Thursday, May 24, 2012

Mongooses on Kauai?

Yesterday the first live mongoose to be caught on Kauai was trapped at the Marriott Kauai Lagoons. Houston, we have a problem.

Photo courtesy of Hawaii News Now

In the late 1800s mongooses were introduced to Big Island, Maui, Molokai, Oahu in an effort to curb rat populations. Unfortunately rats are nocturnal, while mongooses are active in daylight hours, rendering their introduction completely useless. Mongoose populations exploded on the islands they were introduced, decimating ground-nesting  native bird populations including petrels, shearwaters, and Hawaii's state bird, the nene.

Kauai, it seems, had been spared. The story goes a ship loaded with a crate of the critters was destined for the island in 1883. One of the workers on board was bitten (they're not very nice), and in a fit of rage kicked the entire crate into the water (thank you random bipolar guy!). No other shipments of mongooses were sent to Kauai.

Growing up there, I had always thought of Kauai as mongoose-free. Just another reason it was the best island. (Uhh... I mean worst. Don't go there.) But every once in a while I'd hear someone describe a rat-like creature they'd seen but had no idea what it was. In 2003, my uncle came to visit from the mainland. He was walking along a beach on the north shore when he saw some sort of strange mammal he couldn't place. As he described it to us - kind of like a rat and squirrel mixed together - it sounded a lot like the mammal that wasn't supposed to exist on Kauai. February 2004 saw another report of a mongoose sighting appear in the local newspaper, The Garden Island.

In fact, there have apparently been over 160 "credible" reports of mongooses over the past 44 years, with sightings ranging all over the island.

Then they found one. In 1976 a lactating female was found dead on the road in Kalaheo. Kauai definitely had a mongoose problem. But the question shifted from "Are they here?" to "Are they established?" If mongooses had a stable breeding population, Kauai was in trouble.

Now that a live mongoose has actually been caught - this one a mature male - there is little doubt Kauai has an established population of mongooses in the Lihue area. Likely elsewhere too. What worries me are those sightings spanning the entire island. Just how serious is Kauai's mongoose infestation? And how can we stop it before the Garden Isle becomes as lifeless as Oahu (again, I'm a little biased)?

Check out the article on the KHON 2 News website: First Live Mongoose Captured on Kauai

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Preparing for the Volcom Fiji Pro 2012

I don't know about you, but every time I think of a return to Cloudbreak I can't help but jump up and down like a toddler handed a gallon of ice cream. I love Fiji. I love Cloudbreak. And Restaurants. These are the waves that should be mainstays on the contest circuit, rather than the blown out beach break closeouts that have become increasingly common over the past couple years. While I recognize the driving factor in contest placement is and will always be centered around money, we need contests like these to maintain the integrity and soul of the sport. And with a contract spanning 2012-2014, Volcom will be able to give us three years of Fijian perfection.

The 2012 Volcom Fiji Pro marks the World Tour's return to Fiji after a three year hiatus. The contest has actually only been held eight times since its inception in 1999. Occy took the inaugural title, followed by Luke Egan (2000), Michael Lowe (2002), Andy Irons (2003), Damien Hobgood (2004 and 2006), and of course Kelly Slater (2005 and 2008). All were goofy foots except for AI and Slater, meaning goofyfoots have won in Fiji over 62% of the time. US surfers have won four times, Aussies 3, and Hawaiians once (thank you AI!).

Fresh off his win in Rio, and bred for waves like these, I'm looking to John John as the one to beat in Fiji. But I'm also excited to see Jordy, Parko, and Julian, guys who have proven they're not afraid of heaving barrels. Of course expect fireworks from Kelly (and Mick), but don't we always expect that? Finally, I'd like to see how Gabriel Medina and Kolohe Andino fare in waves like these.

Only 10 days till the waiting period! Check out the site: Volcom Fiji Pro

And here's a little tease:

Friday, May 18, 2012

John John wins Billabong Rio Pro 2012

Congrats to John John Florence on his first World Tour win! Next up is Fiji followed by Tahiti, waves tailor made for John John's style. I have a feeling he just might be the one to bring the World Title back to Hawaii.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

"Knee Deep"

This song by the Zac Brown Band has been running through my head all day in the lab today. It's the perfect embodiment of everything I want right now: sun, sand, the water. Not a worry in the world. Hopefully I'll get there soon. Right now I'm stuck in my lab running samples that aren't being very nice. Do you know what gas chromatography - isotope ratio mass spectrometry is? No? Here's some advice: don't find out.



