"A massive 200+ mile long dust storm developed along an outflow-assisted frontal boundary in northern Mexico (just south of the Rio Grande) late Monday afternoon. Check out the super cell thunderstorms to the east end of the dust cloud.
This dust storm looked a lot like the dust storm that swept through the Lubbock area Oct, 17, 2011. Weather observations are few and far between in northern Mexico, but a report from the International Airport in Chihuahua indicated wind gusts exceeding 40 mph with surface visibilities to a half mile in sand and dust as the storm moved southward from near the Rio Grande deep into the desert areas over about a five-hour period.
On Sunday, May 20th, the Moon will pass in front of the sun, transforming the sun into a ring of fire. It's an annular solar eclipse, not to be confused with a total eclipse in which the Moon will cover as much as 94% of the sun. Hundreds of millions of people will be able to view the event as the eclipse zone stretches from southeast Asia across the Pacific Ocean to western parts of North America.
In the United States, the eclipse begins around 5:30 pm PDT. For the following two hours, a Moon-shaped portion of the sun will go into hiding. Greatest coverage occurs around 6:30 pm PDT.
If you are going to observe the eclipse with something other that the human eye, please be extremely careful. Be absolutely sure that any telescope you look through is properly filtered. Magnified sunlight can cause serious eye damage even during an eclipse.
Near the center-line of the eclipse, observers will experience something special: the "ring of fire." As the Moon crosses the sun dead-center, a circular strip or annulus of sunlight will completely surround the dark lunar disk. Visually, the sun has a big black hole in the middle.
The "path of annularity" where this occurs is only about 200 miles wide, but it stretches almost halfway around the world passing many population centers en route: Tokyo, Japan; Medford, Oregon; Chico, California; Reno, Nevada; Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Lubbock, Texas. In those locations the ring of fire phenomenon will be visible for as much as 4 and a half minutes.
"The ring of sunlight during annularity is blindingly bright," cautions NASA's leading eclipse expert Fred Espenak of the Goddard Space Flight Center. "Even though most of the Sun's disk will be covered, you still need to use a solar filter or some type of projection technique. A #14 welder's glass is a good choice. There are also many commercially-available solar filters."
Whatever outdoor activity you may be involved in Sunday will be greatly enhanced with the chance to see firsthand this incredible spectacle of nature.
Cal Maritime students take part in at least one two-month summer training cruise on the Pacific aboard our 500-foot Training Ship GOLDEN BEAR, -- gaining a unique perspective on our increasingly global culture and economy.
We were treated to a great tour by two students from Palos Verdes. David Mulchay and Steve Partridge showed off their classroom including a tour of the bridge, several classrooms, safety equipment, the gymnasium, and lots more.
Located in Vallejo, California, The California Maritime Academy (Cal Maritime) is a unique and specialized campus of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) system. They are one of only seven degree-granting maritime academies in the United States — and the only one on the West Coast.
Phil Friedman Outdoors takes you on board as the students prepare to depart for Costa Rica from Long Beach, Ca on the morning of May 4.
The white seabass fishery was pushed to the brink of destruction by gill nets, over fishing and habitat destruction. Between 1950 and 1980, the annual sport catch of white seabass declined dramatically. The catch went from 55,000 to fewer than 3,500.
The California Department of Fish and Game instituted the Oceans Resources Enhancement & Hatchery Program (OREHP). As part of the state‘s new initiative, the Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute built an experimental marine fish hatchery in Carlsbad, CA
The white seabass was selected as the primary target species for this program due to both its popularity on the dinner table and its depleted status. The funding to support the majority of OREHP‘s stock enhancement research comes from the sale of recreational and commercial fishing licenses.
DFG only permits 350,000 fish to be released annually. The facility could breed more than that, but the DFG permit doesn't allow for more than that to be bred out. To maintain genetic diversity, no more than 15,000 fish are pulled from each breeding. Females are broadcast breeders and do two to three egg releases per season. Males follow the females when they release the eggs and in turn, release their sperm. Research has shown that the fry come from a number of the participating males. There is no selective breeding.
