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Local Island NEWS in English - Updated Weekly |
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News for the Week of August 30, 2010
Beginning in December 2002, Cozumel Insider was proudly the first website to provide readers the Cozumel News in English.
Articles are slected from local newspapers which we feel will be of interest to our diverse audience. These articles are then translated into English. We cannot always investigate the veracity of a particular article, but offer these translations as a reflection of the Cozumel community news just as reporters write it for Por Esto, Diario de Quintana Roo, Novedades and El Seminario. We appreciate hearing from our readers and welcome your questions, suggestions and comments. Please send them to: questions@cozumelinsider.com
Note: All translated articles are the property of Cozumel Insider and cannot be used, displayed or reproduced without express written permission from Cozumel Insider.
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| Good News About Oil Spill |
Scientists in Berkeley, California, have discovered a voracious species of oil-eating bacteria that have largely consumed a huge deep-sea plume of dispersed oil fouling the Gulf of Mexico since the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion in April. Because of the bacteria, the plume that was once 22 miles long and 3,600 feet deep is now undetectable. For millions of years bacteria have been eating oil that seeps from the sea floor, but after the explosion a particularly gluttonous form multiplied rapidly. The bacteria should be a valuable tool against spills once they’re identified and cultured.
The plume aroused fears that it could devastate the Gulf, because many oil-eating bacteria consume oxygen as well as hydrocarbons. These newly found microbes, however, create far less oxygen depletion than other oil-eating bacteria. Two weeks after the well was plugged, scientists from the government argued that half the oil was gone and the rest was disappearing fast. That was seen as unreasonably rosy to many experts. Since oil can no longer be detected in deep Gulf waters, it appears that the Berkeley group was correct. The grou8p’s work is supported by part of the $200 million grant that BP gave to an environmental research project run by the University of California, the Berkeley lab and the University of Illinois. |
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| New Ocean Life Discovered Off Indonesia |
Scientists on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s ship, the Okeanos Explorer, discovered as many as 50 new plant and animal species during a three week expedition off Jakarta, Indonesia that ended August 14. Using cutting-edge technology they captured more than 100 hours of video and 100,000 photographs using a robotic vehicle with high-definition cameras. The images provided an extraordinary glimpse into one of the globe’s most complex and little-known marine ecosystems.
Stalked sea lilies once covered the ocean, shallow and deep, but now are rare. They were discovered in great diversity on this expedition. The sea spiders were eight inches or more across. A lavender-colored fish was seen “walking” on the sea floor. An Indonesian vessel also took part collecting specimens, which will remain in Indonesia. |
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| Prehistoric Discovery |
| The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) announced the discovery of one of the oldest human skeletons of America in one of the cenotes near the archeological site of Coba. The individual lived during the Ice Age over 10,000 years ago. The skeleton was christened “Hol Chan Youth” (“hol chan” is small cave in Maya, and the age of the skeleton is indicated by lack of wear of the teeth). This is the fourth skeleton of one of our predecessors in the Americas, found after three years of study in the area. The body was found deep in a cave of stalagmites, and was reached negotiating an intricate maze that was flooded and completely dark. Anthropologists at the UNAM who analyzed the surface think that the body was placed in the cave in a funeral ceremony conduced at the end of the Pleistocene, when the sea level was 150 meters lower and before these caves were flooded. The four skeletons found in caves of Quintana Roo reveal migrations from Southeast Asia prior to the group formerly known as Clovis, which would have crossed from northern Asia through the Bering Strait at the end of the Ice Age. |
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