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Solar Powered Boat
September 24 , 2008
In this day and age of ‘green is better’ and emphasis on alternate energy sources, a solar powered boat out of is making waves! It may be slow, and you won’t get too far, but the designers and builders of the Serpentine Solar Shuttle claim it is the most advanced passenger ferry in the water! It’s maiden voyage was in London’s
Hyde Park in the lake.
At a breakneck speed of roughly 5 miles per hour (hold on to those hats!!!) it’s not exactly made for speed, but with the ability to carry up to 42 passengers, future designs are being created for a faster version that can carry more.
Beginning Saturday, operators will offer one-way tickets for the half-mile cruise at $2.75, per child and $5.50 for adults.
"This is the most technologically advanced shuttle in the world right now," said designer Christoph Behling, who also designed the world's largest solar boat in
Hamburg, .
"It is made of entirely stainless steel which means it never gets old. It will pave the way for future boats and trains and other means of transportation," Behling said.
The Serpentine Shuttle has 27 solar panels on its roof, and the energy generated by the sun is enough to keep the boat running for a distance of 82 miles (give or take). The design of the vessel makes it possible to sail even on overcast days. Saving nearly 5,000 pounds of carbon dioxide, the boat is the first of its kind.
When the ferry is idle, surplus electricity generated by the solar panels will be fed back into the national transmission network.
Designers are working on a 300-passenger solar-powered ferry to run on the
Thames , and hopes it could be ready in 2008. A 60-passenger solar-powered train for London's
Battersea
Park is also in the works.
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The Dying Ocean
September 09 , 2008
Black Sea waves
The oceans are full of life, right? So why are ‘Dead Zones’ becoming more and more prolific?
Areas known as ‘oceanic dead zones’ which are areas where marine life cannot survive have steadily increased over the past five decades and now include 400 coastal areas worldwide.
The number of these areas, in which aquatic ecosystems disappear due to lack of oxygen in the water, have "approximately doubled each decade since the 1960s," according to a study in the journal Science.
"The formation of dead zones has been exacerbated by the increase in (pollution) ... fueled by riverine runoff of fertilizers and the burning of fossil fuels," the study said.
The phenomenon, called eutrophication, is caused by industrial pollution as well as runoff of water containing phosphates and nitrates into the oceans.
Oceans react to the boost in pollution by growing more algae and vegetation in coastal areas. When the algae dies and sinks to the bottom, it decreases the amount of oxygen available in the bottom waters, a process called hypoxia, eventually wiping out fish and crustaceans that live there, as well as the foods they eat.
Dead zones tend to creep up in calm waters that see lower water exchange, but have more recently been affecting major fishery areas in the Baltic, Kattegat, and
Black
Seas as well as the Gulf of Mexico and
East China Sea , the study said.
The researchers said the expansion of dead zones in these areas threatens commercial fishing and shrimping near the coastlines.
Global warming is also likely to increase oceanic dead zones by increasing temperature, causing changes in rainfall patterns and changing discharges of fresh water and nutrients into the oceans.
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Attack of the Lion Fish
September 06 , 2008
Pacific Lionfish found in the Bahamas
Many salt-water fish tank aficionados have a lionfish amongst their collection. But recently, the common species has invaded the
Caribbean 's warm waters, gouging on native species, stinging unwary divers and generally wreaking havoc on an already delicate area.
The red lionfish, most likely was released from a
Florida fish tank because the owner did not want to care for the high maintenance beauty anymore (really…how many fish ‘escape’ their tanks to the sea?) is showing up everywhere from the coasts of to
Little Cayman 's pristine Bloody Bay Wall, one of the region's prime destinations for divers.
Wherever it appears, the adaptable predator corners fish and crustaceans up to half its size with its billowy fins and sucks them down in one violent gulp.
Research teams observed one lionfish eating 20 small fish in less than 30 minutes.
This is the Biblical equivalent to a flock of locusts coming down on wheat fields.
Invasions like these are common in freshwater- where unwitting pet owners dump a fish they can no longer care for, but for it to happen so prolifically in salt water is unusual. As of right now, the lionfish has been concentrated in the , where marine biologists are seeing it in every habitat: in shallow and deep reefs, off piers and beaches, and perhaps most worrisome, in mangrove thickets that are vital habitats for baby fish.
Northern Caribbean islands have sounded the alarm, encouraging fishermen to capture lionfish and divers to report them for eradication. The invasion would be "devastating" to fisheries and recreational diving if it reached
Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
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