Please be patient! We are temporarily down in Maintenance Mode as we implement some brand new features to expand our range of services we have scheduled to offer you 2012. 

Happy New Year from the SurfSpots-GPS Team!

Sign on today and support the…

2012

The world welcomes a turn of the page at midnight tonight to ring in a bright new year… may it be be filled with celebration all around the world with the hope for global peace, harmony, prosperity and the promise for a healthy thriving planet as a whole to begin anew 2012.

Cheers!

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Surfline Founder Sean Coliins

The surfing industry and world has changed after the sad news broke the other day that the founder of Surfline, Hall of Fame Surfer Sean Collins, succombed to a fatal heart attack on December 26, 2011.

As we all here at SurfSpotsGPS are still at a loss of words at this time after hearing the shocking news of Sean’s untimely and very sudden death, we would like to sincerely extend our most heartfelt condolences to his entire family, all of his friends and to all of those that dearly loved him.

Visit Surfline.com for more information.

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Surfing Santa Santa, AKA George Trosset of Cocoa Beach, goes stand-up surfing behind his home on Christmas Eve morning – Rik Jesse, 2009 FLORIDA TODAY

COCOA BEACH/Florida

PREDATOR: The light organs of the deep-sea scaleless dragon fish inspired Edith Widder’s Eye-in-the-Sea camera.

FORT PIERCE/Florida

Edith Widder presented a handful of greenish muck that had been pulled from the shallows of the Indian River Lagoon and cupped it in her palm.

“See that?” she asked. “That’s a lot of decayed organic matter. It’s just a great holding area for pollutants.”

Collecting mud is a new calling for Dr. Widder, a marine biologist who is known around the world for her work in much larger bodies of water.

Over a career spanning almost 30 years, Dr. Widder has made hundreds of dives in deep-sea submersibles to study the remarkable number and diversity of animals that make light. This ability, called bioluminescence, is strikingly common, shared by as many as 90 percent of the creatures in the open ocean.

“Animals use light to help them survive, to help them find food, to attract mates and to defend against predators,” she said. For example, in the ocean — “where there are no trees or bushes to hide behind” — a bioluminescent creature can use light to attract larger predators to its own enemies.

Now, Dr. Widder has found a way to put bioluminescence to work to fight pollution in the Indian River Lagoon, a 156-mile estuary that scientists say is one of Florida’s most precious and threatened ecosystems.

Edith Widder.

Enlarge This Image

A shrimp vomits bioluminescent material.

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Anglerfish rely on bioluminescent bacteria to light their way in the deep.

Back in her laboratory here, she mixes the sediment samples with a bioluminescent bacterium called Vibrio fischeri. Using a photometer to measure the light given off by the bacteria, she can quickly determine the concentration of toxic chemicals in the sediment by seeing how much and how quickly the light dims as the chemicals kill the bacteria.

Measuring the level of pollutants in the sediment provides a better indication of the estuary’s health than measuring the level of chemicals in the water, Dr. Widder said. “Pollution in water is transient,” she said, “but in sediment it’s persistent.”

Her samples have revealed high concentrations of heavy metals and nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen, which can cause runaway algae growth; those organisms consume oxygen and stifle life in the estuary. Dr. Widder has also designed sensors that are placed around the estuary and can beam real-time data like current and flow direction of the water. Pairing those data with the toxicity of the sediment, she can trace the source of pollution. The method is far cheaper and quicker than the more common practice of sending samples to a lab for analysis.

“The potential benefits of Edie’s efforts are huge,” said George Jones, executive director of Indian Riverkeeper, a local conservation organization.

Other organizations monitor the waters here, but Dr. Widder’s use of bioluminescent bacteria as a pollution marker and her system’s ability to do real-time monitoring are singular.

“One of the remarkable things about Edie is that, for a biologist, she is the most technologically savvy scientist I’ve ever come across,” said Bruce Robison, a senior scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California.

Another homegrown project of Dr. Widder’s design is opening a new perspective on deep-sea life.

She long wondered what kind of animals lurked beyond the bubbles and lights of big and noisy manned submersibles. So she developed Eye-in-the-Sea, an ocean-floor camera that uses a type of red light that sea creatures cannot see.

She drew animals to the camera with a spinning dial of LED lights resembling the distress call of a species of bioluminescent jellyfish, Atolla wyvillei, that appears to use light as a kind of burglar alarm, luring predators to go after whatever is attacking it.

