Blog 2017

Dead zones can muck with seafloor life for decades

BASED ON AN ARTICLE IN SCIENCE NEWS

Monitoring sections of the Black Sea, researchers discovered that even days-long periods of low oxygen drove out animals and altered microbial communities. Those ecosystem changes slow decomposition that normally recycles plant and animal matter back into the ecosystem after organisms die, resulting in more organic matter accumulating in seafloor sediments, the researchers report February 10 in Science Advances.

Carbon is included among that organic matter. Over a long enough period of time, the increased carbon burial could help offset a small fraction of carbon emitted by human activities such as fossil fuel burning, says study coauthor Antje Boetius, a marine biologist at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany. That silver lining comes at a cost, though. “It means your ecosystem is fully declining,” she says.

“We need to pay more attention to the bottom of the ocean,” says Lisa Levin, a biological oceanographer at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif. “There’s a lot happening down there.” The new work shows that scientists need to consider oxygen conditions when tracking how carbon moves around the environment, says Levin, who was not involved in the research.

Scientists have noticed increased carbon burial in hypoxic waters before. The mechanism behind that increase was unclear, though. Boetius and colleagues headed out to the Black Sea, the world’s largest oxygen-poor body of water, and studied sites along a 40-kilometer-long stretch of seafloor. (Military activities in the region following Russia’s annexation of Crimea limited where the researchers could study, Boetius says.) Some sites were always flush with oxygen, some occasionally suffered a few days of low oxygen, and others were permanently oxygen-free.

The ecological difference between the sites was stark. In oxygen-rich waters, animals such as fish and starfish flourished, and little organic matter was deposited on the seafloor. In areas with perpetually or sporadically low oxygen, the researchers reported that oxygen-dependent animals were nowhere to be seen, and organic matter burial rates were 50 percent higher.

Bottom-dwelling animals are particularly important, the researchers observed, helping recycle organic matter by eating larger bits of debris sinking from the surface ocean and by mixing oxygen into sediments during scavenging. What’s more, the researchers found that the microbial community in oxygen-poor waters shifted toward those microbes that don’t depend on oxygen to live. Such microbes further limit decomposition by producing sulfur-bearing compounds that make organic matter harder to break down.

Depending on the size of the area affected, animals could take years or decades to return to previously hypoxic waters, Boetius says. Some of the studied sites experienced low-oxygen conditions for only a few days a year yet remained barren even when oxygen returned. The absence of animals prolongs the effects of hypoxic conditions beyond the times when oxygen is scarce, she says.

From celestial identification to tidal data, lots of handy information is available at the touch of your finger.

More boaters are relying on smartphone and tablet apps for everything from navigating to fishing and safety information. To help you find the most useful ones, here are some useful ones:

Marine Day Tides

If you have an iPhone or iPad and don't want to pay for one of the more comprehensive applications that includes tidal data, this app is for you. It offers tidal data for more than 5,000 locations worldwide, sunrise/sunset/moon phase information, and tidal graphs. Available on the App Store. Free |

Boat Ramps

Want to know where to launch your boat? Nothing is as comprehensive as Boat Ramps, which gives the locations of more than 35,000 boat ramps nationwide. You can search by zip code, city, or current location. The app also gives driving directions to the ramp so you shouldn't get lost, even if you're in unfamiliar territory. Available on the App Store or Google Play. Free |

FriendMapper

Handy for yacht-club cruises, poker runs, and fishing friends who make trips en masse, this nifty app lets you and up to 23 of your buddies track each other. Everyone appears on each other's maps. You can even one-touch dial any of the friends appearing on your phone's map. Available on the App Store or Google Play. $1.99

GoSkyWatch

Boat at night and want to identify all those sparkling lights in the sky? There's an app for that, and it's called GoSkyWatch. Best used on an iPad, the app is intuitive to use — point it at the sky, and it identifies visible stars and planets. It's a great tool for students of celestial navigation to verify they're looking at the correct heavenly body before taking their sights. Available on the App Store. Free

