El Nino Lite
SURF:
What a great week of surf. Plenty of overhead NW swell, the crowds were fairly light (if you didn't surf Swami's), and the weather was fantastic. All the benefits of El Nino without the flash floods. Today we had leftover NW for head high sets while new NW filled in on the buoys off the Pacific NW. What does 'filled in on the buoys off the Pacific NW' mean? How about 35' at 18 seconds. Holy Toledo. That's pretty much slamming into the OR/CA border tonight and we'll get a little bit of that late Friday. As well as messy conditions unfortunately.
FORECAST:
WEATHER:
As mentioned at the top of the report- lots of surf but not much rain. That's the case for tomorrow; we've got another cold front making it's way from the N and it will bring big surf, lots of wind, and only 1/4" or rain at most. Saturday and Sunday cleans up then we have another windy cold front moving through on Monday/Tuesday with a 1/4" of rain. We see sun and cool temps mid-week and most likely nice weather next weekend. So no real rainmakers in the near future. Make sure to keep up to date on the waves/weather at Twitter/North County Surf.
BEST BET:
MAYBE late Saturday with some leftover solid NW and hopefully clean conditions.
NEWS OF THE WEEK:
Well it's finally here: The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) reported this month that scientists monitoring the spread of radiation in the ocean from the Fukushima nuclear accident found an increased number of sites off the US West Coast with contamination. This includes the highest detected level to date from a sample collected about 1,600 miles west of San Francisco. The report stated 'The level of radioactive cesium isotopes in the sample, 11 Becquerel's per cubic meter of seawater (about 264 gallons), is 50 percent higher than other samples collected along the West Coast so far, but is still more than 500 times lower than US government safety limits for drinking water, and well below limits of concern for direct exposure while swimming, boating, or other recreational activities.' Whew! TOTALLY safe...
WHOI then reported 'Ken Buesseler, a marine radiochemist with WHOI and director of the WHOI Center for Marine and Environmental Radioactivity, was among the first to begin monitoring radiation in the Pacific, organizing a research expedition to the Northwest Pacific near Japan just three months after the accident that started in March 2011. Through a citizen science sampling effort, Our Radioactive Ocean, that he launched in 2014, as well as research funded by the National Science Foundation, Buesseler and his colleagues are using sophisticated sensors to look for minute levels of ocean-borne radioactivity from Fukushima. In 2015, they have added more than 110 new samples in the Pacific to the more than 135 previously collected and posted on the Our Radioactive Ocean web site.'
"These new data are important for two reasons," said Buesseler. "First, despite the fact that the levels of contamination off our shores remain well below government-established safety limits for human health or to marine life, the changing values underscore the need to more closely monitor contamination levels across the Pacific. Second, these long-lived radioisotopes will serve as markers for years to come for scientists studying ocean currents and mixing in coastal and offshore waters."
WHOI continued to say 'The recent findings reported by Buesseler agree with those reported by scientists who are part of the group Kelp Watch and by the team of Canadian scientists working under the InFORM umbrella. While Buesseler's work focuses on ocean chemistry and does not involve sampling of biological organisms, the InFORM scientists have done sampling of fish and have not seen any Fukushima cesium in fish collected in British Columbia.
Almost any seawater sample from the Pacific will show traces of cesium-137, an isotope of cesium with a 30-year half-life, some of which is left over from nuclear weapons testing carried out in the 1950s to 1970s (thank you US Government). The isotope cesium-134 is the "fingerprint" of Fukushima, but, with a 2-year half-life, it decays much quicker than cesium-137. Scientists back calculate traces of cesium-134 to determine how much was actually released from Fukushima in 2011 and add to it an equal amount of cesium-137 that would have been released at the same time.
Working with Japanese colleagues, Buesseler also continues to independently monitor the ongoing leaks from Fukushima Dai-ichi by collecting samples from as close as one kilometer (one-half mile) away from the nuclear power plants. During his most recent trip this October they collected samples of ocean water, marine organisms, seafloor sediment and groundwater along the coast near the reactors. Buesseler says the levels of radioactivity off Fukushima remain elevated -- some 10 to 100 times higher than off the US West Coast today, and he is working with colleagues at WHOI to try to determine how much radioactive material is still being released to the ocean each day.' (Are you serious? When the heck is that disaster going to end?!) "Levels today off Japan are thousands of times lower than during the peak releases in 2011. That said, finding values that are still elevated off Fukushima confirms that there is continued release from the plant," said Buesseler.
Regardless if the radiation is deemed 'safe' off our coast, the disaster in Japan is on going unfortunately.
PIC OF THE WEEK:
Camping is all the rage. From Airstreams, to Reef ads showing travel (and not bikinis might I add), to REI being closed on Black Friday, everyone wants to jump on the band wagon. Or covered wagon for that matter. Which leads us to today's Pic of the Week; just you and your bros, a left that will give you leg cramps, and a happy face tent. What else do you need?!
Keep Surfing,
Michael W. Glenn
It's Good To Be The King
Making a List, Checking It Twice
World Title Contender
