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Apr 11, 2007 |
Science Diary: Healthy Ocean- Stormy Skies
Best to have your foul weather gear handy when you head out into the open ocean. Ambience: Thunderstorm Ive just gotten into one of the small rubberized Zodiac boats, and were looking for turtles. Welcome to Pulse of the Planets Science Diaries. A glimpse of the world of science from the inside. Were with Carl Safina, founder of the Blue Ocean Institute, a marine conservation organization. Hes been taking part in a research voyage off the western coast of Central America and hes about to experience the unpredictability of weather on the open sea. Theres a long six-foot swell on the ocean. Its very dramatic. The sky is very black, like a big purple bruise in some places, and we can hear thunder. Most of the rest of the ocean is silver with the slanting afternoon sun. Its really quite spectacular and awesomely beautiful, but it seems as though by the minute that dark sky is overtaking us, so I guess its a race between the thunder and the rain and the turtles we may find. Well, its just about five minutes later, and were back on the ship because that incredibly beautiful weather turned very nasty and threatening in a big hurry, and the people on the ship saw what was coming. The funny thing was that right before I went into the small boat, I looked at my camera bag, and I said, Well, its not going to rain in the next hour. Theres no chance of that, and as soon as we got in the boat, boy, it really changed quickly, and you could see the whitecaps just come up, and we felt those buffets of cold air hit us, so we came running back to the ship. You can check out Carl Safinas blog on pulseplanet.com. Pulse of the Planets Science Diaries are made possible by the National Science Foundation. Im Jim Metzner. music ANIMALS,Oceans,Conservation,ECOLOGY,Weather Scientist: Carl Safina |
