A great bit of writing and journalism at Wired on the avoidable Titan submersible incident.

“A trove of tens of thousands of internal OceanGate emails, documents, and photographs provided exclusively to WIRED by anonymous sources sheds new light on Titan’s development, from its initial design and manufacture through its first deep-sea operations. The documents, validated by interviews with two third-party suppliers and several former OceanGate employees with intimate knowledge of Titan, reveal never-before-reported details about the design and testing of the submersible. They show that Boeing and the University of Washington were both involved in the early stages of OceanGate’s carbon-fiber sub project, although their work did not make it into the final Titan design. The trove also reveals a company culture in which employees who questioned their bosses’ high-speed approach and decisions were dismissed as overly cautious or even fired. (The former employees who spoke to WIRED have asked not to be named for fear of being sued by the families of those who died aboard the vessel.) Most of all, the documents show how Rush, blinkered by his own ambition to be the Elon Musk of the deep seas, repeatedly overstated OceanGate’s progress and, on at least one occasion, outright lied about significant problems with Titan’s hull, which has not been previously reported.”

The post The Inside Story of the Titan Submersible first appeared on Deep Sea News.

In case you live under a rock…Amelia Earhart, the pioneering aviator, disappeared on July 2, 1937, during her attempt to circumnavigate the globe. She and her navigator, Fred Noonan, were flying from Lae, Papua New Guinea, to Howland Island when they vanished over the Pacific Ocean. Despite extensive search efforts, no trace of Earhart, Noonan, or their aircraft, a Lockheed Electra, was ever found. The disappearance sparked numerous theories, ranging from crash-and-sink scenarios to theories of Earhart being captured by the Japanese. Despite decades of speculation and search missions, the fate of Amelia Earhart remains one of aviation’s greatest mysteries.

On Saturday, Deep Sea Vision, an oceanic exploration firm headquartered in South Carolina, sonar imagery potentially depicting Earhart’s aircraft resting on the floor of the Pacific Ocean. Utilizing advanced unmanned underwater drones and a 16-member expeditionary team, the company surveyed over 5,200 square miles of seabed between September and December. Deep Sea Vision’s founder, Tony Romeo. is former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer and aviator and divested his real estate business in 2022 to embark on oceanic exploration, driven by a desire to contribute to the search for answers surrounding Earhart’s disappearance.

The identified plane-shaped entity lies approximately 100 miles off Howland Island, where Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, were scheduled to refuel before their untimely disappearance.

But not everyone is convinced, including Dr. Andrew Thaler of Southern Fried Science

I am also skeptical and I think the Lizard above sum’s it up quite nicely. Granted it is in plausible location. Sure it looks like plane. However sonar is notoriously difficult to deduce meaningful shape from at this level of resolution. This could just as easily be another misshapen bit of wreckage that in sonar looks like an airplane. Second, the big old World War II deposited a lot of airplanes and other vessels on the seafloor in South Pacific.

Also the swept wings of this “plane” do not really match that of Earhart’s Lockheed Model 10 Electra. Of course both could be broken and bent into exactly same angle…

Clearly, better sonar imagery and ROV/HOV dives are needed before this could even be considered plausibly Earhart’s plane.

The post Has Amelia Earhart’s Plane Been Found? first appeared on Deep Sea News.

To explain what these are to the uninformed. Glass floats covered in protective plastic housings, aka hard hats, are used on a great variety of oceanographic gear, to provide flotation. These glass floats are often pressure rated to great depths, so that they can be placed on deep-sea gear that we eventually want to return to the surface. This includes landers, observation platforms positioned on the seafloor or benthic zone, dedicated to capturing a host of physical, chemical, or biological activities.

Andrew Davies, at University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography, research includes many things but among them is building these landers. His wonderful group created and printed this wonderful ornaments.

The post A Very Special Christmas Ornament first appeared on Deep Sea News.

The brainchild of Pierpaolo Lazzarini, the Terayacht concept kicked off in 2009, aiming to birth a colossal giga-yacht, no terayacht, capable of housing an entire bustling city. Pangeos isn’t your average yacht; it’s a seafaring behemoth measuring a mind-boggling 550 meters in length and a whopping 610 meters at its widest point.  The largest cruise ship, Wonder of the Seas, measures 362 metres long and 64 metres wide.

