“Peril in the Gulf of Maine”

Life; fragile and indestructible, eradicable and perseverant, it all began within the worlds ocean’s. Today in 2010, the ocean is viewed as a means of monetary value, no longer respected for allocating life but sustaining economies. Exploited and in peril, the Gulf of Maine now exemplifies Man's disdain.

The Gulf of Maine has been the back bone of Maine’s local and commercial fishing industries for generations, providing in excess of millions of dollars to the state, via the direct harvesting and retail of fish and through the large amount of tourism that is partially generated by the industry. But Maine’s fishing industry has been in a state of slow decline for the past decade, overfishing and regulations have crippled the industry to its core.

The Gulf of Maine is delineated by Cape Cod at the eastern tip of Massachusetts in the southwest and Cape Sable at the southern tip of Nova Scotia in the northeast. It includes the entire coastlines of New Hampshire and Maine, as well as Massachusetts north of Cape Cod and the southern and western coastlines of the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The Gulf includes, The Bay of Fundy and Georges Bank, two geographical locations high bioproductivity due to tidal mixing and ocean currents.

Once Atlantic Cod and Halibut were the central fisheries on Georges Bank, overtime bottom trawlers became more efficient, catching a staggering amount of fish in a single day. Some accounts claim that with the invention of ocean trawlers, a single vessel could catch in one hour, what the traditional methods could catch in an entire season. Species in the bank flip-flop due to this kind of large scale fishing, large numbers of fish are removed in a relatively short period of time, allowing more fish to be harvested, causing species fluctuations on the bank. Major species fluctuations can alter entire marine ecosystems, changing the bioproductivity of a region. Thus a fishery could collapse, as has happened in the Gulf before.

The Gulf of Maine is also been identified as an energy resource, tidal power, wind farms and oil research have all been conducted and or proposed for the area. Tidal power in The Bay of Fundy, located between Canada and the United States, is considered the region most economically feasible for tidal power production in the western hemisphere, due to its tidal range. The Bay of Fundy has the largest tides in the world, up to 16 meters or 53 feet during a spring tide; this is due to the shape of the bay itself, the bay gets progressively narrower allowing for the extreme tides. The potential energy output of a tidally-driven facility in this area is projected at 17 billion Kilowatt hours with the capacity of 6 million Kilowatts, in terms of usage; this is roughly 22% of New England's energy consumption for 1978.

Tidal power is renewable and available locally; it creates jobs and does not produce any green house gas or harmful byproducts. But there just so happens to be a downfall, tidal power effects the environment in extreme and unnatural ways. A result of a tidal barrage site is water stratification, which hinders the production of plankton, the key to life in the ocean as it is the base of the marine food chain. The Gulf of Maine is famous for large spring blooms of plankton and algae. A tidal barrage facility could disrupt this massive accumulation of life, affecting not only the algae, but essentially every marine organism in the Gulf, as every marine organism is dependent on plankton either directly or indirectly. The collapse of the spring bloom could have effects on the Gulf of Maine in ways that cannot be predicted by computer models.

Tidal barrage facilities also reduce tidal oscillation periods and change tidal distances and direction slightly. While tidal oscillation periods are decreased, tidal amplitude increases. Research shows that substantial coastal flooding would submerge a narrow part of the Maine coast. A variety of other problems then follow suit, length of growing season, seasonal weather regimes and biodiversity are all affected by the barrage.

The bottom line is can we afford such extreme consequences that could potentially damage to productivity of the Gulf of Maine, one of the most biologically diverse regions in the world.

UMaine Rugby Rumble

On Sunday April 18 the University of Maine Women’s Rugby Team took on the Portland Women’s Rugby Football Club, at the Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland, Maine; the kick off began at 1p.m. Outfitted in blue and white jerseys, the girls do not wear any form of safety equipment despite a plastic mouth guard; the UMaine team took to the field to face their considerably older opponents. The Portland Women’s Rugby Football Club consists of women varying in ages from their twenties to their forties, but there was no way that age was a handicap. The Ladies of the Portland club played a fierce and brutal first half; by halftime they had their younger counter parts beat 7 to 0.

As the second half of the game was underway UMaine rallied all their physical and technical skill to try and pull off the victory. It proved not to be the easiest of tasks, injuries were frequent and some of the most severe of the season.

Caitlin Losi of UMaine experienced a broken nose along with teammate Alex Snowe, who also endured a deviated septum and a concussion. Snowe was rushed to Maine Medical Center, where surgery was recommended to correct her septum. Teammate Krystal Amy also received a concussion during game play. The Portland Women’s Rugby Football Club experienced the worst injury of the game when a player’s arm was broken after a strong tackle by one of UMaine’s most aggressive player’s, Emily Bennett.

Despite the high number of injuries and intense physical exertion, UMaine managed to utilize the second half, scoring two try’s and two kicks, bringing the final score to 14 – 7; securing their victory. UMaine will no doubt ride on their victory when they face Colby College on Saturday April 24, at the Colby campus. Looking further ahead into the future, UMaine is preparing for their return to the Maine Cup, a tournament in which UMaine has claimed the top spot for the last two years. UMaine is and could very well be, Maine’s best Women’s Rugby Team.

