Category Archives: High Seas

Tropical Storm Paulette just came back to life in the eastern Atlantic. The revival comes days after storm trackers issued what would have been their last update on Paulette. But you cant keep a storm like Paulette down its come back as a zombie.

Zombie isnt a technical designation, just a nickname for storms that peter out, only to come back from the dead when conditions allow. For a tropical storm to form (or rise again) it needs favorable wind conditions, plenty of warm and moist air, and warm ocean waters. It also needs to have the general structure of a tropical storm, with a warm center, and a lack of cold or warm fronts. That structure is what Paulette briefly lost last week, causing its untimely demise.

In other news, the National Weather Service is clearly just as tired of this year as the rest of us.

Paulettes resurrection comes more than a week after it slammed into Bermuda as a hurricane. On September 16th, during their last discussion of the storm, the forecasters predicted that there was some chance Paulette could pull something like this. At the time, Paulettes remains werent organized like a tropical storm, but it was still kicking, creating high seas and it was headed into warm water, which fuels cyclones like this one.

The conditions were good enough that Paulette re-formed on September 22nd, but its just staggering along. The latest forecast, as of this writing, says that Paulette is weakening and is expected to become a remnant again within a day.

While Paulettes second life is likely to be brief, other zombie storms have been far more powerful. In 2018, Leslie hammered the Iberian Peninsula after an exceedingly weird 19-day tour of the Atlantic. And in 2014, Hurricane Ana re-formed in the Pacific just in time to slam into British Columbia.

Zombie storms arent entirely uncommon in addition to Ana and Leslie, 2013s hurricane season saw both Humberto and Gabrielle rise from the dead, and in 2014 a different zombie storm re-formed just before Halloween. Thats spooky timing, but whats spookier than any zombie hurricane is the fact that over the past several decades, hurricanes have become stronger thanks to climate change.

This years hurricane season has already been extremely active. There have been so many storms that forecasters are now using the Greek alphabet to name new cyclones. Currently, were up to Beta.

Hurricane season will continue until November 30th.

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A zombie tropical storm just came back to life in the Atlantic - The Verge

Hurricane Sally did an estimated $12 million in damage to the Alabama State Port Authority, as well as channel and navigational damage causing ongoing delays for a few vessels.

The Port Authority board, which met Thursday, heard reports on the damage. Director and CEO John Driscoll told the board that the preliminary estimate of $12 million was being reviewed for accuracy. It consisted mostly of damage to roofs, warehouse doors and several wharves. He said about half the damaged facilities might be covered by insurance, and it was possible the Port Authority could apply for FEMA funds to help with the rest.

Overall, Driscoll said, we were a little bit lucky on our complex because of Sallys last-minute jog to the east. That meant the docks received no storm surge and far less rain than had been forecast.

However, the hurricane had other impacts offshore. It had moved and damaged several navigational buoys marking the offshore portion of the Mobile Ship Channel, and caused a portion of the channel in the Gulf of Mexico to fill in. Storm-induced shoaling reduced the allowed draft of ships from 45 feet to 41 feet.

Driscoll reported to the board that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began dredging on Friday, Sept. 18, but had to stop because of high seas. The Corps hopes to finish the job soon, he said. In the meantime, one ship with a 45-foot draft was waiting to enter. One coal ship with a 45-foot draft was waiting to leave the Port of Mobile, and a second was being loaded to the same depth.

Meanwhile, Driscoll said, the U.S. Coast Guard had moved the displaced buoys back into place on Sept. 18, allowing a traffic jam of 17 ships to begin clearing. But the Coast Guard needs a period of very calm seas to complete repairs to electronic equipment on at least one of the buoys and may not get that until next week. Until then, big ships will only be able to use the channel during daylight hours.

Thats a pretty significant thing, Driscoll said, adding that port officials will work with customers to minimize delays.

Judith Adams, the Port Authoritys vice president for marketing, said the damage was the most done to the Port Authority by a tropical storm in at least a decade.

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Port Authority: Sally did $12 million in damage, affected navigation - AL.com

The largest wooden airplane ever constructed, and flown only one time, the Spruce Goose represents one of humanitysgreatest attempts to conquer the skies. It was born out of a need to move troops and material across the Atlantic Ocean, where in 1942, German submarines were sinking hundreds of Allied ships. Henry Kaiser, steel magnate and shipbuilder, conceived the idea of a massive flying transport and turned to Howard Hughes to design and build it. Hughes took on the task, made even more challenging by the governments restrictions on materials critical to the war effort, such as steel and aluminum. Six times larger than any aircraft of its time, the Spruce Goose, also known as the Hughes Flying Boat, is made entirely of wood.

Originally designated HK-1 for the first aircraft built by Hughes-Kaiser, the giant was re-designated H-4 Hercules when Henry Kaiser withdrew from the project in 1944.

But would the Spruce Goose have been a viable troop transport with more testing and development?

While staying at the floating museum and passenger ship turned hotel, the RMS Queen Mary on a business trip I was able to tour the Spruce Goose (of which 90% was constructed out of Birch, not Spruce. But the media thought spruce goose had the right ring to hook readers and listeners), says Gregg Gray, former Senior Noncommissioned Officer (SNCO) in the US Air Force, on Quora. As it was very close by where the Queen Mary is moored (when the aircraft was still in Long Beach, California) we felt compelled to go, she has a large drawing effect, its size is overwhelming (and I was then routinely flying on the huge Air Force jet cargo aircraft, the C-141B stateside and often the C-5B overseas, as well as the occasional Boeing 747 and the rare Lockheed L-1011 widebody; and I was staying on a huge ocean going, luxury passenger ship). My military co-workers and I were just gob smacked at the size of the aircraft.

