MZT Whale Video

Always when I go out on the boat, I watch for whales… but I no longer bring my camera. It is SO hard to decently photograph whales from a safe distance. However, if you are “El Debate” and want close-up whale pictures, you pay a panga to get really (dangerously) close and take some spectacular home videos. They are all taken just off the coast here, so sighting whales at play is technically possible. Photographing them is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Click here to go to the video. It’s in Spanish, so you can either mute it or lend an ear. You will be surprised how much you understand when the Spanish is clearly spoken and in technical terms. She does speak quite quickly, but try to relax and catch the jist of what is being said. Then watch the video again.

Fart Facts

Did you know…..

• Fart gas is a natural by-product of digestion.
• On average, a person will fart 14 times a day, unless he/she has been eating beans. Certain polysaccharides in beans are undigestible by humans and so are consumed by gut flora instead. It’s them that produces the extra gas… not you. Doesn’t that make you feel better?
• On average, a persons’ fourteen daily farts will fill a pint sized jar.
• Farts are flammable.
• Farts can exit the body at a speed of up to 7 mph.
• If you are confined in a box, you cannot suffocate yourself with your farts. Now I’m sure you feel better!
• Certain foods do make you fart more:  beans, corn, bell peppers, cauliflower, cabbage, milk, bread, eggs, beer, raisins, brussel sprouts, onions, lentils, leeks, oats, yeast, radishes, sweet potatoes, cashews, rutabagas and turnips are prime offenders.
• Farts are made up of 59% nitrogen, 21% hydrogen, 9% carbon dioxide, 7% methane, 3% oxygen and 1% other crap. If the hydrogen has excess sulfides with which to combine, the farts will stink.
• Nerve endings inside your anus allow you to distinguish between a fart and a poop.
• Generally speaking, the larger the fart, the less smelly.
• Bodies can still fart after death.

Top Ten Farting Machines

#10 – Gerbils

#9 – Carnivorous Humans

#8 – Vegetarian Humans

#7 – Labrador Retrievers

#6 – Elephants

#5 – Cows

#4 – Sheep

#3 – Zebras

#2 – Camels

#1 – Termites.  Termites produce more methane (CH4) than cows and more than all man-made polluting machinery combined. They do not, however, produce any other pollutants or toxic substances.

More Red Tide Info

The other night when we came back across the shipping channel in the water taxi, the red tide had flowed in and was creating a cool phosphorescence in the boat wake. Sometimes, when the little animals (dinoflagellates) that are red tide get disturbed, it causes them to fluoresce. This is called “bioluminescence”. Here is a cool video of what bioluminescence looks like in breaking waves; something we were able to see at the bonfire before last. I was researching this phenomenon and came across another article written a while ago about a red tide episode that occurred in 1996. It is a very good treatise and is in English.  This is the link.

Onshore/Offshore Breezes

Last night’s Taco Bar and Bonfire was a spectacular success. In addition to the diehard Phase one residents, most of Phase Two as well as the patio home residents turned out to enjoy the mildish evening. During the ensuing bonfire, the question arose as to why the wind direction shifts at night. So I consulted Wikipedia this morning and this is what it said:

“A sea-breeze (or onshore breeze) is a wind from the sea that develops over land near coasts. It is formed by increasing temperature differences between the land and water; these create a pressure minimum over the land due to its relative warmth, and forces higher pressure, cooler air from the sea to move inland. Generally, air temperature gets cooler relative to nearby locations as one moves closer to a large body of water. The sea has a greater heat capacity than land and therefore is more able to absorb heat than the land, so the land so the surface of the sea warms up slower than the land’s surface. As the temperature of the surface of the land rises, the land heats the air above it. The warm air is less dense and so it rises. This rising air over the land lowers the sea level pressure by about 0.2%. The cooler air above the sea, now with higher sea level pressure, flows towards the land into the lower pressure, creating a cooler breeze near the coast. The strength of the sea breeze is directly proportional to the temperature difference between the land and the sea. At night, the land cools off quicker than the ocean due to differences in their heat capacity, which forces the dying of the daytime sea breeze. If the land cools below that of the adjacent sea surface temperature, the pressure over the water will be lower than that of the land, setting up a land breeze as long as the environmental surface wind pattern is not strong enough to oppose it. “

 

Turtle Nest Movie

Yesterday afternoon, a young Ridley’s Oliveback turtle female came ashore right in front of La Lagunita, made her nest and laid her eggs. The phenomena drew quite the crowd as this single individual performed her ancient ritual. It was quite impressive. The EDM turtle program has made a lot of progress. One can only hope that this individual is a result of EDMs efforts 8 – 10 years ago and that she portends more to come in the future. I am sure that Erendira will well care for her eggs and perhaps we can all be there when they are released next year. What a Solstice Gift! By the way, you can read more about EDMs turtle project on their website. The link is listed on the blogroll, right hand column and down some. The video that I made will also be listed there. But for now, just click on this link to see this wonderful, ancient dance.

http://cloud.muvee.com/openalbum/edm/hHFh9iItIph

Green Flash Revealed!

