It is about 40 km long and 6 km deep, and is located in the Atlantic Ocean. Bass Strait (/ b s /) is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet).The strait provides the most direct waterway between the Great Australian Bight and the Tasman Sea, and is also the only maritime route into the economically prominent Port Phillip Bay. But just as smaller boats get closer to Tasmania, those winds will adjust to be south-easterly on Wednesday, which will present them with challenges as they attempt to make it down the Tasmanian coast. : 1881 - 1895), Sat 26 Mar 1892, Page 30 - THE SEALERS OF BASS STRAIT. Unclear images of the drones are also attached to the report, though few details can be made out: Based on these documents, the U.S. Navy had at least eight distinct encounters with groups of multiple drones in the waters off California in 2019. Strange lights were often seen coming from the Bass Strait and over the treetops, or even from one of the 50-something islands that reside within the strait itself. The Biden administration issued a new directive to address data collection, among other provisions, regarding drone incidents earlier this year. A month later, the USS Zumwalt, the Navy's most advanced surface combatant, encountered a set of six drones on April 24, 2019. Although the following incident isnt immediately linked to the Bass Strait, given the fact that it happened near the northern coast of the Bass Strait Triangle and that descriptions of the object match other accounts of UFOs over the stretch of water in question, it would be perhaps a little shortsighted to not include this (and our next entry) on our list.[5]. The louder a sound is, the more damage it can do to your hearing. [16]:484 Large gas fields include the Whiptail field, the Barracouta Field, the Snapper Field, and the Marlin Field. The Panama Canal: Interlinking the Atlantic Ocean with . Even aboard a cruise, the waters around the Drake Passage are still known as one of the most dangerous maritime routes in the world. In this map, sand dunes under Bass Strait reveal evidence of the Bassian Plain.Credit:Geoscience Australia. There was enough time for coastal sand dunes to form, and in some cases theyve actually been preserved, Nichol says. He also has a liking for the NFL, film and music. Governor Hunter thus wrote to Joseph Banks in August 1797 that it seemed certain a strait existed. 8 The Loina Incident. The timeline also indicates that Bunker Hill's AN/SPY-1 radar system held "valid tracks" of the drones, including up to an altitude of 21,000 feet. Despite myths and legends of piracy, wrecking and alleged supernatural phenomena akin to those of the Bermuda Triangle, such disappearances can be invariably ascribed to treacherous combinations of wind and sea conditions, and the numerous semi-submerged rocks and reefs within the Straits. Two years earlier in 1942, an Australian fighter pilot took his plane over the Bass Strait after orders to investigate reports of strange lights made by fishermen. [10], When news of the 1798 discovery of Bass Strait reached Europe, the French government despatched a reconnaissance expedition commanded by Nicolas Baudin. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. Over the last few years, we have completed around $600 million of decommissioning works in Bass Strait, including successfully removing the Seahorse and Tarwhine facilities . Known locally as The Paddock, the Bass Strait is the body of water separating mainland Australia and Tasmania. [8] The yacht was scheduled to arrive in Sydney for New Years Eve. Banks Strait is the southeastern opening to the Tasman Sea. Anyone who has seen the Australian television show The Kettering Incident will perhaps be aware that many parts of the shows story lines are based, in part, on real-life accounts, particularly of life in Tasmania along the coast of the Bass Strait. In the currently in-force IHO 1953 draft, it is instead associated with the Great Australian Bight; the Bight is numbered 62, while the Bass Strait is designated 62-A.[1]. How can a small strait threaten a global powerhouse like China? Bering, Gibraltar, Bab-el-Mandeb, Bosporus and Torres, etc. However it started failing within a few weeks of completion, and by 1861 it failed completely. The War Zone has received a highly significant new set of documents from the U.S. Navy via the Freedom of Information Act about a series of enigmatic drone swarm events that occurred in the waters off Southern California in 2019. Last year Marine General Kenneth McKenzie Jr. said that drones are "the most concerning tactical development since the rise of the improvised explosive device in Iraq." Most large fields were discovered in the 1960s, and are located about 50 to 65km (30 to 40mi) off the coast of Gippsland in water depths of about 70m (230ft). Monnik and Page explained that drone detection itself remains a very complex problem that often requires specialized radar and radio frequency equipment that is not guaranteed to work in all circumstances. An email sent on July 15th matches these details and references a number of images and one video file. Bass Straight oil production still amounts to between 17% - 19% of Australia's oil and 42% of LPG. King Island and the Indian Ocean lie at its western extremity, and the Furneaux Group is at its eastern end. There are two things to know about this body of water. They are a dangerous craft. These features form sills separating Bass Basin from the adjacent ocean basins. It made use of four independent engines, with the likelihood of all four engines failing at the same time being almost universally dismissed. In 1901, 22 crew members vanished into thin air along with the SS Federal in the Bass Strait, and five years later in 1906, the Ferdinand Fischer, a German cargo ship, met a similar fate as it made its way to the coast of Tasmania. A lighthouse was erected on Deal Island in 1848 to assist ships navigating in the eastern part of the Straits, but there were no guides to the western entrance until the Cape Otway Lighthouse was first lit in 1848, followed by another at Cape Wickham at the northern end of King Island in 1861. Documents show that the Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Russell, also referred to by its hull number, DDG 59, and the abbreviation RSL), first reported an interaction with three unknown UAS on July 17th, 2019 approximately 62 nautical miles