Japanese nuclear company TEPCO is considering dumping radioactive water from its damaged plant at Fukushima. Click on the unimpressed turtle to find out more.
Pacific flying squid (Todarodes pacificus) leap out of the water and take flight in the northwest Pacific Ocean, 600 km east of Tokyo. The mollusc propels itself out of the ocean by shooting a jet of water at high pressure, before opening its fins to glide at up to 11.2 metres per second, and then fly more than 30 m (100 feet)…
(read more: Telegraph UK)
Picture: AFP PHOTO / HOKKAIDO UNIVERSITY / KOUTA MURAMATSU
Awesome. I didn’t even knew flying squids did exist.
Sciende IS cool!
Good news everybody! We are well into February and Japanese whalers in Antarctica haven’t killed a single whale! Thanks to the dedicated volunteers of Sea Shepherd, the whalers are scattered and on the run. They even abandoned one of their own harpoon vessels that is dangerously low on fuel. Hopefully this will be the year that the whalers go home empty-handed.
Photo by Frank Todd
China’s Cloud Of Smog Arrives In Japan
The suffocating smog that blanketed swathes of China is now hitting parts of Japan, sparking warnings Monday of health risks for the young and the sick.
The environment ministry’s website has been overloaded as worried users log on to try to find out…
Wire Bonsai by Ken To
Bonsai is a reflective art, but you could almost see yourself in the delicately wrapped copper wire that Ken uses to cnstruct his miniature bonsai sculptures, which are available to purchase at his rondei.
Artist: ebay / DeviantArt
Last night while on patrol in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, Sea Shepherd Australia’s fast interceptor vessel the SSS Brigitte Bardot intercepted the Harpoon kill ship, the Yushin Maru No. 3.
Brigitte Bardot Captain Jean Yves Terlain stated, “The Yushin Maru 3 was on a westerly course, indicating that the fleet has been in bad weather for the past several days. The latitude at which they were found was rather far north and given that the large concentrations of whales are found further south closer to the Antarctic Continent, where there are high concentrations of krill. This would indicate that they have not yet begun whaling.”
Operation Zero Tolerance co-campaign Leader Bob Brown was thrilled when he heard the news. “It is likely that we have intercepted these whale poachers before a single harpoon has been fired. Whale lovers of Australia and around the world will be elated that Sea Shepherd is down there, but still daunted that the whaling fleet is in the Whale Sanctuary.”
Bob Barker Captain Peter Hammarstedt stated, “From past experiences, we know that the harpoon ships are never far from the factory ship, meaning the floating slaughterhouse, the Nisshin Maru must be close by.”
Operation Zero Tolerance co-campaign Leader Jeff Hansen stated, “We are at the end of January and it looks like not a single whale has been killed. We now just need to hang in there and keep on these poachers. Sea Shepherd will do its part to uphold the Australian Federal Court ruling. We will not tolerate a single whale death inside the established whale sanctuary by these poachers.”
The three remaining Sea Shepherd ships, the SSS Steve Irwin, SSS Bob Barker and SSS Sam Simon, remain on guard and on the hunt for the Cetacean Death Star, the Nisshin Maru, in defence of the whales.
Sea Shepherd Founder, Captain Paul Watson, has made the following comment: “As a US citizen, I will respect and comply with the ruling of the United States Ninth District Court and will not violate the temporary injunction granted to the Institute for Cetacean Research. I am aboard the Steve Irwin on Operation Zero Tolerance as an observer to document Japan’s illegal butchering of whales. I have every faith in former Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown to lead Sea Shepherds’ ninth Antarctic whale defence campaign, Operation Zero Tolerance. I am equally as confident in the abilities and leadership of the captains of all four Sea Shepherd ships, because they have the passion and commitment to uphold the Australian Federal Court ruling prohibiting Japan’s whale hunt.”
The three remaining Sea Shepherd ships, the SSS Steve Irwin, SSS Bob Barker and SSS Sam Simon remain on guard and on the hunt for the Cetacean Death Star, the Nisshin Maru, in defence of the Great Whales.
Nysted wind farm in the Baltic Sea off Denmark. Image: Jeremy Firestone, University of Delaware
Officials in Japan have announced plans for building the largest wind farm in the world, ten miles off the coast of Fukushima – site of the nuclear disaster that followed the earthquake and tsunami that struck the island nation in 2011. Projections call for developing a wind farm capable of producing 1 gigawatt of power.
In the aftermath of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, the Japanese government has turned away from nuclear power and the dangers it possesses and towards other renewable energy resources. The country plans to eventually shut down all of its nuclear plants and replace them with wind and solar plants. To that end, plans for wind farm construction have taken center stage, with this newest the most ambitious yet.
Currently, the largest wind farm in the world is off the coast of Suffolk in the U.K. Called the Greater Gabbard farm, it produces 504 megawatts of power using 140 turbines. The new farm planned for Japan is expected to produce 1 gigawatt using just 143 turbines.
Instead of anchoring each turbine directly to the ocean floor, the plan is to mount them on floating steel frames that will be anchored to the continental shelf below. To keep them upright, ballast will be used underneath. The plans also call for using 2 megawatt turbines, each standing 200 meters high. The site was chosen due to the existing infrastructure that had been used to transport power from the Daiichi plant before its destruction.
Fukushima prefecture has stated its goal of becoming 100 percent energy self-sufficient by the year 2040. In addition to the wind farm, plans are also being drawn up for the biggest solar farm in the country.The wind farm will be paid for using money currently being collected via a feed-in tariff scheme for wind projects set up by the government – it became effective July 1, 2012. Thus far, its inception has boosted energy produced by such plants, the Japan Wind Power Association says, by 8.2 percent already.
Construction of the huge wind farm is expected to be complete by 2020. Project managers say that sufficient testing has been done with the design to ensure the new farm will not be harmed by earthquakes, tsunamis or typhoons.
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