GOMAEEN News Archive
These stories reflect Gulf news from June 2009 forward.
 | Long-term effects of Gulf oil spill on shrimp, other species is still unknown Gulf of Mexico shrimp, along with all seafood, has been tested extensively to assure that it's safe for consumption in the wake of the BP oil spill, but the long-term effects on fish species from that oil, and the chemicals used to fight it, are still largely unknown. more info |
| Gulf of Mexico Alliance Celebrates Change in Leadership Jerome Zeringue has become the new management Chair of the Gulf of Mexico Alliance, taking an active lead on behalf of Governor Bobby Jindal. Zerinque made Alliance history, shifting state leadership for only the second time since the Alliance was established in 2004. Louisiana takes over following a long and active tenure by Dr. Bill Walker and Ms. Trudy Fisher with the State of Mississippi. more info |
| Second Gulf of Mexico dead zone stretches from Louisiana to Alabama NEW ORLEANS — A new study finds that Louisiana's second Gulf of Mexico dead zone stretches at least from the Chandeleur Sound off Louisiana to Alabama's Dauphin Island — and could be bigger. more info |
| Gulf Council approves red snapper fishing quotas The full Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council voted Thursday to approve increases in the annual catch limit of red snapper over the next two years. more info |
| Restoration Gulf Coast - Louisiana Flyway Video regarding the migratory bird flyway in Louisiana and the wetlands that support it. more info |
| Restoration Gulf Coast - Florida's Sea Turtles Video regarding the survival of endangered sea turtles along the Gulf coast. more info |
| Restoration Gulf Coast - Fish and Wildlife Video about the Fish and Wildlife Foundation's involvement in gulf coast recovery. more info |
| Restoration Gulf Coast - Alabama's Manatees Video showcases the observation and research for the endangered Manatees. more info |
| FLDEP: Drainage pipes across Naples beaches can stay Florida environmental regulators are poised to let the city of Naples off the hook for a plan to remove drainage pipes that cross the beach and dump runoff into the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Gulf of Mexico Foundation to leave Corpus Christi in 2013 CORPUS CHRISTI — To be closer to the heart of its sponsorship market, the Gulf of Mexico Foundation will move its headquarters from Corpus Christi to Galveston next year, the foundation's president said. The nonprofit organization promotes and funds research, education, outreach and conservation programs to address challenges for businesses and communities which depend on the Gulf of Mexico's health and productivity. more info |
| Officials meet for Gulf Restoration GAUTIER, Miss. — Federal and state officials have presented plans to hold BP to its promise to make the Gulf whole in the wake of the 2010 oil-spill disaster. more info |
| Gulf of Mexico answer wins school’s geography bee title Sixth grader Max Norman is the winner of the 2012 National Geographic Bee at Forest Grove Community School, part of the Forest Grove School District in Oregon. He correctly named the Gulf of Mexico as the body of water containing the smaller Apalachicola Bay, home to a nature reserve sheltered by barrier islands. more info |
| Study examines impact of restrictions on dredging the Mississippi River The cost of clearing silt from the lower Mississippi River on a regular basis is greatly outweighed by the harmful impact to U.S. economy if dredging is not done, which could force rigid restrictions to be put in place on cargo shipped through the waterway, according to a report issued Tuesday that was commissioned by a group of maritime businesses. Dredging sediment along the fast-moving currents of the main shipping channel between the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River is necessary to reduce the formation of sandbars, officials say. more info |
| NASA MODIS Image of the Day: January 12, 2012 - Florida Keys Heavy winds blew across the Florida Bay in early January, 2012 stirring the waters and contributing to the dazzling array of color which stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to the Straits of Florida, and surrounded the Florida Keys. more info |
| New Gulf of Mexico Shark Study Makes Surprising Discovery Researchers at Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama, who have been conducting a two year study focusing on the diets of Tiger Sharks in the Gulf of Mexico, have made a surprising discovery: not only are the sharks feeding on fish and other marine organisms, they are also feeding on land-based birds, such as woodpeckers, tanagers, meadowlarks, catbirds, kingbirds, and swallows. more info |