southwest of San Nicolas Island. Updated June 16, 2022. Finally, a photograph of one of the drones was included with the report: While our initial investigation focused on the cluster of drone events in July described above, these new records also indicate that at least two other significant drone swarm events occurred in the waters off Southern California earlier in 2019. so a higher than normal number of incidents can only to be expected. Despite being in the Roaring 40s, we had good . Bass Strait (/bs/) is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). Indigenous Australians crossed into Tasmania via the Bassian Plain tens of thousands of years ago. This is why concerts and parties are so dangerous because of the high noise levels and because people tend to listen to them for hours on end. Meet 'Fluffy' - the stunt-performing powerhouse that boasts more than 1,400hp. counter drone technologies and techniques, Biden administration issued a new directive, Chief of Naval Operations Michael Gilday's statement. The War Zone previously laid out this reality and its implications in great detail in this feature. Spiders fill the jungles of the Darin Gap, but one of the most "medically important" is the Brazilian Wandering spider. Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray took pains to emphasize in a recent congressional hearing that the military "train as they would fight." During that time, several drones flew directly over the USS Russell. Bass Strait is relatively narrow, says Nichol. At Flinders' recommendation, the Governor of New South Wales, John Hunter, in 1800 named the stretch of water between the mainland and Van Diemen's Land "Bass's Straits". In 1858, the British ship HMS Sappho met the same fate as it ventured into the straits apparently deadly waters. Fovex Strait. Why the Taiwan issue is so dangerous. Swarming capabilities are seen even by top U.S. think tanks and the Pentagon as being so critical to future conflicts that they could be decisive in a major peer-state battle, such as one over Taiwan. One of those changes was the separation of 'Tasmania' from 'Victoria'. [25][26], Kitesurfers have also completed the crossing[27][28] with Natalie Clark in 2010 become the first female to do the crossing. The fastest and often the cheapest method of travel across Bass Strait is by air. BASS STRAIT OFFSHORE 24. However, after several days with no contact and no arrival, search planes were sent out in a desperate bid to find the apparently stricken vessel. TrailerBoat had a lot of fun testing this Bass Strait Offshore 24, against the beautiful, yet rugged backdrop of Victoria's Cape Woolamai. 29. A note on the slide states that the cruiser unsuccessfully attempted to contact the Bass Strait. A major release of documents provides the highest level of detail yet about mysterious drone swarms involving U.S. Navy ships off California. For example, on October 9, a husband and wife witnessed a bright light above them that actually came down to the level of their car, maintaining pace beside them as they drove. Cutting through Tasmania and the Australian mainland, more than fifty small islands also reside within the Bass Strait. The unusual appearance of the objects led to widespread speculation that they were otherworldly UFOs, despite evidence that the Navy regarded the objects as conventional drones. Bass Strait is shallow. In terms of treacherous water, its got to be up there with the most treacherous in the world.. A draft public affairs statement further added that the drones were thought to be conducting collection operations on the ship. After a dash to Flinders Island, the crew of the 40-foot cutter Anastasia joined David for a nice hot "cuppa". The yachts fate, however, is still a mystery to this day. Notably, the public affairs statement characterizes the behavior of the drones as dangerous, and not in accordance with the rules of the road or internationally recognized maritime customs.. A legend on the slide shows at least four UAS tracks, and the timeline mentions that lights from as many as 10 additional drones were visually spotted. Answer (1 of 9): The straits of Magellan (red course above) is actually a considerable shortcut in distance. Starting at Cape Otway, Victoria, it went via King Island and Three Hummock Island, made contact with the Tasmanian mainland at Stanley Head, and then continued on to George Town. Monnik and Page emphasized that it is increasingly easy for criminals to field drone swarms. Carbonate sandwaves in Bass Strait. It has an average depth of just 60 metres, presenting risks to less experienced sailors who are used to navigating in deep ocean waters. [10] A similar event took place 12 years later when the Harlech Castle disappeared, taking all 23 crew members with her. There are now 23 offshore platforms and installations in Bass Strait, including the new Marlin B platform and Kipper subsea wells, which feed a network of 600km of underwater pipelines and keep the oil and gas flowing, 24 hours a day. But having sailed through the passage, he confirmed it separated the two large islands of New Zealand. During the height of the gale, crewman Chris Rockell was thrown . 2022Recurrent Ventures. It should be noted that in this time period, records show that some ships appear to have deployed and trained with a variety of counter drone technologies and techniques. Andrew McAuley was the first person to cross Bass Strait non-stop in a sea kayak in 2003. [16]:484 Oil and gas are produced from the Cretaceous-Eocene clastic rocks of the Latrobe Group, deposited with the break-up of Australia and Antarctica. This email confirms that at least some ships were entirely without CUAS equipment, which was less common in the 2019 timeframe. It is 22 kilometres (14 mi) wide at its narrowest point, and is considered one of the most dangerous and unpredictable waters in the world. Read more explainers here. The Alaska Bering Sea crab fishery . It is about 80 mi (130 km) wide and has many reefs and shoals dangerous to navigation, and its larger islands are inhabited. Any crossing of Bass Strait inevitably involves big swell and wild weather. The images from the incident include these photographs of what appears to be the Bass Strait. Then there are local tides, which generally flow west to east in the strait. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided . 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