The International Energy Agency provided the following Press Release with the above title on May 14:

The supply shock created by a surge in North American oil production will be as transformative to the market over the next five years as was the rise of Chinese demand over the last 15, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its annual Medium-Term Oil Market Report (MTOMR) released today. The shift will not only cause oil companies to overhaul their global investment strategies, but also reshape the way oil is transported, stored and refined.

According to the MTOMR, the effects of continued growth in North American supply – led by US light, tight oil (LTO) and Canadian oil sands – will cascade through the global oil market. Although shale oil development outside North America may not be a large-scale reality during the report’s five-year timeframe, the technologies responsible for the boom will increase production from mature, conventional fields – causing companies to reconsider investments in higher-risk areas.

In virtually every other aspect of the market, developing economies are in the driver’s seat. This quarter, for the first time, non-OECD [Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development] economies will overtake OECD nations in oil demand. At the same time, massive refinery capacity increases in non-OECD economies are accelerating a broad restructuring of the global refining industry and oil trading patterns. European refiners will see no let-up from the squeeze caused by increasing US product exports and the new Asian and Middle Eastern refining titans.

“North America has set off a supply shock that is sending ripples throughout the world,” said IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven, who launched the report at the Platts Crude Oil Summit in London. “The good news is that this is helping to ease a market that was relatively tight for several years. The technology that unlocked the bonanza in places like North Dakota can and will be applied elsewhere, potentially leading to a broad reassessment of reserves. But as companies rethink their strategies, and as emerging economies become the leading players in the refining and demand sectors, not everyone will be a winner.”

While geopolitical risks abound, market fundamentals suggest a more comfortable global oil supply/demand balance over the next five years. The MTOMR forecasts North American supply to grow by 3.9 million barrels per day (mb/d) from 2012 to 2018, or nearly two-thirds of total forecast non-OPEC supply growth of 6 mb/d. World liquid production capacity is expected to grow by 8.4 mb/d – significantly faster than demand – which is projected to expand by 6.9 mb/d. Global refining capacity will post even steeper growth, surging by 9.5 mb/d, led by China and the Middle East.

The growth in North American oil production presents opportunities and challenges, notes the MTOMR. With large-scale North American crude imports tapering off and with excess US refining output looking for markets, the domino effects from this new supply will continue. Having helped offset record supply disruptions in 2012, North American supply is expected to continue to compensate for declines and delays elsewhere, but only if necessary infrastructure is put in place. Failing that, bottlenecks could pressure prices lower and slow development.

While OPEC oil will remain a key part of the oil mix, OPEC production capacity growth will be adversely affected by growing insecurity in North and Sub-Saharan Africa. OPEC capacity is expected to gain 1.75 mb/d to 36.75 mb/d, about 750 kb/d less than forecast in the 2012 MTOMR. Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the UAE will lead the growth, but OPEC’s lower-than-expected aggregate additions to global capacity will boost the relative share of North America.

Rising non-OECD participation in the oil market will be associated with continued growth in commercial and strategic storage capacity, along with strategically located storage hubs to support long-haul crude and product trade. African economies will play a larger role in the global market than previously expected. Although data leave room for improvement, there is strong evidence that African oil demand has been routinely underestimated, and may grow by a further 1 mb/d over the next five years.

Finally, steep growth in non-OECD refining capacity will accelerate the transformation of the global product supply chain, exerting downward pressure on refining margins and utilisation rates and leaving OECD refineries at risk of closure, notably in Europe. Product supply chains will continue to lengthen as new merchant refining centres extend their reach, resulting in higher disruption risks and potentially more volatile markets in product-importing economies.

Since joining the faculty of the Department of Geography in 1980, Professor Richard Church has advised 14 PhD dissertation committees and 28 Masters theses. He has also served on 25 doctoral and 22 Masters committees. Professor Church has been engaged in many aspects of graduate education at UCSB, from service on committees of the department, college, and university, to competing for the external funding that is needed to maintain and support an active research group. All of this speaks to a very strong commitment on his part to the very best aspects of a successful academic community. One of his colleagues writes, "It has always amazed me that he can give so much time to his students and still get so many of his own sole-authored papers published and give freely of his time to department and university service."