Picture this: a floating marvel composed of around 30,000 unsinkable hull cells, housing enough space for a staggering 60,000 accommodations. It’s not just a city on water; it’s an entire ecosystem, complete with hotels, apartments, shopping centers, parks, and more!

But wait, there’s more! This isn’t your run-of-the-mill yacht propulsion. Pangeos sports 9 HTS engines, each with a stunning 16,800 horsepower. And here’s the kicker—the vessel’s flippers don’t just make it look like a turtle; they harness kinetic energy from waves, ensuring it cruises emission-free and perpetually around the world.

But hold onto your hats (or should I say lifejackets?) because this project is claimed to not be just a whimsical dream. It’s gearing up to become a reality, aiming for an estimated completion around 2033. However, it comes with a caveat—Pangeos needs a special home, a Terashipyard, spanning a jaw-dropping 650 meters in width and 600 meters in length. And guess where this floating marvel might dock? Yep, the stunning shores of Saudi Arabia!

Now, let’s talk numbers: this aquatic wonder comes with a price tag of $8 billion and an eight-year construction timeline. To bridge the gap between now and this fantastical future, Lazzarini Design Studio has conjured an innovative plan—selling “Unreal Estate” as NFTs, where virtual boarding tickets, hotel rooms, and even houses can be snagged for the metaverse version, all set to open its (virtual) doors by 2023.

So to see this to completion requires raising $8 billion raised through NFTs, an aggressive 8 year timeline, solving countless engineering feats, and building a brand-spankin new shipyard in the Saudia Arabian coastal desert. Totally feasible.

The post The Giant Turtle Boat of Your Dreams first appeared on Deep Sea News.

Next week my research group heads out to sea for our Gulf of Mexico research project on deep-sea wood falls. Make sure to pay attention to hashtag #woodfall for updates, images, and videos on both Twitter and Instagram. A Twitter thread started by Helen Scales, an amazing author of some of my favorite books who will be joining us on this expedition, asked what gear we like to take out to sea with us.

I am particular about my set of gear and equipment that I take when I am out at sea. Much time spent was spent on trial and error research and development of my sea kit. The items below reflect advice from my scientific mentors and advice about tools from my father and father-in-law, one an electrician the other an awesome car mechanic. This is by no means a comprehensive list but these are things I won’t leave home without.

1. Carhartts

Nothing beats a brand spanking new comfortable pair of Carhartts. No, wait that isn’t true. A new pair of Carhartts is rougher than sharkskin and when they get wet the chafing will start a fire between your thighs. Then why o’ why would a marine scientist wear them? Well first this is marine science not easy science, so suck it up. Second, when a pair of Carhartts are finally broken in, they are supple like leopard. Despite this, they will laugh in the face of sharp objects and protect your delicate marine scientist’s skin. The mud color, technically Carhartt brown, of the fabric means you can wear them for days in a row sorting benthic samples and nobody will know. Except for the smell. Protip: Don’t chintz and get the single layer ones, unless you are working in the tropics. You really want the double fronts.

Carhartt Men’s Double Front Work Dungaree Pant B01

2. Stocking Hat

Everyone calls this thing something different. My Australian colleagues giggle at me when I call it a ‘stocking’ hat. Take a second and think about it. No matter, spend some time doing deck ops at night, a few hours in cold and dark ROV control room, or processing samples in a cold van and you will definitely want this. I prefer a Carhartt stocking hat in charcoal grey because I look sooooo fine in it. Protip: When you do field work always look good.

Carhartt Men’s Knit Hat With Visor, Army Green, One Size

3. Hard Hat

You got to protect that noggin of yours because no matter how good you look in that stocking hat you are getting paid for your brains not your looks. Well hopefully. Everyone has their own hard hat preference. Some people use the ones lying around the ship. The same hard hats worn by 50 dozen other scientists this month alone. I prefer my own and one shaped like a cowboy hat. Look at me! I’m a Southern Boy at sea! Protip: Don’t hesitate to decorate the your hard hat how ever you see fit.

Vulcan Cowboy Hard Hat 6 Point Ratchet Suspension – White #VCB200

4. Pocket Knife

A decade ago when I went off to Antarctica, my wife sent me with a brand new CRKT pocket knife. I still have the knife and it is still reliable and sharp. Everyone again has personal preferences on what a pocket knife should include but let me tell you what I look for. You must be able to open it with a single hand. Good size thumb studs and fluid movement then are a must. I like a combo straight and serrated blade for a variety of tasks. And because I don’t want to slice my fingers off a locking blade is a must as well. The knife must also have a lanyard hole. You would be surprised how many knives do not. Also it needs to not be too big. You are not trying to be Rambo here. Protip: Grab yourself a sharpener. Nothing is more ridiculous than a dull knife. The Lansky PS-MED01 BladeMedic is amazing.