Twitter & the Media

Micro blogging has become all the rage in the last few years, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and even Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia edited and maintained by the public, have all changed the way we interact and communicate with one another. This has never been more apparent than in times of disaster or conflict. Even the mainstream media has adopted this trend; companies such as CNN and Fox have twitter accounts and often use material from them on the air. Micro blogging is a new constant in our media driven lives but its popularity seems to correlate with unfortunate occurrences, such as the 2010 Haiti Earthquake.

On January 12, 2010 a magnitude 7.0 earthquake occurred near Haiti’s capital city of Port-au-Prince. The damage was catastrophic, leveling Haiti’s poorly constructed buildings and infrastructure, injuring, killing and displacing hundreds of thousands. The media coverage of the quake was considerable, images of Haitians distraught and confused, injured and helpless filled the news and society responded to their cries; answering them with texts, and 140 character messages via twitter.

An elaborate effort to raise money to help the Haitian people was immediately underway. A revolutionary text to donate system helped the Red Cross collect over 1 billion dollars to date for Haiti relief. People organized over twitter, donating money, offering messages of hope and some people even took physical action, organizing groups of volunteers to go to Haiti and combat the disaster. The media also became a place to search for loved ones. The television and twitter were both the main resource used by the Haitian people to connect with family in the United States and abroad.

These micro blogs have created a network that is accessible to the public, a front not explored since the birth of the internet. But a revolution in technology over the last few years has advanced the field of communications itself, Twitter, Facebook and so on. These new outlets have connected the people, allowing them to interact in a manner that is completely new. It is unsure what the long term affects of such technologies are but the short term affects are evident.

The expansion of communication and the ways in which we, as a society, gather information have created a system of news in which its value has inflated. Anyone with a Facebook, Twitter, or internet connection for that matter, can create news in their image and how they see fit. Naturally this can led to a system that is based in unverifiable information. While the internet and its social devices have brought us together it also poses an inevitable threat to the value of our news.

TV Script

INTRO

“Our top story tonight, Dr. William J. Brennan, President-Select of the Maine Maritime Academy, spoke on behalf of SPIA, the School of Policy & International Affairs, at the University of Maine campus on Wednesday March 31. Dr. Brennan delivered a speech focusing on the consequences of mass climate change.”

SOUND-BYTE:
(Dr. Brennan:“Will it be affordable and practical to thwart climate change, I say can we afford not to. There are consequences to doing nothing”.”)

The next step to combat climate change is still uncertain, but it is not a debate that will disappear any time soon .


In other news…

All flights entering the United States will be subjected to a new level of security screening, officials will announce Friday, in order to maintain national security.

Response to the “National Security Implications of Climate Change” Meeting.

ORONO, Maine –Dr. William J. Brennan, President-Select of the Maine Maritime Academy, spoke on behalf of SPIA, the School of Policy & International Affairs, at the University of Maine campus on Wednesday March 31, 2010 to deliver an address titled “National Security Implications of Climate Change”. UMaine President Robert Kennedy introduced Dr. Brennan, a graduate of the University, with a Ph.D. degree in Ecology and Environmental Sciences. Dr. Brennan, outfitted in a dark blue suit, took to the podium and addressed the crowd that had gathered in the McIntire Room.

Dr. Brennan began his speech with a slew of “thank you’s” and recognized a few of his colleagues in the audience.

Dr. Brennan then continued onwards, acknowledging the consequences of mass climate change; reduced water supply, mass migration, and hunger, all of which lead to reduced economic, industrial, national and human security. “Because of globalization”, Brennan began, “we are connected in ways our forefathers could never have imagined”. He stressed the human aspect of climate change, stating that “electricity exists for hair dryers and flat screen TVs”.

“Despite talk of change from Washington last year”, Dr. Brennan said in-between graceful sips of water, “we have increased our dependency on oil”. A semi prophetic statement, since just hours earlier, reports began to surface that the Obama Administration was looking to pass legislation allowing off shore drilling on the east coast of the United States.

In the years prior to the current economic recession, climate change was an issue at the forefront of debate and discussion. Dr. Brennan points out that now it is an issue for only those concerned with the long term outlook, he says, the peoples main anxiety is money. That people are not willing to spend the money necessary to invest in renewable forms of energy, thus halting the overhaul of the energy industry. “Will it be affordable and practical to thwart climate change”, he elaborates, “I say can we afford not to. There are consequences to doing nothing”.

Dr. Brennan finished speaking rather quickly, admitting to writing his speech that morning. His tone was serious but his wit and sense of humor seized the moment. An audience member asked a question, confessing that he was not sure if there was an answer, Dr. Brennan responded “ I will make one up if there isn’t”; the crowd chuckled.

The audience, a mix of men in suits and students in cargo shorts, were attentive but frankly, seemed to expect more, since the event was supposed to last from 4:30- 6:30 but ended around 5:15 pm.

Dr. Brennan engaged the audience with an interesting argument. He raised key points, regarding mankind’s misuse of energy and what the potential effects could be; war, famine, possible extinction. Dr. Brennan’s speech was a success that left slightly more to be desired in terms of content, but what he did divulge was interesting and captivating.