The story we got from the tour guide was that at that time Hughes and his engineers were simply planning the days testing to collect data at faster surface speeds on the water, but it accidentally reach take off speed and flew very briefly, and very low (but somehow managed to get its picture taken for the newspaper).

I speculate, as others do, that Howard Hughes, who was at the controls that day, did it on purpose just to see if it would actually fly. I think at that point he was already aware that the project was doomed to end and never going into production. It probably would not have seen service even if the war had continued on. It appeared to be very problematic, as very large, complex, and complicated things tend to be, as well as a gas hog.

Gray continues:

It was 3,700 miles from Norfolk Naval Yard to Southampton and 3,800 miles to La Rochelle, France. Amsterdam is 3,900 miles from Norfolk and Naples, Italy is a staggering 4,650. (All of these are straight line distances, as the crow [or seagull] flies, if I may improvise slightly]. The design flight range was 3,000 miles at 250 mph. So it was going to have to find a refueling ship in the open ocean or an intermediate island like the Azores at 2,751 miles, and then another 1,500 miles to Southampton (Way back in the day I flew on a piston engine, propeller driven passenger aircraft from Scotland to the Azores, and on to New York, [then on to our car in Bayonne, NJ, followed by a drive to Tennessee to get back home to our family in Tennessee] we were very tired.). But just the flying portion by itself sucked, it wasnt any fun at all, in fact it was miserable and very cramped. The top speed hoped for out of the Spruce Goose was 250 mph, and realistically 200 mph was probably going to be achieved when fully loaded with combat troops in Full Battle Rattle. The proposed purpose was to avoid German U-boats sinking troop ships. This aircraft was still going to have to land in the water off the coast of the Azores, or on the high seas for a refueling ship. Now the miserable cramped, tired, and intolerate troops were one thing to deal with, after all it was four days or more minimum on the cramped troop surface ships, so they would have to tolerate that. What they couldnt tolerate was getting troops killed by U-boats lying in-wait for the aircraft, and no matter where you landed that was an issue. Water landings by aircraft in a sea full of U-boats gives the U-boat skippers an easy sitting duck (or goose in this case) for a target.

Flying for between 15 and 20 hours with just a short refueling break would have been exhausting. I have done it more than once, the Pentagon planned our flights to land just after daybreak so we could get in a full days work at our destination. What starts out as huge gets smaller as you go.

Now, not only is the aircraft huge now, but it was absolutelyginormousin the mid 1940s, she isalmost 2.5 times as long, and hasthree times the wingspan, and empty weighsmore than triple what was then our huge Boeing B-29 United States Air Force Bomber, the Superfortress(of Hiroshima and Nagasaki atom bomb fame). The B-29 had four engines producing8,800 horsepowertogether, the Spruce Goose achieved24,000 total horsepowerfrom 8 Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major28-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engines, 3,000 hp (2,200 kW) each. It required three times as much horsepower because it was well over three times heavier at250,000 poundsversus the Superfortess at74,500 pounds. In fact,emptythe Spruce Gooseweighed almost twicewhat afully loaded B-29 weighed at takeoff when at combat overload weight. They were just insane numbers for the era. It was another20+ years before the big C-5A Galaxies and 747scame along which are in the same size range as the enormous H-4 Hercules (Spruce Goose).

Gray concludes;

As neat as all the specifications are, she still comes up short. I dont think it would have worked as a troop transport. Now days we just charter civilian passenger jets for routing troops deployments. The military cargo birds are busy moving heavy equipment and helicopters. Military cargo birds are usually used for pax when the troops have to deploy in full battle rattle and prepared for almost instant action.

The Spruce Goose is now housed at theEvergreen Aviation & Space MuseumnearMcMinnville, Oregon.

The following interesting video features the first and last flight of the Spruce Goose.

Photo credit: Federal Aviation Administration

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Heres why Howard Hughes Spruce Goose couldnt be an effective troop transport - The Aviation Geek Club

Michael Wilson| Ledger correspondent

1At Big Pier 60 in Clearwater, Spanish mackerel and whiting have been the most consistent catches this week. A 20-inch flounder was caught over the weekend. A good size snook and a few speckled trout were also caught. Plenty of jack crevalle and ladyfish have been biting, reports Big Pier 60 Bait & Tackle (727-462-6466).

2At Madeira Beach, weather has limited offshore fishing, but we got out last Saturday and had a good red grouper bite starting at a depth of 110 feet. Big mangrove snapper, lanes, vermillion and triggerfish were in the mix as well, reports Capt. Dylan Hubbard of Hubbards Marina (727-393-1947). Weather should improve this weekend, look for red grouper and big mangroves starting at a depth of 90 feet, reports Hubbard.

More: Tides and solunars: Know when to hit the outdoors (Sept. 25, 2020)

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3At John's Pass, redfish have been on fire around the pass. Theyre all around the bridge, the docks, the jetties and even out on the beach. Good numbers of mangrove snapper are biting. Snook are thinning out, but plenty are still biting on swimbaits and Flair Hawk jigs at night. Live shrimp and pinfish are getting the snook during the day. The trout bite is best around the bridge and dock lights at night, reports Hubbard.

