Replies

Let me ask you this. In that Discovery Civ. show last night the comment was made that scientists discovered uv damage and penetration up to depths of 25 feet. This was unexpected because they had assumed severe attenuation of the radiation within a few feet of the surface.

There were many pictures shown of whitening coral, etc.

Is this a true phenomenon? 'Pod

Most historic reef dieoffs since the last ice age have been due to drowning (I have a paper on the topic sitting on my desk). In fact, historic changes are so rapid that by comparison we are living in an unusually quiet period for sea level change, effectively a golden age for reefs.

There is a suggestion that the current dieoff (sorry) is due to rising seawater temperatures associated with Global Warming (see hoax) but I doubt that because decadal thermal inversions and variations are so common.

Here is the one passage that should have made all of you squirm:

The United States' first Particularly Sensitive Sea Area--just the fifth such domain worldwide to gain special protection in accordance with the International Maritime Organization--is being created in the Florida Straits, where U.S. officials say more than 40 percent of the world's commerce passes each year.

International Maritime Organization... guess who?

That's the UN folks, pursuant to their claim to manage "global commons." Given all that, my guess is that there are substantial oil or gas reserves in that area.

penetration up to depths of 25 feet. This was unexpected because they had assumed severe attenuation of the radiation within a few feet of the surface.<

Sorry I'm late...
Don't yet have data on attenuation length vs. wavelength, but there is a window at the blue/green wavelengths (probably 500 nm or so) The Navy has worked on some high powered lasers for airborn (&space) based communications for subs. My gut says the window shuts down at true UV (400 nm). I know from personal experience that green hene lasers work substantially better than 633nm.