Crkt Knives 6813 Ryan Seven Combo Edge Knife

5. Lineman’s Pliers (or 9’s)

You want pull on something? Cut something? Grab something? Wrench something? And generally have a tool will accomplish every task you may face? You bet your bippy you do. That’s what lineman’s pliers are for and you must own a pair. Protip: Get a good set and be willing to spend a little money. My favorite quote from an Amazon review about 9’s is this “My grandfather used to say that if God had made 9″ Kleins first, it would’ve only taken him four days to finish the world.” Well you’re not God but you’ll be a little closer with these.
Klein Tools Tools D213-9NE 9-Inch High Leverage Side Cutting Plier

6. Snippers and Zip Ties

If you are good marine scientist you will go through your weight in cable ties. Make sure you get an assortment. You will also need something to snip all of those with. I have Hakko’s that are great quality and cheap. Protip: Purchase a divided utility box to keep your cable ties sorted by color and size.
Hakko CHP-170 Micro Clean Cutter, 16 Gauge Maximum Cutting Capacity

TEKTON 6235 Assorted Cable Ties, 200-Piece

7. These Velcro Straps

For binding up extension cords, rope, cable ties and just about everything else. Protip: Get them in multiple colors so you and your gear can be pretty.

Velcro Color Coded Multi-Pack Cable Ties in 6″, 9″ and 13.5″ Lengths

8. Multi-Bit Screwdriver

Don’t be that person with a mutlitool or the tip of your knife trying to screw something. My father-in-law gifted me a Klein multi-bit screwdriver years ago. I LOVE THIS THING. Everything right where it needs to be and all the head choices you really need—big and small, Phillips and flat heads. Protip: Make sure also to grab the little one too for all those tiny places.

Klein Tools 32557 Heavy-Duty Multi-Bit Screwdriver/Nut Driver

Klein 32561 Std. Stubby Screwdriver/Nut Driver with Cushion Grip. 6 in 1 Tool.

9. Duck Tape

Yeah I know it’s actually duct tape but I didn’t realize that until I was 9, or 29, years old. Go ahead and stock up on this because this miracle of the 20th century will probably save your ass more than once. Protip: Don’t get fancy with colors either because that will cost your more but do not buy an off brand, go straight for the 3M.

3M Utility Duct Tape 2929 Silver, 1-22/25 in x 50 yd 5.8 mils (Pack of 1)

10. Gridded Petri Dishes

Need to count a bunch of tiny things under the microscope? Or just need to start sorting fauna out of sediment samples. Then gridded petri dishes are your friend. The biodiversity of the deep sea is both a blessing and a curse. The lines actually help alleviate the latter.

Petri Dish, Square Grids – Package of 10

11. Stainless Steel Tally Counter

If you have never counted so many things that you needed a hand counter you are probably missing out. Not really. However there is something very soothing about clicking away the time with your thumb. Protip: Get the stainless steel one for the obvious reasons—like bragging to other scientists about your stainless steel tally counter

Buy Jump Ropes H-102 Stainless Steel Tally Counter

12. Tupperware

I cannot even begin to enumerate the reasons why you will need Tupperware in the field. Are you going to need to hold stuff? Are you going to need to keep stuff from moving about? Are you going need to construct something with just duct tape, zip ties, and Tupperware? Yes, Yes, and Yes. Protip: Buy an assortment pack.

Rubbermaid 50-Piece Easy Find Lid Food Storage Set

13. Cafeteria Tray

When working in the lab or at sea it is important to contain your mess and items. Cafeteria tray to the rescue! I’ve used these for dissection trays and for transferring items back and forth between the cold room and the lab. The fiberglass trays, as opposed to the plastic, are more durable. The one I use is stain, odor, and scratch-resistance perfect for marine invertebrates. Protip: Get one in black as it will make a nice background for shooting photographs of animals, rocks, and other samples.

Cambro 1520-110 Fiberglass Camtray Rectangular Cafeteria Tray, Black

14. Restaurant Bus Tub

Basically the same philosophy as the cafeteria tray but with sides! Keep your stuff organized in the lab and provides a nice containment area for all that wet sorting. Protip: Buy two.

