Dive Pacific 175 Dec2020 Jan 2021

SOUNDINGS
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Massive great white
shark Unama’ki
spotted south of Miami
One of the largest great white sharks ever tagged
was recently spotted swimming south of Miami,
Florida, according to NBC Miami.
Unama’ki “pinged” at 5:46 a.m. ET off of Key Largo,
south of Miami on Thursday (Nov 5), which means that
its dorsal fin broke the surface of the water, sending a
signal to a satellite, alerting researchers of its whereabouts,
according to a previous article from Florida
Today.
Unama’ki was first tagged in Nova Scotia in
September; in the indigenous language of the Mi’kmaq
people, her name means “land of the fog.”
Unama’ki seen just below the surface here. (Image: © Robert Snow/Ocearch)
With a length of 4.7 metre and weighing 942 kilograms
she is the second largest white shark ever tagged by
Ocearch, a nonprofit organization that tags and tracks
large marine animals.
Snake eel dangles from heron’s stomach midair
snake eel fighting for its life burst from the
A stomach of a heron that had just swallowed it
whole, according to photos snapped by an amateur
photographer in Delaware.
The photos show the snake eel, its head dangling in
midair, as the heron looking unbothered flies onward.
A heron likely regretted eating a snake eel after the eel burst out of its stomach in
midair. (Image: © Sam Davis)
The unusual event attracted a lot of attention among
the local predators, said Sam Davis, an engineer from
Maryland who took the photos on the Delaware shore.
Several juvenile eagles and a fox were following the
heron, possibly hoping to scavenge a meal in case the
heron or the snake eel didn’t make it.
Glacier melting threatens mega tsunami
giant tsunami in Alaska triggered by a landslide
A of rock left unstable after glacier melting is likely
to occur in the next two decades, scientists fear. Or it
could happen within the next 12 months.
A group of scientists warned about the impending
disaster in Prince William Sound in May.
Analysis of satellite imagery suggests the Barry Glacier
is retreating from Barry Arm due to ongoing melting
and a large rocky scarp is emerging on the face of
the mountain above it indicating an incremental,
slow-moving landslide is taking place above the fjord.
Geophysicist Chunli Dai from the Ohio State University
told NASA’s Earth Observatory:
“Based on the elevation of the deposit above the water,
the volume of land slipping, and the angle of the slope,
we calculated a collapse would release 16 times more
debris and 11 times more energy than Alaska’s 1958
Cascade, Barry and Coxe glaciers in Prince William Sound, Alaska.
(Image: © Shutterstock)
Lituya Bay landslide and mega-tsunami.”
The 1958 event is though to be the tallest tsunami
wave in modern times, reaching a maximum elevation
of 524 metres.
12 Dive New Zealand | Dive Pacific