Trophic Cascade ~ Discovery & Eco-Regeneration

PBS Nature shares The Serengeti Rules episode on keystone species in ecosystems and the notion of a "trophic cascade" plus ultimately the prospect of ecosystem regeneration via "upgrading". These ecologists and natural scientists used "living labs" to better disentangle the complexities of biomes, for example, comparing tidepool life with and without starfish, pond life with and without bass fish, Scottish highlands with and without grazing sheep, parks with and without wolves, and kelp forests with and without sea otters.

Marine Protected Areas ~ Conserving the Seas

The BBC's Ade Adepitan visits the coast of Gabon which has implemented a substantial Marine Protected Area off its coast. I've been moved by the idea that half of Earth should be set aside in nature protection reserves. That is, half for animal kingdom, half for humanity. Right now, there's a lot more work to be done. Here's the biggest of the MPA's...

Who's Biggest? ~ Comparing Marine Creatures!

Who's biggest? See here...

All Ships ~ MarineTraffic Realtime Worldmap!

WEForum shares MarineTraffic worldmap of all ships!

Earth's Surface Water ~ Deltares Change Analysis

The BBC's Rebecca Morelle spotlights Surface water shifting around the Earth as discovered by the Deltares Research Institute in the Netherlands...

"They found that 115,000 sq km (44,000 sq miles) of land is now covered in water and 173,000 sq km (67,000 sq miles) of water has now become land. The largest increase in water has been on the Tibetan Plateau, while the Aral Sea has been the biggest conversion of water to land. The team said many coastal areas have also changed significantly. [...] The researchers said Dubai's coast had been significantly extended, with the creation of new islands to house luxury resorts."

Pioneering Spirit ~ Heavylift Ship Sea Trials!

Thanks to gCaptain for spotting the Pioneering Spirit single-lift installation/decommissioning and pipelay vessel departing Rotterdam for sea trials!

Shipmap ~ Annual Global Maritime Voyages...

The DailyMail's Ellie Zolfagharifard spotlights interactive Shipmap tracking ships worldwide over time...

Prelude Progress ~ Shell's FLNG Project Update!

gCaptain spots Shell's latest construction porn -- a progress video on the Prelude FLNG and related facilities!

"The 600,000 tonnes Prelude FLNG facility, the largest offshore facility ever constructed, is nearing completion at the Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) shipyard in Geoje, South Korea. Once completed, the floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility will be moored off Western Australia for a period of 20 to 25 years where it will be used to chill natural gas produced at the Prelude field to –162°C (-260°F), shrinking its volume by 600 times so it can be exported to customers in Asia. Once operational, the Prelude FLNG facility will produce at least 5.3 million tonnes (mtpa) per annum of liquids: 3.6 mtpa of LNG, 1.3 mtpa of condensate (equivalent to 35,000 bbl/d) and 0.4 mtpa of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)."

Ocean Ranching ~ OFT's Offshore Fishpens...

In his Scuttlefish piece How to Farm Fish Without Killing the Planet, author Owen James Burke spotlights fish farming...

"Aquaculture has been the world’s fastest-growing food sector for several decades, and some argue it is the only feasible answer to the predicament of trying to feed a growing global population that is expected to reach 9 billion by 2050."

Burke spotlights this Motherboard video about Steve Page of Ocean Farm Technologies and their free-range offshore fishpen enclosure method...

Timelapse Shipbuild ~ Mitsubishi Fabs AIDAprima

Check out this timelapse shipbuild video by Max Moos from MK Timelapse GmbH of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries assembling the AIDAprima cruise liner!

Invaders from the Sea ~ Ships Shift Stowaways!

gCaptain spots Invaders from the Sea...

"The International Maritime Organization partnered with renowned BBC Wildvision to produce this short film [...] offering unique insight into an important environmental issue: the transfer of harmful organisms in ships’ ballast water."

Motion Compensation ~ MacG Heavy Ship Crane

gCaptain's Rob Almeida spotlights MacGregor's 3-Axis Motion Compensated Crane Aboard the Siem Moxie. This is like Bose's "noise compensating" headphones or "bump canceling" active car shocks but for a heavy-lift crane on a ship moving in 3 meter waves!

FleetMon ~ Charting Global Shipping on 7 Seas!

NPR spots FleetMon's global shipping timelapse visualization...

Huge Fish Market ~ Tsukiji on Japanology Plus!