From Scientific Explorations with Paul Doherty

At sunset or sunrise the top edge of the sun will sometimes be bright green. Often, the green color lasts for a second, thus it is called a green flash. It is usually seen over a distant horizon such as an ocean or a prairie.  The sky must be clear and free of clouds all the way down to the horizon. There are several different mechanisms that produce green flashes. I’ll start with one common misconception that the green flash is due to a color afterimage then move on to a discussion of the atmospheric optics that produces the simplest Green Flash.

The Green Flash is not an afterimage.

People speculated that the green flash was an after image due to the saturation of the red cones in the human retina, or that it was a continued phosphorescence of the atmosphere after the sun had set. However the observation of the green flash at sunrise made both of these ideas impossible.

I was standing on Table Rock in the Linville Gorge Wilderness of North Carolina. It was just before dawn. I studied the eastern horizon and managed to spot a green flash at sunrise! Wow! Then the sun rose as a red ball including a rare naked eye sunspot! What a morning. The drive from Michigan had been well worth it.
Paul Doherty 1983.

The making of a simple green flash

Light slows a little bit as it travels through the air of the atmosphere, at sea level the index of refraction of air is 1.0003, which says that light slows by 0.03% compared to its value in a vacuum. Lights from the sun travels through the vacuum of space and then enters the atmosphere of the earth. As the light enters the air it slows and refracts. At sunrise or sunset this means that the lights from the sun bends downward. Thus the image of the sun appears above where the image of the sun would appear if there were no atmosphere. The light is bent downward by 0.5 degree, exactly the diameter of the sun. So the image of the sun we see at sunset is tangent to the image of the sun we would see if there were no atmosphere. Just as the top edge of the sun’s atmosphere-less image is touching the horizon, the bottom edge of the sun’s image through the atmosphere is touching the horizon.

The upper circle shows where you see the sun image at sunset due to atmospheric refraction.
The lower circle shows where the sun would appear if the atmosphere of the earth were suddenly sucked away.

The slowing of light depends on the wavelength of the light, its color. Blue light is closer to the ultraviolet resonances of the molecules and atoms which make up the atmosphere and so it is slowed more than red light. Thus blue light is bent more by the atmosphere than red light. The white image of the sun is actually made up of many different wavelengths of light. These different wavelength images of the sun will be bent by different angles. Thus the red image of the sun will appear below the green image which will appear below the blue image.

The highest blue image of the sun and lowest red image combine with the central green image to create a white sun with a blue top rim and a red bottom rim.

If you look through binoculars at Venus when it is low on the horizon you will see it separated into a spectrum of color blue on top, red at the bottom.

When the sun sets all the images of the sun made by wavelengths shorter than green can be blocked by the horizon leaving the top edge of the green image visible. This is one type of green flash.

What about the blue light? Well usually the atmosphere scatters blue light to the side more than green light or red light, so that the blue is removed and there is no blue flash.

This separation of the sun into its spectrum happens at every sunset but the separation is so small that it normally cannot be seen by unaided eye. It requires optical help from refraction by layers in the atmosphere to make it easily visible. These same layers make mirages.

Mirages and Green Flashes

Sometimes you will see mirage “puddles” on hot highways. These puddles are called inferior mirages, inferior in the sense of below, they appear below the observer. Inferior mirages are created when light refracts through the hot, low density, low index of refraction air near the earth’s surface.

More rarely a layer of hot air will be above the ground, above a layer of cold air. This is called a temperature inversion and makes a superior mirage, a mirage that appears above the observer.

The same temperature gradients that produce mirages can strongly influence the shape of the sun at sunset and the shape and duration of green flashes.

A sunset through an atmospheric temperature gradient which would produce an inferior mirage causes the bottom of the sun to stretch down toward the horizon and broaden out. This occurs when cold air is over a warm ocean. These flashes are common over tropical oceans. They also happen over temperate oceans when cold air masses move south over warmer water. Most common green flashes are produced by inferior mirage enhancement. The average length of these green flashes in the tropics is 2 seconds.

A sunset through a superior mirage pulls up the bottom of the sun and often produces a square shaped sun with horizontal fingers of light and dark penetrating the sides. This rarer condition can produce green flashes lasting over 10 seconds.

The Blue Flash

Rarely, the atmosphere will be so clear that the blue light will not be scattered as much as usual. This leads to a rare blue flash.

This extremely rare violet flash was photographed at sunrise in Boulder Colorado by Bill May.
Here is a Blue Flash photographed by Bill May from his porch in Boulder Colorado.

As the sun rises the blue flash becomes brighter saturating the color negative film.

Bill May who took these photographs at sunrise from his porch in Boulder Colorado reports that he saw a violet flash followed by a blue flash with his eyes, these same colors were recorded on color negative film.