4At Fort De Soto Park, the snook and flounder bite has been good around the marina and the bridge. Mangrove snapper are biting along with a few sheepshead. The flats are producing a good redfish bite along with snook and trout. Sandy holes are holding flounder. The pier has been a wash with the wind and churned up water. A few snook are biting pinfish along the beach and in the pass, reports Capt. Claude Hinson of Tierra Verde Bait and Tackle (727-864-2108).

5Around the Sunshine Skyway and lower Tampa Bay, cooler water temps this week really turned on the action for gag grouper inside Tampa Bay. The snook, redfish and big trout bite remains consistent all over Terra Ceia and Miguel Bay. Numerous schools of Spanish mackerel are on the artificial reefs throughout the bay, reports Capt. John Gunter of Palmetto (863-838-5096). The mangrove lines on the high tides are producing redfish. The mouth of the Manatee River and the docks inside are also producing redfish, reports Capt. Shawn Crawford of Florida Sport Fishing Outfitters. (941-705-3160).

6At Anna Maria, redfish of all sizes can be found from north of the Manatee River mouth south to Palma Sola Bay. Trout action has been good around Terra Ceia. Nearshore, Spanish mackerel and a few kingfish have been caught 1-3 miles off the beach to the north, reports Capt. Scott Moore of Bradenton (941-713-1921). Some of the docks along the sound are producing snook, redfish, snapper and some flounder. The grass flats in water 3 to 7 feet deep have been good for trout, reports Crawford.

7At St. Petersburg, despite the wind, fishing is still good. Theres been plenty of redfish from Weedon Island down to Fort DeSoto. Live bait, cut bait and artificials are all producing. Big trout are biting pinfish under a cork on the deep grass flats off Pinellas Point. Snook are still biting, but starting to move into the canals and creeks. The mangrove snapper bite hasnt slowed, just about any structure is loaded with then. Theres a good amount of Spanish mackerel in the lower bay, reports Larry Mastry at Mastrys Tackle (727-896-8889).

8In the north end of Tampa Bay, the trout bite has picked up with the water cooling off a bit. Most of the flats are producing a good bite early and in the evening. Redfish are biting from Weedon Island north into the upper bay. Snook are still pretty good, but theyre starting to stage outside the creeks and canals. Plenty of mangrove snapper are still around, and more sheepshead are starting to show. Black drum are biting around the bridges and tripletail are moving in on the markers, reports Gandy Bait & Tackle (813-839-5551).

At Homosassa, fishing for redfish on the incoming tides has been good, and there havebeen some schools roaming the area. The trout bite has been very good in areas with yellow bottom west of St. Martins Keys, the pole line south ofHomosassa and near Bird Island. MirrOlure Lil Johns and D.O.A. Deadly Combos with a glow shrimp are producing. Look for a fall season push ofcobiaand triple tail on the markers and buoys as the waters continue to cool, reports Capt. William Toney of Homosassa Inshore Fishing Charters (352-621-9284).

At Fort Pierce, offshore has been a wash with the wind and high seas. At the inlet, whiting and a few pompano have been caught in the surf to south. Black drum and sheepshead are biting in the inlet, but not much else with the choppy water. Inside, some snapper are biting around the bridges and channel edges. In the river, a few redfish and trout are biting along the east shore out of the wind, reports Clint Walker at the Fishing Center of St. Lucie (772-465-7637).

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Saltwater fishing: Redfish are on fire in Tampa Bay and elsewhere - The Ledger

1. Sun

Under a perfect blue sky, Charleston began to flood.

At noon Monday, the tide pushed toward the dunes. It filled the areas rivers and marshlands. It rose higher along The Batterys sea wall.

Then, like an overfilled cup, the Atlantic poured in.

By high tide, wed set yet another 8-foot-plus tide, another high-water mark. It was among the 30 highest tides here since scientists have been keeping track. And that includes past hurricane surges.

Monday's sunny day flood happened because of a combination of factors, and some of these are normal: The moons gravitational pull would have made tides higher than average no matter what. And the passing of Hurricane Sally also piled waves onto the coast.

Other factors arent normal at all.

A rapidly warming planet has accelerated rising sea levels in multiple ways. Sunny day floods like Monday's once were rare, but seas are a foot higher now than a century ago. And in a place called the Lowcountry, every inch matters.

The Post and Couriers "Rising Waters" project is documenting the immediate impacts of these accelerating climate change forces such as a flood here on a day with no rain.

These accelerating forces are playing out here and against a larger backdrop: a summer of climate chaos across the world.

But first, our sunny flood.

Vehicles tread through flooded water at the intersection of Hagood and Line on Monday, Sept. 21, 2020 in Charleston. Andrew J. Whitaker/Staff

A tidal flood is an incremental event, one that creeps up on you. By 11 a.m. Monday, we were at the brim.

Waves ate away at dunes on barrier islands. Seawater poured through Breach Inlet, the gap between the Isle of Palms and Sullivan's Island. It filled the marshes behind those sandy barriers. It swamped the marsh grass fronds.

Charleston sits squarely in the Lowcountry and is no stranger to chaos from flooding rain storms.

But when tides pass the 7-foot mark like this, land trades places with the Atlantic whether there's rain or not.

Through the 1980s, this typically happened just five times a year usually when a hurricane pushed waves ashore, such as Hugo, the record-holder with a 12.5-foot crest.

But last year, Charleston had a record 89 days when the water breached that 7-foot level. So far this year, weve had 42 flooding tides. The past week alone had 7-footers at least once every day. More brimming tides are expected this week.

