I was asked on Twitter this morning which website issues warnings for paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP). This danger involves shellfish (bivalve molluscs), which ingest algae from the seawater. The toxins contained in the algae accumulates in the shellfish and can accumulate to dangerous levels. Each week, samples are taken from waters around Scotland and Northern Ireland and are assayed using a method called HPLC for the presence of the toxins. The results are published here.
It is worth bearing in mind that algae are plants, and using sunlight and photosynthesis for their energy requirement. Therefore, algal blooms will occur mostly in summer with their attendant risk of PSP. They are becoming an increasing problem, due to pollution like run-off of fertiliser from the land into the sea.
If PSP levels reach the warning level, local authorities will issue a press release specifying which area has been closed to shellfish harvesting. As far as I can tell, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar issued such a prohibition in 2006 on Loch Roag - a major shellfish harvesting area.
Thursday, 9 April 2009
Thursday 9 April
Overcast and drizzly at the moment, but the sun is trying to come through. We can expect a force 8 southerly gale later today and a maximum of 15C. Current temperature is 8C, so I've got doubts about that. Those living near the sea will be aware that we are having springtides at the moment. This affects ferry sailings around our coasts. The service between Leverburgh in Harris (55 miles south of here) and Berneray (off Uist) is reduced to one sailing a day (from 3) due to low tides. It also affects the flights at Barra airport (which is a beach). This combination of factors led one visitor to exclaim 2 years ago: "What a place! At low tide the ferry can't sail and at high tide the planes can't fly!"
Wednesday, 8 April 2009
Rescue!
I often relay stories of rescues out at sea, or in distant mountain ranges. Those of you who used to read the predecessor to this blog, Northern Trip, may remember the day that there was a rescue just yards from my position. Literally.
1 July 2006
Just as we're having lunch, the sound of the helicopter becomes noticeable. The helicopter is right outside the house, hovering over the basin. Hotel Lima is tending to a yachtsman that we noticed earlier, struggling to control his boat in the force 6 winds. His boat lies overturned, and a winchman is going down to assist the hapless sailor. Newton Street very quickly fills up with spectators, the police are in attendance, directing traffic and all who are outside are drenched by the water which the helicopter's updraft is spraying around. The yachtsman manages to make dry land under his own steam - his own two legs. Meanwhile, the wrecked boat lies on its side in the basin, and slowly drifts towards its mouth. The lifeboat moves to the mouth of the basin and launches a dinghy. There is a sandbar across the basin, which makes it impossible for boats to leave it at low tide, and the tide is falling right now. The wreck is towed to Goat Island, where the damage is assessed. The boat is not holed, so it's left anchored on a mooring.
More pictures here.
1 July 2006
Just as we're having lunch, the sound of the helicopter becomes noticeable. The helicopter is right outside the house, hovering over the basin. Hotel Lima is tending to a yachtsman that we noticed earlier, struggling to control his boat in the force 6 winds. His boat lies overturned, and a winchman is going down to assist the hapless sailor. Newton Street very quickly fills up with spectators, the police are in attendance, directing traffic and all who are outside are drenched by the water which the helicopter's updraft is spraying around. The yachtsman manages to make dry land under his own steam - his own two legs. Meanwhile, the wrecked boat lies on its side in the basin, and slowly drifts towards its mouth. The lifeboat moves to the mouth of the basin and launches a dinghy. There is a sandbar across the basin, which makes it impossible for boats to leave it at low tide, and the tide is falling right now. The wreck is towed to Goat Island, where the damage is assessed. The boat is not holed, so it's left anchored on a mooring.
More pictures here.
Wednesday 8 April
I thought it was going to be a nice day, but that was before the showers started. Hey ho, it's only April.
It is reported that 97% of all emails are now unwanted and unsolicited spam. Worldwide, 86 out of every 10,000 computers is infected with malware and potentially part of a so-called botnet. There is no reason to panic - one very good prevention is to keep the software up-to-date.
In L'Aquila, the scene of Monday's earthquake, 15 people are still missing. I cannot find an up-to-date casualty toll (247 at 7 am this morning). The devastation is severe, and it is said that L'Aquila will not be able to function properly for some time.
Down in London, evidence has emerged that a man who died during last week's G20 protests was allegedly pushed over by a police officer. After remonstrating with officers whilst on the ground, he walked away and collapsed with a heart attack. He was going home after a day's work, selling newspapers. This is now subject to an inquiry by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, and calls are going out for a criminal investigation.
It is reported that 97% of all emails are now unwanted and unsolicited spam. Worldwide, 86 out of every 10,000 computers is infected with malware and potentially part of a so-called botnet. There is no reason to panic - one very good prevention is to keep the software up-to-date.