According to a colleague of Professor Church, "During the working day it is unusual for his office door to be closed, and equally unusual to see him not in close conversation with one of his current students, as they discuss the latest developments in the student’s work. He has been enormously successful at inculcating a sense of rigor and scientific objectivity in his students, in taking care of their personal needs, and in seeing them through the graduate-school process and into careers."

One of his students offers the following praise: "[Professor Church] has played an integral part in my development as a scholar: he has shared his technical expertise and served as a role model. His influence will be felt in my own academic career, as well as those of my future students."

Finally, another student states, "Rick [Professor Church] excels as a mentor by every possible measure. His keen intellect, innovative scientific approaches, and high productivity make him a leader in the field of geographic analysis. Moreover, he inspires and enables graduate students to follow his example…. Rick has been accessible, communicative, personable, and patient. I notice this collegial interaction is the way Rick treats all students."

For his dedication and exemplary mentorship of graduate students, Professor Richard Church is awarded an Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award. Congratulations, Professor Church! (source.)

Acronyms are the bane of any discipline/organization, but they come in handy as abbreviations – even if one can’t always remember what they stand for. In the case of ERI (Earth Research Institute), there aren’t many people who can explain how (never mind why) CSL (Computer Systems Laboratory) evolved into ERI over ~25 years and what the intervening acronyms stood for.

Fortunately, Geography’s web master and Senior Artist, Susan Baumgart (1998 - 2005), spent a lot of time tracking down the history of the Department of Geography and its relationship to other research entities on the UCSB campus: “In 1988, Jeff Dozier and Ray Smith reorganized the earth science component of an organized research unit named Computer Systems Laboratory (started in 1972 under Engineering) into the Computer Systems Laboratory/Center for Remote Sensing and Environmental Optics (CSL/CRSEO), which, in 1995, was renamed Institute for Computational Earth System Science (ICESS); Ray Smith was the first Director (1988-1996); Catherine Gautier became Director in 1996; Dave Siegel was appointed Director in 2002” (source).

ERI was formed in July of 2011 through the merger of the Institute for Crustal Studies (ICS) and the Institute for Computational Earth System Science (ICESS). Doug Burbank  (then Director of  ICS; Chair of Earth Science) and Dave Siegel worked together to merge the two units. Coming up with an acronym for such an entity was a challenge, so the name was voted on by all of the participants, and, fortunately, the temptation to call the merger "CRICESS" was overcome.

Technically, an acronym is only an acronym if you pronounce it as one word (like "laser" or "scuba"); if you spell out the letters, it's an “initialism” (like FBI or HTML). ERI seems to be both (see Wikipedia: Acronym). CRSEO (Center for Remote Sensing and Environmental Optics) may also have been a swinger in this regard, insofar as it was commonly referred to as “Crazy-O.”

Pete Peterson, now a Scientific Programmer in the Department of Geography who, previously, was a developer of GUS (the Grand Unified System - campus-wide data base) and, before then, a researcher who worked at ERI with Catherine Gautier and Dave Siegel, has experienced each stage of the morphing of CSL into ERI: “When I was an undergraduate in 1984, I had a work study job with Ray Smith at CSL (Computer Systems Lab; primarily Ray Smith and Jeff Dozier). Then came CRSEO (Crazy-O), the Center for Remote Sensing and Environmental Optics (adding some more PI's), and then came ICESS (Institute for Computational Earth System Science, pronounced “ISIS”) which, when merged with the Institute for Crustal Studies, became ERI (Earth Research Institute).” He also pronounces ERI as EERIE - and, indeed, it is, whether or not it’s an acronym.

Article by Bill Norrington, with a lot of help from Pete Peterson and Kathy Scheidemen (MSO of ERI).

On the morning of May 14, the editor for the Geography Department counted 46 pillbugs on the ground floor of the south wing of Ellison Hall—and that didn’t include the women’s restroom or the History of Art and Architecture’s Image Resource Center – and the bugs are swept up each night. This has been going on for several weeks. So, what’s a pillbug? And why are they invading?