And they'll get worse in the future as global sea levels increase. Already, Charleston is on a list of the eight most vulnerable cities in the United States to these forces, according to the Fourth National Climate Assessment.

And a study published Friday by University of South Carolina researchers uncovered new evidence that the city's vulnerability is accelerating.

In the past, scientists thought sea levels rose in a straight line, like a slightly upward-tilting seesaw.

But the new USC study and other research shows that seas are rising faster every decade, said James Morris, a biology professor and co-author of the analysis. Graph it and instead of a straight line you have an upward curve an accelerating pace.

Because of this acceleration, our floods will last longer, from about six hours a day now during a tidal flood to 10 hours by 2050.

"As the number of hours go up, so does the disruption," Morris said. "And we'll see significant areas of the city flood that don't flood today."

As the water rose Monday, the effects soon rippled across the city.

A higher than normal tide floods Ashley Avenue near MUSC in downtown Charleston on Monday, Sep. 21, 2020. Matthew Fortner/Staff

In downtown Charleston, salt water poured into streets around White Point Garden. Officers put up barricades on Lockwood Boulevard as the Ashley River merged with the surrounding neighborhood. It coursed down Calhoun Street by the Medical University of South Carolina's new Children's Hospital. Water filled the City Marina parking lot. On Barre and Wentworth streets, it oozed from the soil.

About 30 minutes before high tide, contractor John Jamison ran out of the house he was working in on Line Street to move his white truck. He was surprised at how quickly the water was rising at Line and Hagood streets, just north of the city's sprawling medical district. And while he knew flooding was a problem in the area, he hadnt even thought to wear boots on Monday.

Look at how fast its coming in, he said. I wonder who thought to build this here, he said, gesturing to the Gadsden Green homes, a public housing complex behind him.

The housing complex has long been plagued by flooding that spills out of tidally influenced Gadsden Creek, across the street. Rain makes the situation far worse. But on a bright day with a blue sky rippling in reflections of the murky water, a high tide was about to create a mini lake that sprayed the undersides of motorists' cars with salty water.

When it rains, you should see how it pours in here. You might as well build a bridge over this thing, Jamison said.

Charleston has lost ground for a century against the Atlantic. Sea levels here are rising, in part, because of subsidence, the natural sinking of the land. But climate change is a bigger factor, and one thats driving changes in unexpected ways.

We've known for more than 150 years that carbon dioxide traps heat in the atmosphere. And, because we've burned so much fossil fuel, our atmosphere now has 42 percent more CO2 an increase unlike anything the Earth has seen in hundreds of thousands of years.

The atmosphere has warmed as a result, and the United States saw the effects this summer. Death Valley hit 130 degrees. Scorching heat melted one record after another across the region. At least 452 cities had among the warmest summers on record. At least 55 cities had their hottest one ever.

In 2020, many cities saw their hottest summers on record or had top-10 hottest summers. ClimateCentral/Provided

The heat waves set the stage for the cataclysmic wildfires across the West. A town in Siberia that has been dubbed the coldest places in the northern hemisphere hit 100 degrees, possibly the hottest temperature ever recorded above the Arctic Circle. Two glaciers in Antarctica are teetering on collapse, and, like giant ice cubes thrown into the cup, that could raise global sea levels in feet instead of inches.

So far the ocean has absorbed much of the heat human beings produce heat injected equivalent to four atomic bombs going off every second.

But now ocean temperatures are rising. Water naturally expands when it gets hotter and spills onto more land than it would otherwise.

Warmer oceans also fuel more intense and frequent storms. And 2020 has been one for the record books. We blew through an alphabet of 23 named storms and are now going through the Greek alphabet. On Friday, Tropical Storm Beta formed in the Gulf of Mexico.

Six weeks are left in the hurricane season.

Still, with none currently on Charleston's horizon, the ocean moved inland Monday.

Server Alexandra Schroettner walks through saltwater that has risen over the patio at Saltwater Cowboys as she serves guests lunch on Shem Creek Monday, Sept. 21, 2020, in Mount Pleasant. The restaurant has been dealing with the high tide filling water through the majority of their patio several days. Some servers bring their own boots after learning from experience but the restaurant also keeps a stash of boots on hand for employees for king tide events. I think its fun. Its somewhat exciting. Especially with boots on. said Schroettner who splashed around in bright yellow boots serving customers. Grace Beahm Alford/Staff

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It doesnt really put out the welcome mat, said Sarah Fitch, vice president of Mount Pleasant Seafood on Shem Creek, glancing through the glass door at the water creeping into the parking lot.

Outside, the sky was blue and clear, but high tide was approaching. Part of the parking lot that serves the seafood business and several restaurants already had turned into a lake.

Mount Pleasant Seafood gives out free tide charts, but they arent just for fishing. Fitch uses hers to plan trips to the Charleston peninsula, where she attends church at St. Matthews.

If somebody says they are from out of town, well give them a tide chart, she said. The locals would probably know to schedule their time around it.

Standing behind the seafood counter, with a face mask on to protect against coronavirus, Fitch said sunny-day flooding has been getting more frequent.

I dont know if its global warming, infrastructure or something else," she said.

Global warming has had an unexpected effect on a powerful river in the ocean 60 miles offshore: the mighty Gulf Stream.

It flows with so much force that it pulls water away from the coast, lowering our sea level by as much as 3 feet.

