Federal Jurisdiction over State Claims to Shipwrecks: Should the Eleventh Amendment Go Down with the Ship?

The Eleventh Amendment prohibits citizens from bringing actions in law or equity against individual states in federal courts. The Amendment does not address whether states are subject to federal jurisdiction for actions in admiralty in which both a shipwreck salvor and a state claim title to a shipwreck Analyzing applicable admiralty, federal, and common law in the context of Eleventh Amendment jurisprudence, this Note examines whether the states are subject to pure admiralty actions in federal court by citizen-salvors seeking either title to or reward for salvaging a shipwreck. The original intentions of admiralty law: rewarding salvors for their efforts, uniformity, and encouraging the recovery and preservation of shipwrecked property, are considered in answering this jurisdictional question. The Eleventh Amendment remains afloat to protect states from some admiralty actions, but there are circumstances in which federal courts should have jurisdiction over citizens and states competing for claim to shipwrecks

Development and assessment of a new dermal attachment for short-term tagging studies of baleen whales

© The Author(s), 2014. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Methods in Ecology and Evolution 6 (2015): 289–297, doi:10.1111/2041-210X.12325.Current studies of fine-scale baleen whale diving and foraging behaviour rely on archival suction cup tags that remain attached over time scales of hours. However, skin irregularities can make suction cup attachment unreliable, and traditional pole deployment of suction cup tags is challenging in moderate sea conditions or when whales are evasive. We developed a new tag attachment to overcome these limitations. The attachment features a short (6·5–7·5 cm) needle that anchors in the whale's dermis (epidermis and blubber) to which a free-floating tag is attached via a severable tethered link. The needle, tag and a detachable ‘carrier rocket’ with fletching are fitted together to form a projectile that can be deployed at distances of up to 20 m using a compressed-air launcher. A corrosive release mechanism allows the tag to separate from the needle after a specified period of time so that the tag can be recovered. The dermal attachment was evaluated during a study of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in the Gulf of Maine and then subsequently deployed on bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) near Barrow, Alaska. Monitoring of tagged humpback whales indicated that the needle was shed several days after deployment, the attachment site healed shortly thereafter, and there were no discernible behavioural or health effects over time scales of days to months after tagging. Bowhead whales showed little immediate reaction to tagging; the most common response was a prolonged dive right after tag deployment. On average, respiration rates of tagged bowhead whales were elevated after tag attachment, but returned to the same rate as undisturbed bowheads within 1–1·5 h. When compared to suction cups, the dermal anchor provided a more reliable attachment and it can be applied from greater distances and in rougher sea conditions; it is therefore a useful alternative in circumstances where suction cup tags cannot be easily deployed.This study was funded by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Minerals Management Service (MMS; now Bureau of Ocean Energy Management), through Inter-agency Agreement No. M08PG20021 with the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as part of the MMS Alaska Environmental Studies Program

Novel and Simple High-Frequency Single-Port Vector Network Analyzer

Portable, accurate, and relatively inexpensive high-frequency vector network analyzers (VNAs) have great utility for a wide range of applications, encompassing microwave circuit characterization, reflectometry, imaging, material characterization, and nondestructive testing to name a few. To meet the rising demand for VNAs possessing the aforementioned attributes, we present a novel and simple VNA design based on a standing-wave probing device and an electronically controllable phase shifter. The phase shifter is inserted between a device under test (DUT) and a standing-wave probing device. The complex reflection coefficient of the DUT is then obtained from multiple standing-wave voltage measurements taken for several different values of the phase shift. The proposed VNA design eliminates the need for expensive heterodyne detection schemes required for tuned receiver-based VNA designs. Compared with previously developed VNAs that operate based on performing multiple power measurements, the proposed VNA utilizes a single power detector without the need for multiport hybrid couplers. In this paper, the efficacy of the proposed VNA is demonstrated via numerical simulations and experimental measurements. For this purpose, measurements of various DUTs obtained using an X-band (8.212.4 GHz) prototype VNA are presented and compared with results obtained using an Agilent HP8510C VNA. The results show that the proposed VNA provides highly accurate vector measurements with typical errors on the order of 0.02 and 1° for magnitude and phase, respectively

North Atlantic right whale foraging ecology and its role in human-caused mortality

