Sceneries of waves at Grand Haven pier

Here are some Lake Michigan wave pictures at Grand Haven pier found on the Pure Michigan Facebook site:

Five washed into the sea by a wave in Meco, Portugal

An ordinary sandy beach, an early Sunday morning outing, nothing seems unexpected, sadly still unexpected tragedy happened to 5 university students as this Portugal News reports:

Fears are mounting as searches continue for five university students who went missing on a beach in Meco during the early hours of Sunday morning.

Seven students in total were on the Moinho de Baixo beach in Alfarim when they were washed into the sea by a wave.

One has been found dead and another survived the ordeal.

The survivor told search and rescue teams that the group had been sitting near the water’s edge when they were taken by surprise by a freak wave and washed into the sea.

Let's hope and pray the still missing can be found alive. What can we do? How can we prevent similar things from happening again  by just "sitting near the water's edge"?

Exciting new boat design for safer fishing on deadly Bering Sea

I found this following news in the TimesNews.net today encouraging, even exciting, as well as comforting:

ANACORTES, Wash. (AP) — Few professions are as deadly as commercial fishing on the Bering Sea.

Crews face rogue waves and frigid gales that toss around heavy machines and cause vessels to pitch, yaw and roll on turbulent waters. The dangers are so constant that they’ve been made lore on the long-running cable show “Deadliest Catch.”

Over the years, efforts to keep crew members safe have taken many forms, from changing the culture among fishermen to equipping them with emergency gear such as survival suits that can help them survive the icy waters longer.

The latest proposed solution is being built in a dry dock north of Seattle: a $35 million, 190-foot vessel that would enable fishermen to work behind the safety of the hull, rather than out on the deck amid the dangerous wind and waves.

The ship, commissioned by Seattle-based Blue North Fisheries, represents the culmination of efforts to keep fishermen safe, said Chris Phillips, managing editor of Fishermen’s News, an industry publication.

“If he’s out there standing in the elements in 15 degree weather and 15-foot waves crashing on the deck, he’s not very happy,” Phillips said. “But if he’s in a well-lit and heated space, he’s a lot happier.”

According to federal statistics, 32 fishermen died on the job in 2012, a drop from 42 the year before. Still, the profession remains one of the nation’s deadliest with a 2012 fatality rate of 117 per 100,000 workers, compared to 17 for construction crews.

Jennifer Lincoln, an injury epidemiologist with the National Institute for Occupational Safety Health, said the vessel’s design represents an attempt to avoid the hazards completely. “It’s a big deal to engineer out the occupational hazard from the beginning,” she said.

Currently, a crew member is at risk while the long-line is being reeled in. Usually a crew member has to hook the fish being reeled in to process them. That requires standing out on the deck. And sometimes crew members get tossed into the water.

In Alaska, for example, 158 fishermen died between 2000 and 2012; 49 of those fatalities were crew getting tossed overboard, Lincoln said.

Under construction in Anacortes, near Puget Sound, Blue North Fisheries’ new flagship vessel is due to hit waters in late 2014. It will be the first of its kind for U.S. commercial fishing — a similar model is already in use in Norway.

The long-lines of hooked cod will be pulled from under the boat. The opening, described as an elevator shaft by Blue North Fisheries co-founder Patrick Burns, is in the bottom-center of the vessel — a so-called moon pool. The opening goes up two stories to a platform where the crew will reel in the long-line.

The design will work for bringing in cod, but not for crab, the prize haul on the Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch,” which has been on the air since 2005, observers said. From there, the fish will move on to the process line.

Beyond keeping fishermen away from the waves, the vessel is being designed to act as a floating processing plant. Blue North’s goal is to process more than 90 percent of each fish, leaving little to waste. The previous average was about 70 percent, the company said.

In years past, crews raced against each other in a deadly derby, trying to catch as many fish as possible under a tight deadline. Now, cod hauls are regulated under a quota system, which has relaxed time pressures on the crews.