| Drought threatens flock of whooping cranes FULTON, Texas (AP) – Raising its slim, white neck out of the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, one of the world's last surviving whooping cranes hungrily searches a Texas marsh for the blue crabs and berries it devours during its annual migration to the Gulf Coast. more info |
| Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Requests Grant Proposals RESTON, Va., Dec. 15, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) Research Board has issued a new request for proposals, RFP-II, which will provide up to $7.5 million per year for research grants to individual investigators or small groups of researchers. more info |
| Mississippi agriculture producers to help improve health of Gulf of Mexico through USDA initiative KILN, Missississippi -- Agriculture producers in Hancock and Harrison counties are helping improve the ecological health of the Gulf of Mexico through a new U.S. Department of Agriculture initiative. more info |
| Giant shrimp invading Gulf of Mexico SOUTH PADRE ISLAND – An exotic, large species of shrimp is being found once again in the Gulf of Mexico and posing a potential threat to the $700 million Gulf shrimping industry, according to Tony Reisinger, a Texas AgriLife Extension Service agent for coastal and marine resources in South Texas. more info |
| Cornyn opposes approval of Gulf oil spill funding bills Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) is the only remaining opponent among Gulf Coast senators of a proposed bill that would funnel a portion of fines from the Deepwater Horizon rig disaster and oil spill toward ecological restoration along the coast. more info |
| Recreational fishermen say catch limits damaging fishing industry in the Southeast MADEIRA BEACH, Fla. — Travis Palladeno, a veteran charter fishing captain on Florida’s Gulf Coast, flips through his appointment book and bemoans the blank pages. Restrictions on some of the most popular — and tasty — sport fish are so strict right now, fewer people want to go out. more info |
| USDA Announces $50 Million for Gulf River Basins The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Monday pledged $50 million to a program designed to restore seven river basins from Florida to Texas in an attempt to show a blueprint for rebuilding the Gulf Coast's fragile ecosystem is more than just another federal report. more info |
| Buffett family donates boat to lab OCEAN SPRINGS -- Singer and songwriter Jimmy Buffett visited the USM Gulf Coast Research Lab on Monday with sisters, Lucy Buffett and Laurie Buffett McGuane, for the christening of the GCRL’s newest boat. more info |
| Gulf Coast Task Force Releases Final Ecosystem Restoration Strategy on December 5, 2011 The Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force today released its final strategy for long term ecosystem restoration for the Gulf Coast, following extensive feedback from citizens throughout the region. more info |
| Texas Red Tide Update Matagorda and San Antonio Bays: Patches of red tide and old dead fish continue to be reported from these bays. Rockport/Port Aransas: Cell concentrations coming through the pass at Port Aransas remain in the low to moderate range. more info |
| Gulf of Mexico fish-tracking system goes full steam ahead Responding to deepening concerns about seafood mislabeling and the safety of fish caught in the Gulf of Mexico, a trade association of Gulf fishermen is tagging and credentialing each of the fish its members pull from the water. more info |
| Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Affects Development of Gulf Killifish Soon after the Deepwater Horizon rig began spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, Andrew Whitehead and his colleagues at Louisiana State University set out to determine how that oil would affect gene expression in fish along the Gulf Coast. more info |
| Seventh graders set sail aboard a floating classroom Ship ahoy! Seventh graders from A.C. Blunt Middle School sailed aboard the Karma, a converted shrimp boat, last week to get a first hand look at sea life via Texas A&M University’s Floating Classroom project. more info |