But a growing body ofevidence suggests that climate change has gummed up that current. A slower current means high sea levels along the East Coast.

Researchers at Old Dominion University recently published a new study that analyzed sea level trends since 1900. They found an unprecedented slowdown in the Gulf Stream since 1990 one that couldn't be explained by seasonal variations, said Tal Ezer, a professor of ocean sciences at Old Dominion University who led the study.

Ezer's previous work had shown that hurricanes, including Hurricane Matthew in 2016, could temporarily put a kink in the Gulf Stream, a kink that led to higher tides from the Carolinas to Virginia. He had an inkling that Hurricane Dorian had done so in 2019; the storm followed a similar track as Matthew's and was among the most powerful on record, clipping Charleston.

Ezar discovered that the Gulf Stream slowed for more than a month and a half after Hurricane Dorian had passed, raising sea levels along the East Coast.

"I was somewhat surprised how long this impact lasted."

City of Charleston Police Sgt. Chris Adams sets up a blockade at the corner of South Battery and East Battery Street to keep cars from driving through water Monday Sept. 21, 2020, in Charleston. Gavin McIntyre/Staff

By 12:15 p.m., high tide, traffic slowed to a crawl around the medical district. Half a mile inland, water pooled by Cannon Park as sunbathers stretched out on a blanket. The water crested at 8.03 feet, and when it gets this high, the story isn't about drainage. It's about inundation from the sea.

By the Low Battery wall, brown, murky water sloshed in waves against its ramparts, coming perilously close to the top as the sea spilled onto the roadway from drains around the corner. Tourists stood around snapping pictures of cars passing through, throwing up high sprays, as Charleston police officers waded in to set up barriers at the intersection of East and South Battery.

James Gathers cradled a fishing pole in his hands as he tried to explain this odd phenomenon to a pair of out-of-town visitors. Hed felt drawn there Monday morning to fish for trout, but had only caught a feeling of disappointment.

Gathers grew up in Awendaw and has spent his 62 years around the Charleston area. He contends city officials should have seen this moment coming years ago and done something to help fix it rather than shovel money into various other projects to appeal to tourists. He wonders where the city will be in 10 years if action isnt taken soon.

Greed has caused this city to lack. A lot of people have been rubbing money when they should have been spending it on things to make it better, he said. "Its a beautiful city, but we need to do something now to save this place we say we love.

At the City Market, tourists maneuvered strollers and wheelchairs around the flooding. The guide of a horse carriage tour urged her guests to look at how the bottom few bricks of the market buildings are darker, a sign of how often the water rises around them.

Margaret Smith has worked in a T-shirt stand in the City Market for 24 years. She was one of the vendors separated from her customers by a moat that grew around some souvenir stalls. Business was going great before this, she said. Now nobody can cross.

She knows the routine by now: smile and be friendly, but encourage pedestrians to come back in an hour or so, when water welling up long after the high tide might have receded. A newly installed drain was evacuating some of the ponding, but in other places, puddles were still spreading and merging together.

The citys tried (to fix the problem), Smith said. I just wish it wouldnt flood.

A carriage tour makes its way down North Market Street in flooded water on Monday, Sept. 21, 2020 in Charleston. Andrew J. Whitaker/Staff

Further up the peninsula, Shawn Parks shook his head as he watched the floodwaters pool beneath his Jeep and circle his home on North Hanover Street. He'd already lost a low-riding Honda to tidal floods that chewed up its chassis and rotted out the joints with their salty brine. And each year it seems to get worse.

Parks has lived in the spot for 20 years. It's quiet and close to his job at the port. But the construction of a high-rise condo and office complex next door on Cool Blow Street paved over land that used to absord some of the rising tides and runoff from heavy downpours. Now, the waters regularly swamp the road outside his door and surround his home, turning his back yard into a small brackish lake replete with dead sea birds and other ocean treasures. So he diligently checks the tides and keeps pairs of heavy rubber boots in his home and vehicle to guarantee he'll be able to get where he needs to go.

"Because when I come home, I never know what I am going to find," he said, chuckling grimly. "I always wanted a pool in the back yard, but I'm afraid of what I might be in there."

On Folly Beach, Jeanette Halberda took a break from her run to watch tidal water spew out from a grate.

This is unusual, Halberda said, who has lived in the beach community for the past eight years.

Halberda said she is optimistic about human ingenuity but is concerned about the future.

I have hope in the human species, she said. I hope things will change so whats occurring environmentally won't be as damaging. But I think were late in the game.

After a few more moments, Halberda turned and continued her run, clutching weights in either hand, the submerged road to her back.

Stratton Lawrence carries a paddle board across the street from his house through a flooded East Cooper Avenue on Folly Beach to take advantage of an unusually high tide on Monday, Sept. 21, 2020. Lauren Petracca/Staff

Monday's sunny day flood was abnormal when placed in a historical context, but it's also a taste of the future.

In the USC study, Morris and his colleague Katherine Renken calculated that Charleston's sea level will be a foot higher within about 30 years, the life of many a mortgage.

Girding the city against tide levels that approach something akin to a hurricane surge will be a monumental undertaking. In his paper, Morris stepped outside the scientific arena.

"There's no way the population of Charleston can pay to protect the city on its own," he said.

He urged city and state leaders to consider enacting an additional hospitality tax.

But call it a climate tax instead.

"Humans have taxed the Earths climate," he wrote in his paper, "and the time has come for a climate tax in order to insure human welfare."

