Carbon Chemist

Tag: marine science

  • OceanGate Faces Federal Investigation a Year After the Titan Submersible Implosion

    OceanGate Faces Federal Investigation a Year After the Titan Submersible Implosion

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    The apparent success of the leaseback arrangement might explain how Rush was able to attract what was OceanGate’s largest ever investment in 2020, at a time when the company was working on the expensive task of replacing the Titan’s first hull that had cracked during testing. The $18 million in equity funding allowed OceanGate to rebuild the Titan and move forward with its first Titanic expedition in 2021. Around this time, documents indicate that OceanGate may have had more control in the taken over ownership of Cyclops 2 LLC.

    But by 2023, OceanGate seemed to be on a much shakier financial footing. Several witnesses at the Coast Guard hearings testified to what they perceived to be OceanGate’s financial difficulties in the run up to the final Titanic expedition, including Rush foregoing his salary and occasionally loaning the company money from his personal funds.

    Demand for the $250,000 Titanic dives appeared to be tailing off. As late as May 2023, one of OceanGate’s affiliate sellers was advertising that there were still “some very limited dates and spots available at a 40% discount” for that summer’s expeditions. This has not been reported previously.

    If the federal investigation results in any criminal charges, they would proceed alongside a civil lawsuit currently in a federal court in Washington state. In that case, the family of famed Titanic explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet is seeking $50 million for his death aboard the Titan, with the lawsuit naming as defendants OceanGate, Rush’s estate, and a number of other individuals and companies connected to the ill-fated submersible. Rush’s estate recently filed a motion to dismiss the complaint against it, stating: “As Rush’s employer, OceanGate is liable for Rush’s alleged negligence.”

    Maritime lawyer Alton Hall is skeptical that Nargeolet’s family will recover anything close to the $50 million they are seeking. A 1920 law, the Death on the High Seas Act, generally limits damages to pecuniary losses, such as future earnings. One exception would be if Nargeolet and his fellow Titan passengers, who OceanGate dubbed “mission specialists,” qualified as seamen under another piece of legislation called the Jones Act. “There are literally books and books written on who is and who isn’t a Jones Act seaman,” says Hall. The passengers who died on board the Titan “are not Jones Act seamen,” he believes.

    An unknown question in these cases, and others that might be brought by the families of two billionaires who also died on the Titan, is who might face any legal consequences. The civil case against OceanGate and Rush’s estate also names as defendants OceanGate’s original director of engineering Tony Nissen, and three companies that manufactured the Titan’s hull and viewport. However, multiple witnesses at the Coast Guard hearings testified to Stockton Rush having the final say in many commercial, engineering, and operational decisions, and his company is likely all but bankrupt. In the end, there might be little to salvage from the wreckage of OceanGate.

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  • The Sea Is Swallowing This Mexican Town

    The Sea Is Swallowing This Mexican Town

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    “That’s why my husband hardly ever goes out anymore. You have to go far out to sea,” says Florencia Hernandez, 81, grandmother of Otsoa and Ramón, known locally as Pola. In a wheelchair surrounded by memories—black and white portraits, lead hooks, the fishing line she holds in her hands—she is the longest-lived witness of the transformation that her land has undergone. She learned the fishing trade in her youth.

    “My father taught me. Like my grandfather, he was a fisherman. He had a little wooden boat, and he took me when I was a child,” says Hernandez while showing a photo album. “Later, I fished with my brother Salvador. I was the one who grabbed the motor. We would go out at night. When I got married, I accompanied my husband. I would get up very early in the morning, leave the clothes washed and laid out for when we returned from the day’s work. In a short time, we would fill baskets with fish that we would sell in the afternoon,” she says.

    Una barca abandonada en la comunidad pesquera de Las Barrancas Mxico

    An abandoned boat in the fishing community of Las Barrancas, Mexico.Photograph: Seila Montes

    Hernandez and her husband raised their children with what they earned from the sea. “The sea that has given me everything and now takes everything away,” she says with a broken voice. In Las Barrancas they live every day with the fear of the arrival of a hurricane like Roxanne, which landed in 1995. “I was only 8 years old but I remember it very well. That one hit very hard. It took a lot of houses,” says Ramón.