Coast Guard officials also check to make sure vessels weren’t overloaded. “You’re not trying to catch as many fish as you can,” said Kenny Down, Blue North’s CEO. “You’re trying to do the most of you can with the fish you caught.”

The design aims to change the way fishing is done in the Bering Sea.

“Nobody knows if it will catch on,” but I think it deserves a chance,” Phillips said. “I suspect when the Blue North is out and fishing, the rest of the industry will want to follow suit.”

The fans of the TV show "Deadly Catch" are all too familiar with the kind of scenes of working "out on the deck amid the dangerous wind and waves".  If the new design described in this article can be put into practice, those scenes will soon be a thing of the past. It is clearly long overdue, but it is never too late and exciting to see it become a reality. Let's hope and pray that it will!

The above AP picture accompanied the article is presumably the finishing product of what the new fishing boat looks like -- may be all the future fishing boat should looks like this, why not?

Trinida Fisherman Missing at Sea

 This news today in Trinida Express by Susan Mohammed:

A MAYARO fisherman, missing since a rogue wave capsized his boat on Tuesday, is suspected to have drowned.

Matthew Brown, 24, of Eccles Road, could not be found despite several searches by other fishermen in the area, said the Coast Guard.

Two other fishermen—Richard Phillip, 35, and Alexis Cassinare, 40—who were also in the boat were rescued.

According to police, around 8.30 a.m., the Coast Guard were alerted that a pirogue named Zaboo, carrying three fishermen, had capsized off Point Galeota.

When they went to the area, they discovered Phillip and Cassinare floating on the cover for a cooler.

The search for Brown continues today.

Last month, a helicopter crew rescued a fisherman clinging to a rock off Point Galeota after waves swamped his boat. Two other fishermen swam to shore.

Cpl Samlal of Mayaro Police Station is investigating.

So another tragedy identifiably caused by a freaque wave that capsized the 24 year old victim's boat and he went missing and suspected to have drowned. Nothing new really, just another drowning by another identified freaque wave. No more information, no more details. May the victim be rest in peace, sympathies to him, his family and his friends. That's their sad loss. Another case registered for the internet realm, otherwise just another case for the local file.  Life goes on!  The science world remains clueless about the what and why of freaque waves.

A picture of picture rock in Lake Superior

Winter in the winter water wonderland Michigan -- a picture of picture rock in Lake Superior. What a peaceful scenery!

A happening in the Clipper round-the-world race

Here's a news article in UK Independent entitled "Freak wave hits British yacht racer Michelle Porter off Africa":

A British woman injured when her yacht was hit by a “monumental” wave off the coast of South Africa was being treated on Sunday night.

Michelle Porter, from London, was evacuated to a hospital in Port Elizabeth from one of 12 yachts which were taking part in the Clipper round-the-world race. Her yacht was “rolled” by hurricane-force gusts, but she escaped with torn ligaments and severe bruising.

The 11-month race began in London in September and the fleet has so far completed around a quarter of the 40,000-mile course.

Ms Porter said: “I feel a bit numb, a bit sick, and also pretty devastated that I’ve had to leave the yacht.”

Now here's a picture of the rescue effort in the Southern Ocean reported here:

That's the typical scenery we might expected from South Indian Ocean off Africa. I guess the story is not really unexpected either.  At least it's all's well that ends well!

A Bishop Coyne's quote of St Augustine

From Bishop Christopher Coyne

“People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering… Now, let us acknowledge the wonder of our physical incarnation— that we are here, in these particular bodies, at this particular time, in these particular circumstances. May we never take for granted the gift of our individuality.” 

– Saint Augustine of Hippo

2013 Thanksgiving post

Who's responsible for the freaque wave occurrence?