Glenn Smith, David Slade, Chloe Johnson and Stephen Hobbs contributed to this report.

This special report is part of an ongoing series examining the dire threat flooding presents to our region, which faces a climate crisis driven by rising seas, record-breaking rainfall and swamping tides. With a mix of breaking news and deep investigative reporting, this series aims to document the crippling effects of flooding on peoples lives and the greater Charleston economy as this creeping threat unfolds in real time. Look for more from this series in the coming months, including stories that will be part of the Pulitzer Center'sConnected Coastlines reporting initiative.

Excerpt from:

A sunny day in Charleston and a flood: What that tells us about climate change and the future - Charleston Post Courier

1819, Manchester. Sarah McCaffrey and her mother Emily attend a talk at St Peters Field by the renowned orator and reformist Harold Hartford (a fictional character based on Henry Hunt). The establishment, wary of the revolutionary sentiments growing among the poorer working classes in the shadow of the French Revolution some twenty years earlier, have outlawed attendance at the talk, but Sarah and her family are among the sixty to one hundred thousand who attend. When the Hussars are dispatched to break up the gathering, a massacre ensues and Sarahs mother and father are among the casualties.

Amid their grief, Sarah and her brother Sam are singled out by a man named Briardown who has been building cells of dissenting citizens who wish to bring about reform in English by violent means. Sarahs involvement in one of these groups will change her life forever, and see her fleeing England for her life aboard The Serpent after her co-conspirators are caught and hanged. Passage aboardThe Serpent may itself be a death sentence. The careless actions of a member of the crew see their vessel make a dangerous voyage through treacherous conditions. As the only survivor of the wreckage, Sarah must make a new life for herself in Sydney, and realise that there are more ways than one to change things.

Once again, Meg Keneally has presented a fully realised historical portrait of the early days of convict Australia. The novel is split into two parts; the story of Sarahs life in England, her voyage at sea and the shipwreck itself make up the first half of the book, and her life after she is rescued, the second. These two parts are both captivating stories, centring the eponymous wreck of the novel as the turning point of Sarahs life.

It is clear that Keneally has done a lot of research into maritime matters, the scene in which the ship is destroyed are some of the most vivid and terrifying I have ever read. Based on the real life wrecking of theDunbar in 1857 the deadliest wreck in New South Wales history the description of bodies (and parts of bodies) floating in the water provide a haunting coda to the action at the end of part one.

Sarah, as the only survivor, grows and changes as a character once she reaches Sydney and is taken under the wing of Mrs Thistle, herself a former convict but now seems to own half the businesses in the town. A strong willed and compassionate character, Sarahs relationships with Mrs Thistle and Nell, a woman of easy virtue whom she meets in the infirmary, show the power of the connections made by women at the time.

A number of scenes also work to show the precariousness of a womans position in the colonies. This is aptly highlighted through the murder of a number of prostitutes, and the resentment that is directed towards Mrs Thistle, whose wealth seems to draw more ire than that of her male counterparts because of her sex. Despite the challenges she faces, and the looming threat that she will be discovered by the superintendent and tried for her involvement in the failed uprising, Sarah is a loyal friend and has a good moral compass. She is a character to root for and the beating heart of this novel.

If you enjoyed Meg Keneallys previous novel,Fled,then you will findThe Wreck an exciting and entertaining follow up. Its full of rich historical detail, compelling writing and all the seafaring detail you could possibly hope for.

Meg KeneallysThe Wreck is available now through Echo Publishing.You can order your copy from Booktopia HERE.

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Book Review: Adventure and rebellion on the high seas combine in Meg Keneally's The Wreck - the AU review

Tautog (or black fish) have a delicious white flesh and are commonly caught in Rhode Island and Massachusetts in the fall. They remind me of grouper but are much smaller and can be found near rocks, on mussel beds and around structure of all types.

Tautog are not often sold in fish markets because they are difficult to harvest commercially as they are usually caught by rod and reel or fish traps rather than trawling for them. Anglers catch tautog on the bottom, green and Asian crabs are commonly used as baits, with tautog jigs (usually tipped with crab) becoming more commonplace to catch them.

The minimum legal size in Massachusetts and Rhode Island is 16 inches with a three fish/person/day limit until Oct. 14. On Oct. 15, the limit jumps to five fish. A 10-fish-per-boat limit applies, however, but does not apply to for-hire charter and party boats.

If you want to land tautog and seek a few tips on how to catch them, attend Capt. Charlie Donilons Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association videoconference seminar at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 28.

Captain Donilon is an industry innovator. He was the first charter captain in the area to have a shark diving cage in the 1970s, one of the first to start tagging rather than taking sharks, one of the few with an inspected vessel for 18 rather than six passengers and the first to run a mate school. One of the things he knows best, however, is how to catch tautog and he is more than willing to share his knowledge of tautog-catching strategies and tactics with others.

You need to be an RISAA member to participate in the Zoom seminar. Twelve such meetings on various topics are held throughout the year, and now with videoconference seminar capabilities, additional one-of-a-kind seminars also will be offered. You can attend all seminars and obtain other RISAA membership benefits for $55 a year. Join online at risaa.org.

