November 20, 2010 -Half a mile south of Nauset Beach, on a low lying isthmus dividing the Atlantic Ocean from Pleasant Bay, the wreck of a wooden schooner from the end of the 19th century was exposed by the long lived nor'easter that ended a week ago. Projecting less than a foot above the sand, roughly 50 feet of timbers were uncovered. More than 3,500 ships sank in the waters surrounding Cape Cod between 1850 and 1980. Most of those wrecks occurred in the late 19th century when an extensive coastal trade carried cargo along the Eastern Seaboard. Here's the full story from Doug Fraser.

November 5, 2010 - Scientists who finished a government-sponsored research expedition Thursday reported finding a small area of dead and dying corals covered with an unknown brown material on the bottom of the Gulf, about seven miles from where the BP-owned Deepwater Horizon well gushed millions of barrels of oil into the water this year. The environmental damage likely resulted from the BP spill, said Charles Fisher, a biologist at Penn State University and the chief scientist on the trip, in a statement Friday.  More from Jeffrey Ball WSJ.

 

 

November 5, 2010 - One thing is clear from looking at the entries to the 2010 Cape Cod Waterfront Pixels Contest. Cape Cod is a beautiful place. We thank all of the fine photographers who entered. Each of the selected winning images has an iconic quality. The top prize went to Merritt E Brown's classic black & white, an image with the spirit of a zen koan. See all the entries here.

Top Prize:"At the Beach" by Merritt E. Brown

 

Runners Up:

Boats: "Fall Lighting 4" Ryan Birchall

Fishing: "Snowy Egret" by Rob Nichols

Seascape:  "Point of Rocks Dory" by Ted Hansen

Board Sports: "Ripping it Up" by Rob Nichols

 

October 27, 2010 - Indonesia's Mentawai Islands were hit by a 10' tsunami on Monday, the result of a 7.5 magnitude earthquake 55 miles SW of South Pagai. Hundreds of people are dead and missing. An official with the regional branch of the Department of Fisheries reported that most buildings in the coastal village of Betu Monga were destroyed: "Of the 200 people living in that village, only 40 have been found. 160 are still missing, mostly women and children," he told Reuters by phone.

The Macaronis surfing resort on North Pagai island was also hit. In an official press release, World Surfaris said Macaronis had "experienced a level of devastation that has rendered the resort inoperable." A report posted on the Surfaid website by one of the aid organization's staff members described a three-meter-high tsunami crashing through the resort and boats knocking together, then bursting into flames.

Guests and crew from one boat were washed into the jungle and took more than an hour to find their way back to the beach, the staff member, Tom Plummer, said. "There was a lot of debris floating in the water, including bar stools and other pieces of furniture from Macaronis Resort," he said.

Here's more from Reuters.

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