New Administrator of NOAA

Dr. Jane Lubchenco was nominated by President Elect Barak Obama as the Administrator of NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is devoted to conserving marine and coastal resources and monitoring weather. Obama said "as an internationally known environmental scientist, ecologist and former President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Jane has advised the President and Congress on scientific matters, and I am confident she will provide passionate and dedicated leadership at NOAA."

Thus begins a new phase in marine and coastal policy.

For me as a professor of coastal policy and for my students around the world this appointment is interesting for several reasons.

First, this appointment once again emphasizes the importance of politics in the design and conduct of marine and coastal policy. As we know from foreign policy, a president can profoundly influence the shape and nature of policymaking with the choices of leaders.

Second, both President Obama and Dr. Lubchenco understand the significance of many of the issues my students and I deal with on a day-to-day basis:

reducing overfishing, eliminate destructive methods for fishing, slowing down and reversing the overall polluting of the coastal areas and oceans, halting the acidification of oceans, smart-planning in future coastal construction, working with agriculture and other sectors in greatly cutting back on nitrate pollution and the resulting "Dead Zones", addressing the impact of climate change (especially warming of ocean temperatures) on reefs and other marine life.

This greater knowledge and empathy for the marine environment makes it much more likely that we will be investing in more aggressive science and policy implementation to reverse the destructive impact of human activity on fragile coastal and ocean ecosystems.

Third, I strongly believe that this national emphasis will have consequences at the state, country and local levels in terms of more emphasis on protection, preservation, conservation, and remediation of the coastal zone in all of AMERICA'S COASTAL STATES.

Fourth, this renewed vigor will produce new and exciting job and career opportunities for my students at all levels of government but also with private consulting and engineering firms that work with coastal infrastructure and coastal environments.

Fifth and finally, this renewed US energy and emphasis on oceans and coasts will inevitably trigger more interest and more action across the globe. International coastal zone science and management should gradually see a sharp increase in emphasis as well as funding and career opportunities. This is a very crucial moment for American scientists and institutions to increase their contacts and partnerships with colleagues, students, and institutions in other countries in the areas of marine and coastal research and education.

I have prepared and sent President elect Obama whom I met during the Iowa Caucus activities in the hectic primary season of 2007, a short briefing paper on coastal policy. I hope and assume that some of my specific suggestions will work their way into the Obama administration and NOAA agenda for the next eight years.

This is without a doubt a critically important and also more optimistic time for all of us concerned about and working on improving life by the sea, on the sea, and under the sea.

Well now what? Is there global warming? Is it just a cycle? Is this global cooling a blip or a trend? If so how big a trend? Do people in Florida need to worrry or will they NOT BE under water?

Steffen Schmidt, Professor of Coastal Policy

Alaska's glaciers thickening Click for link to New Zealand source
Sunday November 9, 2008

Photo Courtesy US Forest Service
http://www.skynews.co.nz/eco/article.aspx?id=277026

Two hundred years of glacial shrinkage in Alaska, and then came the winter and summer of 2007-2008.

Unusually large amounts of winter snow were followed by unusually chill temperatures in June, July and August.

“In mid-June, I was surprised to see snow still at sea level in Prince William Sound, “ said US Geological Survey glaciologist Bruce Molnia. On the Juneau Icefield, there was still 20 feet (6 metres) of new snow on the surface of the Taku Glacier in late July. “At Bering Glacier, a landslide I am studying, located at about 1,500 feet (457 metres) elevation, did not become snow-free until early August. In general, the weather this summer was the worst I have seen in at least 20 years.

Never before in the history of a research project dating back to 1946 had the Juneau Icefield witnessed the kind of snow buildup that came this year. It was similar on a lot of other glaciers too.

“It's been a long time on most glaciers where they've actually had positive mass balance,” Molnia said.

That's the way a scientist says the glaciers got thicker in the middle.

Mass balance is the difference between how much snow falls every winter and how much snow fades away each summer. For most Alaska glaciers, the summer snow loss has for decades exceeded the winter snowfall.
The result has put the state's glaciers on a long-term diet. Every year they lose the snow of the previous winter plus some of the snow from years before. And so they steadily shrink.

Since Alaska's glacial maximum back in the 1700s, Molnia said, I figure that we've lost about 15 per cent of the total area.

