Harris and his fishing buddy, 40-year-old Stonie “Mac” Huffman were fishing for salmon two miles off Cape Edgecumbe on Friday. Their 28-foot aluminum boat experienced hydraulic failure, which the men repaired, but they decided to head back to shore anyway.
Hundreds of flights across Britain have already been canceled, and airports in Scotland closed. Heathrow is Europe's busiest airport, with more than 1,200 flights a day.
A spokeswoman for BAA said Thursday the decision was being made "due to airspace restrictions, in accordance with international regulations." Flights are to be suspended from 1100GMT (8 a.m. EDT).
LONDON (AP) — Ash clouds drifting from Iceland's spewing volcano disrupted air traffic across Northern Europe on Thursday as airports shut down and carriers canceled hundreds of flights in Britain, Ireland and the Nordic countries.
In Iceland, hundreds have fled from floodwaters rising since the volcano under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier erupted Wednesday for the second time in less than a month. As water gushed down the mountainside, rivers had risen by up to 10 feet (3 meters) by Wednesday night.
The volcano was sending up smoke and ash that posed "a significant safety threat to aircraft," Britain's National Air Traffic Service said, as visibility is compromised and debris can get sucked into airplane engines.
In Britain, flight were suspended in the English cities of Manchester and Birmingham, as well as in Northern Ireland's Belfast and the Scottish airports at Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Europe's busiest airport — London's Heathrow — had at least 150 flights canceled, while London's Gatwick airport had 138 canceled by 8 a.m. (0700 GMT).
Most of the cancellations involved flights to and from northern airports.
"I think I might cry," said Ann Cochrane, 58, of Toronto, one of the passengers stranded in Glasgow. "I just wish I was on a beach in Mexico."
In northern Sweden all air traffic was suspended, affecting the cities of Skelleftea, Lulea, Kiruna and Hemavan, the national aviation authority said.
Air traffic in northern Finland was also halted.
Norway's King Harald V and Queen Sonja — who had planned to fly Thursday to Copenhagen for the Danish queen's 70th birthday — were looking to take a "car, boat or train" after the Norwegian airport operator Avinor said it was closing all commercial airspace, royal family spokesman Sven Gjeruldsen said.
A canceled trans-Atlantic flight left Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg grounded in New York, where he had been meeting with Norwegian businessmen.
Ireland's low-cost airline Ryanair canceled all of its flights in and out of Britain through Thursday, but said it would try to operate some flights out of southern Ireland.
The national carrier, Aer Lingus, canceled at least 40 flights in or out of Dublin, Cork, Shannon and Belfast.
Emirates airline said it canceled 10 roundtrip flights between Dubai and Britain on Thursday because of the ash cloud.
The U.S. Geological Survey said about 100 encounters of aircraft with volcanic ash were documented from 1983 to 2000; in some cases engines shut down briefly after sucking in volcanic debris, but there have been no fatal incidents.
In 1989, a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Boeing 747 flew into an ash cloud from Alaska's Redoubt volcano and lost all power, dropping from 25,000 feet to 12,000 feet (7,500 meters to 3,600) before the crew could get the engines restarted. The plane landed safely.
In another incident in the 1980s, a British Airways 747 flew into a dust cloud and the grit sandblasted the windscreen. The pilot had to stand and look out a side window to land safely.
Volcanic ash is formed from explosive eruptions. Particles as hard as a knife blade range in size from as small as 0.001 millimeters (1/25,000 inch) to 2 millimeters (1/12 inch), the Geological Survey says.
"It sounds like it's felt by at least 20 million people at this point," USGS seismologist Lucy Jones said. "Most of Southern California felt this earthquake."
"Downtown is going to remain closed until further notice. I honestly doubt that it will reopen soon," he said. "You've got a lot of cracks. You've got a lot of broken glass. It's unsafe for people to go there."
They warn that the oceans' complex undersea ecosystems and fragile food chains could be disrupted.
In some spots off Washington state and Oregon , the almost complete absence of oxygen has left piles of Dungeness crab carcasses littering the ocean floor, killed off 25-year-old sea stars, crippled colonies of sea anemones and produced mats of potentially noxious bacteria that thrive in such conditions.
Areas of hypoxia, or low oxygen, have long existedin the deep ocean. These areas — in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans — appear to be spreading, however, covering more square miles, creeping toward the surface and in some places, such as the Pacific Northwest , encroaching on the continental shelf within sight of the coastline.
"The depletion of oxygen levels in all three oceans is striking," said Gregory Johnson , an oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Seattle .
In some spots, such as off the Southern California coast, oxygen levels have dropped roughly 20 percent over the past 25 years. Elsewhere, scientists say, oxygen levels might have declined by one-third over 50 years.
"The real surprise is how this has become the new norm," said Jack Barth , an oceanography professor at Oregon State University . "We are seeing it year after year."
Barth and others say the changes are consistent with current climate-change models. Previous studies have found that the oceans are becoming more acidic as they absorb more carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
"If the Earth continues to warm, the expectation is we will have lower and lower oxygen levels," said Francis Chan , a marine researcher at Oregon State .