According to Wikipedia, “Armadillidiidae is a family of woodlice, a terrestrial crustacean group in the order Isopoda. Unlike members of other woodlouse families, members of this family can roll into a ball, an ability they share with the outwardly similar but unrelated pill millipedes and other animals. It is this ability which gives woodlice in this family their common name of pill bugs, roly polies, chiggy-wigs or potato bugs. The best known species in the family is Armadillidium vulgare, the common pill bug. Among adults, they are often seen as unwanted (but essentially harmless) home pests. They are cherished among children, who enjoy keeping them as pets. Keeping a pet pill bug requires a very moist habitat with limited light. They can live for about two to three years.”

“A very moist habitat with limited light?” Granted, Geography personnel try to minimize overhead lighting to save energy, but the south wing of Ellison gets more sun than the north wing, and the north wing doesn’t have a problem.

“Pillbugs breathe by means of gills and specialized air tubes enclosed in protective chambers under the body. Gills must be kept wet in order to extract oxygen from water, restricting these creatures to moist habitats” (source). But Ellison Hall isn’t what you’d call “a moist habitat,” especially in light of the water saving measures that have been implemented inside the building and in the surrounding grounds during the last couple of years.

Pillbugs don’t cause any major damage, apart from being a minor nuisance: “They are not dangerous or harmful to people, pets, stored foods, houseplants, furniture, or home structural timbers. Unless they can find damp areas, none can survive inside the home for more than a few days. And even in high moisture areas, unless they also find food in the form of plant debris, they cannot establish permanent, reproducing populations in the dry, light living quarters of homes” (op. cit.).

Indeed, pillbugs are remarkably clean critters, insofar as they don’t urinate (they pass ammonia gas directly through their exoskeletons), and they eat their own poop (it’s called coprophagy - they need the copper that they lose through excretion). See insects.about.com for more interesting facts about pillbugs.

Phelps and Buchanan halls don’t have an infestation of pillbugs, so what attracts them to Ellison Hall? One initial theory was that they were attracted by the two, small compost bins outside the main double door, but few, if any, pillbugs have been seen around the bins. Another theory was that our tree trunk section illustrating dendrochronology (in the lobby) was to blame, but, again, few, if any pillbugs have been seen near it – besides, the round of pinewood was cut green in 2010, has been stripped of bark, and can hardly quality as “plant debris.”

Perhaps there’s a water-filled sinkhole under Ellison that attracts the critters. Perhaps it's something even more sinister…(wacka-do, wacka-do):

THE EGGPLANT THAT ATE CHICAGO

(Dr. West's Medicine Show & Junk Band; audio here)

You'd better watch out for the eggplant that ate Chicago, / For he may eat your city soon. / You'd better watch out for the eggplant that ate Chicago, / If he's still hungry, the whole country's doomed.

He came from outer space, lookin' for somethin' to eat. / He landed in Chicago. He thought Chicago was a treat. / (It was sweet, it was just like sugar)

You'd better watch out for the eggplant that ate Chicago, / For he may eat your city soon (wacka-do, wacka-do, wacka-do) / You'd better watch out for the eggplant that ate Chicago, / If he's still hungry, the whole country's doomed.

Article by Bill Norrington

Google has released a massive cache of satellite images that show how Earth’s surface has changed over recent decades. The announcement (May 9, 2013), “A picture of Earth through time,” came from Google’s Official Blog:

“Today, we're making it possible for you to go back in time and get a stunning historical perspective on the changes to the Earth’s surface over time. Working with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), NASA and TIME, we're releasing more than a quarter-century of images of Earth taken from space, compiled for the first time into an interactive time-lapse experience. We believe this is the most comprehensive picture of our changing planet ever made available to the public.

Built from millions of satellite images and trillions of pixels, you can explore this global, zoomable time-lapse map as part of TIME's new Timelapse project. View stunning phenomena such as the sprouting of Dubai’s artificial Palm Islands, the retreat of Alaska’s Columbia Glacier, the deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon, and urban growth in Las Vegas from 1984 to 2012.