| Gulf of Mexico Data Atlas r the first time in 25 years, a new Gulf of Mexico Data Atlas is now available http://gulfatlas.noaa.gov. Based on the idea of a traditional atlas but offered via the Internet by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the new Gulf of Mexico Data Atlas provides answers to questions related to the physical environment, marine resources, and economic activity in the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Gulf of Mexico Takes Center Stage at the State of the Gulf SUMMIT2011 The 2nd State of the Gulf of Mexico Summit brings together experts and leaders with an interest in the Gulf of Mexico. A unique feature of the SGM SUMMIT2011 is an emphasis on developing an effective “report card” that can be used by resource managers and decision makers in science and business to understand the impacts of our activity. Unprecedented cooperation has preceeded this important event. more info |
| How To Put A Value On Oil Damaged Life In The Gulf A law passed after the Exxon Valdez oil spill requires the government to assess the biological damage from big spills so fines can be fixed and damage paid for. The National Academy of Sciences has a report describing the methods and metrics of determining the "ecosystem services" that have been lost due to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Climate refugees By 2050 all will be affected to varying degrees by rising sea levels. Some land such as that bordering the northern Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea are likely to be permanently lost due to erosion and more extensive flooding whenever extreme climate events occur. more info |
| Farm to Fork Across America: What's the Dirt Who is The Land Institute's role model? The prairie. An agriculture mimicking the prairie's biodiversity would enjoy its resilience to weather vagaries, pests, and disease. Not tilling the soil allows it delicious bioactivity. With this system, many conventional agricultural catastrophes can be resolved. more info |
| 'The Big Fix' review: BP's disaster in the Gulf of Mexico The scathing documentary "The Big Fix" investigates questions of corporate negligence and political corruption surrounding last year's Deepwater Horizon oil spill and its lingering aftereffects on the Gulf Coast. more info |
| MSU institute, NOAA continuing successful partnership A Mississippi State-led research institute and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will continue their collaborative partnership for an additional five years. more info |
| Mexico gov't reopens all Gulf of Mexico ports Mexico's government reopened all its Gulf of Mexico ports, including the three major oil-exporting ports, on Sunday. more info |
| Study Answers How Ancient Waterway Circulated A Boise State University study has shed new light on how a shallow seaway that once extended across the central part of North America circulated during one of earth’s warmest periods, about 82 to 87 million years ago. The findings could help explain why animals differ in the North and South regions. more info |
| Manatees moving into warmer water of Kings Bay Cruising the waters of Kings Bay, we caught a ride with Capt. Paul Cross from the dive shop at Plantation on Crystal River. more info |
| Artificial reefs' effect on fish populations comes under question Artificial reefs — long believed to boost fish populations — might be doing the opposite by concentrating fish and fishermen in the same places. more info |
| Can We Avoid Locking Ourselves Into Runaway Climate Change? What consequences do they mean? To start with, they warn that the window to limiting global temperature rise to 2°C -- the threshold at which catastrophic climate change may become inevitable -- is rapidly closing. more info |
| Tiger shrimp spotted in Mississippi Sound The Asian tiger shrimp has invaded the northern Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi Sound. more info |
| Tiger shrimp spotted in Mississippi Sound The Asian tiger shrimp has invaded the northern Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi Sound. more info |
| Students with disabilities touch, draw marine life Many people know the pleasures of being on the bay in the fall, when the birds are calling loudly to each other as they migrate south and the wind out of the north causes the waves to slap noisily against the beach. Now imagine that same experience without sound or vision, with only your hands and your wader-clad feet and some dedicated teachers guiding you. more info |
| Bacteria linked to deaths of bottlenose dolphins Scientists investigating the stranding of hundreds of dolphins in the northern Gulf of Mexico since early last year reported Thursday that they have identified Brucella bacteria in five of 21 tested and are trying to determine whether the deaths may be linked to last year's BP oil spill. more info |