    Climate Change and Poorly Planned Projects

    Between the storm surges, the sea level continues to gradually rise. In the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, that increase is about three times faster than the global average, according to a 2023 study published in Nature. “This could be due to the loss of important habitats, such as seagrasses and reefs, natural barriers that protect the coast,” says Patricia Moreno-Casasola, a biologist at the Institute of Ecology.

    “Here it’s already taken 100 meters of beach,” says Otsoa. “The impact has not only been environmental and on fishing, on which we live, but it has also had a great social impact. The beach was our means of communication with the other neighboring communities,” explains the fisherwoman. The tourism that her town used to attract has also fallen off.

    “My mother had a little food stand by the beach that was crowded at Easter, a business that sold snacks. We lived on that income almost all year round,” Ramón says. Even horse races were organized there on the beach.”

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  • Why TikTok Is So Obsessed With a Mysteriously Pregnant Stingray

    Why TikTok Is So Obsessed With a Mysteriously Pregnant Stingray

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    Charlotte is the TikTok generation’s Virgin Mary. Only she’s not human, and she’s carrying up to four messiahs.

    For a brief moment, some wondered aloud whether Charlotte, a round stingray about the size of a serving platter, might have been knocked up by a shark. She has been in a tank in Hendersonville, North Carolina, separated from males of her species, for eight years. After her caretakers at the Aquarium and Shark Lab found out she was pregnant and expecting up to four pups, they speculated the bite marks they noticed on her might be a sign that she’d mated with one of the male white-spotted bamboo sharks in her tank.

    “I saw this story pop up and my first thought was, ‘That didn’t happen,’” says Dave Ebert, an expert on sharks and rays at the California Academy of Sciences.

    The more likely reason for Charlotte’s immaculate conception is something known as parthenogenesis, a process by which an organism essentially impregnates itself. While more common in plants and invertebrates, it does happen occasionally in elasmobranchs like Charlotte, especially in captivity.

    While the whole ray-shark mating thing initially caught the eye of social media, it was the doing-it-on-her-own aspect of Charlotte’s story that really commanded attention. She’s due to have her pups any day now (Team Ecco, the educational organization that runs the Aquarium and Shark Lab, has been updating its Facebook page regularly), but the meme “Stingray Jesus” has already been born.

    For obvious reasons, the internet loves this shit. It’s mystery, plus science, plus potentially horny sea creatures all in one story. Also, “Stingray Jesus” sounds cool, like a band on an episode of The Simpsons. In one TikTok, Kayla Gratzer, a restaurant manager in Eugene, Oregon, says Charlotte potentially mating with a shark has “queen energy.” Her video has more than 11 million views. Amanda, a TikTokker in Glasgow who posts under the handle @continentalbreakfast, noted, “My girl just spent her best years girl-bossin’ and pursuing her career until she decided the time was right.” Her post has more than 1.4 million views. Charlotte has inspired tattoo designs, and churchy-looking illustrations set to the song “Angel” by Sarah McLachlan. Everyone, it seems, is Team Charlotte.

    Gratzer says she never expected “a silly video I filmed while scratching a $2 [lottery ticket] would gain so much traction,” but adds that she’s really grateful when the news gives people something lighthearted to discuss on TikTok: “It’s a dream.” Considering the other news of the past week, though, Charlotte’s story has a different timbre.

    On Tuesday, Alabama’s Supreme Court ruled that destruction of a frozen embryo could make someone liable for wrongful death. Critics of the move claim it could have a chilling effect on people seeking in vitro fertilization (IVF), and the state’s largest hospital is already putting a hold on such treatments following the court’s decision. As another TikTok trend took off last week—dances to Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ’Em”—some on the platform used the song to champion reproductive rights. “Plan Bey,” in this case, means handing a pregnant person a credit card while Beyoncé sings, “This ain’t Texas”—a reference to the fact that the Lone Star State has enacted some of the strictest abortion laws on the books since the fall of Roe v. Wade.



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