I find this news in Taipei Times reported by Shelley Shan upsetting! Politicians hold the Ministry of Transportation  officials "accountable" for the freaque wave occurrence in the recent freaque wave attack in NE coast of Taiwan:

The legislature’s Transportation Committee yesterday passed a resolution asking the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) to submit a plan to protect visitors to coastal areas after eight people were killed by a rogue wave on the northeast coast on Saturday, and called for the officials responsible to be held accountable.

How foolish and  irresponsible can politicians be? Arbitrarily blame the occurrence, totally beyond anyone's control, on some administrative personnel.  I guess this is an universal problem of politics in dealing natural disaster with ignorance. People elected them to take care of people's welfare before things happen, NOT to play blame game after it had happened. Their blame game certainly will not prevent something like the happened disaster to happen again.

What's really in need is more research to understand the natural phenomena.  They should appropriate more funding for more measurement and research, a lot more to be effective -- something the politicians will never understand!!! These stupidities are not only confined by Taiwan's politicians.  But Taiwan's politicians seem to be more notorious of this kind of foolishness.

Saint Firmina, the Patron Saint of the Sailors

Saint Fermina (or Saint Firmina, is equivalent) is the Patron Saint of the Sailors, Amelia and Civitavecchia. In Amelia is celebrated on November 24th each year.

I think we can also reasonably pray to St. Firmina for the calming of freaque waves!  St. Firmina, pray for us!

An "all of a sudden out the blue" story in the Yacht Race

This news item from Scuttlebutt Sailing News reported, with video, what happened when a freaque hits:

The infamous Roaring Forties of the Southern Ocean have long been known as being home to some of the least hospitable conditions on the planet for professional sailors, let alone the amateur crew taking part in Race 4 (Cape Town to Western Australia) of the Clipper 2013-14 Round the World Yacht Race. 

GREAT Britain crew, Jim Hendry, Ben Pate and Mark Heywood were on deck when a huge wave crashed over them, knocking them into the cockpit. Jim, who gladly suffered no major injuries recalled: “I was sitting there, talking and singing quite happily, when all of a sudden out the blue, a big massive wave came out of nowhere and knocked me, Ben and the yacht, everything flying.” 

Ben Pate commented: “I’ve looked to my left and Jim is lying there with his head in a pretty peculiar position. It didn’t look like he was breathing. I called his name a couple of times and he didn’t respond. After a while, he gave a little cough and started breathing again.” 

After coming round and being checked by on board medics, Jim is making a full recovery, has now returned to his watch duties and is incredibly grateful for his team mates assistance, saying: “Unfortunately I got hit, but that was it. Thanks very much for the crew for helping me out and getting me back together.” 

There are twelve identical, British registered 70 foot ocean racing yachts, carrying 240 international amateur crew, each under the command of a professional skipper, on the world’s longest ocean race. It is now 10,000 miles out of London on its 40,000 mile, 11 month marathon journey. The fleet left Cape Town on 4 November and is expected into Albany, Western Australia towards the end of the month. The unique event ends back in London in July next year. 

More at www.clipperroundtheworld.com 

Clearly this is a real freaque wave hit case being recorded by a video and told by those who experienced it. For something  "all of a sudden out the blue, a big massive wave came out of nowhere", I don't think there's any doubt there.  

Now this is a real encounter with freaque waves and they all fortunately survived to tell it -- it's just a day in the life of sailors! But what I wish to know is what might this freaque wave looks like on a paper? I mean if the wave can be recorded would it be looks like the Draupner wave???

I very much doubt it!!!

Tragedy at NE Taiwan's Longdong Cape (龍洞灣岬)

This picture from Focus Taiwan sows the waves that caused a major tragedy happened in NE Taiwan:

Taipei, Nov. 10 (CNA) New Taipei Mayor Eric Chu said Sunday that security at northeastern coastal areas will be tightened after eight people were killed and eight others injured by freak waves at Longdong Cape (龍洞灣岬) in the city's Gongliao District a day earlier.

