The History of the Oceans Is Locked in Whale Earwax
The massive plugs contain spikes and dips of stress hormones that perfectly match the history of modern whaling.
MIGUEL MEDINA / GETTY
Whales are big, whales are long-lived, and whales have paddle-shaped flippers instead of dexterous hands. These three traits inexorably lead to a fourth: Over time, whales accumulate a lot of earwax.
Whale earwax forms like yours does: A gland secretes oily gunk into the ear canal, which hardens and accumulates into a solid, tapering plug. In the largest whales, like blues, a plug can grow up to 10 inches long, and looks like a cross between a goat’s horn and the world’s nastiest candle. Fin whale wax is firmer than blue whale wax, bowhead whale wax is softer and almost liquid, and sei whale wax is dark and brittle. But regardless of size or texture, these plugs are all surprisingly informative.
As whales go through their annual cycles of summer binge-eating and winter migrations, the wax in their ears changes from light to dark. These changes manifest as alternating bands, which you can see if you slice through the
It was only a few years ago when the United Nations predicted rising sea levels could have a devastating impact on two areas of the globe, most notably New Orleans and the head of the Bay of Fundy around the border between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. We have already seen what can happen in New Orleans, how long will it be before we find out here?
The dyke and aboiteau at Amherst Point are just one of several pieces of infrastructure protecting fertile marshlands from the Bay of Fundy and it's a situation repeated in communities sitting on the bay in both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
Considering the power of the water that flows through the bay twice a day it's only a matter of time before these dyke and aboiteaus, many of them constructed decades ago, begin to fail. Fortunately it hasn't happened yet. There has been some flooding, but it's only a matter of time before a major storm -_like a Saxby Gale - leads to the failure of the dykelands and brings about massive flooding wiping out key pieces of infrastructure such as the railway or the highway that runs between the two provinces.
This is not to say the province has been asleep at the switch. It's well aware of what's going on. The problem is finding the money required to bring about a long-term fix. It's something that could cost hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars to fix properly and there's no guarantee the expertise available when the dykes were first built even exists today.
What needs to happen is a co-operative effort among all levels of government, including the federal government, to first find workable solutions and then come up with the money to fix them. This should not become a juridictional issue and it can no longer be a back burner issue because that next major storm may just be over the horizon. We can only hope it's not another New Orleans post-Katrina situation where the damage was done before people started asking questions.
Media credit: Acadian-cajun.com
Molly Kool was the first female sea captain in North America Born in N.B., Kool died in Bangor at 93 By The Canadian Press Sun. Mar 1 - 5:42 AM
MONCTON, N.B. — Molly Kool, the first woman in North America to become a registered sea captain, died Wednesday. She was 93.
Kool was born in 1916 in Alma, N.B., and spent the first 30 years of her life there. She had been living in Bangor, Maine, for years when she died.
"She was a real pioneer in the status of women and she tackled something absolutely unheard of," said Ken Kelly, president of the Fundy Beautification and Historical Society.
Kelly was a friend of Kool and would visit her in Bangor once a year. She would also regularly come stay with him and his wife in Alma.
Kool tried to enrol in navigation school in Saint John, N.B., but was initially turned away because no woman in North America had ever obtained her mate’s papers.
She persisted and was eventually admitted.
She passed her mate’s papers in 1937 at the age of 21 and passed her master’s exam a couple of years later, receiving her master’s certificate and the title of captain.
"She was a New Brunswick girl and she really overcame a lot. It’s a hell of a story," said Kelly. "She had to earn every bit of what she had and there was a lot of resistance in those days, but she stood her ground and fared well."
Rita Hopper, also a friend of Kool, said some men in the shipping industry didn’t agree with a woman being captain of a ship, while others were fine with it.
She said Kool had the personality to handle any troublemakers.
"She was tough," recalled Hopper. "Nothing would bother her and you could dare her to do anything and she would.
"She wouldn’t take nothing from nobody and she would let you have it. She didn’t care."
Molly Kool was the first female sea captain in North America 
Molly Kool was the first female sea captain in North America