The images were collected as part of an ongoing joint mission between the USGS and NASA called Landsat. Their satellites have been observing earth from space since the 1970s—with all of the images sent back to Earth and archived on USGS tape drives. We started working with the USGS in 2009 to make this historic archive of earth imagery available online. Using Google Earth Engine technology, we sifted through 2,068,467 images—a total of 909 terabytes of data—to find the highest-quality pixels (e.g., those without clouds), for every year since 1984 and for every spot on Earth. We then compiled these into enormous planetary images, 1.78 terapixels each, one for each year.

As the final step, we worked with the CREATE Lab at Carnegie Mellon University, recipients of a Google Focused Research Award, to convert these annual Earth images into a seamless, browsable HTML5 animation. Check it out on Google’s Timelapse website. Much like the iconic image of Earth from the Apollo 17 mission—which had a profound effect on many of us—this time-lapse map is not only fascinating to explore, but we also hope it can inform the global community’s thinking about how we live on our planet and the policies that will guide us in the future. A special thanks to all our partners who helped us to make this happen." (Posted by Rebecca Moore, Engineering Manager, Google Earth Engine & Earth Outreach.)

As Time’s Timelapse page points out, “These Timelapse pictures tell the pretty and not-so-pretty story of a finite planet and how its residents are treating it — razing even as we build, destroying even as we preserve. It takes a certain amount of courage to look at the videos, but once you start, it’s impossible to look away.”

Editor's note: Many thanks to Professor Chris Still and to my sister, Linda Norrington, for suggesting this material.

Ocean processes are dynamic and complex events that occur on multiple different spatial and temporal scales. To obtain a synoptic view of such events, ocean scientists focus on the collection of long-term time series data sets. Measurements are continually provided by fixed sensors, e.g., moorings, or gathered from ships. Recently, an increase in the utilization of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles has enabled dynamic data acquisition (source).

An underwater glider is a type of AUV that uses small changes in its buoyancy in conjunction with wings to convert vertical motion to horizontal, and thereby propel itself forward with very low power consumption…gliders using buoyancy-based propulsion represent a significant increase in range and duration compared to vehicles propelled by electric motor-driven propellers, extending ocean sampling missions from hours to weeks or months, and to thousands of kilometers of range…A wide variety of glider designs are in use by Navy and ocean research organizations and typically cost $100,000 (source).

The glider used by the UCSB Earth Research Institute (ERI) is actually owned by The Santa Barbara Coastal Long-Term Ecological Research Project (SBC-LTER) which is housed at the Marine Science Institute at UCSB and is part of the National Science Foundation's Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network. The LTER Program was established by the NSF in 1980 to support research on long-term ecological phenomena, such as the giant kelp forest ecosystems in southern California. As a related project, “Plumes & Blooms” in the Santa Barbara Channel (see http://www.icess.ucsb.edu/PnB/PnB.html for more on the latter) benefits from collaboration with the SBC-LTER. ERI provides the majority of the manpower for programming, deploying, and recovery of the glider which is affectionately referred to as “Olly,” short for the Barbareño Chumash word for sea otter (olqhósh).

According to Stuart Halewood, the Associate Development Engineer for ERI who is in charge of mission planning/monitoring, deployment, recovery, and maintenance of Olly, the glider “is a buoyancy-driven vehicle, which means it sucks in seawater into the nose section which causes it to loose buoyancy at a prescribed rate. At a preplanned maximum dive depth, this water is expelled and Olly climbs. The short carbon fiber wings and the movable battery pack within Olly allow us to set the dive and climb angle and therefore Olly's horizontal speed as it collects data over a sawtooth pattern of dives. Using a set of programmed mission behaviors, we can set Olly to surface at prescribed times and relay data back to us via Iridium satellite transmission or FreeWave radio communications; head to different waypoints, depending on changing conditions; and change which sensors sample and how often, as well as surfacing for recovery at a prescribed safe location.”

“Olly is predominately deployed from the SBC-LTER small boat R/V Kelpfish. Currently, we are doing regular Cross-shelf missions on a 4km transect offshore of Mohawk reef that allow us to repeat the data coverage many times over the approximately 21 day missions. We are also running 'virtual mooring' missions where Olly dives between two points repeatedly and maintains its position, effectively simulating a moored instrument. So far, we have deployed Olly on 15 Missions, 9 of which were Mohawk Cross-shelf missions that equate to more than 300 Cross-shelf Transects.”