There are 18 grow-out pens operated by private groups, mostly fishing clubs, that are located from San Diego to Santa Barbara. The club volunteers obtain fish food for the fingerlings and do the pen maintenance. The fish are put into the grow-out pens at 4-5" and grow until they reach 9-11" in length. At this size, they have at least a 50% chance of survival.
All fish raised and released are tagged in the cheek with coded metal wires. These tags can provide biologists with valuable information such as growth rates, migration routes, predation, mating and more.
This information can only be obtained if fishermen turn in legally caught white seabass heads. There are white seabass drop-off locations up and down the Southern California coast.
Sergio Fainsztein was red hot last Saturday on the Westerly out of Long Beach Sportfishing when he hooked what he thought was another nice wintertime sand bass. As the fish neared the surface, that it was not a sand bass at all. “Triggerfish,” yelled Fishing with Phil pro-staffer and Captain Ricky Perez.
Crew member Todd Lee netted the big trigger and lifted it over the rail. After watching the Patch Fishing video, Rick Feeney from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County further identified this unusual catch. “That's a nice finescale triggerfish, said Feeney. They are fairly rare up here, I would assume because of the cooler water. We have two in our collection from So. Cal.”
Feeney emphasized the importance of taking a photo or video when you catch something rare. “That's two (triggerfish) out of about 50 lots on our shelf. Most of our specimens have been collected in the last eighty years. Then there are other Museums, Scripps, Cal Acad. of Sciences. that may have some. And many catches were probably not preserved in a museum, just like the video. It is important, if you not sure about a rare fish, to take a least a picture of it and send it to a museum, just to have a record of it."
Another strange catch that could only be described as a slimy glob came over the rail on board the Westerly on Monday and that too was caught on video by Philip Friedman Outdoors. “I’ve been a Captain for 35-years and have never seen anything like that said Larry Moore. “I wouldn’t even want to touch that thing.” Jessica Lumpford caught the other worldly looking creature and had just one question. "I want to know what it is.?"
Turns out that the gooey glob was not as diabolical as many thought and was really a sea anemone. “The species is widely known as Metridium giganteus, but the correct name is M. farcimen,” said Gordon Hendler, Curator of Echinoderms at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
Finally, novice angler Jacqueline Layson caught a 20-plus pound halibut for a real thrill. Perez was at her side coaching her all the way through the battle. You’ll also see some more great sand bass fishing too.
Sometimes I wonder if sportfishing is just an excuse to get out on the water. Especially in these troubled times for so many, a day on the ocean refreshes ones soul and lends itself to a feeling of optimism. That certainly was the case on the ½ boat Southern Cal out of Pierpoint Landing in Long Beach over the weekend. The weather forecast was dead wrong for the Long Beach area. Instead of gale force winds, calm seas and sunshine greeted Lorena Ballesteros and her two sons Matthew 9 years old and Nathan 12.
The two boys and their mother from Long Beach caught a variety of fish including treefish, perch, sugar bass and the boys first two sheepshead. Mom said some of the freshly caught fish was destined to marinate in lime juice and provide a Sunday ceviche for Nathan’s 12th birthday.
Tom Raftican was on board from the Sportfishing Conservancy with the West Marine Fish Elevator. The fish elevator was developed by West Marine and the Sportfishing Conservancy to help release rockfish suffering from barotrauma. The fish take a ride down to the depth where they were caught and theoretically swim away in better shape than they arrived on the surface. You’ll see how the fish fare with the aid of an underwater camera.
The fortunate group of anglers were not only treated to a great days fishing but they saw pods of dolphin, huge bird schools and hundreds of pelicans diving into the water, and great boat burgers thanks to galley cook Amie Zimmerman. John Belli took the $50 Sportfishing Conservancy catch and release prize with another $100 went to the Southern Cal crew for all their help in the toss back project.