Striped bass and bluefish. Jordan Haywood of Red Top Sporting Goods in Buzzards Bay said: "We have a lot of school bass coming through the Cape Cod Canal, mixed with bluefish and false albacore. One of our associates caught an 18-pound false albacore in the Canal. Not many large stripers being caught right now in the Canal." Harris Gatch of Watch Hill Outfitters said: "Striped bass and bluefish are being caught from the beaches and jetties in South County. Slot limit fish [28 inches to less than 35 inches] are being caught along with fish larger than the slot limit. And, we still have some large fish being caught at Block Island." John Littlefield of Archies Bait & Tackle in Riverside reported: "We had two large fish over the slot limit caught at Sabin Point this weekend, where theyre also catching bluefish from shore." Jeff Ingber of Ocean State Tackle in Providence said: "Bass fishing slowed a bit at Block Island and off Newport but anglers are still catching bass on the surface." Ken Ferrara of Rays Bait & Tackle in Warwick said: "We have striped bass in the East Passage of Narragansett Bay and schools of bluefish on the surface. Anglers are catching keeper striped bass in the Providence River, too."

"Tautog fishing is picking up. The fish are not here in high numbers yet but anglers are catching some nice fish," Gatch said. Ferrara reported: "Keeper tautog [minimum size is 16 inches, three fish/person/day] are being caught at Codington Cove, Middletown, with tautog and black sea bass being caught at Brenton Reef and Seal Rock." Ingber reported: "The tautog bite has been solid at the rock piles off Narragansett as well as off Beavertail and Newport." Late this week, anglers who could deal with high seas were hooking up with keeper tautog on ledges and rock piles around Brenton Reef and Seal Rock and Ledge off Newport.

False albacore. Ingber said: "Anglers are catching albies with epoxy jigs. ... Popular types include Hogy and Gunslinger. ... They are working well for customers. Anglers are hooking up off Newport and Beavertail to Narragansett, Scarborough Beach and Point Judith." Ferrara said: "Albies are running off Newport and Narraganset."

Scup fishing remains very strong in the Bay and along the coastal shore. Littlefield reported: "Scup fishing has been very good at Sabin Point, Kettle Point and Colt State Park with northern king fish and Tommy cod being caught at Colt Park as well." Ingber said: "Scup fishing is good at the Hurricane Barrier and at Sabin Point."

Freshwater fishing is picking up as the water cools. "Anglers are targeting largemouth at Stump Pond, Carbuncle Pond with fall pickerel soon to be targeting," Ingber said. "The freshwater bite is more active now as fish are leaving the deeper water and moving closer to shore, where shore anglers can reach them."

Dave Monti holds a captains master license and a charter fishing license. He is an RISAA board member, a member of the R.I. Party & Charter Boat Association, the American Saltwater Guides Association and the R.I. Marine Fisheries Council. Forward fishing news and photos to Captain Dave at dmontifish@verizon.net or visit noflukefishing.com and his blog at noflukefishing.blogspot.com.

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Fishing Report: Its time to learn about hooking tautog - The Providence Journal

The crews of the Coast Guard Cutter Kimball (WMSL 756) and an Air Station Barbers Point HC-130 Hercules airplane conduct joint operations in the Pacific August 14, 2020. The crews were participating in the multi-country maritime Operation Nasse designed to prevent Illegal, unregulated or unreported (IUU) fishing in Oceania. U.S. Coast Guard

HONOLULU The Coast Guard Cutter Kimball (WMSL 756) returned to Honolulu Sunday following its nearly two-month patrol supporting the multi-country maritime Operation Nasse throughout Oceania, the Coast Guard 14th District said in a Sept. 15 release.

Operation Nasse is an annual Pacific Quadrilateral Defense Coordination Group operation consisting of assets from the United States, Australia, France, New Zealand, and Pacific Island Forum Fisheries Agency which completed Aug.23.

This is the first time the Coast Guard has sent a surface asset to participate during the Pacific Quadrilateral Defense Coordination Groups operation, said Lt.j.g.Joseph Fox, an assistant combat systems officer aboard the Kimball. Service members from the Coast Guard Cutter Kimball and an Air Station Barbers Point HC-130 aircrew conducted joint missions with their multi-national counterparts to achieve the common goal of preventing illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing in the Pacific.

The purpose of this years operation was to investigate the effect COVID-19 had on fishing activities on the high seas and to identify fishing vessels not complying with the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) conditions. Illegal, unregulated or unreported (IUU) fishing undermines a nations sovereignty, threatens its economic security, and weakens global rules-based order.

Each participating country provided assets to support the operation including flights by RNZAF P-3KOrionsbased out of Auckland, Australian Maritime Border Command Dash 8s based out of Brisbane, and French Guardians fromNoumea.

The partners cooperation provided a significant reach in surveillance which allowed the French patrol boat LaGlorieuse and the Kimball tohome in onspecific vessels identified as possibly being of interest to confirm their activities were within regulations.

Air and sea surveillance, and maritime intelligence sharing provided an opportunity for the participants to work collaboratively to detect, deter, suppress, and report potential IUU fishing activity.

In addition to Operation Nasse, the crew of the Kimball also conducted a high seas patrol off American Samoa and Fiji.

Working closely with their Fijian counterparts, the crew supported U.S.-Fiji bilateral agreements and enforced partner nations respective Exclusive Economic Zones while promoting legal, sustainable fisheries.

In the Pacific,theannualtuna catch is estimated at over $5 billion and provides a significant percentage of the income of many of the South Pacific Nations. Ensuring that vessels operating on the high seas are complying with WCPFC regulations to protect fish stocks and other marine life resulting in these valuable resources remaining sustainable for future generations.