“The Teledyne Webb Research (TWR) Glider Deployment Plan for ERI and SBC-LTER involves obtaining seasonally resolved cross-channel and alongshore glider sections in support of the ongoing ERI Plumes and Blooms project. The TWR electric glider is designed to operate from 4 to 200 meters, and it measures conductivity, temperature, and pressure; dissolved oxygen; chlorophyll-fluorescence (Chl-fl); colored dissolved organic matter fluorescence (CDOM-fl), and three channels of spectral backscatter. These data can be used to derive many physical and biogeochemical parameters, such as density, salinity, phytoplankton biomass, production rates, particle size and composition, which will be used for assessing time/space variations of plumes, bloom, and physical links between the deeper ocean and the innershelf. Science goals are to assess the role of synoptic scale (days to weeks) oceanographic and land-ocean interaction processes on environmental conditions in the Santa Barbara Channel.”

Other members of the ERI team who work with Olly are Erik Stassinos, an Assistant Development Engineer with ERI who is involved with mission planning/monitoring, deployment, recovery, and maintenance of Olly; and Fernanda Henderikx Freitas, a Graduate Student Researcher with ERI who is involved with mission planning/monitoring and data analysis of Olly. The SBC-LTER staff involved include many of their boat captains and divers who help with deployments and recovery. Research Biologist Daniel Reed is the primary investigator for SBC-LTER.

Editor’s note: Many thanks to Stuart Halewood for providing the material for this article, and to Derek Manov, Principal Development Engineer, for suggesting the subject matter in the first place.

Joint doctoral student, Elizabeth Kennedy, has received a US Fulbright Student Award to conduct research with repatriated child migrants and children and youth living in lower income neighborhoods in El Salvador. If time and resources permit, she will also work with the same populations in Guatemala and Honduras. These three nations are the primary sending countries of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) to the United States, accounting for nearly 90 % of the 13,625 child migrants who entered shelters in 2012. The reasons for their migration are many, but it is important to note that these nations have amongst the highest rates of violence in the world, violence that disproportionately affects young people.

Ms. Kennedy has worked with these youth in US shelters for 20 months and founded and directs a student organization at San Diego State University that continues providing mentorship and high school, college and career readiness to UAC. In El Salvador, she will work most closely with Universidad Centroamericana's IDHUCA team, led by Gilma Perez, Moises Gomez, and Amparo Marroquin, to implement a similar program there. She also has partnerships with Catholic Relief Services and the Foreign Ministry. She looks forward to helping develop regional solutions to regional problems.

Elizabeth’s championship of migrant children was eloquently expressed in an article she earlier wrote for JAMA Pediatrics, in which she argued that an apparent dearth of U.S. mental health services for migrant youth is exacerbating existing problems and creating new ones –– for the kids and for the country at large: "They're leaving conflict-torn countries and taking long, dangerous journeys. They get here and are supposed to receive mandated services, but in the area of mental health care, the facilities caring for them fall short. And no one knows what happens to most of them once they leave," Kennedy said. "What is happening? Are they getting an education? Are they adjusting? Often they're fending for themselves, they have mental health issues that are not diagnosed, and they are self-medicating in destructive ways. This is definitely something that hasn't received attention, and it should," she added. "Some would say, ‘Well, it's a small population.' And it is, but they could potentially have a large impact, especially as they're becoming a part of our larger undocumented population. With a minimal investment upfront, we can mobilize these highly motivated youth to be the future of our nation and region."

Sent to live in short-term, temporary facilities while awaiting unification with family stateside –– or deportation proceedings sending them back to their countries –– alien children are under U.S. government care for approximately 50 to 75 days. They're entitled to medical and mental health care for the duration. However, Kennedy said, it is unclear whether they're getting much of the latter. Her article, "Unnecessary Suffering: Potential Unmet Mental Health Needs of Unaccompanied Alien Children," cites a Congressional study finding that, in fact, from 2004 to 2007 most of these youth weren't receiving any therapy: "75 percent did not have evidence of group counseling, and 56 percent did not have evidence of individual counseling." "Of those who received counseling, whether it was evidence-based, conducted routinely, or led by a licensed practitioner, is not described," Kennedy wrote. "Therefore, beyond large gaps in how treatment is theoretically delivered, large gaps exist in actual treatment delivery." Making a case for the benefits of early intervention –– to the U.S. as well as the kids –– Kennedy argues that mental health services should be given greater priority to prevent a potential trickle-down effect with major implications (see the February 13, 2013 posting, “Elizabeth Kennedy Champions Health Care for Unaccompanied Migrant Children”).