What might be the most notable long-term shrinkage has occurred at Glacier Bay, now the site of a national park in Southeast Alaska. When the first Russian explorers arrived in Alaska in the 1740s, there was no Glacier Bay. There was simply a wall of ice across the north side of Icy Strait.
That ice retreated to form a bay and what is now known as the Muir Glacier. And from the 1800s until now, the Muir Glacier just kept retreating and retreating and retreating. It is now back 91.7 km from the entrance to the bay, said Tom Vandenberg, chief interpretative ranger at Glacier Bay.

That's farther than the distance from glacier-free Anchorage to Girdwood, where seven glaciers overhang the valley surrounding the state's largest ski area. The glaciers there, like the Muir and hundreds of other Alaska glaciers, have been part of the long retreat.

Overall, Molnia figures Alaska has lost 10,000 to 12,000 square kilometres of ice in the past two centuries, enough to cover an area nearly the size of Connecticut.

Molnia has just completed a major study of Alaska glaciers using satellite images and aerial photographs to catalogue shrinkage. The 550-page Glaciers of Alaska will provide a benchmark for tracking what happens to the state's glaciers in the future.

Climate change has led to speculation they might all disappear. Molnia isn't sure what to expect. As far as glaciers go, he said, Alaska's glaciers are volatile. They live life on the edge.

What we're talking about to (change) most of Alaska's glaciers is a small temperature change; just a small fraction-of-a-degree change makes a big difference. It's the mean annual temperature that's the big thing.

All it takes is a warm summer to have a really dramatic effect on the melting.

Or a cool summer to shift that mass balance the other way.

One cool summer that leaves 6 metres of new snow still sitting atop glaciers come the start of the next winter is no big deal, Molnia said.

Ten summers like that?

Well, that might mark the start of something like the Little Ice Age.

During the Little Ice Age - roughly the 16th century to the 19th - Muir Glacier filled Glacier Bay and the people of Europe struggled to survive because of difficult conditions for agriculture. Some of them fled for America in the first wave of white immigration.

The Pilgrims established the Plymouth Colony in December 1620. By spring, a bitterly cold winter had played a key role in helping kill half of them. Hindered by a chilly climate, the white colonisation of North America through the 1600s and 1700s was slow.

As the climate warmed from 1800 to 1900, the United States tripled in size. The windy and cold city of Chicago grew from an outpost of fewer than 4,000 in 1800 to a thriving city of more than 1.5 million at the end of that century.

The difference in temperature between the Little Ice Age and these heady days of American expansion?

About three or four degrees Fahrenheit, Molnia said.

The article is titled "Raising cities from the sea: trouble-shooting the world's mega-projects"
(Sat, Nov 01, 2008).

This article deals with a meeting of industry leaders to discuss how to remodel the Gulf coastline at the Middle East Coastal Projects Conference 2008. YES you read it correctly! In some parts of the world the mission is to "remodel" the coastline and make it as different as is humanly possible from the original and natural coast.

Dubai, UAE, 1 November 2008: A lack of imagination - or funds - has never hampered development in the UAE. There are now US$536 billion of marine works and projects planned or underway in the region as the GCC remodels its coastline in its bid to become one of the world's most popular destinations for tourism and commerce. The Middle East Coastal Projects Conference 2008 is being launched by MEED, the business intelligence experts, to explore this exciting and ever-expanding area of construction and development.

While money is not a barrier, the technical and engineering challenges faced by developers dredging and then building on reclaimed land on such a huge scale are equally massive. The list of issues to be overcome by planners, developers and specialist marine contractors includes: environmental concerns around dredging and ever-tightening regulation; engineering at the cutting-edge; proper ground improvement works and pre-construction testing; social, economic and infrastructure planning; understanding what buyers and investors want in a competitive market; and, not least, how to deliver such mega-projects as the Waterfront in Dubai on time and on budget.

Middle East Coastal Projects 2008 conference will explore the key challenges and highlight the enormous potential for those involved in coastal development. Supported by Platinum sponsors Burooj Properties, the two-day conference and master classes will be held on November 16 to 18 2008 at the Westin Hotel, Dubai.

Edmund O'Sullivan, Chairman, Meed Events comments: "The Middle East Coastal Projects 2008 conference comes at an exceptionally exciting time for specialists involved in the residential and commercial development sector. Thanks to imaginative and high-profile projects such as Nakheel's Palm Islands in Dubai and the ambitious Saadiyat Island development in Abu Dhabi, the eyes of the world are on the Middle East. The pressure of this expectation in turn creates huge challenges for those involved in the complex and costly task of reclaiming land and building upon it in a sustainable way. (Read - "digging up the desert and land filling the coastline!" There is no "reclaiming" going on here).