© The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Marine Ecology Progress Series 581 (2017): 165-181, doi:10.3354/meps12315.Endangered North Atlantic right whales Eubalaena glacialis suffer from unacceptably high rates of ship strikes and fishing gear entanglements, but little is known of the role that diving and foraging behavior plays in mediating human-caused mortality. We conducted a study of right whale foraging ecology by attaching tags to whales for short periods of time (hours), tracking their movements during daytime, and repeatedly sampling oceanographic conditions and prey distribution along the whales’ tracks. Right whales were tagged from late winter to late fall in 6 regions of the Gulf of Maine and southwestern Scotian Shelf from 2000 to 2010. The diving behavior of the tagged whales was governed by the vertical distribution of their primary prey, the copepod Calanus finmarchicus. On average, right whales tagged during spring spent 72% of their time in the upper 10 m (within the draft of most large commercial vessels), indicating the need for expanded ship speed restrictions in western Gulf of Maine springtime habitats. One out of every 4 whales dove to within 5 m of the sea floor during the short time they were tagged, spending as much as 45% of their total tagged time in this depth stratum. Right whales dove to the sea floor in each habitat studied except for one (where only 1 whale was tagged). This relatively high incidence of near-bottom diving raises serious concerns about the continued use of floating ground lines in pot and trap gear in coastal Maine and Canadian waters.Support for this research was provided by the NOAA Right Whale Grants Program, Northeast Consortium, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center, and the Office of Naval Research

Coastal mixing and optics experiment moored array data report

To investigate vertical mixing processes influencing the evolution of the stratification over continental shelves a moored array was deployed on the New England shelf from August 1996 to June 1997 as part of the Office of Naval Research's Coastal Mixing and Optics program. The array consisted of four mid-shelf sites instrumented to measure oceanic (currents, temperature, salinity, pressure, and surface gravity wave spectra) and meteorological (winds, surface heat flux, precipitation) variables. This report presents a description of the moored array, a summary of the data processing, and statistics and time-series plots summarizing the data. A report on the mooring recovery cruise and a summary of shipboard CTD surveys taken during the mooring deployment are also included.Funding was provided by the Office of Naval Research under Contract No. N00014-95-1-0339

Near real-time detection of low-frequency baleen whale calls from an autonomous surface vehicle: implementation, evaluation, and remaining challenges

© The Author(s), 2021. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Baumgartner, M. F., Ball, K., Partan, J., Pelletier, L., Bonnell, J., Hotchkin, C., Corkeron, P. J., & Van Parijs, S. M. Near real-time detection of low-frequency baleen whale calls from an autonomous surface vehicle: implementation, evaluation, and remaining challenges. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 149(5), (2021): 2950-2962, https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0004817.Mitigation of threats posed to marine mammals by human activities can be greatly improved with a better understanding of animal occurrence in real time. Recent advancements have enabled low-power passive acoustic systems to be integrated into long-endurance autonomous platforms for persistent near real-time monitoring of marine mammals via the sounds they produce. Here, the integration of a passive acoustic instrument capable of real-time detection and classification of low-frequency (LF) tonal sounds with a Liquid Robotics wave glider is reported. The goal of the integration was to enable monitoring of LF calls produced by baleen whales over periods of several months. Mechanical noises produced by the platform were significantly reduced by lubricating moving parts with polytetrafluoroethylene, incorporating rubber and springs to decelerate moving parts and shock mounting hydrophones. Flow noise was reduced with the development of a 21-element hydrophone array. Surface noise produced by breaking waves was not mitigated despite experimentation with baffles. Compared to a well-characterized moored passive acoustic monitoring buoy, the system greatly underestimated the occurrence of sei, fin, and North Atlantic right whales during a 37-d deployment, and therefore is not suitable in its current configuration for use in scientific or management applications for these species at this time.Funding for this project was provided by the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program of the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Navy's Living Marine Resources Program

Coastal mixing and optics experiment : mooring deployment cruise report R/V Oceanus cruise number 284 31 July-11 August 1996

An array of moorings at four sites at a mid-shelf location in the mid-Atlantic Bight was deployed for a period of 10 months beginning in August 1996 as part of the Coastal Mixing and Optics Experiment (CMO), funded by the Office of Naval Research (ONR). The purpose of this array is to gather information to help identify and understand the vertical mixing processes influencing the evolution of the stratification over the shelf. The observations from this moored array will be used to investigate changes in the stratification in response to atmospheric forcing, surface gravity wave variabilty, surface and bottom boundary layer mixing, current shear, internal waves, and advection. This report describes the primary mooring deployments carried out by the Upper Ocean Processes (UOP) Group on the R/V Oceanus, sailing out of Woods Hole during July, August, and September of 1996.Funding was provided by the Office of Naval Research through Grant No. N00014-95-1-0339

