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Posts Tagged ‘sea’

Giant Squid

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 25, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

From the Jules Verne classic 20,00 Leagues Under the Sea came a film with Kirk Douglas and a memorable Giant Squid. (Disney will probably sue if I embed a pirated trailer. See the official one here. It has the Giant Squid in it.)

Until very recently, no one could prove that such a thing as a Giant Squid even existed. I have seen renderings of what sailors might really have seen when they described a Giant Squid: for example, a whale with an octopus wrapped around it. And I just learned that the mythological Kraken may be the result of people seeing a Giant Squid and thinking it was a supernatural monster. (Oh, surely not the gentle Kraken of The Island of the Aunts!)

Here’s what made my day: the wonder and delight in the voice of the woman videotaping the first Giant Squid ever caught on camera, a creature that hangs out in the deep sea off Chichi island, Japan, where expeditions going down 3,000 feet have sought him for years.

You can hear Tom Ashbrook’s guests talk about this triumph at WBUR’s OnPoint program.

They are Richard Ellis, author of “The Search For The Giant Squid: The Biology and Mythology of the World’s Most Elusive Sea Creature,” and Edie Widder, the president and senior scientist at the Ocean Research and Conservation Association who filmed the Giant Squid.

“For thousands of years, sailors have told stories of giant squids. In myth and cinema, the kraken was the most terrible of sea monsters. Now, it’s been captured — on a soon-to-be-seen video.

From National Public Radio: “Even after decades of searching, giant squids had only been seen in still photographs. Finally, in last July, scientists filmed the first video of a live giant squid swimming some 2,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean.

“Edie Widder is the ocean researcher who shot the footage, which is slated to be released in a Discovery Channel documentary later this month.

“She told Jacki Lyden, host of weekends on All Things Considered, the elusive creature could have been as much as 30 feet long” More.

(I am spatially challenged and embarrassed to admit how many decades it took me to figure out that Captain Nemo traveled in his Nautilus 20,000 leagues horizontally, not straight down.)

Photograph: Edie Widder/Discovery Channel
A giant squid stars in this still image taken from the first-ever video of giant squids.

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Farming Seaweed

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 12, 2012 | 3 Comments »

I like win-win stories like this one from National Public Radio. It’s about a new crop with a lot of monetary potential — and distinct advantages for the environment.

“It doesn’t require any land or fertilizer. Farming it improves the environment, and it can be used in a number of ways. So what is this miracle cash crop of the future? It’s seaweed.

“Charlie Yarish, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Connecticut, loves seaweed. In nature, he says, when seaweed turns a rich chocolate color, that means the plant is picking up nitrogen, a process called nutrient bioextraction. …

“Many plants and animals cannot survive when there is too much nitrogen in the water, but seaweed is able to ‘capture’ the nitrogen, as well as contaminants in the water.

“A United Nations report says that nearly 16 million tons of seaweed were farmed in 2008 — most of it in Asia. Yarish helped a company called Ocean Approved start the United States’ first open-water kelp farm in the Gulf of Maine in 2006 … Now, he’s helping to create a seaweed farm off the coast of Connecticut.

“Bren Smith owns and runs the Thimble Island Oyster Company, off the coast of Branford, Conn. After his business was hit hard by Tropical Storm Irene last year, ruining about 80 percent of the shellfish crop, Smith started looking around for something more resilient to farm. That’s when he found Yarish, who agreed to help set him up in the seaweed farming business. …

” ‘There’s no barns, there’s no tractors. This is what’s so special about ocean farming. It’s that it’s got a small footprint and it’s under the water. I mean, we’re so lucky; I feel like I stumbled on this just great secret that we then can model and spread out to other places,’ ” Smith says. …

” ‘The plan is to actually split it into a couple different experimental markets — one for food, one for fertilizer, one for fish food. I’m [also] working with a skin care company in Connecticut, and then one for biofuel,’ Smith says. He’s even hoping he can someday fuel his own boat with biofuel from the seaweed.”

Craig LeMoult has the whole story here at NPR, where you also can listen to the audio.