"Anyone who has an interest in residential and commercial development here in the Middle East will make exceptional contacts at the conference - including residential and industrial developers, port operators, planners, dredgers and, of course, marine contractors. Delegates are expected from all the GCC countries and further afield including the USA and Canada, Europe and Asia."

Key speakers and industry insiders contributing to the conference include:
Majid Yavary, Vice President (Infrastructure Development), Abu Dhabi Ports Company
Ghassan Ziadet, Regional Head of Bridges (Middle East & India), Atkins
Ian Raine, Project Director (Arabian Canal), Limitless
Ali Mansour, Director, Nakheel
Reji John, Senior Director, NSCC
Gerald Mille, Chief Executive Officer, QDVC
John Martin, Managing Director (Middle East), WSP

Delegates for MEED's Middle East Coastal Projects 2008 conference are also able to take advantage of two pre-event master classes on best practice for marine and coastal construction: firstly, how to ensure that projects meet increasingly stringent environmental regulations and secondly, on how to manage risk across partnering agreements. (Note: I assume that these regulations do not include filling in the Gulf and buolding artificial islands, dislocating and disrupting marine life, having massive human activity including demand for water and sewage disposal, boats and all kinds of discharge threats. But then again, I may be wrong).

MEED is the acknowledged market-leader in key regional industry-focused events and conferences; delivering expert, up-to-date business intelligence, industry data and research findings. More information about Middle East Coastal Projects 2008 - including the latest news, pre-event masterclasses and full conference details, can be found at www.meed.com/events/coastal

This is all very interesting by comparison to American and Canadian concepts of coastal zone management and stewardship.What do you think? Is this the wave of the future as other countries start developing their coastal zones?

VOL 17 ,NO 11 Monday, October 20, 2008

Here is an interesting article on beach erosion from India. We believe that there is a great deal of merit in using comparative information to solve these types of problems. After all, why reinvent the wheel? On this blog we will try to share some of the discussions that are going on around the world on coastal zone issues. Please share your comments with our readers.


Value lost in sea

Intro:

Coastal erosion turns Puri’s prime beachfront property to nothing

Until now hoteliers and house-owners by the coast were the envy of Puri, Orissa’s most popular tourist destination. Today they fear losing it all to the sea that is fast advancing inland; it has already touched part of the 1.5 km road running along the shore in Sipasarubali area. If hotel owners fear loss of business, property owners are nervous because banks are no longer as willing to give loans against Puri’s beachfront assets. Erosion has destroyed their credit-worthiness.

“If someone from the area comes to us for a loan, I think we will have to tell him we can’t help,” said Devi Dutta Mohanty, appraiser of hdfc home loans, Bhubaneswar. Banks normally fall over one another to get to the customer with a house loan. But now that the property in the area is threatened by erosion, “it puts a big question mark on the collateral against which we will give the loan,” said Kailash Chandra Sahu, manager, Vijaya Bank, Puri.

In a city that thrives on tourism the fear among hotel owners runs deeper. Erosion of the 35 kilometre of beach between Puri and Konark, another very popular tourist spot, could mean loss of business. The twin towns are popular with both domestic and international tourists. Business is brisk along the coast. Hotels of all categories—from the high end to the low—run a full house all the eight dry months of the year. Restaurants, cafes and eateries that dot the beach can barely cope with the demand for fresh lobsters and crabs from their tourist patrons.

All this may come under sea water if erosion continues. “We are so worried. This will affect the entire tourism trade here,” said Vikas Das, an executive with Hotel Hans Coco Palm. “We have asked the government to intervene,” said another hotelier, Ramkrushna Das Mohapatra of Puri Beach Resort.

The administration in Puri responded by laying stone boulders and sand bags on the road embankment sloping down to the beach. But this is a temporary measure for which the government has sanctioned Rs 7 crore. Naturally, it has not generated hope. “The sea had never advanced this far ever. Now that it has come up to touch the road people are afraid to build houses here,” said Harish Mohanty, a resident of Sipasarubali area.

While the government looks for a solution in geotextile tubes (wave breakers made of high grade rexin) and in building a sea wall, the final decision will come as a comprehensive state government project, said Orissa’s director, environment, Bhagirathi Behera (see Bureaucracy on the beach, Sept 16-30). The project, he added, is expected to get a Rs 100 crore assistance from the World Bank under the Integrated Coastal Zone Management Plan.

“We will be submitting the detailed project report soon. This will be for the Gopalpur-Chilika and Dhamra-Paradip stretches,” said Behera. Officials said the government has also decided to set up a coastal erosion project directorate.

