal is to better understand and highlight the lake's role in the city's development as a maritime center.

"If you look at a map," he said, "the lake is this big, empty blue spot. We're trying to fill it in and make it dynamic. This lake has history that is preserved. It's a huge archaeological park in the middle of the city."

Richard Branson plans deep-ocean submarine dives

The Seattle Times: Richard Branson plans deep-ocean submarine dives

By NOAKI SCHWARTZ

Associated Press

Related
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. —
Billionaire adventurer Richard Branson on Tuesday unveiled a new single-person submarine that he said will be used to set new world records by exploring the five deepest parts of the world's oceans.

Branson said that over the next two years, the solo craft will go to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic's Puerto Rico Trench and South Sandwich Trench, the Diamantina Trench in the Indian Ocean and the Molloy Deep in the Arctic Ocean.

Branson's fellow explorer, Chris Welsh, plans to make the first descent later this year to the Mariana Trench, which at 36,000 feet is deeper than Mount Everest is high. Branson then plans to explore the 28,000-foot-deep Puerto Rico Trench.

While the pilots for the other three trips have not been chosen, Branson said they hope to set as many as 30 Guinness World Records with the dives.

"The last great challenge for humans is to explore the depths of our planet's oceans," the Virgin Atlantic founder said at the Newport Harbor Yacht Club.

A news release said there was only one frontier left for Branson's Virgin brand, which has reached "the seven continents of the earth, up into the jet stream and soon, even into space."

"If someone says something is impossible, we like to prove it's possible," Branson said. "I love learning and I'm just very fortunate to participate in these kinds of adventures."

Branson unveiled the submarine, a nearly 18-foot long, white-and-blue airplane-like craft with stubby wings and a cockpit.

The carbon fiber and titanium craft will be capable of cruising for about 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) and can stay down unaided for 24 hours. The sub and its accompanying catamaran cost an estimated $17 million.

Branson said his so-called Virgin Oceanic expedition will have a scientific and educational purpose. He hopes the voyages will help to educate the public about mankind's impacts on the world's oceans and marine life.

He is partnering with Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and Moss Landing Marine Labs in Northern California as well as other research institutions. Scientists hope to study the tectonic plates and eventually use lander vehicles to bring back water, microbes and possibly small creatures from the ocean depths.

"We have 800 pounds of moon rocks and not one drop from the bottom of the ocean," said Alex Tai, Virgin Group director of special projects.


The dives will be dangerous and the pilots will likely be down in the dark and cold ocean depths for hours will little communication with the outside world. Rescues will be impossible, Welsh said. Still, he was clearly more excited than wary of the prospect, saying there is a magic to exploring new places.

"It's like going to the moon and having the lunar rover to explore around," Welsh said.

The dives also will be recorded and uploaded to Google Earth, said John Hanke, the Internet search engine's vice president of product management.

"Our mission for Google Earth is to create an interactive virtual globe and enable users to visit places that they've never explored, including the world's oceans," he said.

The submarine originally was commissioned by Branson's close friend and fellow adventurer Steve Fossett, who died in 2007 while flying a plane over the Sierra Nevada. Fossett had intended to complete the first solo dive to the Mariana Trench, Branson said.

Branson also said he plans to create a larger submarine that can hold more people and offer trips to tourists for a sizable fee.

Last year he unveiled a three-person submarine called the Necker Nymph, which is available for $2,500 a day for guests of his private resort in the Caribbean. The submarine, created by San Francisco-based Hawkes Ocean Technologies, is capable of going almost 100 feet deep. In a subsequent interview with Popular Mechanics, Hawkes officials said they were also working with Branson on submersibles capable of high-speed deep sea travel.

Branson has also been working on a space tourism venture with the construction of a $209 million spaceport in New Mexico. The British businessman has said he expects to launch the first suborbital flights from Spaceport America between mid-summer 2011 and spring 2012. Many of the 500 people that have signed up to be astronauts have expressed interest in being "aquanauts," he said.

While most of the country is still dealing with the daily realities of a struggling economy, University of California, Berkeley professor Robert Reich said the super-rich are richer today than they have ever been and there is a market in selling them new adventures.

High-end retailers such as Tiffany & Co. and Neiman Marcus continue to do well despite the economy, he said. And even as NASA experiences budget cuts, the extraordinary wealthy are willing to pay small fortunes to go into space or into the depths of the ocean, said the public policy professor.