Less than a minute and a half after the jellyfish lights were activated in the Eye-in-the-Sea’s first test, in the Gulf of Mexico in June 2004, a six-foot squid lurched out of the darkness toward the camera. It was a species never seen before by scientists.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better proof of concept,” Dr. Widder said.

In December 2009, another Eye-in-the-Sea camera was placed in 3,000 feet of water in the Monterey Canyon, off the coast of California, where it remained for a year. The resulting videos, spanning about 5,300 hours, are being studied by researchers and graduate students at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, who have discovered numerous new behaviors of deep-sea animals.

In March, Dr. Widder plans to deploy her system in Bahamian waters to study the behavior of deep-sea sharks that she hopes will be attracted to the spinning LED lights of her fake jellyfish.

Dr. Widder, 60, graduated from Tufts University, then earned a master’s in biochemistry and a Ph.D. in neurobiology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She spent 16 years at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute in Fort Pierce, where she was named senior scientist and director of the bioluminescence department.

She left Harbor Branch in 2005, and after reading a report by the United States Commission on Ocean Policy that described the perilous state of the world’s oceans, she founded the Ocean Research and Conservation Association, or ORCA. She won a MacArthur Foundation grant in 2006, and put the money toward her pollution monitoring project in the Indian River Lagoon.

Her tests have shown that specific areas of the lagoon are hot spots where pollution has reached levels that could endanger many of the 4,200 animal and plant species there. Some animals, like dolphins and manatees, are beloved local icons; others, like the eastern oyster, are no less important to the health of the ecosystem.

Scientists have long been aware of problems in the lagoon, where residential and commercial development has led to declining water quality and loss of habitat. But Dr. Widder’s work adds a visual element to what is already known, allowing people to see the hot spots most in need of immediate attention.

“It’s my belief if we can make pollution visible, and let people know what small things they are doing are actually making an improvement in this incredible environment,” she said, “I think it could make a huge difference. It can be a game-changer.” By ERIK OLSEN, The New York Times

Illuminating the Perils of Pollution, Nature’s Way

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BIG WAVE eXtreme surfing

Global Oceans, LLC

Environment News

International News Magazine

St.Lucie/Florida

A very rare massive invasion of moon jellyfish caused a nuclear power plant in St. Lucie to shut down this past August but it is only now that the full effects of all the damage is now being discovered. Marine researchers have learned the event killed several tons of protected goliath grouper after the plant’s three intake pipes, located almost a quarter-mile offshore, sucked in the unusual number of moon jellyfish traveling at about 4.6 mph, causing their poisonous tentacles to break off.  According to biologists working at the plant, the same kind of event has only occurred three times in the last thirty years and posed no threat to the public. Although the Florida Power and Light plant is designed to withstand the impact of a Boeing 747 jet, the massive jellyfish invasion caused a two-day shut down as the situation turned lethal and biologists scrambled to save the remaining injured fish. Divers were forced to leave the water after they too, were stung. Citing concerns of disease and bacteria spreading from the incident, the utility removed and cleaned the dead debris as quickly as possible.

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Mauricio Handler/ Handlerphoto.com

Mujeres, Mexico

Mauricio Handler/ Handlerphoto.com via Solent News & Photo Agency

Mauricio Handler/ Handlerphoto.com via Solent News & Photo Agency

SURFSPOTS-GPS

BIG WAVE eXtreme surfing

Global Oceans

Environment News

International News Magazine

NOAA photo of northern elephant seals on the coast of California.

Wildlife group tracks pinniped as part of Patagonia study

SAN FRANCISCO, California/USA

Tuesday, December 13, 2011 -A multi-faceted greening approach to the 2011 Rip Curl Pro Search held in San Francisco in November has delivered a significant “first” and a trio of “best yet” green accolades for the unique ASP World Tour surfing event.

A complete audit of the environmental initiatives implemented by Rip Curl and local non-profit organization Sustainable Surf has confirmed the green actions undertaken around the event have set a new benchmark for both the surf industry and mainstream sporting events.

For the first time ever, an ASP World Tour event had the bulk of its electricity needs met by off-grid generators powered by recycled cooking oil. With the help of Wastebusters, a specialist waste diversion company, the event achieved a staggering 90% waste diversion ratio. Combine this with offsetting the carbon footprint of competitors, officials and attending media means the Rip Curl Pro Search at San Francisco’s Ocean Beach was the most sustainably-powered and most climate-friendly surfing competition ever staged.