Here's what had happened:

. . . a 26-member group from Shulin Community University that was visiting the Longdong (龍洞) Geopark Saturday to attend an outdoor learning course.

The group consisted of lecturers, students and members of their families. The deceased included six adults and two schoolchildren.

All eight bodies had been retrieved by 7 p.m. Sunday, but none of them could be resuscitated after being rushed to nearby hospitals, including Keelung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and the Keelung branch of the Tri-Service General Hospital, according to New Taipei Fire Bureau officials.

What a terribly depressing tragedy! A nice learning opportunity in a beautiful natural surrounding was destroyed by the freaque wave!  Our heart goes to the eight who lost and their families. May God bless the living and the dead.


P.S.

The local news reports in Chinese called the freaque wave 瘋狗浪.

P.P.S.

This blog post in Chinese has good information and discussions on freaque waves concerning this tragedy http://win588stock.pixnet.net/blog/post/167157105. I am not allowed to copy any of it so for Chinese readers it is worth to pay a visit of the blog!

A reflection on Edmund Ftizgerald day!

Such a beautiful ship, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, that lost 38 years ago today. We remember her every year without exception. 29 souls along with her wreckage rest in peace at the bottom of Lake Superior. May God bless them and their families!

A personal memory: I did a preliminary hindcasting of the waves during the disaster presented at the Great Lakes Research Conference in the spring of 1976. I don't remember what was the title I used, but I do remember my old colleague, Bob Pickett, suggested it should be called "How big was the wave that sunk the Edmund Fitzgerald"! That turns out to be an unanswerable question. In-spite of all the later further efforts at hindcasting with more sophisticated approaches, we just don't know what had really happened. In 1975, that was 20 years before the Draupner wave being recorded in the North Sea, no one had ever alluded to freaque waves at the time. Now it seems universally accepted that the lost of the Fitz was caused by a freaque wave. It doesn't matter, we'll never know the real facts beyond speculations, scientific or otherwise!

Happened in Wales' Aberystwyth

According to Wikipedia Aberystwyth is a historic market town, administrative centre and holiday resort within Ceredigion, Wales. And here's a picture that comes with an article published in WalesOnline yesterday:

As the article describes: 

This is the terrifying moment a freak wave hit the seafront in Aberystwyth at the height of the weekend's storms - and nearly cost a photographer his life.
The huge surge of water hit the promenade in Aberystwyth at around 7.30pm on Saturday night, knocking photographer Keith Morris to the ground and destroying his £6,000 camera.
The Ceredigion town was among the worst-hit places as gale-force winds battered several parts of the country.

In photographer Keith's own words:

 “I’d been taking pictures of the storm since around 4.30pm in the afternoon as conditions became windier and windier and went back out at around 7.30pm knowing that was high tide. 

"I actually had my back to the sea when the wave hit, I was photographing people watching the storm from the Marine Hotel on the promenade, when, all of a sudden I was knocked flat to the ground by this huge force behind me. 

“I was on the road, under two-feet of water. 

“I’m extremely lucky, if I had been standing closer to the railings on the prom, there’s a good chance I’d have been sucked out to sea and nobody would have been able to rescue me in those conditions.
. . . 

“I’ve been filming these storms for decades, been soaked plenty of times but have never seen anything like this.
 . . .“It was a freak of nature, four or five times bigger than any other wave that hit the prom that night. 

“A completely unique one-off. 

“I’m just thankful I lived to tell the tale.”

He was absolutely correct in being thankful, of course. Because if anything worse happens, any rescue effort will unlikely to be timely and successful.  And we are also being thankful for the eye-witness account he provide, which gives us some indication on what had happen.  Though we are still far away from able to scientifically understand what led to the happening and what to expect in terms of predicting it's happening in the future! We still wish to thank the good lord to keep the lost only in monetary estimates!

An open ocean freaque wave picture!