Speed

This app does one thing and one thing only: It tells you your speed. Make a sail adjustment or change your trim tab set, and it can impact your speed. With this app, you can instantly see what happens as you make those adjustments. This simple application turns your iPhone into a speedometer with large digits. Available on the App Store. $3.99

IGFA Mobile

Anglers can check on the record status of any species of game fish caught in the world in real time. It includes a list of International Game Fish Association-certified weigh stations so you can find the closest scales to check in your catch. Plus, there's a trip-planning list and complete IGFA rules. Available on the App Store or Google Play. $8.99

February's Snow Moon is no ordinary full moon in most parts of the world, as it coincides with a special lunar eclipse that will cast a shadow over the full moon's usual bright, glowing face.

On Friday (Feb. 10), just 10 minutes after the full moon peaks, so will a penumbral lunar eclipse. The moon will spend more than 4 hours coasting through Earth's outer shadow, called the penumbra, and it will appear darker than normal.

While penumbral eclipses can be difficult to see and don't look nearly as dramatic as a total lunar eclipse — in which the moon passes through the darkest, central part of Earth's shadow — Friday's penumbral eclipse will be darker and more noticeable than most lunar eclipses of its kind. That's because the moon will veer so deeply into Earth's penumbral shadow that it will be almost entirely submerged in shade.

Five things you should never try to repair.

Some boaters will spend two hours trying to fix a part or jury rig a solution they could have bought new for two bucks. Or worse, they'll waste time trying to fix something that just can't be properly repaired. If this sounds like you, and you fit into this category, it's time you learn when to cut your losses. If one of these five problems pops up on your boat, leave the tools in the shed and reach for your wallet instead.

1. Cracked or Leaky Fuel Lines

Fuel lines that are exposed to direct sunlight have a limited lifespan, and after five or six years, they crack or leak. Sure, it's tempting to cut out the offending section and barb-and-clamp the line back together. But once one crack appears, more are sure to follow. Considering how dangerous a fuel leak can be, it's not worth messing with. Buy a new hose. If you have an outboard, replace the entire assembly. Why fix one piece of it, when you know the rest is as aged as the section that went bad?

2. Sticky Thermostats

Thermostats are easy to identify, remove, and clean, so when they fail it's common for boaters to pop them out and try fix to them. But once they fail, it's likely they'll fail again. Next time it might not be so easy to fix, which can be a real problem if you're miles from the marina. Plus, thermostats have a limited lifetime and are cheap to replace. If you've already taken it out, just replace the entire unit.

3. Canvas Bimini Tops

Rips or bald spots will appear in a canvas after years of use, usually where a top support or strap attaches to it. You may be tempted to patch it...but that's a terrible idea. No matter how hard you try, you'll never get the color to match the original (even most professional canvas shops can't get it perfect), and a patch is only a temporary fix at best. When one area wears through, you can bet others will soon follow. Plus, the weakened, aged material may not be strong enough to support the threading necessary to cover the problem spot. It's time to toss the entire top and have a new one made.

4. Cracked T-Top Welds

When the welds crack on a T-top, it's easy to have them re welded, but you can be sure the welds will crack again soon. Cracks usually result from bad design or improper mounting, and you need to eliminate the root of the problem, not treat the symptom. Having a new top made specifically for your boat by an aluminum shop is the best bet. Check your boat to make sure the deck is level (a common reason tops start cracking is because the welds are stressed when the mounting bolts are cranked down) and that the high-stress areas are beefed up. In many cases a builder is more concerned with how a top looks than how it holds up, which can lead to struts or attachment points being sub-par. But a dedicated shop has a different goal: Installing a top that won't break. What about the old top? Offer it to the welder for scrap. Maybe he'll knock a few hundred dollars off the price of a new one.

5. Delaminated Stringers

Ouch -- this one's tough, but if you're faced with delaminated stringers, you should get a new boat. No patchwork bond you make will be as strong as the original one between the stringers and hull -- and that bond has already proved insufficient. Properly fixing it would mean your boat would be out of the water for a month, and the labor bill would be huge. Even then, there would be no guarantee the bond wouldn't fail the first time you get on plane. It's a classic case of throwing good money after bad. Time to hit the boat show.