Elizabeth’s proposal to the Fulbright award committee was titled “Journeying to be Someone: Unaccompanied Child Migrants.” It began by commenting: “Unaccompanied alien children” cross international borders without a parent or guardian and without appropriate legal documentation to travel. They share experiences of years-long family separation, widespread violence in home countries, higher rates of neglect and abuse, and dangerous journeys to destination. In only the first six months of 2012, more had arrived to the United States from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico than in all 2011, a trend seen in these four nations’ major cities as well. The President and CEO of the U.S. Committee on Refugees and Immigrants explained: ‘This is a regional problem and requires a regional response …’ This April, the First Ladies of each aforementioned nation arrived to Washington, D.C. to strategize regional solutions. Yet, they lack critical information to do so effectively.”

In the conclusion of her proposal, Elizabeth stated: "The proposed project is critical to creating holistic and informed policy and practice for unaccompanied child migrants at local, national, regional, and global levels. My doctoral dissertation unites research, education, and community outreach in Central America, Mexico, and the US. At origin, transit and destination, university, NGO, and governmental partnerships are formed, youth research assistants are trained to assist with community workshops, and K-12 curriculum around migration is disseminated. This is in progress in the transit site of San Diego. Concurrent with peer-reviewed publications, an interactive website, scholarly and professional presentations, and trainings are already occurring, and I will organize an International Children’s Geography Conference panel and a university course on transnational youth migration in 2014."

Eleven San Diego State University students have received Fulbright awards for 2013-2014, tying the record number awarded to SDSU students in 2011. The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government. About 1,600 U.S. students, 4,000 foreign students, 1,200 U.S. scholars, and 900 visiting scholars receive awards annually. Named for U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright, the program was founded in 1946 to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and of other countries. Currently, the Fulbright program operates in more than 155 countries (source).

Editor’s note: Kudos to Elizabeth, as well as many thanks to her for providing most of the material for this article.

“Will we soon be forced to eat jellyfish? Since the beginning of the 2000s, these gelatinous creatures have invaded many of the world's seas, like the Japan Sea, the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, etc. Is it a cyclic phenomenon, caused by changes in marine currents or even global warming? Until now, the causes remained unknown. A new study conducted by the Institut de recherche pour le développement in France and its partners, published in Bulletin of Marine Science, exposes overfishing as the main factor” (source).

“Jellyfish or jellies are the major non-polyp form of individuals of the phylum Cnidaria. They are typified as free-swimming marine animals consisting of a gelatinous umbrella-shaped bell and trailing tentacles. The bell can pulsate for locomotion, while stinging tentacles can be used to capture prey. Jellyfish are found in every ocean, from the surface to the deep sea. A few jellyfish inhabit freshwater. Large, often colorful, jellyfish are common in coastal zones worldwide. Jellyfish have roamed the seas for at least 500 million years and possibly 700 million years or more, making them the oldest multi-organ animal” (source).

While some scientists argue that there isn’t enough long-term data to conclude that global jellyfish numbers are on the rise, news coverage about their recent impacts on ecosystems and human infrastructure have definitely been on the rise: “Jellyfish adversely affect humanity by interfering with public systems and harming swimmers. The most obvious consequences are human injury or death and reduced coastal tourism. Jellies destroy fish nets, poison or crush captured fish, and consume fish eggs and young fish. Jellyfish can clog cooling equipment, disabling power plants in several countries. Jellyfish caused a cascading blackout in the Philippines in 1999, as well as damaging the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in California in 2008. Clogging can stop desalination plants, as well as clogging ship engines and infesting fishing nets” (source).