Update: I'm officially packing up and leaving this fluorescent lab for the night before all the chemicals make me grow a third eye. Round 2 starts tomorrow at 7 am. Maybe I'll look for some kind of paradise in the meantime.

Monday, May 14, 2012

I take it back...



I'll say it again. I take it back. The Billabong Rio Pro doesn't suck. In fact, it's kind of awesome. No, there weren't perfect lines stretching in from the horizon. And waves were anything but consistent. Rather, the waves were big and weird. Conditions were tough at best. But that's what made it interesting. It was thrilling to watch the world's best battle the tricky conditions. Every wave was unique and that left you guessing what the surfer could do on it. AND BARRELS? Thank you wave gods. This contest just got a lot more interesting.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Living it up in Macy's

My sister blowing up Miley Cyrus. The most exciting thing Macy's has seen since those silly "I'm too cute to do math" t-shirts.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

New Heat Draw

Kelly's officially out. Willian Cardozo (Bra) is in. Currently sitting in 18th on the One World Rankings, this guy looks pretty damn good. No Kelly, mind you. And he's got that Brazilian style. But he's powerful and fast, and should put up a nice fight in Rio.

Check him out here:


**UPDATED** BILLABONG RIO PRO ROUND 1 MATCH-UPS:
Heat 1:
Josh Kerr (AUS), Bede Durbidge (AUS), Jadson Andre (BRA)
Heat 2: Jordy Smith (ZAF), C.J. Hobgood (USA), Patrick Gudauskas (USA)
Heat 3: Owen Wright (AUS), Raoni Monteiro (BRA), Taylor Knox (USA)
Heat 4: Adriano de Souza (BRA), Kai Otton (AUS), Willian Cardoso (BRA)
Heat 5: Taj Burrow (AUS), Kieren Perrow (AUS), Tomas Hermes (BRA)
Heat 6: Joel Parkinson (AUS), Matt Wilkinson (AUS), Peterson Crisanto (BRA)
Heat 7: Julian Wilson (AUS), Brett Simpson (USA), Fredrick Patacchia (HAW)
Heat 8: Gabriel Medina (BRA), Adrian Buchan (AUS), Yadin Nicol (AUS)
Heat 9: Mick Fanning (AUS), Damien Hobgood (USA), Travis Logie (ZAF)
Heat 10: Michel Bourez (PYF), Miguel Pupo (BRA), Tiago Pires (PRT)
Heat 11: Jeremy Flores (FRA), Heitor Alves (BRA), Kolohe Andino (USA)
Heat 12: John John Florence (HAW), Alejo Muniz (BRA), Adam Melling (AUS)

Monday, May 7, 2012

Kelly Slater: Too Hurt for Billabong Rio Pro, but not for the Gold Coast

Check out this video of Kelly getting barreled today. Too hurt to surf? Hmmmm....

Kelly Slater likely out for Billabong Rio Pro 2012

The heat draw for Rio has been posted. Dusty Payne, out with an ankle injury, will be replaced by fellow Hawaiian Freddy P. Though presently in the heat draw, Kelly Slater is likely out too. He tweeted (wow I hate that word) earlier today: "I can surf but can't really turn on heel still. Stitches in foot. Likely won't be in Brazil for the event. And it's not April Fool's day." So no Slater for Rio. Convenient. At least it's not J-Bay he's missing this year.

With Kelly out, the World Title seems to be opening up all over again. Currently in 1st with a 5th and 2nd, Kelly's no-show will allow a number of competitors to catch up. Adriano de Souza, currently in 2nd on the World Title Rankings and last year's Rio champ, has to be one of the favorites for the event. Expect fellow Brazilian Gabriel Medina to shine here as well. Although he had a rough start, Medina (currently tied for 25th) is fresh off a win at the Nike Lowers Pro. Not to mention he was basically engineered for peaky beach breaks with onshore wind.

Taj Burrow and Mick Fanning are sitting pretty with a win apiece. A win here would rocket them up to 1st. But I'm most excited to see Owen Wright, John John Florence and Julian Wilson light up this event. A heat with any of these three will definitely be one to watch.