Rubbermaid Commercial FG335100BRN Undivided Bus/Utility Box, 7-1/8-gallon, Brown

15. Shelf Liner

Shelf liner is cheap and keeps your laptop, coffee cup, microscope, and everything else from moving around. May just prevent that laptop from sliding right off the table onto the lab floor when the boat is rocking.

Con-Tact Grip Premium Non-Adhesive Shelf Liner, 12-Inch by 4-Feet, Black

16. Shop Paper Towels

Can some explain to me what is up with the little boxes of Chemwipes? They are expensive and do not absorb anything—sort of like John Wayne toilet paper. Chemwipes are the scooters of paper towels. Sure there cute and little but if you are driving more than a couple of miles worthless. On the other hand, blue shop towels are the pure Detroit 70’s muscle power of paper towels. The 1970 Plymouth Hemi’ Cuda. You could dry an entire research vessel with just one square of these. You will never look at paper towels the same again.

SCOTT- Shop Towels, 12 rolls

17. Custom Lab Notebook

I like my music, dance moves, vehicles, and much more old school. My data recording is the same way. I record everything into a lab notebook. I print graphs from my computer and tape them in my notebook. I write notes and new research ideas in my notebook. It is way for me to engage with the information around me. At the Book Factory you can custom order hard cover lab notebooks and have your name embossed in gold on the front cover. Protip: Opt for the gridded pages.

18. iBomb

You will most definitely want to get you jam on. At 1:30 am sorting samples in the lab it will definitely be time to blast Beastie Boy’s Sabatoge. This little speaker is THE BEST portable speaker out there. It will fit in the palm of your hand and produce enough base to rival any Ice Cube’s low low. Protip: Develop a special field playlist.

iBomb(TM) EX350 High Quality Wireless Bluetooth 3.0 with 3.5mm AUX Input, Microphone, Micro SD Card Slot Include for MP3 Function, Rechargeable Super Bass Sounding Stainless Steel Mini Speaker (Silver)

19. eBags Mother Lode

My consistent fear is over packing. This is only second to my fear that others will think I am over packing. What you need is a piece of luggage that doesn’t look like you are packing a lot. Enter the Mother Lode. It is really phenomenal how much you can fit inside this carry on bag. Well made and with all the same properties of a Tardis. Protip: Choose the black color so stains will not show.

eBags Mother Lode TLS Mini 21″ Wheeled Duffel (Tropical Turquoise)

20. Chubby Bottom Coffee Mug

Let’s face it, you will be drinking a lot of coffee in the field. A skinny travel mug will be no good at sea. Always tipping over. You need something with a fat bottom that refuses that laughs in the face of a rocking boat. Great mug but with its fat bottom it will laugh at standard size cup holders. Protip: Buy a carbineer to attach it to your travel bag.

Stainless Steel Thermal Insulated Chubby Cup

21. Pelican Case

Pelican cases are water and crush proof to protect all your available assets. If they made larger ones you could ship your students in them. I get hours of enjoyment cutting the foam inserts to fit exactly around my field dissecting scope Protip: Choose one with roller and extendable handle for easy travel.

Pelican Storm Case 24.90″ x 23.70″ x 13.10″ Case w/out Foam – Black

22. Alcohol Resistant Markers

No not that kind of alcohol but that would be important too. Not much to say other than when you labeling the jar or bag of a valuable specimen you want that information to last forever. Protip: Buy many.

Alcohol Resistant Cryogenic Permanent Markers – Black – Pack of 6

23. Amscope

Why would you take an expensive Zeiss microscope to sea or the field? Great optics are find for the lab back home. But in the case of loss or damage you do not want you $10,000 Zeiss in the line of fire. Instead opt for the Amscope where you can purchase a dissecting scope for as little as $400. Protip: Purchase the digital camera through Amscope as well.

24. Your Own Blanket

Every ship supplies you with a scratch wool blanket from the 1920’s. I always bring my own because I prefer not to have skin rubbed off during the night and it is never quite clear to me when these were last cleaned. I use a fleece blanket because it packs up quite small and can double as a pillow on a flight. You can use a zip tie to keep it cinched. Protip: Order a fleece blanket with some flare so you know it is yours. I like the one below with a Bald Eagle on it. ‘MERICA!