Is this the picture of a freaque wave? I tend to think the answer is YES!. I found this picture from this article that carried a sober title: "Surviving a capsized rowboat in the open ocean". Clearly this wave picture is an open ocean wave picture. It is, in my opinion, unusual. Since we don't usually see a deep open ocean wave picture like this one. Also it appears it happened in an otherwise calm sea condition. That's why I think this is a freaque wave out in the open ocean being captured!  There's not much information available. The caption says "Rough seas Photo: Alvolv via Shutterstock" that's all we have. I assume the photographer must be a Mr. Alvolv and he certainly has my deep and sciencere appreciation for allow me to copy this picture. And of course the author of this article, Joe Spring, for choosing this picture.  He may or may not realize that an open ocean large freaque wave picture like this is far from plentiful like surf pictures.

What I am wondering about right now is whether or not the 1995 New Year's day freaque wave recorded on single point wave gage on the StatOil Draupner platform in the North Sea is something like this one? No one can generalize from a single point measurement to a spatial real wave. We can only guess and conjecture. We need real open ocean measurement! WE NEED REAL OPEN OCEAN MEASUREMENT! Or at least more pictures like this one!!!

What-makes-sneaker-waves-so-sneaky-and-dangerous

Blogs.kqed.org published this very worthy reading article recently with an interesting title: What-makes-sneaker-waves-so-sneaky-and-dangerous by Craig Miller of KQED Science. Some important point that everyone should aware:

These waves are especially sneaky because they can often occur when the weather is perfectly nice.

“We don’t see a lot of weather during these events,” says Larry Smith, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Monterey. “And that kind of feeds into the ‘sneaker wave’ thing.”

But the presence of sneaker waves means that the weather is bad somewhere. . . 

That's not reassuring, but pretty much summed it up what it is all about! Here's more:

. . . while size matters, a sneaker’s danger is compounded by the speed it’s moving when it hits the shore.

“A lot of times these waves may only be 4-6 feet in the open sea,” says Smith. “But they’re moving at a much higher velocity than we usually see on the coast.” Meteorologists measure the velocity of a moving wave by the “period,” the distance from the bottom of the trough on one side of the wave to the bottom of the trough on the other side.

Smith and his colleague, Warren Blier, got their pencils out for us and calculated that in open waters, where the wave is seeing little-to-no friction, a 5-foot-high wave with a period of 20 seconds will be traveling at a highway speed of around 70 mph, easily twice as fast as the more typical waves we see along the coast. It’s not uncommon for sneaker waves to have periods of 20 seconds or more.

“When the waves begin to feel the beach bottom they will begin to slow down substantially,” says Smith. So that wave with the 20-second period will hit a typical beach at something like the speed of a running adult.

Unfortunately, many of our beaches aren’t typical. “The catch is that along our coast we have many steep beaches that don’t slow the fast-moving wave down,” says Smith, citing as examples Monastery and Carmel River Beaches, located just south of Carmel.

Since there's no systematic scientific research done on these feaque waves publicly available yet, and indeed all beaches are not typical, the local practical experiences from coast guards and weather forecasters are most certainly invaluable and should always paid attention to!  Beach goings are for enjoyments, nearshore freaque waves are part of the nature's offerings, be on guard! Don't let these unexpected yet expected happenings ruin our well deserved enjoyments!

Sunrise at Southern Lake Michigan

Here are two Lake Michigan sun rise pictures as viewed from north Chicago over the weekend.  I copied the awesome pictures from Michael Bennett, who "sheared them publicly" Mega Thanks!

More fascinating picture from his site, well worth a visit or two and more! And here's one from earlier with approaching waves, just marvelous!

Another tragidy Happened in Mirboo North, Victoria, Australia

According to Google: Mirboo North is a town in Victoria, Australia, located 155 km east of Melbourne
A tragic news happened to a Mirboo North resident appeared in theage of Australia:

Mirboo North resident Leighton Erbs died after being swept off rocks near Inverloch on Saturday afternoon.

