More than a few people have asked about old images from the Coast Guard Beach web cam. We haven't been saving them. Once an image is gone from the last 10 images page it's gone forever. If you see an image you like you can save it easily yourself by right clicking on the image and saving it on your own computer. If you see (and save) a great cam image... like a monster tuna jumping out of the water please send it to us.

We might set up a way to save images in the future. But even then we would need a way of knowing which images are special.

October 7, 2009 - Five Somali pirates are in custody after mistaking a French naval vessel for a "harmless" commercial cargo ship in the Indian Ocean. A military spokesman said today that the blundering pirates attacked the Somme, a naval command and fuel supply ship, from two small skiffs last night. The 515 foot long Somme is used as the command center for all French military forces in the Indian Ocean. Admiral Christophe Prazuck said that the Somme, which is equipped with a range of cannon and machineguns, repelled the attack and immediately gave chase, seizing one boat and capturing five pirates after an hour-long chase. Here's the full story from the UK's Times Online.

September 30, 2009 - A powerful 8.0 magnitude undersea earthquake struck islands in the region of Samoa early Tuesday local time and unleashed a destructive tsunami that caused extensive damage. At least 111 people are confirmed dead in Samoa, neighboring American Samoa and Tonga. In some cases, entire villages were swept into the sea with nothing left behind. President Barack Obama has declared a major disaster in American Samoa and is sending federal aid to support local recovery efforts in the U.S. territory. Photos of the destruction can be seen from the Washington Post here.


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This afternoon, a strong 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck the island of Sumatra close to the city of Padang on the coast of the Indian Ocean. At least 21 people are reported to have been killed. Padang is home to 800,000 people and the situation there is described as "quite devastating." The US Geological Survey has not yet commented on whether the earthquake in Samoa is linked to this one. Here's the story from CNN.


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August 5, 2009 - In today's NY Times Mark Mazzetti and Thom Shanker report that a pair of nuclear powered Russian attack submarines have been recently patrolling the US East Coast in international waters 200 miles offshore. The rare mission has raised concerns inside the Pentagon and intelligence agencies about a more assertive stance by the Russian military. These submarines are not descendants of the fictional Red October. They are attack submarines and do not carry intercontinental nuclear missiles. The belief is that Russia has deployed them to reassert its relevance in today's world. here's the full story.