Cape Cod National Seashore Winter Film Festival 2020

Nauset Lighthouse Eastham MA | credit: NPS

Cape Cod National Seashore Annual Winter Film Festival
January 26th thru February 23rd, 2020
Cape Cod National Seashore
Salt Pond Visitor Center
Eastham, MA

Cape Cod National Seashore’s Annual Winter Film Festival kicks off on Sunday, January 26 at 1:30 pm at Salt Pond Visitor Center in Eastham.

This year's festival explores the power of the human mind in overcoming extreme obstacles. Films show on Sundays at 1:30 pm on the theater-size screen in surround sound.

The auditorium is wheelchair accessible, and the movies are free, thanks to generous licensing funding provided by Friends of the Cape Cod National Seashore.

January 26: A Beautiful Mind--135 minutes. 2001 biographical drama based on the life of John Nash, Nobel Laureate in economics. The story follows Nash from his days as a graduate student through his fall into delusion and schizophrenia. Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress.

February 2: Gravity--91 minutes. 2013 sci-fi thriller starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as American astronauts stranded in space after a mid-orbit destruction of their space shuttle. Selected for American Film Institute's Movies of the Year List.

February 9: The Theory of Everything--123 minutes. 2014 biographical drama about theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking. Despite being diagnosed with motor neuron disease and being given two years to live, Hawking had a long career as a researcher and is regarded as one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists since Einstein.

February 16: Apollo 13--140 minutes. This 1995 film dramatizes the aborted 1970 Apollo 13 lunar mission. En route to the moon, an on-board explosion deprives the spacecraft of most of its oxygen supply and electrical power, forcing NASA flight controllers to abort the landing and get the three astronauts home safely.

February 23: In the Heart of the Sea--121 minutes. 2015 adventure-drama based on Nathanial Philbrick's nonfiction book about the sinking of the American whaling ship Essex in 1820, an event that inspired the novel Moby-Dick.

Salt Pond Visitor Center is located at 50 Nauset Road, at the intersection of Route 6 in Eastham, MA.

Rhode Island Offshore Renewable Energy Impacts Symposium

17th Ronald C. Baird Sea Grant Science Symposium
April 24, 2020
University of Rhode Island
Narragansett Bay Campus
215 South Ferry Road
Narragansett, RI 02882
uri.edu/gso

The University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography, Rhode Island Sea Grant, the Coastal Resources Center, and the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) Working Group on Marine Benthal Renewable Energy Developments (WGMBRED) are organizing an opportunity to share lessons learned from Europe regarding the interactions of offshore renewable energy with the environment.

ICES WGMBRED is an internationally recognized group of scientists working at the cutting edge of ecosystem-based science associated with offshore and marine renewable energy installation and environmental interactions.

Event presentations and discussions will focus on key issues identified by Rhode Islanders regarding the potential cause-effect relationships resulting from the construction and operation of offshore renewable energy installations and recommendations for minimizing impacts and promoting opportunities for positive biological outcomes.

This event is organized at the request of Rhode Island resource users, communities, and other stakeholders to inform future decisions.

For more information and to register for the symposium, visit:

https://seagrant.gso.uri.edu/special-programs/baird/

For more on URI’s expertise and involvement in the appropriate development of offshore renewable energy, visit:

https://web.uri.edu/offshore-renewable-energy/.

source: Rhode Island Sea Grant

2020 Icebreaking Season (Northeast)

USCG Tug Bollard | credit: USCG

The 2020 U.S. Coast Guard icebreaking season has begun, as winter’s cold temperatures are anticipated to impact ports, waterways, and harbors in the Northeast.

Each winter, the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) conducts icebreaking efforts throughout coastal New England.

Icebreaking is often needed on the Merrimack River, Kennebec River, Connecticut River, Penobscot Bay, Boston Harbor, Cape Cod Bay, Buzzard's Bay, Narragansett Bay, Long Island Sound, and other waterways.

Operation Reliable Energy for Northeast Winters (OpRENEW) is the Coast Guard's region-wide effort to ensure Northeast communities have the security, supplies, energy, and emergency resources they need throughout the winter.

Of the heating oil used in the country, more than 85 percent is consumed in the Northeast, and 90 percent of that is delivered on a Coast Guard maintained waterway by ship.

The Coast Guard's domestic icebreaking operations are intended to facilitate navigation within reasonable demands of commerce and minimize waterways closures during the winter, while enabling commercial vessels to transit through ice-covered critical channels.

Coast Guard crews are also replacing aids to navigation with special ice buoys designed to ride underneath ice and remain on location.

A coordinated effort with the maritime industry ensures the vital ports of the Northeast remain open year-round.

source: U.S. Coast Guard 1st District Northeast