"People who are selling to the super-rich basically can't lose," said Reich, former Secretary of Labor during the Clinton administration. "Richard Branson can dig a hole to the center of the earth and charge a million dollars a day to go through it and he'd find people to take him up on the offer."

Air France 447 search yields fresh hope with discovery of debris on seabed

Guardian.co.uk: Air France 447 search yields fresh hope with discovery of debris on seabed

Pieces of wreckage from an Air France plane that crashed in the Atlantic in 2009 with 228 people on board have been recovered by underwater teams, according to French investigators.

A fourth attempt began last month to locate remains of the aircraft, and particularly its flight recorders, in the hope of determining the cause of the still unexplained disaster.

The wreckage was recovered at the weekend by a salvage vessel equipped with unmanned submarines, the French air accident investigation agency, the BEA, said on Sunday night. The agency said the pieces were identified as parts of flight 447, which crashed on 1 June 2009 en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

In what was the worst loss of life involving an Air France plane in the firm's 75-year history, those who died included more than 30 nationalities. Search operations that took place in the wake of the crash led to the recovery of 50 bodies as well as hundreds of pieces of the aircraft, including its torn-off tail, but the last search ended in May 2010 after it had failed to find the plane's voice and data recorders.

The latest search, which is being carried out using a deep-sea vessel called Alucia and is being financed by the plane's manufacturers, Air France and Airbus, has been designed to cover an area of approximately 3,900 sq miles.

Robotic equipment has been used to forage in depths of up to 4,000 metres in an area of the ocean floor between Africa and Brazil. Finding the black boxes is seen as essential to help crash experts and relatives understand why flight 447 plunged into a remote part of the Atlantic during an equatorial storm.

"This is very good news because it brings with it the hope that at last we will get some information on what caused this accident, which to this day remains unexplained," Air France-KLM's chief executive Pierre-Henri Gourgeon said.

Speculation about the cause of the crash has focused on the possible icing-up of the aircraft's speed sensors, which appeared to give inconsistent readings seconds before the plane vanished. But an accident report said it was impossible to establish a clear cause without further data held in the missing recorders.

"We do hope that the discovery will lead to the retrieval and reading of the two recorders because this data is essential for the understanding of this accident," said a spokesman for Airbus.

A passenger jet carries two recorders, one for cockpit voices and another to log data from the aircraft's systems.

Air France and Airbus were both placed under formal investigation over the crash last month as part of a French criminal investigation into the causes of the crash. Groups representing victims' families have criticised the way previous searches were carried out.

Shipwreck found off Saugatuck could be 180 years old

MLive.com (Grand Rapids, Michigan): Shipwreck found off Saugatuck could be 180 years old
SAUGATUCK — A Holland-based shipwreck group is eager to begin uncovering the story behind a 60-foot-long sloop found at the bottom of Lake Michigan after as many as 180 years under water.

The single-masted ship dates back as far as the 1830s. It was discovered by Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates last year in collaboration with author Clive Cussler and his sonar operator, Ralph Wilbanks, of the National Underwater and Marine Agency.

The group was searching for the remnants of Northwest Airlines Flight 2501, a crash that killed 58 people when the plane went into Lake Michigan in 1950.

“Sometimes, when you’re looking for one thing, you come across another,” shipwreck researcher Craig Rich said of the discovery.

Details of the finding are beginning to emerge as the research group prepares for its annual show, “Mysteries and Histories Beneath the Inland Seas,” planned for 7 p.m. April 16 at the Knickerbocker Theatre in downtown Holland.

The ship is in fairly good shape and was found upright in about 250 feet of water, between Saugatuck and South Haven.

It’s among a handful of shipwrecks Cussler has located in cooperation with Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates.

“It’s fascinating stuff,” the 79-year-old said from his Arizona home. “It’s not the Titanic or anything like that. But it is rather historic just for the era in which it sank.”

The ship likely was moving goods across the lake — possibly to or from Chicago — when it went down, Rich said. Likely the oldest shipwreck discovered by Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates, it is historically significant because of its age and construction, he said.

Saugatuck historian and author Kit Lane said although the ship’s discovery won’t have a huge bearing on history, it is an interesting find.

“It’s still fun to have one more piece of history put together, and it’s an interesting puzzle that they’ll probably have to puzzle over for a while,” she said.

Rich said the group hopes to identify the ship by the summer and begin researching its story.

“If we can put a name to it, we’ll figure out what the story is and, if not, it’ll be a mystery wreck — one we won’t be able to solve,” he said.