American Eagle Print Comfy Polar Fleece Throw Blanket 60″ X 70″ – Bigger, Better, Softer – One Week Clearance Sale On Now!

25. Waterproof Smartphone Case

Without going into the painful details, I have lost two iPhones to water. Protip: Buy one now.

LifeProof Cases

The post My 25 Favorite Things For Ocean Field Work first appeared on Deep Sea News.

The goal was to create a tree where the top represented the ocean’s surface and the base representing the abyssal floor. With a series of white, blue, and black ribbon and silver and blue miniature bulb ornaments, we created the effect of attenuated light as you move deeper. We wanted to make sure to include both a remotely operated vehicle on a lighted tether as well as lighted bathysphere. The tree also included a giant squid attacking a shark and whale fall complete with crabs and eels. We also made some tiny experimental wood falls to resemble the real ones we now have deployed all over the Gulf of Mexico.

You can print all of these decorations yourself. The complete collection can be found in my Thingiverse collection and include:

• The research vessel on top is the ICE – the icebreaker by vandragon_de (with the addition of little printed A-frame for the aft deck.
• The basic and blocky (or to sound like a sophisticated maker low-poly) remote operated vehicle was designed by us.
• Giant Squid by TheGreenFilament
• Shark! Sliced to Print by MacGyver
• Starfish model by Empiricus
• The Voyage of the Bathysphere by themindseye
• LOW POLY CRAB by RaffoSan (for whale fall)
• Eel by Benc (for whale fall)
• Whale by YahooJAPAN (whale for whale fall)
• Giant Deep-sea Isopod by the one and only Andrew_Thaler. (The model is actually based on a real specimen in our lab.)
• Puffer Fish (of awesomeness) by Dinoman (garland)
• A simple log by Montravont
• Vampire Squid by sinryan
• Hammerhead Shark by pmoews

The post 3-D Printing the Ulitmate Deep-Sea Christmas Tree first appeared on Deep Sea News.

Introduction

The Ocean Cleanup, brainchild of Dutch inventor Boyan Slat, was in the news again this past week after announcing that in addition to the fact that their system is unable to collect plastic as intended, it suffered a mechanical failure. “Wilson” is currently being towed to Hawaii, where it will undergo repairs and upgrades, presumably to be towed back out to the garbage patch for a second trial.

I am not a mechanical engineer, so I don’t intend to comment on the details of their mechanical failure. I am, however, a sea-going oceanographer. Which means that I am used to the sorts of situations with scientific research equipment that was so succinctly paraphrased by Dr. Miriam Goldstein:

Designing for physics

But beyond the engineering, there are the questions of what the *physics* are that TOC are relying on for their system to be successful. Some of you may recall that the original design was to moor (i.e. *anchor*) their device in 6000m (20000 feet) of water, and let existing ocean currents sweep garbage into the U-shaped structure. Thankfully, they realized the challenges associated with deep-ocean moorings, and abandoned that idea.

The latest design iteration (misleadingly called “System 001”, as though they haven’t built and tested any other previous to it), is to have a freely-drifting system, avoiding the use of anchors. TOC claim that under the influence of current, wind, and waves, their design will drift *faster* than the plastic — causing it to accumulate in the U, making for easy pickup. They summarize the concept with a little explainer video on their website, with a representative screen shot below:

Based on a quick Twitter rant that I had after thinking about all this for a few minutes (see here), I wanted to explain out the various points that have either a) been missed by TOC design team, or b) deliberately excluded from their rosy assessment of how they expect their system to actually collect garbage. What follows is a “first stab” at a physical oceanographic assessment of the basic idea behind “System001”, and what TOC would need to address to convince the community (i.e. scientists, conservationists, etc) that their system is actually worth the millions of dollars going into development and testing.

The premise

As outlined in the video, the premise of System001 as a garbage collection system is that through the combined action of wind, waves, and currents, the U-shaped boom will travel faster through the water than the floating plastic, thereby collecting and concentrating it for eventual removal. This appears to be based on the idea that while both the boom and the plastic will drift with the current, because the boom protrudes from the water (like a sail), it will actually move faster than the surface water by catching wind.

There are some issues with this premise. Or, at least, there are some real aspects of oceanography that have either been ignored or missed in thinking that such a system will behave in the predictable way described by TOC. I’ll try and outline them here.