Tributes were pouring in for Leighton, who was standing with friends on a rock shelf at Eagles Nest, east of Oaks Beach, when a wave swept the group into rough seas just before 1pm.

Life Saving Victoria spokesman Greg Scott said he understood the teenagers were not planning to swim but were engulfed by the force of the wave.

Eagles Nest is "highly hazardous'', according to Surf Life Saving Australia. Its Beachsafe website says the area experiences strong rips and big waves. Police and paramedics performed CPR for nearly an hour on Leighton after he was dragged back to the beach, but were unable to revive him

 Another very sad tragic story, another very familiar story plot. This time it happened near Victoria of Australia.  Saying too many "another" is very disheartening, but there just no way to soften the blow. What had happened, happened.  We extend our sincere condolences to the family of the young victim and pray God bless him and may he be rest in peace.  In the mean time, however, we are still left without any clue on how to cope and stop or prevent this kind of thing from happening again and again.

A fisherman's freaque wave tragedy happened in Ailadee, Ireland

This news from Midwest Radio96.1fm tells a simple tragedy:  

A search has resumed this morning for a Roscommon based fisherman who was washed off the rocks into the sea in county Clare yesterday.

The incident happened yesterday at an area known as the Fisherman's Climb, at Ailladee, in Co Clare

The same area, on the Atlantic coast between Doolin and Fanore, has been the scene of several previous tragedies.

The alarm was raised at about 5.30pm, but the recovery effort was abandoned as darkness fell.

It is always sad to read news like this, a fisherman washed off the rocks into the sea and lost. But it is by no means unusual. It had happened before somewhere else, it probably will happen again in some other places of the world at some other time somehow. Independent.Ie has further details about the case:

The 42-year-old man, believed to be a Latvian national living in Co Roscommon, was washed off the rocks by a rogue wave at an area known locally as the Fisherman's Climb at Ailladee in Co Clare.

and

It's understood that man was not wearing a lifejacket and may have been dragged beneath the waves by his heavy clothing.

So it was a freaque wave that caused it! And not wearing a lifejacket certainly also played a major role in this tragic case. May this fisherman be rest in peace and could help future cases not to make the same mistake of not wearing lifejacket like he did again.

Ocean being shutdown!

On the 3rd day of the month of October of the year AD2013, the federal government was shut down, the dictatorial president determined to shut down the ocean as well. This according to Miami Herald business :

Thursday back in South Florida, a day after limits for the National Institutes of Health made headlines, it was the fear of food drying up and a prohibition on fishing in waters of Florida Bay that took center stage.
Charter guides received a message from the National Park Service this week informing them that they are not permitted to take clients fishing in Florida Bay until the feds get back to work. That means that more than 1,100 square miles of prime fishing is off limits between the southern tip of the mainland to the Keys until further notice. 

The closing affects not only fishing guides, but anyone with a license to conduct business in the park, including tour operators and paddling guides — anyone with a Commercial Use Authorization permit, said Dan Kimball, superintendent of Everglades and Dry Tortugas national parks. 

Biscayne National Park is also off limits. Enforcement rangers will be on duty, Kimball said. 

Capt. Mike Makowski, owner of Blackfoot Charters in Key Largo, estimates this eliminates 60 percent to 70 percent of his hunting grounds.

And with the ocean being shut down, no freaque wave will be allowed to happen, of course! So while scientists not able to control, or even understand, freaque waves, a dictator can do anything!

Update:

Government was reopened after 16 days.  Business as usual again.  Of course the ocean was never shutdown. The political game play is just sickening!  Luckily this is God blessed country, the country is robust, her people are all hard working, kind and smart, even when they made a mistake elected an impostor, the country will emerged stronger and better than before. God bless America!

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/10/03/v-fullstory/3668028/shutdown-day-3-food-distributor.html#storylink=cpy