Evidence of a North Atlantic right whale calf (Eubalaena glacialis) born in northeastern U.S. waters

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2008. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of John Wiley & Sons for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Marine Mammal Science 25 (2009): 462-477, doi:10.1111/j.1748-7692.2008.00261.x.The general temporal and geographical patterns of North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) calving events have been clarified during the last quarter century of research (Kraus and Rolland 2007). Right whales give birth to a single calf every three to five years after a twelve- to thirteen-month gestation period (Best 1994; Kraus and Hatch 2001). Most calves are born between December and March in the coastal waters of the southeastern U.S., the only known calving ground for this species (Kraus et al. 2007; Winn et al. 1986). Although historical whaling records suggest that there were once two winter calving grounds, one off the southeastern U.S. and the other off northwestern Africa, it appears that only the former is still used today (Notarbartolo di Sciara et al. 1998; Reeves and Mitchell 1986; 1988). In the late winter, right whales leave the calving grounds and migrate to their foraging grounds off the northeastern U.S. and Canadian Maritimes. North Atlantic right whales can be found in Cape Cod and Massachusetts Bays throughout the late winter and early spring (Hamilton and Mayo 1990; Mayo and Marx 1990; Schevill et al. 1986), in the Great South Channel during mid-spring to early summer (Kenney et al. 1995), and in the Bay of Fundy (Kraus et al. 1982) and on the Scotian Shelf (Mitchell et al. 1986; Stone et al. 1988) during the summer and fall. Some individuals (mostly pregnant females and juveniles) return to the calving grounds off the southeastern U.S. in December and January, but the location of the rest of the population during those months is currently unknown (although recent evidence suggests that right whales are present in the Gulf of Maine and on the Scotian Shelf throughout the winter (Mellinger et al. 2007; T. Cole pers comm. ; S. Van Parijs pers comm. )

Ropeless fishing to prevent large whale entanglements: Ropeless Consortium report

The 2017 North Atlantic right whale (NARW) unusual mortality event and an increase in humpback whale entanglements off the U.S. West Coast have driven significant interest in ropeless trap/pot fishing. Removing the vertical buoy lines used to mark traps on the sea floor and haul them up would dramatically reduce or eliminate entanglements, the leading cause of NARW mortality, while potentially allowing fishermen to harvest in areas that would otherwise need to be closed to protect whales. At the first annual Ropeless Consortium meeting, researchers, fishing industry representatives, manufacturers, conservationists, and regulators discussed existing and developing technological replacements for the marking and retrieval functions of buoy lines. Fishermen and NGO partners shared their experience demonstrating ropeless systems and provided feedback to improve the designs. U.S. and Canadian federal regulators discussed prospects to use ropeless fishing gear in areas closed to fishing with vertical lines, as well as other options to reduce entanglements, and a Massachusetts official shared additional regulatory considerations involved in ropeless fishing in state waters. Sustainable seafood experts discussed consumer market advantages and endangered, threatened, and protected species impacts in sustainability standards and certifications. Moving forward, there is an immediate need to (1) work with industry partners to iteratively test and improve ropeless retrieval and marking systems to adapt them to the specific conditions of the relevant trap/pot fisheries, (2) create data sharing and communications protocols for ropeless gear location marking, and (3) develop regulatory procedures and enforcement capacity to allow legal ropeless gear use.This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.2020-06-2

Striking the right balance in right whale conservation

Author Posting. © The Authors, 2009. This article is posted here by permission of NRC Research Press for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 66 (2009): 1399-1403, doi:10.1139/F09-115.Despite many years of study and protection, the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) remains on the brink of extinction. There is a crucial gap in our understanding of their habitat use in the migratory corridor along the eastern seaboard of the United States. Here, we characterize habitat suitability in migrating right whales in relation to depth, distance to shore, and the recently enacted ship speed regulations near major ports. We find that the range of suitable habitat exceeds previous estimates and that, as compared with the enacted 20 nautical mile buffer, the originally proposed 30 nautical mile buffer would protect more habitat for this critically endangered species.This work was supported in part by SERDP/DoD grant W912HQ-04-C-0011 to A.J. Read and P.N. Halpin as well as a James B. Duke Fellowship and a Harvey L. Smith Dissertation Year Fellowship to R.S. Schick