Stokes drift

Any of you who may have had an introduction to ocean waves may have heard that during the passage of a wave, the water particles move in little circles (often called wave orbital motion). While not a bad “first-order” description, it turns out that for real ocean waves there is also some drift in the direction of wave propagation. This drift is named after Gabriel Stokes, who first described it mathematically in 1847 (see wikipedia article here).

The amount of drift depends nonlinearly on both the amplitude and the wavelength of the wave. For example, for a 0.5m amplitude wave with a wavelength of 10m and period of 10s (something like typical ocean swell), the drift velocity is about 10 cm/s right at the surface.

Of course, the Stokes’ solution describes the motion of the water parcels being moved by the wave. For those water parcels to then have an effect on anything in the water, one would need to consider the various components of force/impulse/momentum (i.e. our buddy Sir Isaac Newton). Needless to say, it seems obvious that a smallish piece of neutrally buoyant plastic will respond to the Stokes drift much more readily than a 600m long floating cylinder with a large mass (and therefore large inertia).

This alone could be enough to quash the idea of a passive propagating collection system. Mr Slat?

Ekman currents

While we’re talking about long-dead European fluid mechanics pioneers, any study of the effect of winds and currents wouldn’t be complete without a foray into the theories proposed by Swedish oceanographer Vagn Walfrid Ekman in 1905. What Ekman found was that when the wind blew over the surface of the ocean, the resulting current (forced by friction between the air and the water) didn’t actually move in the same direction as the wind. The reason for this is because of the so-called “Coriolis effect”, whereby objects moving on the surface of the Earth experience an “acceleration” orthogonal to their direction of motion that appears to make them follow a curved path (for those who want to go down the rabbit hole, the Coriolis acceleration is essentially a “fix” for the fact that the surface of the Earth is non-inertial reference frame, and therefore doesn’t satisfy the conditions for Newton’s laws to apply without modification).

Anyway — the consequence is that in an ideal ocean, with a steady wind blowing over the surface, the surface currents actually move at an angle of 45 degrees to the wind direction! Whether it’s to the left or right of the wind depends on which hemisphere you are in — I’ll leave it as an exercise to determine which is which. And what’s cooler, is that the surface current then acts like a frictional layer to the water just below it, causing it to move at an angle, and so on, with the effect being that the wind-forced flow actually makes a SPIRAL that gets smaller with depth. This is known as the Ekman spiral.

The actual depth that the spiral penetrates to depends on a mysterious ocean parameter called Az, which describes the vertical mixing of momentum between the layers — kind of like the friction between them. What is clear though, is that a small particle of plastic floating close to the surface and a 3m deep floating structure will likely not experience the same wind-forced current, and therefore won’t move in the same direction. Hmmm … that’s going to make it hard to pick up pieces of plastic.

What is a “Gyre” anyway?

The final point I wanted to make in this article (I have more, which I’ll summarize at the end for a possible future article), is to try and give a sense of what currents in the ocean (including in the “gyre” or in the region often referred to as the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”) actually look like. The conception that there is a great swirling current 1000’s of km across is true only when the currents are averaged for a very long time. At any given instant, however, the ocean current field is a mess of flows at various space and time scales. An appropriate term for describing typical ocean flow fields is “turbulent”, as in an oft-viewed video made by NASA from satellite ocean current data.

To illustrate this, I took some screenshots of current conditions from the wonderful atmosphere/ocean visualization tool at earth.nullschool.net showing: ocean currents, surface waves, and wind.

These images illustrate the potential problem with TOC idea, by highlighting the fact that the wind, wave, and current fields of the ocean (including even in the “quiet” garbage patch) are highly variable spatially and temporally, and are almost never aligned at the same period in time. What’s more, is that the currents and waves at a given time and location are not always a result of the wind at that location. Eddies in the ocean are generated through all kinds of different processes, and can propagate across ocean basins before finally dissipating.

Similarly, surface waves have been measured to cross oceans (i.e. the famous “Waves across the Pacific” study pioneered by the transformative oceanographer Walter Munk).

Other issues

Following the “rule of three”, I tried to hit what I consider to be the biggest concerns with TOC system design and principle, from my perspective as a physical oceanographer. However, there are other issues that should be addressed, if the system as designed is really believed by the TOC team to be capable of doing what they say. And really, it seems like a crazy waste of time on behalf of everyone involved to have spent this much time on something if they aren’t sure it will even work theoretically … not to mention the money spent thus far. So, part of me *has* to believe that all the dozens of people involved care deeply about making something that might actually work, and they have studied and considered all the effects and potential issues I (and others) have raised.