In L'Aquila, the scene of Monday's earthquake, 15 people are still missing. I cannot find an up-to-date casualty toll (247 at 7 am this morning). The devastation is severe, and it is said that L'Aquila will not be able to function properly for some time.
Down in London, evidence has emerged that a man who died during last week's G20 protests was allegedly pushed over by a police officer. After remonstrating with officers whilst on the ground, he walked away and collapsed with a heart attack. He was going home after a day's work, selling newspapers. This is now subject to an inquiry by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, and calls are going out for a criminal investigation.
Tuesday, 7 April 2009
Jokes off the seawall
I am adding more things to my jokey journal - got loads more to put in. Go and have a laff.
Tuesday 7 April
It is pouring with rain this morning, although the odd bright spell does pass along. Winds are strong, but that does not help to move the rain away. April showers and no mistake.
At least 179 people have died in the earthquake in central Italy. Rescuers are still combing the rubble of collapsed buildings in the city of L'Aquila and surrounding towns, occasionally withdrawing when an aftershock occurs. Another severe earthquake occurred near the Kurill Islands in the Pacific (northeast of Japan) at around 0430 GMT this morning; although measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale, there are no reports of damage or tsunami waves.
At least 179 people have died in the earthquake in central Italy. Rescuers are still combing the rubble of collapsed buildings in the city of L'Aquila and surrounding towns, occasionally withdrawing when an aftershock occurs. Another severe earthquake occurred near the Kurill Islands in the Pacific (northeast of Japan) at around 0430 GMT this morning; although measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale, there are no reports of damage or tsunami waves.
Monday, 6 April 2009
Obama - either way
I am interested to note the starkly divergent views on Barack Obama, now that he has been in office for some 10 weeks. I cannot help but notice the distrust and cynicism with which he is being greeted in some sections of American society - and I am not being personal towards anyone on here. As far as I can tell, people in the USA are deeply mistrusting of all politicians. Even a new broom like Obama appears to be instinctively treated with that approach. The man is a great speaker, but the final reckoning will lie in his actions, and the results of those actions. From my position, 3,500 miles away in Europe, it is not possible to judge whether what I see on the TV or on here is a reliable guide towards Mr Obama's actions.
At the moment, the president is in Europe and Asia, and seems to be hitting the right notes most of the time. Everybody is falling over him, and probably quite relieved to see a new broom who is speaking a different tone to his predecessor(s). Again, actions speak louder than words. But, 10 weeks is a very short term to judge any politician newly in power.
At the moment, the president is in Europe and Asia, and seems to be hitting the right notes most of the time. Everybody is falling over him, and probably quite relieved to see a new broom who is speaking a different tone to his predecessor(s). Again, actions speak louder than words. But, 10 weeks is a very short term to judge any politician newly in power.
Hurricane season
On May 15th, just over 5 weeks from now, the East Pacific hurricane season will start. The North Atlantic season, including the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, will commence on June 1st. If you live in an area likely to be affected by hurricanes, please start to review your preparations now. As per usual, the National Hurricane Center in Miami has an excellent article of advice. Do review.
When the season starts in earnest, I will copy details of hurricanes approaching land on this journal. Regular updates will be carried on my Tropical Cyclones blog, but ALWAYS go to the NHC site for the latest information.
A hurricane is a useful mechanism for our planet to syphon the sun's energy, beamed onto the tropics to higher latitudes. There is enough energy in one average system to power planet earth's human population 200 times over. In other words, nothing can be done to divert a storm's path. Apart from strong wind, the other dangers associated with hurricanes lie in heavy rains (causing flooding) and a tidal storm surge, which in extreme cases can be as much as 25 feet high - as demonstrated at Galveston last year. Follow all official orders and advice. Trying to ride a hurricane against official advice is jeopardising your life.
Monday 6 April
Increasing cloud heralding the arrival of rain this afternoon. As if we haven't had enough rain yesterday; it never stopped.
An earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale has reportedly killed dozens of people in the Italian town of L'Aquila, 60 miles northeast of Rome. The deathtoll is set to rise further, as remote villages are accessed. Nearly thirty years ago, a strong earthquake killed 3,000 near Naples. Italy lies across a major faultline in the earth's crust, giving rise to 4 active volcanoes and much seismic activity.
Locally, it is reported that the Arnish Fabrication Yard, a mile from my position across Stornoway Harbour, is set to reopen in the next few weeks or months. This means a welcome boost to a dire employment situation, where at one point 600 people were chasing 6 jobs at the local job centre.
More later.
An earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale has reportedly killed dozens of people in the Italian town of L'Aquila, 60 miles northeast of Rome. The deathtoll is set to rise further, as remote villages are accessed. Nearly thirty years ago, a strong earthquake killed 3,000 near Naples. Italy lies across a major faultline in the earth's crust, giving rise to 4 active volcanoes and much seismic activity.
Locally, it is reported that the Arnish Fabrication Yard, a mile from my position across Stornoway Harbour, is set to reopen in the next few weeks or months. This means a welcome boost to a dire employment situation, where at one point 600 people were chasing 6 jobs at the local job centre.
More later.
Sunday, 5 April 2009
Helicopter tragedy - update
The bodies of all the people who died in the helicopter crash off Aberdeenshire last week have now been recovered.
Blogger Community Photo Challenge
Signs of spring
Taken on 27 March 2009 at Stornoway, Scotland (position 58 degrees North, 7 degrees West).
Helicopter tragedy
Search teams have located the wreckage of the Super Puma helicopter in 330 feet of water, off Rattray Head in northeastern Scotland. It went down last Wednesday, with the loss of all on board. Eight bodies were found in the immediate aftermath of the crash, another seven were recovered from the wreckage on the seabed this afternoon. The 16th body is yet to be found. The black box recorders of the aircraft have been retrieved as well.
/AOL
That is me finished for good with AOL. I just had a warning from the Resident Shield on my AVG Virus scanner, saying a Trojan (Trojan horse Agent2.ceg) had been found on my computer. It had infected a file on AdAware, and AVG had shunted it to the virus vault. The Trojan had come in on the back of an unsolicited download from AOL called Triton_uk_2.2.25.1\setup.exe. As I said I have not asked for this b****y download at all.
My apologies for anyone who got plagued by my emails from Bebo.com as well. AOL shunted its user profiles over to Bebo in January, and I cannot cope with yet another social networking site. My account with Bebo will be closed down today. I have quite enough to keep up with on Blogger, Facebook and Twitter.
My apologies for anyone who got plagued by my emails from Bebo.com as well. AOL shunted its user profiles over to Bebo in January, and I cannot cope with yet another social networking site. My account with Bebo will be closed down today. I have quite enough to keep up with on Blogger, Facebook and Twitter.
Sunday 5 April
With thanks to Sugar for providing this image of spring, which is still some way off in the islands. Particularly today, when heavy rain and strong winds are strafing the Hebrides.
Found a story about a youngster in southern England who had told an Facebook contact he had taken an overdose. The girl, in Maryland USA, contacted police. They in turn, through the UK Embassy in Washington and police channels in this country managed to locate the boy in time to get him to hospital for treatment. Makes a difference to the horror story from the last few years when chatters in a chatroom sat by and let someone take their life on webcam.
Northern Madagascar is hopefully bracing itself for tropical storm Jade, which is bearing down on the region. I am dismayed at the differing forecasts; the regional forecasting centre on the French island of La Reunion shows the storm veering south down the east coast of Madagascar, whereas the Pacific-based Joint Typhoon Warning Center sees Jade continuing on a westbound course. I tend to agree with the latter, as JTWC's forecast has been shown to be more accurate over the last day or so.
Saturday, 4 April 2009
Saturday 4 April
Grey and wet this morning - headache has gone, thank you. Ferry service appears to be back to normal, now that the southeasterly wind has dropped. Plenty of wind in the South Pacific: tropical storm Lin is making its way through the kingdom of Tonga with stormforce winds battering the tropical paradises. This is a late one; the season closes later this month.
My sympathies go out to the friends and family of the 13 victims of the gun siege in Binghamton, NY. Another 40 people were injured; the gunman himself was found dead after police entered the compound. The debate about guns across the pond was revived and remains as divisive as ever, with those in favour pointing to the Constitution and the right to self-defense as well as incidents like Binghamton, and those opposed pointing to the many instances like this to call for tighter control.
An elderly lady in Cornwall took off on her mobility scooter, and she was finally found 5 miles away on a busy road. It took an hour for the machine to be driven back to the point where she got separated from her husband.
Jade Goody's funeral is on today - and that is positively the last I shall say on that subject. It is the top subject on the BBC's News website. Says enough.
My sympathies go out to the friends and family of the 13 victims of the gun siege in Binghamton, NY. Another 40 people were injured; the gunman himself was found dead after police entered the compound. The debate about guns across the pond was revived and remains as divisive as ever, with those in favour pointing to the Constitution and the right to self-defense as well as incidents like Binghamton, and those opposed pointing to the many instances like this to call for tighter control.