An Annual Spring Tradition in Florida

During the months of February and March, the State of Florida plays host to 15 Major League Baseball teams for their annual Spring Training. It is a tradition dating back more than 100 years and more than 1.5 million fans attend games annually throughout the state. Below is a listing of all teams in Florida’s Grapefruit League including stadium locations.

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Atlanta Braves                                    
ESPN Wide World of Sports
Walt Disney World Resort Kissimmee, FL 34747

Baltimore Orioles
Ed Smith Stadium
2700 12th Street
Sarasota, FL 34237

Boston Red Sox
JetBlue Park
11500 Fenway South Drive
Fort Myers, FL 33913

Detroit Tigers
Joker Marchant Stadium
2125 North Lake Avenue
Lakeland, FL 33805

Houston Astros
Ballpark of the Palm Beaches
5444 Haverhill Road
West Palm Beach, FL 33407

Miami Marlins
Roger Dean Stadium
4751 Main Street
Jupiter, FL 33458

Minnesota Twins
Hammond Stadium at
Century Link Sports Complex
14100 Six Mile Cypress Parkway
Fort Myers, FL 33912

New York Mets
Tradition Field
525 NW Peacock Blvd.
Port St. Lucie, FL 34986

New York Yankees
George M Steinbrenner Field
One Steinbrenner Drive
Tampa, FL 33614

Philadelphia Phillies
Bright House Field
601 N. Old Coachman Road
Clearwater, FL 33765

Pittsburgh Pirates
McKechnie Field
1611 Ninth Street West
Bradenton, FL 34205

St. Louis Cardinals
Roger Dean Stadium
4751 Main Street
Jupiter, FL 33458

Tampa Bay Rays
Charlotte Sports Park
2300 El Jobean Road
Port Charlotte, FL 33948

Toronto Blue Jays
Florida Auto Exchange Stadium
373 Douglas Avenue
Dunedin, FL 34698

Washington Nationals
Ballpark of the Palm Beaches
5444 Haverhill Road
West Palm Beach, FL 33407

Here are three emerging risks you need to know about commercial marine insurance in 2017.

Larger vessels. Many of the vessels under construction today are super large container ships. “We’re living in a world where economies of scale are very important,” “Some of the vessels that are getting built now are so enormous that they bring a whole new set of exposures, like the wake damage they can create if they are maneuvered incorrectly. Problems can be significantly heightened than if you had a vessel that’s half the size.”

Cyber. This is a big concern for more modern vessels that use computerized equipment, It’s the same old story—people who want to do harm can hack into the systems and create havoc with the navigation and communication systems,. Consider a large refrigeration vessel that carries fish, fruit or frozen products: “A hack could mess with the refrigeration systems, which are controlled by computers.”

So far, the commercial marine market has appeared largely unconcerned about cyber exposure. “I don’t think we’ve seen the really big nasty shock loss yet,. “And I hope we don’t, but some major loss may happen at some point that’s going to really school everyone. Then, I think you’re going to see many more products tailor-made to cover that kind of exposure.”

And when ships eventually begin to follow the lead of driverless cars, cyber will become an even bigger concern. “There’s constant discussion about drone ships—a shift in the future to unmanned vessels,” Hills says. “We’re quite a long way off from that, but that will create its own set of problems.”

Climate change. As weather events become more severe, the impact on harbors, ports, terminals and other marine territories could be staggering. “Whatever you feel about it—whether you believe it’s natural or manmade—climate change is going to create some challenges for commercial marine,” Vaughan says.

The problem is particularly worrisome in the Arctic, where melting ice caps make it possible for more vessels to venture further north. “There’s going to be more shipping going on up there, and that’s going to create new activity,” Vaughan explains. “If you have an accident, if you have a fire on board or collision or sinking, the arctic environment makes it more challenging to get rescue crews up there, to work on saving vessels, to work on saving lives.”