Photograph by Ron Gautreau
Oyster fisherman Bren Smith on his boat.

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New Bedford

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on September 16, 2012 | 4 Comments »

My husband and I are often drawn to New England’s older postindustrial cities, with their walkable town centers and their old brick warehouses. They are sometimes called Gateway Cities because for generations they have served as immigrant gateways into the American life. We explored North Adams, Massachusetts, with Suzanne and Erik a couple years ago, and this weekend we went to New Bedford with Suzanne.

Once the whaling capital of the world, New Bedford today is home to an anxious fishing industry, clothing manufacturing, and tourism. We went to the Whaling Museum and came out feeling glad that most countries are more focused on whale preservation than whale hunting.

We sought out Portuguese restaurants and sat on the patio near an outdoor fireplace at one place. We knew there would be Portuguese restaurants as Portuguese speakers have come to New Bedford for generations — from Portugal, the Azores, Cape Verde, and Brazil.

At our beautiful Bed & Breakfast, the hosts (who have spent most of their working lives doing economic development overseas with US A.I.D.) told us that a large Guatemalan community has grown up in the city. They said that most of the Guatemalans speak an indigenous language, Spanish being a second language for them. That’s a particular challenge when Guatemalans go to the hospital as none of the staff speak that indigenous language.

My husband and Suzanne and I walked around. We passed lively Pentecostal churches and a storefront church full of dancers and clowns. We noted lamp posts bearing inspirational banners on how to be a good citizen or how to volunteer. I include one on “Responsibility.”

We also liked the cooperative shops run by members of the local arts community. And we had fun checking out a salvage warehouse for cool architectural bits, here. Among other things, it has rather a lot of bathtubs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Sand and Cameras

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on June 26, 2012 | 2 Comments »

No doubt I would have grown up to be a photographer if the Brownie cameras and box cameras I used as a child had not gotten sand in them. After at least a week of high anticipation, the film kept coming back black. Very discouraging. All the effort I had put into creating little still-life scenes with dolls and sea shells — wasted!

So a word to the wise, if you take a camera to the beach, protect it.

I got a few pictures on this lovely June day, but I fear they lack the artistry that surely would have been evident had sand not mysteriously worked its way into all cameras in my youth.

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Owl Poet Solicits Feedback

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on January 24, 2012 | 9 Comments »

Photograph: Mark Brown, Boston Globe

What a treat! A poet who follows this blog just sent me two lovely poems about a snowy owl she once saw. Or perhaps I should say, she once experienced. She would appreciate feedback on the poems, so please let me know your reactions in the Comments feature. E-mail is fine, too, suzannesmom@lunandstella.com. (And if you have a photo of a snowy owl in flight, I will replace the rather contemplative owl from National Geographic, below.)

Snowy Owl, by Nancy Greenaway

White shuttle of silken feathers
wefting across cloud warp of winter gray,
silently weaving sky with sea,
looming above watching walkers
tucked between patchworks
of stone-bound fields
and folds of silvered awe.

Snowy Owl 2, by Nancy Greenaway

Wide-winged whiteness
sensed before seen
swooping soundlessly
under low-lying layers
of cloud gauze

white on white
white on gray
soft on soft

too large to be living
and airborne

too white to be
worldly and wild

floating unruffled
on drafts of arctic cold

piercing consciousness
not with bill
or talon
or quill

but with light
and motion

avian divinity
spirited from
another dimension

penetrating dusk
by force of feathers

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Back from Rhode Island

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on May 31, 2011 |

We drove back home from Rhode Island yesterday after three lovely days. The weather had been remarkably warm for a Memorial Day weekend, but very misty early. Every morning that I took my walk, I returned with soaking wet shoes.


On the drive home there was nothing much on the radio, so I read a children’s book aloud. The book had been recommended by Asakiyume because she knows I like children’s books, especially the ones she writes. The book I read on the drive home was Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by Grace Lin, and I haven’t finished it.

So don’t tell me what happens.

These Rhode Island photos show a path to the beach, a small shop on the main street, and fishing boats in the harbor. Comments may be sent to suzannesmom@lunaandstella.com.

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