Anyway, the other issues are:

• What is the actual response of the system to a rapid change in wind/wave direction? Wind can change direction pretty quickly, especially compared to ocean currents. What’s to prevent a bunch of accumulated plastic getting blown out the open end of the U after a 180 degree shift in wind but before the system can re-orient?
• What about wave reflection from the boom structure itself? It is a well-known fact that objects (even floating ones) can reflect and “scatter” waves (scattering is when the reflected waves have a shorter wavelength than the original ones), and it seems like this could create a wave field in the U that might actually causes drift *out* of the system.
• The idea that all wildlife can just “swim under” the skirt (because it’s impermeable) is not supported by anything that I consider to be rigorous fluid mechanics, aside from the fact that much of what actually lives in the open ocean are non-motile or “planktonic” species. There are a lot of communities in the open ocean that float and drift at the surface, and I see no way that if the System collects floating plastic as it is designed that it won’t just sweep up all those species too. The latest EIA brushed off the effect of the System on planktonic organisms by stating that they “are ubiquitous in the world’s oceans and any deaths that occur as a result of the plastic extraction process will not have any population level effects”. But that doesn’t take into account that the stated mission is to deploy 60 such systems, which are estimated to clean the garbage patch of surface material at a rate of 50% reduction every 5 years. It stands to reason that they would also clean the Pacific of its planktonic communities by the same amount.

The post The (ocean) physics of The Ocean Cleanup’s System 001 first appeared on Deep Sea News.

boon·dog·gle
/ˈbo͞onˌdäɡəl/

noun:  work or activity that is wasteful or pointless but gives the appearance of having value.

verb: waste money or time on unnecessary or questionable projects.

The end of 2018 was tough for the Ocean Cleanup and its founder, inventor, and CEO Boyan Slat.   In September, the 2000 foot-boom and supposed plastic collection device, was first deployed about 240 nautical miles offshore of San Francisco where it was tested for two weeks.  The boom was then towed an additional 1,400 miles off the West Coast, about halfway between California and Hawaii, to begin collecting plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.  This was supposed to be the first real-world proof of concept and trials of the device in the Pacific Garbage Patch.

Note that the previous prototype in the North Sea also failed at a shallower depth in calm seas. Of course, the next step is to build a bigger one and place it in rougher and deeper seas.

But in November, Ocean Cleanup stated the system was not holding plastic it collected.  This lack of plastic collection arose from the system moving too slowly at times to hold plastic within the U-shaped collection area.  The system is supposed to work by currents pushing plastics into the booms and nets.  Yet slow and complex currents in this region of the Pacific allowed plastics to float out of the device again.

In late December, 60-feet of boom had detached due to material fatigue.  Slat then indicated that this likely occurred due to wave action placing stress on the boom. The fracture was caused by material fatigue, he wrote. That’s likely because of the intense action of the waves that puts tremendous stress on objects in the water.

So to recap, the Ocean Cleanup system cannot either collect plastic or withstand the Pacific Ocean.

 In a September interview with NPR, he said the device averages about four inches per second, which his team has now concluded is too slow. The break in the barrier was due to an issue with the material used to build it.

However, both of these issues could have easily been avoided by more appropriate simulations, analyses, and information prior to construction and deployment.

When the material failure occurred, it wasn’t due to the result of a major Pacific storm. It was just normal wear and tear, Slat said

Understanding material stresses is a key component of an engineering project and one that is well understood before construction.   Note as well that the system is not something actually new, but is a modification of RO-BOOMS used in oil spill clean up since 1988.  I am confident the specifications for use and the ocean states the booms can operate in are well known by the manufacturer and previous users alike. [UPDATE: The booms used ar eno longer the RO-BOOMS.  It is a completely different design, a recent internal iteration which may explain the failure.]

And while currents are complex, a whole field of physical oceanography exists and provides readily the information to know the current regime in the area.  If more detailed temporal or spatial resolution is needed, the Ocean Cleanup team should have conducted more field studies to gain the data on the currents beforehand.    The Ocean Cleanup has always seemed poorly developed and executed, ignorant of the best science and data available, blatantly dismissive of critique, and far too hurried.

This rush to place the device in the ocean for both good publicity and for the feeling of accomplishing something is unproductive at best and dangerous at the worst.  And it clear that Slat is committed to an overly ambitious timeline no matter the consequences.