As ocean temperatures rise, the warmer water on the surface acts as a cap, which interferes with the natural circulation that normally allows deeper waters that are already oxygen-depleted to reach the surface. It's on the surface where ocean waters are recharged with oxygen from the air.
Commonly, ocean "dead zones" have been linked to agricultural runoff and other pollution coming down major rivers such as the Mississippi or the Columbia . One of the largest of the 400 or so ocean dead zones is in the Gulf of Mexico , near the mouth of the Mississippi .
However, scientists now say that some of these areas, including those off the Northwest, apparently are linked to broader changes in ocean oxygen levels.
The Pacific waters off Washington and Oregon face a double whammy as a result of ocean circulation.
Scientists have long known of a natural low-oxygen zone perched in the deeper water off the Northwest's continental shelf.
During the summer, northerly winds aided by the Earth's rotation drive surface water away from the shore. This action sucks oxygen-poor water to the surface in a process called upwelling.
Though the water that's pulled up from the depths is poor in oxygen, it's rich in nutrients, which fertilize phytoplankton. These microscopic organisms form the bottom of one of the richest ocean food chains in the world. As they die, however, they sink and start to decay. The decaying process uses oxygen, which depletes the oxygen levels even more.
Southerly winds reverse the process in what's known as down-welling.
Changes in the wind and ocean circulation since 2002 have disrupted what had been a delicate balance between upwelling and down-welling. Scientists now are discovering expanding low-oxygen zones near shore.
"It is consistent with models of global warming, but the time frame is too short to know whether it is a trend or a weather phenomenon," Johnson said.
Others were slightly more definitive, quicker to link the lower oxygen levels to global warming rather than to such weather phenomena as El Nino or the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, a shift in the weather that occurs every 20 to 30 years in the northern oceans.
"It's a large disturbance in the ecosystem that could have huge biological changes," said Steve Bograd , an oceanographer at NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center in Southern California .
Bograd has been studying oxygen levels in the California Current, which runs along the West Coast from the Canadian border to Baja California and, some scientists think, eventually could be affected by climate change.
So far, the worst hypoxic zone off the Northwest coast was found in 2006. It covered nearly 1,200 square miles off Newport, Ore. , and according to Barth it was so close to shore you could hit it with a baseball. The zone covered 80 percent of the water column and lasted for an abnormally long four months.
Because of upwelling, some of the most fertile ocean areas in the world are found off Washington and Oregon . Similar upwelling occurs in only three other places, off the coast of Peru and Chile , in an area stretching from northern Africa to Portugal and along the Atlantic coast of South Africa and Namibia .
Scientists are unsure how low oxygen levels will affect the ocean ecosystem. Bottom-dwelling species could be at the greatest risk because they move slowly and might not be able to escape the lower oxygen levels. Most fish can swim out of danger. Some species, however, such as chinook salmon, may have to start swimming at shallower depths than they're used to. Whether the low oxygen zones will change salmon migration routes is unclear.
Some species, such as jellyfish, will like the lower-oxygen water. Jumbo squid, usually found off Mexico and Central America , can survive as oxygen levels decrease and now are found as far north as Alaska .
"It's like an experiment," Chan said. "We are pulling some things out of the food web and we will have to see what happens. But if you pull enough things out, it could have a real impact."
At approximately 2:45 PM, a helicopter from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island located and recovered the body of 52-year-old Joseph Bohlig of Kelso, Washington, off the south crater wall.
In a tragic turn of events, Stephen Schafer was attacked by sharks while kiteboarding, and later died. The 38 year old was surfing 500 yards off shore in Stuart, Florida Wednesday when a crowd of sharks attacked. Evidence shows that he did try and fight back.
The outdoor enthusiast apparently had several injuries including bite wounds and teeth marks, and some bruises that appeared to be defensive as he fought back. Rescuers on the scene say the sharks were circling and Schafer was screaming. Read more and see the news story video about it below.
It is usual for people in the waters around Florida, such as surfers and the like, to only get minor bites and such. In fact the last death by sharks was a 14 year old girl was five years ago. This was also the first fatal attack in this particular area of Florida.
Nothing has been released as to what drew the sharks to attack, but some suspect it may have been young great white sharks, which are known to be aggressive. The lifeguard that spotted him through binoculars noticed the surfer was in a weird position before the attack.
“He was just hanging onto his board — not normal activity for a kite surfer,” Daniel Wouters of Martin County Fire Rescue told ABC News’ West Palm Beach affiliate WPBF. “Normally, the wind comes and they pick back up and they go off, but he had been hanging onto his board.”
This article also states that the team on site did all they could and Jim Smith told ABC News “I can’t emphasize enough that they did their best. The guy just wasn’t moving. It was very heartbreaking in a way.”
Regardless of whether or not this was uncommon or what he did, it was a sad event. Schafer was a veteran of the water and will be remembered.