You will see lots of great action in this weeks Patch/Philip Friedman Outdoors Video Fishing review.
Tom Raftican, president of the Sportfishing Conservancy has long believed that anglers should be the ones taking the lead on marine environmental issues. “If anglers are not the ones leading the charge to protect fish and the oceans environment, someone else will,” he said. Raftican and the Sportfishing Conservancy staff were on board the ½ day boat Southern Cal out of Pierpoint Landing on Saturday with the West Marine Fish Elevator.
The elevator was designed to help resuscitate rockfish suffering from barotrauma by giving them a ride back to the approximate depth where there were caught and releasing them for a much better survival rate. An underwater camera revealed that the vast majority of fish seemed to swim away in great shape.
The toss back trips are even more appealing to anglers as a jackpot is awarded to the angler who catches and releases more than the others. As fish come on board, they are measured before being released. The angler with the most inches by the end of the day gets the jackpot. The Sportfishing Conservancy kicks in $50 to get the pot going so at a minimum, the toss back champion for the day goes home with 50 bucks.
Since catch and release may hit the crew in the wallet for lack of fish to filet, Raftican kicks in $100 to them. “The goal here is to induce more catch and release fishing so that we will have even more fish to catch in the future.”
Many anglers have been frustrated in the past when they have had to return a rockfish to the sea because of size or possession limits that would just float on the surface, suffering from the effects of barotrauma. The West Marine Fish Elevator seems to have addressed this problem and while not perfect, seemed to produce excellent results in survivability for rockfish that had been yanked up from the depths too fast.
Hunters have long ago led the charge to be environmentalists. Some argue that Ducks Unlimited has done more for the environment and several species of birds than any environmental group. Fishermen are now catching on and most are in favor of doing whatever it takes to make sure fish stocks and the oceans environment are well taken care of.
“Who loves the ocean more than angler’s?” asked Raftican. “As long as we do our part in taking care of this precious gift, there will be more fish to catch in our future.”
An asteroid a quarter-mile-wide is headed towards earth but will surely miss our planet this November 8th. It is the closest an asteroid of this size has come to earth since 1976. "There is no chance that this object will collide with the Earth or moon," Don Yeomans, the manager of NASA's Near Earth Object Program office, told Reuters.
That does not mean this pesky asteroid which is bigger than an aircraft carrier will not present a problem in the future. 2005 YU55 as this asteroid is called could do significant damage to our planet if it were to make contact at a later date. The Associated Press spoke to Jay Melosh, a professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Purdue University, who said that the asteroid would create a four-mile wide crater 1,700 feet deep. It could cause 70-foot tsunami waves and shake the ground like a magnitude-7 earthquake.
Nasty stuff should that ever occur but for now, I guess we should thank our lucky stars, no pun intended, that in 2011, 2005 YU55 appears to be on a course that will miss the earth.
In March, NASA's Swift spacecraft first detected what scientisits thought was a black hole eating star 3.8 billion light years from earth. Nasa has put together a YouTube video recreating the cosmic event.
David Burrows, professor of astronomy at Penn State University and lead scientist for the mission's X-Ray Telescope instrument, told NASA. "It behaves unlike anything we've seen before." As the black hole ate the star, it put out an x-ray detected by the Swift spacecraft. In fact, the source is still procucing x-rays and may well be detected into 2012.
The black hole itself is enormous, potentially four times the size of the one at the center of the Milky Way, according to NASA. Even more incredibly, the massive hole seems to be shooting matter out of its center at 80 to 90 percent of the speed of light.
An event like this has never before been seen by scientists.
Footage shot by a Bristol Bay fisherman shows what many people believe is Alaska's version of the Loch Ness Monster. It has an elongated neck, humps on its back and can be seen swimming along with its head popping put of the water from time to time.
I'm still not sure why there is a sighting of bigfoot or some other creature, the video quality is always so poor. When is someone going to capture one of these monsters in HD?
For now, we have what we have. Is it real or a fake? You be the judge.