I haven't talked much about the women's contest, mostly because Steph Gilmore has all but cinched this year's title. With only three contests left, it'll be a miracle if Sally Fitzgibbons (her only real competition at this point) can muscle her way to the top. That being said, look for explosive performances from Carissa Moore who seems to be feeling a lot more free without the weight of World title expectations perched on those shoulders. 

So here are the match-ups for the men's and women's contest.  

BILLABONG RIO PRO ROUND 1 MATCH-UPS:

Heat 1: Jordy Smith (ZAF), Brett Simpson (USA), Fredrick Patacchia (HAW)
Heat 2: Owen Wright (AUS), Bede Durbidge (AUS), Jadson Andre (BRA)
Heat 3: Adriano de Souza (BRA), C.J. Hobgood (USA), Patrick Gudauskas (USA)
Heat 4: Taj Burrow (AUS), Raoni Monteiro (BRA), Taylor Knox (USA)
Heat 5: Joel Parkinson (AUS), Kai Otton (AUS), Tomas Hermes (BRA)
Heat 6: Kelly Slater (USA), Kieren Perrow (AUS), Peterson Crisanto (BRA)
Heat 7: Josh Kerr (AUS), Adrian Buchan (AUS), Yadin Nicol (AUS)
Heat 8: Julian Wilson (AUS), Damien Hobgood (USA), Travis Logie (ZAF)
Heat 9: Gabriel Medina (BRA), Miguel Pupo (BRA), Tiago Pires (BRA)
Heat 10: Mick Fanning (AUS), Heitor Alves (BRA), Kolohe Andino (USA)
Heat 11: Michel Bourez (PYF), Alejo Muniz (BRA), Adam Melling (AUS)
Heat 12: Jeremy Flores (FRA), John John Florence (HAW), Matt Wilkinson (AUS)

BILLABONG WOMEN’S RIO PRO ROUND 1 MATCH-UPS:

Heat 1: Courtney Conlogue (USA), Lakey Peterson (USA), Sage Erickson (USA)
Heat 2: Tyler Wright (AUS), Paige Hareb (NZL), Justine Dupont (FRA)
Heat 3: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS), Sarah Mason (NZL), Juliana Quint (BRA)
Heat 4: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS), Rebecca Woods (AUS), Melanie Bartels (HAW)
Heat 5: Carissa Moore (HAW), Coco Ho (HAW), Jacqueline Silva (BRA)
Heat 6: Laura Enever (AUS), Malia Manuel (HAW), Pauline Ado (FRA)

Here we go again: The Billabong Rio Pro


As we roll around to the worst contest on the tour, I thought it would be nice to look back at the zoo that was last year's Billabong Rio Pro. Adriano de Souza ultimately winning the contest (no way a Brazillian won in Brazil?!), after that infamous heat against Owen Wright. How a single floater could ever score an 8 is above me, and most of the surfing community for that matter.

Relive the drama and gear up for another fun ride. Welcome to the Billabong Rio Pro.

The heat:


Listen to competitors thoughts:

Ocean acidification and deep sea communities: can past events provide clues to future responses?



Ocean acidification: the other carbon problem
Ocean acidification (OA) is one of the largest issues resulting from anthropogenic pumping of CO₂into the atmosphere. CO₂in the atmosphere dissolves into oceans, leading to a decrease in pH (called the bicarbonate buffer system):

CO₂+H₂O ↔ H₂CO₃ ↔ HCO₃¯+H⁺ ↔ CO₃¯+H⁺
Atmospheric CO₂doubling will likely lower pH of the entire ocean > 0.1 unit. The normal variation of pH in open seawater (7.6𔃆.2), so .1 units is very significant.


Effects on marine organisms include physiological responses (regulating acid-base imbalance) as well a dissolution of calcium carbonate support structures like shells, tests, or exoskeletons as saturation horizons rise. It is possible deep sea organisms may be particularly vulnerable. For example, the internal control of pH is critical for proper physiological functioning, so many organisms have evolved elaborate methods to regulate internal pH. However, the pH in most of the deep sea is stable over thousands of years, so deep sea organisms have not needed methods to rapidly adapt to or regulate changes in pH. Ocean acidification may be too fast for these deep sea organisms to adapt to (Seibel and Walsh, 2002).


