November 28, 2013: Kuito Green Flash

365 Project, Day 125

Here is my day 125 submission to my 365Project:

It was another lovely sunny and warm day today. I was on the sunset watch this evening and when I saw the sun setting next to Kuito FPSO. I thought it looked interesting having the the large natural gas flare flame and the large ball of sun in the same photo (see photos following). While I was photographing the sun, as a large ball of fire, setting with Kuito FPSO I realized we had good conditions to see the green flash...and I managed to get this photo of it just as the sun dropped below the horizon. 

You can just make out the green edging on the last bit of the sun as it drops below the horizon to the right of Kuito FPSO

Fun fact of the day:

There are several kinds of green flashes and almost every kind is a by-product of a mirage. All of the common forms are magnified images of the green rim produced by light dispersion on the bulk of the atmosphere (source). 

To read more about the green flash check out this San Diego State University webpage.

Sunset with Kuito just before the green flash

And more shots of another lovely offshore sunset:

November 21, 2013: Grass Island Egret...and sooty shearwaters and a unique commute to work

365 Project, Day 118

Here is my day 118 submission to my 365Project:

We've been seeing many of what we call 'grass islands' drifting around out here lately. Apparently, they wash out of the Congo River, into the sea and then drift with the currents. Though there isn't normally much more than the vegetation (and garbage...more on this later!) in these grass islands I usually snap a photo to later zoom in and see what else might be in and around them. You just never know what fish or unique pieces of garbage might end up in this micro-ecosystem. 

Today as I was photographing this particular grass island I noticed something white in among the grass...and when I got a better look through my binoculars I realized it was a cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis) floating along on top of the island. It eventually drifted passed us and, much to my delight, we got a good look at it looking up at us holding a crab in it's mouth! 

So, my sighting of the day was a lone cattle egret, floating on a grass island, about 35 miles offshore Angola, eating a crab for breakfast! It was such a neat sighting :)

Cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis) on a grass island, crab in mouth. Unfortunately, this guy's little island didn't just contain food but an awful lot of garbage :(

Fact of the day:
This is not such a fun fact (hence the reason I'm not calling it the 'fun' fact of the day) but I think it's very important anyways. Ocean garbage, especially plastics, is becoming a huge problem globally and here are just a few facts from  PlasticOceans.net webpage:

• "We have produced more plastic in the last 10 years than we did in the whole of the last century..."
• "The amount of plastic being produced is using vast amounts of oil reserves"
• "Almost half of the plastic we use is used just once and then thrown away" (a personal pet peeve of mine!). 

The problem is that there is no "away" and these plastics are having a huge impact on the environment...on wildlife and us! Seabirds and marine mammals are starving to death from plastics. Seabirds consume large amounts of tiny pieces of plastic, which fills their guts making it impossible to consume and digest real food (read more about it here). Marine mammals, such as sperm whales, can eat plastics (especially plastic bags) which will also fill their stomachs causing starvation, lead to gastric rupture and eventually death (read more at this plasticsoupfoundation.org link).

To learn more about plastic in the ocean check out these webpages:

• Plastic Oceans - PlasticOceans.net
• Article on the Atlantic Garbage Patch in Surfer Magazine
• Surfrider Foundation Rise Above Plastics  article
• A great Mockumentary in the style of Sir David Attenborough - Life of a Plastic Bag

The following are more photos of the egret on it's island, my best shots of sooty shearwaters (Puffinus griseus) yet (finally!) and a unique commute to work:

Cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis)

Cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis)

Cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis)

Cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis)

Cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis)

Sooty shearwaters (Puffinus griseus) feeding on something in the water (hopefully not plastic!)

Sooty shearwaters (Puffinus griseus) feeding on something in the water (hopefully not plastic!)

Sooty shearwater (Puffinus griseus) feeding on something in the water (hopefully not plastic!)

Sooty shearwaters (Puffinus griseus) taking off

Sooty shearwater (Puffinus griseus)

Sooty shearwater (Puffinus griseus)

Sooty shearwater (Puffinus griseus)

Crew change day for the guys on Kuito FPSO. I've never seen this in action...doing crew change by crane and basket

The basket is lifted by crane, with the crew hanging on, up to the deck of Kuito 

You can just see the guys standing inside the basket

August 25, 2013: Night Lights

365 Project, Day 65

Here is my day sixty-five submission to my 365Project:

I have just over a week left out here and I finally got a shot of one of the installations at night which I'm happy with. It's taken me a while to get this shot down; while photographing from a moving vessel I've had to get the right balance of shutter speed, ISO and use my VR to minimise camera shake :)

August 19, 2013: A Sense Of Scale

365 Project, Day 59

Here is my day fifty-nine submission to my 365Project:

We have been passing very close to Kuito FPSO this past week and I always find it so interesting just how small people look when we see them walking around on this beast...like this guy going for his evening stroll around the heli-deck. 

Fun fact of the day:

In 1996 the Troll A platform set the World Guiness Record for the world's largest offshore gas platform with an overall height of 472 m. In 2006, for the 10th anniversary of Statoil's operatorship of Troll A, Katie Melua held a concert at the base of the platform and the concert set a new world record for the deepest underwater  concert at 303 m below sea level. 

You can search for more interesting world records on the Guiness World Records webpage.

Read more about Troll A platform here. 

August 12, 2013: Kuito and BBLT

365 Project, Day 52

Here is my day fifty-two submission to my 365Project:

As we move along our our survey lines we are getting closer and closer to some of these offshore installations. The one on the left, Kuito FPSO, is a Floating Production Storage Off-take vessel, which is used to take on hydrocarbons to process and then transport to an oil tanker or, less commonly, a pipeline.

Fun fact of the day:

Offshore oil production began in the late 1940s. Originally oil platforms sat on the seabed in shallow water and the oil was exported via tanker or pipeline but as exploration moved to deeper waters in the 1970s floating production systems came into use. 

Read more about the history of offshore production systems here.