All asset crews were working to national rules regarding COVID-19,implemented to keep all personnel as safe as possible while still being able to achieve many of the operational goals.

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Cutter Completes Multi-Country Patrol for Illegal Fishing in the South Pacific - SEAPOWER Magazine Online

A rescue operation was launched after a fishing vessel broke down in a Sutherland bay yesterday evening.

Members of Dornoch based independent lifeboat group East Sutherland Rescue Association (ESRA) braved a rough sea and other difficulties, including darkness and poor communications, to go to the aid of the stricken boat, which had anchored close inshore at Loth Bay.

Group spokesman Antony Hope said that ESRA had been tasked at 6.39pm by Aberdeen Coastguard and had launched its boat Glen Cassley in a moderately calm sea just 17 minutes later.

On board were a four-strong crew Gareth Dixon, Neil Ackroyd, Hugh Fullerton Smith and Neil Dalton.

It took the team just under an hour to reach Loth Bay in rising winds and with an increasingly turbulent sea - waves were breaking at around 1.5 metres.

Mr Hope said: Control of the incident was handed over to Shetland Coastguard and communications were difficult with poor transmitting and receiving conditions.

Standing by at Glen Loth were the RNLI Wick lifeboat and a second, larger, Helmsdale based fishing vessel. But neither were able to approach the boat because of the bays shallow water and rocky reef.

Rescuers decided the smaller Glen Cassley would tow the boat out of the bay and into deeper water. The tow would then be taken over by Wick lifeboat.

With darkness encroaching, the Glen Cassleys searchlight had to be utilised.

Mr Hope said: Amid a confused sea with breaking waves, considerable spray reducing visibility and appalling communications difficulty, the tow was successfully carried out."

The fishing vessel was taken to Helmsdale harbour by the Wick lifeboat.

Mr Hope continued: The Dornoch lifeboat returned to base at 10.20pm. The incident was fairly straightforward for ESRA, due to recent crew training in towing and despite two crew members having never experienced a live tow, particularly at night and in testing conditions.

On return it was gratifying to find almost a full shore crew turn-out to recover the boat and wash down, refuel and service it.

It was an excellent performance from both boat and shore crews.

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Dornoch lifeboat crew battle high seas and poor communications to go to aid of stricken fishing boat - Northern Times

With a king tides advisory up for the state Tuesday, University of Hawaii scientists warn in a published paper that Earths warmer temperatures will expand oceans and generate higher seas that coincide with high tides that will become more extreme this century.

We looked at how accelerating thermal expansion will affect the variability of sea level, so we go beyond the projections of sea level rise, and we look at annual and year-to-year fluctuations in the sea level, said lead scientist Matthew Widlansky, associate director of the UH-Manoa Sea Level Center. If the ocean continues to warm, that thermal expansion that drives these sea level fluctuations accelerates.

What that means ultimately for Hawaii is that the tendency for king tides will become more extreme in the future with continued greenhouse warming.

In a yearlong study published in Communications Earth and Environment in August, UH scientists assessed sea level projections into the year 2100 in the context of the Earths climate responding to greenhouse warming. They analyzed 29 computer global climate models.

While future sea level changes remain uncertain in many locations, all 29 computer models concluded that theres a strong possibility that sea level fluctuations will increase in the future because of how oceans expand faster at higher temperatures.

In a UH news release, Fabian Schloesser, a researcher at the Sea Level Center who collaborated on the study, said that sea level variability increases in a warmer climate because the same temperature variations, for example related to the seasonal cycle, cause larger buoyancy and sea-level fluctuations.

In the study, upper-ocean temperatures worldwide were predicted to rise about 35 degrees by the end of the century with sea level fluctuations increasing by 4 to 10 percent on a seasonal-to-inter-annual timescale.

Theres been a lot of study of how greenhouse warming is likely to cause the increasing melting of land ice, so that causes more water to flow into the ocean, and also if the ocean warms, the water expands, Widlansky said Tuesday in a phone interview. Its also well studied and shown that the expansion of the ocean, that scientists call thermal expansion, is accelerating.

For Hawaii, this means loss of beaches, coastlines and damaged coral reefs impacts already seen at places like Baldwin Beach Park, Kaanapali Beach and along South Kihei Road.

On Monday, the National Weather Service issued a sea level rise warning for the state over the next few days during the afternoons and evenings. The weather service observed ocean water levels to be about half a foot higher than expected.

Combined with high astronomical tides and the new moon, coastal flooding is anticipated at beaches that are normally dry, the weather service said. Some minor coastal erosion also may occur, as well as saltwater contact with low-lying roads, docks, boat ramps and other coastal infrastructure.

Widlansky said that Hawaii experiences its largest tides during the summer and winter months, but more so at the end of summer when the ocean is at its warmest and takes up a little bit more volume and space.

Kahului coastal areas hit record-high monthly sea levels in June and July, he said.

So the high tides during the summer plus the high sea levels, thats what gives us the summer king tides, he said.

Overall, conducting this study and observing the environmental changes reinforce the need for monitoring and forecasting agencies like the weather service and other programs that monitor the tides and other conditions.

This is the type of work that we do at the UH Sea Level Center, he said. That type of monitoring, and eventually improving future outlooks, I think are going to be more and more important for mitigating and adapting to some of these coastal hazards.

For more information regarding the study, visit https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-020-0008-8#Sec8.

* Dakota Grossman can be reached at dgrossman@mauinews.com.

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With global warming, fluctuations in sea levels expected to increase - Maui News