“Perhaps the most extraordinary [jellyfish] blooms have been those occurring in waters off Japan. There, refrigerator-sized gelatinous monsters called Nomuras, weighing 485lb (220 kg) and measuring 6.5ft (2m) in diameter, have swarmed the Japan Sea annually since 2002, clogging fishing nets, overturning trawlers, and devastating coastal livelihoods. These assaults have cost the Japanese fisheries industry billions of yen in losses.

Marine ecologists are warning of worse to come and are pointing the tentacle of blame at us. Some researchers fear that human changes to the marine environment may be leading to a tipping point in which jellyfish will rule the oceans, much as they did hundreds of millions of years ago in pre-Cambrian times. In 2009, Australian marine scientist Anthony Richardson and his colleagues published a research paper entitled “The jellyfish joyride,” in which they warn that if we do not act to curb current blooms, we will experience runaway populations that will cause open oceanic ecosystems to flip from ones dominated by fish biodiversity to ones dominated by jellyfish.” (source).

If we can't beat them, we can, at least, eat them. “In some countries, such as Japan, jellyfish are known as a delicacy. “Dried jellyfish” has become increasingly popular throughout the world. The jellyfish is dried to prevent spoiling; if not dried they can spoil within a matter of hours. Once dried, they can be stored for weeks at a time. Only scyphozoan jellyfish belonging to the order Rhizostomeae are harvested for food; about 12 of the approximately 85 species. Most of the harvest takes place in Southeast Asia. In China, processed jellyfish are desalted by soaking in water overnight and eaten cooked or raw. The dish is often served shredded with a dressing of oil, soy sauce, vinegar, and sugar, or as a salad with vegetables.In Japan, cured jellyfish are rinsed, cut into strips, and served with vinegar as an appetizer” (Wikipedia: Ibid.).

“Jellyfish is relished as a delicacy in Asian countries like China, Japan, Malaysia, Korea, and Thailand. While jellyfish do not have any particular flavor of their own, the dishes are made delectable by adding various spices and sauces. Shredded jellyfish is a common delicacy at Chinese weddings, and dried jellyfish is often found in the famous Japanese dish: 'sushi'. Jellyfish burgers are also new dishes available in some restaurants. Chinese and Thai supermarkets keep fresh (salad form) and salted jellyfish for people to buy” (source).

Editor's note: If you're interested in cashing in on this foodie trend, check out the wholesale prices at http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/dried-jellyfish.html. But if you’d settle for seeing rather than sampling the critters, check out the jellyfish exhibit at the Ty Warner Sea Center on Stearns Wharf in Santa Barbara.

Article by Bill Norrington

The following is from Earthweek: A Diary of the Planet, which is featured on our web site:

A fierce storm on the night of April 17-18 blew down an ancient oak that had shaded the Ceiriog Valley in northern Wales since the year 802. The Pontfadog oak is said to have served as the rallying point for Welsh prince Owain Gwynedd’s army, which defeated England’s King Henry II in 1157. The tree was spared eight years later when Henry had his men cut down the Ceiriog woods.

“Are we looking after our ancient trees properly?” asked Rory Francis of the Woodland Trust, a British charity that works to protect trees and forests. He estimated it would have cost about $9,000 for measures to protect the tree and help it last longer. Its massive trunk, with a girth of 42 feet, had been largely hollowed out by decay.

Dianne Coakley-Williams, whose husband Huw's family owned the oak and the land around it for generations, told the BBC she was awakened by an "almighty crash and a bang" as the oak fell near their house in the middle of the night. It hasn’t been decided what to do with the wood from the 1,200-year-old tree, but it could be used to make benches and even a monument for the village to put on display.

Editor’s note: According to an article in The Observer (John Vidal, April 27 2013), the Pontfadog oak was the oldest tree in Wales, the third largest in Britain, and one of the oldest in Europe. No one knew quite how old it was because it had lost its heartwood, but Michael Lear, a tree expert with the National Trust, visited Pontfadog in 1996 and wrote to Josie Williams: "Using Forestry Commission techniques, the youngest it can be is 1,181 years, the oldest 1,628 years. I cannot find a record of an oak tree of any of the 500 species internationally which has a greater girth anywhere in the world"...Almost all Britain's ancient trees are just as loved as the Pontfadog oak by their communities and most are very vulnerable, says the Ancient Tree Forum. According to its database, the UK has 80% of all northern Europe's ancient trees, with 5,365 in England, 581 in Wales and 646 in Scotland. Many are 500 years old or more."