Tokyo's Tsukiji Market on Japanology Plus...

"The world's largest fish market -- hundreds of kinds of seafood from around the world are sold there. 40,000 people work at Tsukiji each day, and hordes of foreign tourists come to check out the vast, buzzing hive of activity. This time [...] we explore the customs and commerce of Tsukiji Market. Our guest is Masataka Fujiwara, a seafood expert who's been visiting Tsukiji regularly for more than 30 years."

And here's more intimate details...

CSCL Globe ~ Biggest (For Now) Containership!

Thanks to gCaptain for covering maiden UK visit of world's largest (for the next couple months) containership, the 400 meter long, 19,100 TEU-carrying MV CSCL Globe! First, Mike Schuler introduced the ship in November...

"Move over Triple-E’s, there’s a new big dog in town. Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. in Ulsan, South Korea has just named the new title-holder for the world’s largest containership."

Second, covering UK arrival with video by Shipping TV as the vessel approaches the Port of Felixstowe... And most recently, container handling and bridge-tour with Shipping TV’s Chris Gosling... Plus, here's BBC's Richard Westcott sailing near and getting onboard! Here's first visit to Hamburg plus engine-room view!

Waterfront Cities ~ Blending Beauty & Business!

Waterfront Cities series, starting with Singapore... Copenhagen... San Francisco... Boston... Melbourne... Tokyo... Bangkok... Vancouver...

Tsunami 2004 ~ Recalling Boxing Day Disaster...

The Boxing Day 2004 earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean -- ten years ago today, December 26th -- was one of the biggest natural disasters in modern memory, killing over a quarter-million people without (much) warning within 4-6 hours in at least a dozen countries -- and triggering unprecedented humanitarian relief efforts. There are several retrospective documentaries of note, but here's a sampling... For those interested in quantifying the catastrophe, first note this NOAA simulation of the tsunami wavefront... Second, look at this seismographic plot from around the world showing the Earth literally ringing from the rupture of the Sunda megathrust off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia...

We're learning ever more about quakes and tsunamis and NOAA's research and warning system is on the frontline... Nevertheless, the colossal power of plate tectonics is only one of the deadly natural perils mankind faces. Just one modest-sized asteroid hit, say like Eltanin or Chicxulub, would create quakes and tsunamis that make the Boxing Day disaster seem like ripples in a puddle. Simulate this for yourself via ImpactEarth! For civilizational survival, we need to figure out how to move humanity well beyond our cradle, ASAP.

Vestas Skipper Nico ~ Learning From Shipwreak...

At end November 2014, skipper Chris "Nico" Nicholson's nine-man Volvo Ocean Race team Vestas Wind ran their 65 foot racing yacht aground at 19 knots onto the charted Cargados Carajos Shoals, a reef nearish to Mauritius (which is roughly 200 nautical miles away) in the Indian Ocean. Thanks to gCaptain for sharing the saga and spotting his insights as shared with Sailing Anarchy's Alan Block... Here's some of the crash and context video... Vestas navigator Wouter comments on errors. Finally, some formal comments from CEO Frostad at Volvo Race Control...

Prelude Progress ~ Epic Ship Construction Porn!

gCaptain spotlights my favorite current gigaproject, the Shell Prelude! Here's earlier intro to Prelude FLNG.

Decommissioning ~ Retiring GasOil Rigs Correctly

Ingenia's Brian Nixon spotlights Decommissioning North Sea giants...

"A growing number of oil and gas assets have either reached, or are approaching, the end of their economic lifespans, and, in accordance with current regulations, will have to be decommissioned and removed. This presents challenges for the owners and operators of these assets, but offers major business opportunities for engineering consultants, contractors and service specialists. [...] At the moment, there are three accepted strategies for the removal of these larger production facilities, namely piece small, reverse installation and single lift. [...] Until recently, decommissioning has not been considered within the overall lifecycle of an offshore asset. As a result, maintenance regimes have often overlooked key items of plant and equipment that would be needed during the abandonment stages, leading to significant and arguably unnecessary costs. There are welcome signs that this attitude may be changing, with some companies now introducing decommissioning as part of their graduate development programmes. However, further effort is required before decommissioning is fully considered throughout the lifecycle."

And to give you a sense of the scale of what it takes to remove such rigs, here's a NatGeo docu on assembling one of the very biggest! And Discovery docu on North Sea Mega Rigs!