Changes in carbonate saturation horizons are one of the biggest worries when people talk about effects of OA on organisms. The solubility of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) increases with decreasing temperature and increasing pressure. In the north Pacific, the rate of rise for aragonite saturation horizon is around 1 m y¯¹. At atmospheric CO₂ = 780 ppm (near the end of this century), the subarctic North Pacific and Southern Ocean will be undersaturated with respect to aragonite (Fabry et al., 2008; Feely et al., 2006; Orr et al., 2005.) Major planktonic calcium carbonate producers like coccolithophores, foraminifera, and euthecosomatous pteropods (organisms responsible for nearly all the export flux of calcium carbonate to the deep sea) may be at risk as well. In lab studies, foraminifera and pteropods for example showed possible reduced calcification with decreasing pH (Feely et al., 2004; Orr et al., 2005).
 So to be blunt, this is bad.

But what is going to happen? Is there another way, besides controlled laboratory experiments, to gauge where the ocean is headed? Other than just sitting and waiting around to see what happens, I mean.

We could look to the past.

The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum
About 55 million years ago, sea surface temperatures rose rapidly, about 5-10°C in only a thousand years. This rapid warming was likely due to increases in greenhouse forcing, just like today. Rather than anthropogenic however, this rapid influx of carbon to the atmosphere may have come from methane hydrates at the bottom of the ocean. For those of you who are isotopically inclined, δ¹³C records from deep sea sediment cores show a rapid initial decrease (around 20,000 years) followed by a gradual recovery (~130,000 years) back to similar δ¹³C values found before the excursion. The magnitude of the drop in δ¹³C values (-3‰) suggest the carbon source was very depleted in 13C, pointing to methane hydrates as the likely source. This carbon isotope excursion was the signature of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) (Zachos et al., 2005).
Part of influx of CO2 to the atmosphere dissolved into the oceans, lowering pH. This resulted in a rise in the lysocline and calcite compensation depth (CCD) which promoted the dissolution of seafloor carbonate. The CCD shoaled over 2 km within just a few thousand years, but recovery was gradual, around 60,000 years. Ultimately this CO2 would be sequestered through chemical weathering of silicate rocks (Zachos et al., 2005).

All marine communities experienced major changes, including migrations to higher latitudes, evolutionary radiations, and extinctions. There were also distinct responses between planktonic and benthic organisms. Planktonic organisms weren't particularly affected, but did experience radiation and diversification. However for benthic organisms, the PETM marked the largest extinction event in the last 90 million years. 30 to 50% of benthic species became extinct. It's important to keep in mind that gauging PETM effects on marine ecosystems relies entirely on microfossils, as no macroinvertibrate fossils have been described (Rodriguez-Tovar et al., 2011; McInerney and Wing, 2011).

Surprisingly, the driving force affecting these organisms may have been temperature rather than ocean acidification. Temperature affects bottom water oxygenation and increases metabolic rates, meaning organisms need more food to maintain base metabolism (McInerney and Wing, 2011).

Applicability?
Can we expect to see similar responses from marine organisms today? How similar was the PETM to today's global warming/ ocean acidification problem? It turns out we are likely in for much worse. for one, the rate of carbon input was much different. In the PETM, carbon was input to the atmosphere over an 8,000 year period. Contrast that with our pumping CO2 into the atmosphere over a mere 300 years. That's less than the mixing time of the ocean. The longer CO2 input rate during the PETM meant less severe acidification and carbonate dissolution in the surface ocean.

Something else to consider: there was no ice during the PETM. No glaciers, snow. Nothing. No ice means no ice/albedo feedback (warming leads to melting of ice, revealing darker surfaces which absorb more heat, leading to more warming) which means an absence of greater warming at polar latitudes. In contrast, the most drastic warming today is at the poles (McInerney and Wing, 2011; Ridgwell and Schmidt, 2010).
Check out this video:
We are heading for something unprecedented. The PETM at best provides a framework for the mimimum damage today's anthropogenically induced problems will cause deep sea marine life.
Helpful link:                                 

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Nike Lowers Pro


The contest is on and it looks amazing. My only comment: Julian should have won. Period. I don't care about an interference. He killed it. Judges need to swallow their ridiculous egos and let people surf.

check it out now:
http://www.nikelowerspro.com/live/