Lowest Tides Of The Year

Dry spell worries Mysore water officials

MYSORE: With the monsoon playing truant, it's not just farmers who are worried. Officials, especially of the water resource department, are apprehensive that though it's been 18 days since the onset of the monsoon, the region hasn't received heavy rain. Barring a few showers, there hasn't been even one spell of heavy rain in the district. Kodagu used to receive rain through the day and night in June, but that hasn't happened this year.

Hitherto, not even one region's reservoir has recorded heavy inflow which could have boosted its water level. Small dams like Harangi are struggling to maintain their water level. Kabini, whose catchment area falls in thick forest region of Kerala, hasn't received water.

Every year by this time, authorities start releasing excess water from Kabini dam. On Saturday, the water level in the dam stood at 2278.80 ft against the full level of 2284 ft. The dam needs at least 4-5 tmcft of water to reach its full level, an engineer at Kabini dam said. If this is the situation in Kabini, in KRS, the water level stood at 99 ft against the full level of 124.80 ft. There was heavy rainfall last year, otherwise the water level would have reached an all-time low making it even impossible for authorities to draw water for drinking water pumping stations. Before last year, water level reached its lowest of 76 ft. Replacing of leaking crest gates is also another reason for present water level of 99 ft.

"We are not yet worried about the water level in dams as there is enough water in Kabini dam to meet the drinking water needs of Bangalore . But the situation may start worsening if there's no rain in the next fortnight," Vardaraju, in-charge chief engineer of water resource department in Cauvery basin, told STOI. He said meteorological officials had given a positive outlook for rain in July first week.

He said currently water is being released into the river bed from Kabini to meet 700 cusecs drinking water demand of Bangaloreans. "We could face a problem when we start releasing water to the fields," he said.

Agriculture joint director Krishnaiah says 90% of the area reserved for kharif crops has been cultivated following pre-monsoon rain and intermittent showers have helped tide over the dry conditions.

toiblr.reporter@timesgroup.

Low tide living : Coral Hub – Resources & Training for Coral ...

The spring tides of the mid winter months generate the lowest daytime tides of the year. In my part of the world, Townsville, northern Australia, it provides a great opportunity to view the Great Barrier Reef glinting for a couple of hours under clear winter skies. I recently used these lowest astronomical daytime tides (the summer equivalents occur at night) to photograph a suite of specialist inter-tidal corals from the genus Goniastea .  The photos below were taken at Nelly Bay, Magnetic Island.  In Great Barrier Reef terms Magnetic Island is a large inshore granite island fringed by turbid water coral communities.

As is often the case it is the things right under your nose that are the last to get done.  For years now I have been planning to photograph the Magnetic Island low tide daytime exposed corals. In particular I was after three Goniastrea which emerges first and submerges last on these extreme tides.  As a niche its a pretty hostile place to be as it maximises the risk from exposure to air, sun and rain.  As a result these corals often show deformities of the colony – by definition the tops of the highest colonies are often dead – but what is most striking is the way the these corals protect themselves by generating a protective mucus.  Taking macro-photos standing around on a reef at low tide is challenging enough without the pervasive glistening reflections coming from the coral mucus.

I suppose it should come as no surprise that life is so in sync with the rhythms of the Earth, but the way these three Gonisatrea is best recognised by the presence of paliform lobes which are not always easy to see in the field (especially when the coral is hunkered down under low tide stress!) but I did manage to capture some useful field examples (see arrows in the slideshow).  The Coral Finder Toolkit explains the use of paliform lobes at length in Coral Finder Toolkit Training Movie 6 – enjoy!