Actually, you could argue that deer are more likely to kill you than any other animal (apart from your fellow man), at least in the U.S. According to “11 animals more likely to kill you than sharks,” an oft-repeated Mother Nature Network article on the internet, the most likely animals to kill you, are 1) mosquitoes, 2) hippos, 3) deer, 4) bees, 5) dogs, 6) ants, 7) jellyfish, 8) cows, 9) horses, 10) spiders, and 11) rattlesnakes. On average, < 1 person per year is killed by a shark in the U.S. (and < 6 worldwide).

The article referenced above doesn’t limit its listed killers to the U.S., and some of its assertions are debatable. For example, it’s not the mosquito itself that kills people, but a species of Plasmodium, a microorganism that infects female mosquitoes and causes malaria when introduced to a person’s bloodstream via a mosquito bite. Similarly, the article lists deer as the number 3 killer, but the actual cause of death is the result of drivers hitting deer with their cars. If we restrict the list to U.S. deaths and omit mosquitoes and deer, the listing becomes 1) bees (53 deaths each year in the U.S.), 2) dogs (30-35 deaths), 3) cows (22), 4) horses (20), 5) spiders (6.5), and 6) rattlesnakes (5.5). Yep – you are 10 times more likely to die in the U.S. because of a bee sting than a bite from a rattler and 22 times more likely to be killed by a cow than by a shark.

Using statistics from the Center for Disease Control, J.A. Forrester, C.P. Holstege, and J.D. Forrester conducted a more scientific investigation of human fatalities from animals in the U.S. (“Fatalities From Venomous and Nonvenomous Animals in the United States (1999-2007),” published in Wilderness and Environmental Medicine, June 2012). “The CDC WONDER Database was queried to return all animal-related fatalities between 1999 and 2007. Rates for animal-related fatalities were calculated using the estimated 2003 US population. Inclusion criteria included all mortalities that were a consequence of bite, contact, attack, or envenomation…There were 1802 animal-related fatalities with the majority coming from nonvenomous animals (60.4%). The largest percentage (36.4%) of animal-related fatalities was attributable to “other mammals,” which is largely composed of farm animals.”

The results of the study by Forrester et al. for the 7-year period, from highest to lowest (source), are:

• #1. The number of deaths that resulted from interactions with other mammals, a category that includes cats, cows, horses, pigs, raccoons, and other hoofed animals: 655. The biggest bringers of death are cows and horses.
• #2. The number of deaths that resulted from interactions with hornets, wasps, or bees: 509.
• #3. The number of deaths that resulted from interactions with dogs: 250.
• #4. The number of deaths that resulted from interactions with nonvenomous insects or nonvertebrates: 85.
• #5. The number of deaths that resulted from interactions with non-venomous reptiles. This would include lizards and non-venomous snakes and the cause of death being bitten or crushed by the animal: 77.
• #6. The number of deaths that resulted from interactions with venomous spiders: 70.
• #7. The number of deaths that resulted from other venomous arthropods such as fire ants: 63.
• #8. The number of deaths that resulted from interactions with venomous snakes or lizards: 59.
• #9. The number of deaths that resulted from interactions with marine animals: 10, 8 of them from sharks.
• #10. The number of deaths that resulted from interactions with crocodiles and alligators: 9.

The study concluded by stating: “Prevention measures aimed at minimizing injury from animals should be directed at certain high-risk groups such as farmworkers, agricultural workers, and parents of children with dogs.” “A disproportionate number of fatalities result from animal encounters in the South. This region is one that could possibly benefit from improved education about risky animal encounters, as well as legislation to reduce potentially fatal encounters. Interactions in the agricultural environment, preventive techniques and rapid treatment for those exposed to hornets, wasps, and bees, and preventing encounters between children and potentially aggressive canines represent 3 possible arenas for improvement.”

Article by Bill Norrington