Normally, vessel owners can reap benefits from working hard to meet standards like the U.S. Coast Guard’s Sub Chapter M regulations for inspection and safety. “I was a broker for many years, and I’m a great believer that if your clients are complying with more stringent safety guidelines, you should make a point of driving that home to your insurers,” Vaughan says. “There’s been a lot of good work done on essentially improving the risk to the market.”

But in the absence of the type of infrastructure of more seasoned shipping areas, “there are going to be some new exposures there that probably are going to need to be worked out,” Vaughan says.

COMMERCIAL & CHARTER

If you make your living on the water, and own a commercial vessel, or even an entire fleet, you know all too well that an accident on the water could mean more than just a damaged boat; it could be a threat to your livelihood and the livelihood of your crew.

When you operate a charter boat, or other small vessel carrying passengers for hire, you have special legal and liability concerns. There are requirements for operator licensing, safety equipment, drug testing, and so on. Similarly, the kinds of insurance you need are unique, in part because maritime law places extraordinary burdens of responsibility on the master of a vessel.

The vessel owner is responsible for all damages resulting from "negligence," which has been interpreted very broadly by the courts to include any situation in which a crew-member or passenger gets hurt, other than intentional self-injury.

Our staff has the experience to assist with all commercial marine risks. From research vessels and commercial fishing to dock builders and tug and tow operations, we have a solution for you. We offer a wide range of commercial boat insurance options sure to fit any marine business’s needs. With an extensive network and years of experience, we will locate the best coverage with the best rates available.

We provide cost effective and comprehensive coverage to suit the operation of head boats and six packs.

Here are some answers to some questions that seemingly always come up.

Marine insurance is important as it protects your vessel from damage upon exposure to a broad range of risks, such as accident of the vehicle carrying the cargo, failure in the dock or port area and any damage incurred at sea. If you are planning to visit unfamiliar or international waters then all accidents and damages will be subjected to the laws and regulations of that jurisdiction.

How important is boat insurance?

Insurance provides monetary compensation against a predetermined risk. An insurance company offers such protection for a payment (or premium). It is also the amount the insurance company agrees to pay when an unfortunate event occurs. Insurance is a benefit to the society at large by allowing individuals to share the risks faced by many people. An insurance policy is a written agreement between an insurance company and an individual or organization that requires insurance. The insurance policy sets out the terms and conditions and specifies the risks that will be compensated for.

What is a Protection and Indemnity Insurance?

Protection and indemnity (called P & I) insurance protects the vessel owners against their liability for damage to cargo in their care and custody; death or injury to passengers, crew, cargo loaders, and others; damage caused to piers, docks, underwater cables, and bridges; and, more recently, damage caused by pollution. The terms and conditions of the policy can be extended, limited, excluded, modified or changed upon the request of the client.

What is Marine Hull Insurance?

Hull insurance affords protection to owners of all types of ships for loss or damage to their waterborne property. Typical perils insured against are stranding, sinking, fire, and collision. The hull policy offers an unusual coverage under its collision clause, which provides liability insurance for loss or damage to the other vessel involved in a collision, as well as to its cargo.

What does Freight, Demurrage and Defense Insurance Cover?

FD&D covers the costs involved for necessary legal assistance in charter party and other contractual disputes which are directly connected with the operation of the vessel. The cover entitles clients to a comprehensive legal consultancy service.

What is War Risks insurance?

Usual Hull insurance does not cover the risks of a vessel sailing into a war zone. A typical example is the risk to a tanker sailing in the Persian Gulf during the Gulf War. War risks cover protects, at an additional premium, against the danger of loss in a war zone. The war risks areas are established by the London-based Joint War Committee, which has recently moved to include the Malacca Straits as a war risks area due to piracy.

How much can I expect to pay for marine insurance?

Cost for marine insurance depends on several factors, like your boating experience, current navigational equipment, where your yacht will be used, the value of your yacht and whether you will be living aboard or cruising offshore.