“Thinking globally and acting locally drove our overall approach to reducing our environmental impact. The city of San Francisco is a leader in greening initiatives so this provided us with the opportunity to learn and better our Rip Curl Planet event initiatives” said Rip Curl International Events Manager Brooke Farris.

Ms Farris added: “One of Rip Curl’s core principles is a commitment to working with local communities to protect the environment where we operate. With the event staged inside of a National Park, we chose to partner with Sustainable Surf to develop a comprehensive plan for limiting the direct impact from the event itself and to achieve some ambitious goals. We further partnered with local environmental non-profits Save the Waves and the Surfrider Foundation to support their beach conservation efforts at Ocean Beach.”

Commenting on the efforts, Sustainable Surf co-founder Michael Stewart said: “For us, the 2011 Rip Curl Pro Search in San Francisco was a test case for seeing just how sustainably-minded an ASP World Tour contest could be run. We were blown away by the amazing partnerships we were able to put together at the local level, and with Rip Curl’s willingness to push the limits of what was possible, it was a real team effort and success,” Stewart said.

The range of green measures successfully undertaken at the Rip Curl Pro Search included:

• 4,054 litres (1,071 gallons) of total fuel burned by generators, with 71% of that being B-100 biodiesel made from used cooking oil supplied by People’s Fuel Cooperative (a San Francisco-based worker-owned company) sourced from city restaurants under the City’s “Greasecycle” program.
• Following the City’s “Zero Waste” event program saw 2,903 kg (6,400 pounds) of total waste material generated at the event (excluding building materials for the site structures), with 90% of that recycled, composted or reused and only 10% going to landfill. Of the 2,615 kg of waste materials diverted from landfill, 35% was recyclable, 51% was compostable and 4% was re-useable for other purposes.
• An estimated 340 tonnes (375 tons) of carbon dioxide made up the carbon footprint of all event competitors, officials and attending media, with Carbonfund.org selected to source certified carbon offset credits from a US-based wind power project called Capricorn Ridge Wind Farm.
• 743 square metres (8,000 square feet) of contest banners were donated to a local “Progress Project” for “up-cycling” into surfboard covers, tote bags and laptop computer cases, with Rip Curl buying 210 tote bags, 9 board bags and 6 laptop sleeves and the remainder to be sold to the general public.
• In a bid to reduce plastic pollution at the event, all event officials and competitors were provided with stainless steel water bottles and similar bottles were sold at the event, with a public drinking water filling station provided, plus proceeds from the sale of water bottles donated to a fund for installation of a permanent water fountain near the Ocean Beach site.
• In line with the aim of minimizing the event’s carbon footprint, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition operated a free skateboard and bike valet service for rolling fossil fuel-free to the contest on the final two days.
• Reuse and recycling of used and broken surfboards and wetsuits.
• The world’s best surfers wore recycled rash vests made up of 61% recycled polyester, 27% bamboo and 12% spandex.

On top of those activities, collaborations with local environmental non-profit groups also saw Rip Curl:
• Sponsor the Save The Waves Film Festival, a fundraiser for that group’s organization and their local educational campaigns.
• Donate $5,000 toward the Save Sloat campaign via the local chapter of the Surfrider Foundation. Fittingly, the Rip Curl Pro Opening Party hosted by Surfrider featured Green Day as the headline artist.
• Staff and team surfers attended a beach clean-up organized by the local chapter of the Surfrider Foundation chapter.

Speaking further about their overall approach Ms Farris added: “The Rip Curl Pro presented by Ford at Bells Beach has had a range of environmental measures in place for more than a decade now, and our event in Portugal has some terrific planet initiatives. We can always do better and we’re committed to being leaders of the surf industry, so we’re looking forward to introducing more environmental innovations into future ASP World Tour events.”
Sustainable Surf’s other co-founder Kevin Whilden summarized the event: “This year’s Search contest really set a new high-water mark for how all ASP contests should be run moving forward. Like Rip Curl and many surfers, we look forward to the day when the comprehensive sustainability achievements accomplished by Rip Curl in San Francisco will just be business-as-usual for putting on a world class surfing event.”

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…it is certainly about time! and exactly what SurfSpots-GPS .com has intoduced in the sports arena as we combine business with an educational impact promoting global ocean conservation all around the world.

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