An elderly lady in Cornwall took off on her mobility scooter, and she was finally found 5 miles away on a busy road. It took an hour for the machine to be driven back to the point where she got separated from her husband.
Jade Goody's funeral is on today - and that is positively the last I shall say on that subject. It is the top subject on the BBC's News website. Says enough.
Friday, 3 April 2009
Closing notes
And I'm shutting up shop for tonight, as my headache developed into the nasty variety this afternoon. Shame, but the bright sunshine did not help at all. More tomorrow.
Ferry troubles
Our ferry had a spot of bother with an on-shore stiff breeze this pm. Upon reaching the harbour, the MV Isle of Lewis could not safely berth at number 3 pier, so she shunted round to the far side of the pier and disembarked and embarked footpassengers. At 2.50pm, she moved to number 1 pier, from where MV Muirneag had meanwhile departed to wait outside the harbour, to repeat the process for cars. Nonetheless, the ferry has just returned from the evening crossing from Ullapool, 80 minutes late.
Friday 3 April
Trying to shake off a developing headache, but with the weather being what it is, I'm probably not going to succeed: Brilliantly sunny today, but with a hazy in the distance and a brisk southerly wind. We are once more defying the forecast for a maximum temperature of 12C: the mercury has inched up to 14C in actual fact and could go a degree or so higher yet.
A very sad story today about an elderly man who lost his home to a lottery scam. We are all familiar with scam emails, saying we have won a huge amount in a lottery - that we never bought tickets for, or submitted any details towards. Letters to that effect also do the rounds, and at least two people in southwestern Scotland have fallen victim to that.
General advice: ignore emails and letters like that. If it seems too good to be true: it usually is.
A very sad story today about an elderly man who lost his home to a lottery scam. We are all familiar with scam emails, saying we have won a huge amount in a lottery - that we never bought tickets for, or submitted any details towards. Letters to that effect also do the rounds, and at least two people in southwestern Scotland have fallen victim to that.
General advice: ignore emails and letters like that. If it seems too good to be true: it usually is.
Thursday, 2 April 2009
Evenings opening out
The ferry came in at 8.10 pm this evening, practically in full daylight. Now that the equinox is past, and the clocks have gone forward, the evenings are really lengthening. At 9pm, there was still a little light in the sky. It never ceases to amaze me.
I read somewhere this week that with the advent of Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites, the emphasis is shifting away from blogs. In our community, kicked out of AOL last October, this is particularly in evidence. In a way, it is a shame. Facebook has gone through a revamp, which is not exactly an improvement. Twitter is something that can easily overwhelm you.
Earlier this week, I received a copy of my photobook Lewis Light. And it was less than perfect, with blotches and all. So I complained, and I am getting a new copy, for free, from Lulu.com. Good service, but I'll hang fire until I receive the new book.
I read somewhere this week that with the advent of Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites, the emphasis is shifting away from blogs. In our community, kicked out of AOL last October, this is particularly in evidence. In a way, it is a shame. Facebook has gone through a revamp, which is not exactly an improvement. Twitter is something that can easily overwhelm you.
Earlier this week, I received a copy of my photobook Lewis Light. And it was less than perfect, with blotches and all. So I complained, and I am getting a new copy, for free, from Lulu.com. Good service, but I'll hang fire until I receive the new book.
Thursday 2 April
Nice sunny if blustery day. Temperature no great shakes, 10 degrees, but then we are surrounded by the cold, cold Atlantic.
In the North Sea, 200 miles east of here, an operation is now underway to recover the bodies of 8 men still missing from the helicopter which went down off the Aberdeenshire coast nearly 24 hours ago. The remains of the 8 found yesterday were brought ashore at Aberdeen overnight. AIS Aberdeenshire is showing a clutter of vessels off Rattray Head. All flights with the type of helicopter involved in this incidents have been cancelled today.
Police have confirmed that the body recovered from Loch Bi in South Uist a few weeks ago is that of Simon Macmillan, who went missing on Boxing Day 2008. His funeral will be held in the island on Saturday. He was 21; his death is not treated as suspicious.
In the North Sea, 200 miles east of here, an operation is now underway to recover the bodies of 8 men still missing from the helicopter which went down off the Aberdeenshire coast nearly 24 hours ago. The remains of the 8 found yesterday were brought ashore at Aberdeen overnight. AIS Aberdeenshire is showing a clutter of vessels off Rattray Head. All flights with the type of helicopter involved in this incidents have been cancelled today.
Police have confirmed that the body recovered from Loch Bi in South Uist a few weeks ago is that of Simon Macmillan, who went missing on Boxing Day 2008. His funeral will be held in the island on Saturday. He was 21; his death is not treated as suspicious.
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