THE OCEANS AND SEAS OF PLANET EARTH

I've lived on the largest ocean, the Pacific, for virtually all my life. I'm now on my longest cruise, across the Pacific Ocean from Sydney to Honolulu. Almost 71% of the Earth's surface is completely covered by water, representing 96.5% of the water on this planet.

There were once seven seas. These became five oceans.

#1 Pacific Ocean

Area:60,060,700 square miles.
Average depth: 13,215 feet.
Greatest depth: Mariana Trench 36,198 feet.
Has 25,000 islands.
Is home to 50% of the world's ocean waters, although another source says 46.6%.
Is the scene of the most nuclear bomb tests. The Marshall Islands are more radioactive in some regions than Chernobyl.

#2 Atlantic Ocean

Area: 41,105,000 square miles.
Average depth: 12,880 feet.
Greatest depth: Puerto Rico Trench 30,246 feet.

#3 Indian Ocean

Area: 26,469,500 square miles.
Average depth: 13,002 feet.
Greatest depth: Sunda Trench 24,460 feet.
Hottest ocean, enhancing fish stocks. Perhaps global warming might turn out to be a plus for sealife.
Calmest ocean.
Most likely spot where Malaysian Airlines 370 probably crashed was the southern Indian Ocean.

Once known as the Southern Ocean, until 2000.

#4 Southern Ocean (also called the Antarctic Ocean)

Area: 7,848,300 square miles.
Average depth: 10,728 feet.
Greatest depth: South Sandwich Trench 23,736 feet.
The icebergs that grow in this ocean contain enough fresh water to last each person for months.
Large undeveloped oil reserves and manganese nodules are among numerous natural resources available.

#5 Arctic Ocean

Area: 5,427,000.
Average depth: 3,953 feet.
Greatest depth: 18,456 feet.
Smallest and shallowest ocean...4.3% of the global ocean water.
Coldest and with the lowest salinity.

Then there are around 50 seas, although Wikipedia lists 76, from the Philippines to the Adriatic. But seas are hard to define, and some indicate that the Mediterranean Sea is the largest at 1,144,800 square miles, #2 Caribbean Sea and #3 South China Sea.

We moored offshore of Dravuni Island. Breakfast wasn't much. Lunch was at the aft of the Colonnade, an excellent cod plus other seafood items.

Pouring a whole jigger of scotch into the Egg Blossom Soup.

Today, I again did nothing much. Saw a sunset as the ship left the island.

Dinner was aft in the Colonnade.

Peppered seared tuna sashimi, roasted leek & potato soup and macadamia crusted rack of lamb.

One of us was not quite satiated, so stopped by The Patio for camembert cheese and salad.

Watched Evan Wood, one of the more boring and inconsequential films ever made. Sort of epitomized my life today.

With the outbreak up to 10 on our floor, we remain eating either in our room or at an outside restaurant table. There are 116 rooms, so to compare with 15 Craigside. I think we went up to four covid cases for 20 apartments, so the incidence of this ailment is still quite a bit lower than at home.

Don't go to any indoor programs anymore. Tonight, formal wear with a Captain's reception. Will avoid that one also. Only walked 2241 steps.

A NEXT COVID SUBVARIANT?

By now most know that the Omicron BA.5 subvariant has become the dominant infectious agent, now accounting for more than 80% of all COVID-19 cases. Very few are aware that a new one, BA.4.6, is sneaking in and steadily rising, now accounting for 13% of sequenced samples . However, as BA.4.6 has emerged from BA.4, while there is uncertainty, the scientific sense is that the latest bivalent booster targeting BA.4 and BA.5 should also be effective for this next threat. One concern is that Evusheld--the only monoclonal antibody authorized for COVID prevention in immunocompromised individuals--is not effective against BA.4.6. Here is a reference as to what this means. A series of two injections is involved. Evusheld was developed by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, and is a t ixagevimab co-packaged with cilgavimab . More recently, Los Angeles County reported on subvariant BA.2.75.2 . which Tony Fauci termed suspicious and troublesome. This strain has also been spreading in

Part 3: OUR NEXT AROUND THE WORLD ODYSSEY

Before I get into my third, and final, part of this cruise series, let me start with some more newsworthy topics. Thursday was my pandemic day for years. Thus, every so often I return to bring you up to date on the latest developments. All these subvariants derived from that Omicron variant, and each quickly became dominant, with slightly different symptoms. One of these will shock you. There has been a significant decline in the lost of taste and smell. From two-thirds of early patients to now only 10-20% show these symptoms. JN.1, now the dominant subvariant, results in mostly mild symptoms. However, once JN.1 infects some, there seem to be longer-lasting symptoms. Clearly, the latest booster helps prevent contracting Covid. A competing subvariant, BA.2.86, also known as Pirola , a month ago made a run, but JN.1 prevailed. No variant in particular, but research has shown that some of you will begin to lose hair for several months. This is caused by stress more than anythi

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These are held every five years, and there have only been

Search This Blog