Sea and its waves
N K Mahalik, retired geology professor of Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, attributes coastal erosion to global warming: “Rising temperatures have led to rise in the sea’s water mass. The sea is expanding everywhere with this rise in its water mass. During monsoon storms this excess water gets an added thrust and starts eroding the coast. ”

At the present rate of increase in global temperatures, explained Geological Survey of India’s Subhranshu Bhushan Ray, the temperature of the ocean surface is estimated increase by about 2°C from today’s levels by the middle of this century. “In that case the ocean surface will rise by 15 to 30 cm. This will mean higher waves and much greater wave energy, leading to much deeper ingress of the sea into the landmass,” he said.

Ray recommends the Orissa government does what Australia and the us have done to protect their beaches from erosion. One is to make a series of low walls stretching into the sea from land which would act as water barriers. The waves would dissipate their energy on them, thus reducing the chances of beach erosion.

The other method is known as beach nourishment wherein sand from the areas of excess is pumped and deposited in areas of deficiency caused by erosion. “We can use both these methods to good effect,” said Ray.

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http://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20081031&filename=news&sec_id=4&sid=18

(Photo U of Oregon)

The headlines are frightening.

"Venomous lionfish prowls fragile Caribbean waters"

In this Associated press article (Aug 13, 2008), David McFadden writes that

"A maroon-striped marauder with venomous spikes is rapidly multiplying in the Caribbean's warm waters, swallowing native species, stinging divers and generally wreaking havoc on an ecologically delicate region. The red lionfish, a tropical native of the Indian and Pacific oceans that probably escaped from a Florida fish tank, is showing up everywhere — from the coasts of Cuba and Hispaniola to Little Cayman's pristine Bloody Bay Wall, one of the region's prime destinations for divers."

As a frequent diver in this area as well as Tonga, Belize, Bonaire, Florida and other places this is a very distressing development. We divers are the original diversity supporters. We know that all of the vibrancy in the oceans are the result of species health and diversity. The lionfish seriously threatens this.

"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 may very well become the most devastating marine invasion in history," said Mark Hixon, an Oregon State University marine ecology expert who compared lionfish to a plague of locusts. "There is probably no way to stop the invasion completely."

Most devastating in history! This is a very surprising escalation of the attack of invasive species. It is closer to the devastating Black Sea invasion by jellyfish caused by the collapse of that ecosystem's environmental quality.

"A white creature with maroon stripes, the red lionfish has the face of an alien and the ribbony look of something that survived a paper shredder — with poisonous spikes along its spine to ward off enemies. The invasion is similar to that of other aquarium escapees such as walking catfish and caulerpa, a fast-growing form of algae known as "killer seaweed" for its ability to crowd out native plants. The catfish are now common in South Florida, where they threaten smaller fish in wetlands and fish farms."

We are all aware of the cases of invasives that from time to time attract the attention of the news media. The Zebra Mussel is one example of a well covered invasive. Here is another:

"In Africa, the Nile Perch rendered more than 200 fish species extinct when it was introduced into Lake Victoria. The World Conservation Union calls it one of the 100 worst alien species invasions"

This is the big threat to the homeostasis of ecosystems - the extinction of species which are vital to the balance of any ecosystem and are necessary for the economic activity of human communites as well as potentially holding important genetic information for future use.

"Those kinds of things happen repeatedly in fresh water," Hixon said. "But we've not seen such a large predatory invasion in the ocean before."

For us as students of CZM and coastal policy this threat of invasives is a very important POLICY challenge.

• How do we nail down the origins and causes of invasivs?
• How do we force policymakers to quickly develop new laws and regulations to slow or halt the further spread of invasives?
• How do we attack the invasives, bring them under control and reestablish the origina ecosystem?

(Image courtesy City of New Orleans, 2008)

New Orleans is a vulnerable city that is in the bulls eye of severe coastal weather. It is also a city that has suffered from foolish coastal management which has exposed the Big Easy to even more risks that just its location. Below is a link to a great discussion of these coastal problems. There are some universal lessons to be learned for all US coastal zones. We will examine all of these in my Coastal Policy and Politics class. Steffen Schmidt, Professor

"The levees of New Orleans held fast against Hurricane Gustav but several more storms — including Hanna, Ike and Josephine — are now forming. Hurricane expert Ivor van Heerden discusses the levee reconstruction project and how New Orleans will fare during what is expected to be an active hurricane season."

Can NOLA withstand another storm? National Public Radio.

also read the short review New Orleans, Gulf Coast Assess Gustav Damage by Dina Temple-Raston.