WEST PALM BEACH-- Could a Great White Shark been behind the fatal attack of a kiteboarder Wednesday?
Palm Beach Atlantic University Biology Professor Gary Goss says shark attacks are extremely rare.
Even more rare, an attack by a Great White, the most feared beast of the ocean which can be 20 feet long and weigh up to 5000 pounds. That's more than a pick-up.
"Great whites in our area are very uncommon. They are mostly in deep waters where it's colder. There has never been an attack here by a white shark," said Goss.
Because of the severity of the wounds that killed the 38-year-old kite board surfer, some are speculating juvenile Great Whites which tend to be 6 to 8 feet long may have been in the area migrating through Florida's east coast during winter.
Could the shark have mistaken the kiteboard surfer for a sea turtle?
"That's the only situation where big sharks which hunt sea turtles could have mistaken it for a surfer. That's a white shark situation," added Goss.
The professor says the shark in this attack is most likely a bull shark, known for being aggressive.
Regardless what type of shark struck this time, experts say you are more likely to drown in the ocean from a rip current than die from a shark attack.
U.S. Department of Justice - Federal Bureau of Investigation
Washington, D.C. 20535-0001
FBI National Press Office, (202) 324-3691
For Immediate Release
January 13, 2010
Haitian Earthquake Relief Fraud Alert
Washington, D.C. – The FBI today reminds Internet users who receive appeals to donate money in the aftermath of Tuesday’s earthquake in Haiti to apply a critical eye and do their due diligence before responding to those requests.
Past tragedies and natural disasters have prompted individuals with criminal intent to solicit contributions purportedly for a charitable organization and/or a good cause.
Therefore, before making a donation of any kind, consumers should adhere to certain guidelines, to include the following:
* Do not respond to any unsolicited (SPAM) incoming emails, including clicking links contained within those messages.
* Be skeptical of individuals representing themselves as surviving victims or officials sking for donations via e-mail or social networking sites.
* Verify the legitimacy of nonprofit organizations by utilizing various Internet-based resources that may assist in confirming the group’s existence and its nonprofit status rather than following a purported link to the site.
* Be cautious of e-mails that claim to show pictures of the disaster areas in attached files because the files may contain viruses. Only open attachments from know senders.
* Make contributions directly to known organizations rather than relying on others to make the donation on your behalf to ensure contributions are received and used for intended purposes.
* Do not give your personal or financial information to anyone who solicits contributions: Providing such information may compromise your identity and make you vulnerable to identity theft.
Anyone who has received an e-mail referencing the above information or anyone who may have been a victim of this or a similar incident should notify the IC3 via www.ic3.gov.
State volcanologists raised the alert level on the cone-shaped, 8,070-foot (2,460-meter) Mayon volcano overnight to two steps below a major eruption after ash explosions.
Residents in Albay are used to moving away from Mayon. Nearly 50,000 people live in a five-mile (eight-kilometer) radius around the mountain, and some villages were evacuated last month when the volcano spewed ash.
Provincial governor Salceda said he had decided to cancel a trip to Copenhagen, where he was to attend the U.N. climate conference to discuss his province's experience with typhoons and other natural disasters.
Jesse Ventura, who was the governor of Minnesota and an ex-wrestler “The Bobby”, will make an appearance on the TV show which is also called as the “documentary thriller” with the title name “Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura”. It will make its start from Tru TV network that believes in the slogan “No reality. Actuality”. The TV network makes such investigative thrilling and “revealing” documentaries in most of his programs and shows. “Conspiracy theory with Jesse Ventura” is based upon the investigative probes by 
Ventura in different under-the-cover projects and activities. He is presented as an open-minded investigator who does not operate with a bias towards any activity and gives his conspiracy theory to the public. If someone does not believe in the theory, “MythBusters” is the right forum for nonbelieving faction of people. Tonight’s show covers a new conspiracy theory regarding HAARP project.
financed by the Department of Defense. There is a “denying spokesman” assigned by the department to “deny” any allegation. He seems “too ready” to deny any fact. The HAARP project is itself portrayed by these authorities as “so-called research project”. They depict the project as a “dormant weapon” lying idle causing no harm to anyone for the time being. But some people have the view that show exaggerates to add spice of thrill that is required by the network. But Jesse is of the view that it is not the case and the reality is often blurred due to lack of concrete evidence. He told that lack of concrete evidence does not mean that something is not being done.
The trawler, the Diasan Shinsho-maru, capsized off Chiba`as its three-man crew was trying to haul in a net containing dozens of huge Nomura's jellyfish.
especially not WHERE. The odds of it happening are remote, but in terms of history - people vs the planet, the planet has stomped us. Impacts have happened before and will happen LONG after we're gone.
than 24 hours to make a proper evacuation of New York City, even that is without panic, traffic jams and if "everything goes to plan". Any size hurricane reaching New York presently would be quite destructive.
escape.The fault a deadly "1,2" punch, first the earthquake would level parts of the coast - and then with little to no time to act - the tsunami would already be there.
scary fact : It's long overdue.