Founder & CEO Boyan Slat announced the news in a December 31 blog post, saying “setbacks like this are inevitable when pioneering new technology at a rapid pace”, and maintaining that ” these teething troubles are solvable, and the cleanup of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch will be operational in 2019″.
Read more at http://www.mysailing.com.au/latest/ocean-cleanup-s-20-million-plastic-catcher-breaks#1R7mecWOPU9tLbJl.99

I get no pleasure in saying I told you so but…

As noted in a recent article featuring Dr. Goldstein,

But a critic who has followed Slat’s project since he unveiled it more than five years ago said the failure was predictable and that systems deployed closer to shore stand a greater chance of slowing the deluge of plastics spilling into the world’s oceans.

“I certainly hope they will be able to get it to work, but this is a very difficult environment where equipment breaks, which is why you normally do things closer to shore, where things are easier to repair,” said [Dr.] Miriam Goldstein, director of ocean policy at the Center for American Progress

In 2014, Drs. Kim Martini and Drs. Miriam Goldstein, a physical and biological oceanographer, provided a detailed technical review of the feasibility study here at DSN. Note the two of them pointed nearly 4 years ago about these issues.

….The modeling studies severely underestimate potential loads and tensions on the moored array and boom. Therefore, they are insufficient to properly design a mooring concept and estimate potential costs…

Since the authors had access to ORCAFLEX, a professional software package to design offshore marine structures, a full-scale mooring array could have been modeled to estimate loads and tensions on the moored array, but was not.

Structural deformation of the array and loss of functionality by ocean currents are not addressed…

Yeah. So these exact failures were predicted four years ago.

As this article clearly lays out, we should focus our funding and time, on more promising solutions to the ocean trash problem.

The post The Continued Boondoggle of the Ocean Cleanup first appeared on Deep Sea News.

And luckily for us, Roxanne posts all of her adventures as they happen on her Istagram and Twitter feeds. Even better—Roxanne is currently on an expedition to explore the deep-sea Gulf of California with Nautilus Live, which is live broadcasting all of its dives for the world to watch. So you too can follow Roxanne and the octonaut crew on their real-life mission of discovery. As they say on the show: Octonauts, let’s do this!

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The #octonauts are back at it! Join us with @nautiluslive as we explore new vent and seep sites off the coast of Mexico. Dives will start in a few days!

A post shared by Roxanne Beinart (@rbeinart) on Oct 19, 2017 at 5:10am PDT

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Arrived at the ship and getting settled into the snazzy top bunk

A post shared by Roxanne Beinart (@rbeinart) on Oct 19, 2017 at 5:06pm PDT

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The #octonauts are steaming to station with @nautiluslive

A post shared by Roxanne Beinart (@rbeinart) on Oct 20, 2017 at 4:57pm PDT

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Working hard, processing samples with @nautiluslive

A post shared by Roxanne Beinart (@rbeinart) on Oct 22, 2017 at 2:30pm PDT

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#octonauts #roxbscience

A post shared by Roxanne Beinart (@rbeinart) on Oct 8, 2016 at 2:37pm PDT

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Look closely at the boxing glove. The #octonauts are psyched about this gup! #roxbscience

A post shared by Roxanne Beinart (@rbeinart) on Oct 8, 2016 at 10:38am PDT

The post When real-life marine biologist and mom goes to sea, she takes the octonauts with her first appeared on Deep Sea News.

No shit, Sherlock. A staggering achievement – fishing for a 2m thing in 5000m water with a 10,000m line … very, very well done. https://t.co/gvKiU23H9B

— Sheldon Bacon (@sheldonbacon) March 10, 2017

I could not have said it better myself. Last weekend the wire cable from which the CTD is suspended on the RRS James Cook snapped, sending the entire thing to the bottom of the sea. Even worse, the crew had strapped 32 additional instruments onto the cage to calibrate them for the upcoming mooring deployment! I have no doubt the language onboard was extraordinary in that moment. Fortunately cooler heads prevailed in the 55 hours that followed and the entire cage was recovered. THE ENTIRE THING.

This is just an incredible story that demonstrates the resourcefulness of the people who work on oceanographic research ships. Read the whole story (and more about the RAPID expedition) at  https://rapidexpedition2017.blogspot.co.uk/

The post How to recover when something goes very, very wrong at sea first appeared on Deep Sea News.