Coati Sighting

Have you ever seen an animal with a long furry tail, held aloft like a flagpole? It’s a coati (pronounced co-ahhh-tea). It’s a member of the raccoon family, Procyonidae,  and it’s a common mammal of the Americas’ tropical regions. In Mexico, it’s called Tejon, which also means “badger”. But it’s not a badger. It’s a coati, and they are easily tamed and make good pets. I saw one the other night foraging along the bushes in front of the reception area.

Wikipedia has the following description:

“White-nosed coatis inhabit wooded areas (dry and moist forests) of the Americas. They are found at any altitude from sea level to 3,500 m (11,500 ft), and from as far north as southeastern Arizona and New Mexico to as far south as Ecuador.

 

Feeding habits

They are omnivores, preferring small vertebrates, fruits, carrion, insects, and eggs. They can climb trees easily, where the tail is used for balance, but they are most often on the ground foraging. Their predators include boas, raptors, hunting cats, and Tayras (Eira barbara). They readily adapt to human presence; like raccoons, they will raid campsites and trash receptacles. They can be domesticated easily, and have been verified experimentally to be quite intelligent.

Behavior

They are primarily diurnal, retiring during the night to a specific tree and descending at dawn to begin their daily search for food. However, their habits are adjustable, and in areas where they are hunted by humans for food, or where they raid human settlements for their own food, they become more nocturnal. Adult males are solitary, but females and sexually immature males form social groups. They use many vocal signals to communicate with one another, and also spend time grooming themselves and each other with their teeth and claws. During foraging times, the young cubs are left with a pair of babysitters, similar to Meerkats. The young males and even some females tend to play-fight. Many of the coatis will have short fights over food.”

While I have commonly seen a troop of coatis on the way down to Stone Island, I have never seen one on the developed part of the EDM property until last week; there was one across from Deb & Jack’s place heading towards the 5th green. Imagine my surprise when I saw this little guy looking for lunch in our patio area. I can’t imagine they will do much harm, but they may leave little “packages” for me to scoop up on my weekly patrol for cat “packages”. They are not aggressive like some  raccoons but they are attracted to food, especially cat food. So beware and don’t be surprised if you see our little friend.

 

Cool Video

Group Releases 478,000 Turtles

The Noroeste newspaper recently published an article concerning the “Grupo Tortuguero de Sinaloa”. There was a meeting and a workshop down at the Mazatlan Aquarium. Estrella’s own Erendira González Diego ( head of the Star of the Sea turtle camp), as well as Cecilia Garcia Chavela and Hugo Sarmiento (representatives of the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas) attended. Also attending was Ingmar Sosa, a member of the camp Playa Ceuta and representatives of the other nesting camps. The Grupo Tortuguero announced that during the 2010 season,  four hundred seventy-eight thousand sea turtles were released off the coast of Sinaloa state. The results reflected data from seven different  nesting areas, Ceuta, Celestino Gasca, El Verde Camacho, Acuario Mazatlan, Estrella del Mar, El Caimanero and  Cacaxtla. Problems that affect turtle populations were discussed and have been identified with the leading causes of mortality and morbidity being poaching, bycatch (accidently getting caught in a net without a turtle release mechanism), resort development (grooming the beaches), unregulated pollution, and entry of motor vehicles in nesting areas. Riding horses in the nesting areas are also a leading cause of nest destruction as is disturbance by predators such as dogs, cats and coatamundis. Poaching was the leading cause of mortality but the members of the Grupo Tortuguero specifically called for more regulation of motor vehicle access to the beach area. In this regard, Ángel García Contreras, director of Ecology, has undertaken to review the situation in coordination with public safety. Additional participants included Raquel Briseño, researcher at the Institute of Limnology, UNAM; Alan Savala, representative of IDRC Guasave, Hector Contreras, turtle camp of El Rosario, Angeles Cruz and Jose Barron Mazatlan Aquarium. Other authorities attending were Alejandro Camacho Mendoza, Profepa State Delegate; Alejandro Lechuga, coordinator of the southern Profepa and Angel Garcia Contreras, director of Ecology.

RESULTS
Representatives of the turtle camp figures presented their work.
Nests found: 7, 188
Incubated eggs: 673, 364

Turtles released: 478, 980
Poached nests: 372
Adult turtles killed: 17 

Beware the Smelly Surf

The Mazatlan newspaper has finally reported on the “brown tide” that has been plaguing our beaches this week. It is apparently a product of sewage dumped untreated into the bay as the Mazatlan water treatment plant undergoes expansion. The contamimated water has been killing fish and other sealife up and down the beaches and can cause “cutaneous irritation” in people. I hate to think of what might happen should a swimmer ingest some. They hope to get the problem resolved before Semana Santa. In the meanwhile, avoid the brownish, foamy water.

On another note, the second of the new power plant smoke stacks is nearing completion. It is now painted a bright red and white just like the first one. I am hoping that the as soon as the third stack is finished, they will begin to use those huge cranes to lift them into place and we will once again be able to see the mountains.