| Gulf restoration briefing to be held Nov. 16 A briefing to discuss efforts to restore ecological and economic vitality to the Gulf of Mexico will be held on Wed., Nov. 16, and will feature a host of panelists and lawmakers from all the states affected by last year’s massive BP oil spill. more info |
| Evidence shows Gulf oil spill caused widespread ecological damage But as a few individual parts of the picture come into focus, the question remains of how much overall harm is directly related to the BP oil. more info |
| Rice lends support to Mississippi River Trail Rice is the latest Central Minnesota city to lend its support to the Mississippi River Trail, a paved recreational trail that runs about 3,000 miles from the headwaters at Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Young explorer goes on trip of a lifetime Balmoral junior secondary's Aya Anholt, 15, was one of eight students chosen from around the world to accompany extreme explorer Mike Horn on an expedition on the Gulf of Mexico aboard his boat, Pangaea, Nov. 14-Dec. 5 more info |
| Attack of the jellyfish Scientists debate the ‘rise of slime’ theory more info |
| Project Jubilee classes visit DI Sea Lab Students in Martha Montgomery’s third and fourth grade Project Jubilee classes from Daphne East Elementary School recently visited Dauphin Island Sea Lab for a field trip experience as part of their study of oceanography. more info |
| It's back to the drawing board on red snapper Now, more than ever, scientists, regulators and community leaders in states along the Gulf of Mexico have to have the most accurate data possible on which to base their conclusions and decisions. This is a vital part of monitoring the ecosystem, especially in the wake of the oil spill. more info |
| ArtBeat: Nancy Raia returns to Tuscaloosa “Since I just completed a (Gulf of Mexico Alliance) grant called ‘Squeaky Sneakers,’ the images of all the students we took to Weeks Bay to immerse (figuratively and literally) in the waters of our estuaries is flooding my mind with how much they enjoyed learning,” she says. “Plus the fact that some of these students came down here . . . to tour Dauphin Island Sea Lab. I will build on that natural curiosity and what they (saw).” more info |
| State Department expects vindication in pipeline probe The agency's Office of Inspector General (OIG) revealed it is launching a "special review" of the department's handling of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and National Interest Determination for the mammoth project. more info |
| Gulf Oysters Suffer New Blow Prolonged Algae Outbreak Delays Texas Harvest as Industry's Woes Continue . more info |
| Florida Coral Habitat Preserved by Atkins’ Scientific Divers Atkins’ scientific dive team has been chosen to oversee the removal and transplantation of more than 200 coral colonies living on a utility pipeline off the Florida coast in North America. more info |
| White House responds to Orange Park man's letter to Obama When Hailey Hatcher penned a letter asking Barack Obama to do more about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, he doubted the president would see it, much less ponder its meaning. more info |
| Mammoth ship's arrival helps revitalize New Orleans cruise industry Saturday's predawn arrival of the largest cruise ship to call New Orleans its home port signaled a revival in the city's cruise industry that is expected to bring tens of thousands of visitors here each year, tourism officials said. more info |
| State agency eases up on recommended pollution levels for Naples Bay State regulators adjusted the limit for Naples Bay after the city of Naples complained that the DEP had used data that distorted the bay's current levels of nitrogen, a component of fertilizer and animal waste that can cause damaging algae blooms. more info |
| U.S. Puts Oil Pipeline Plan In Limbo Until After 2012 Vote A final decision on building a new oil pipeline to connect Alberta, Canada, to U.S. refineries near the Gulf of Mexico will not be made until after the 2012 presidential election, the State Department said Thursday. more info |
| BP oil spill damage in Gulf to get broader review "The Gulf of Mexico is a vast, complex ecosystem that provides a wealth of important ecological services -- from seafood to tourism to flood protection through its coastal wetlands," said Larry A. Mayer, chair of the committee that wrote the report and a professor of Earth science and ocean engineering at the University of New Hampshire. "It will be a challenge to assess the full scope of impacts from this spill." more info |
| Coast Guard OKs Winding Down BP Oil Spill Cleanup NEW ORLEANS – BP will no longer be responsible for cleaning up oil that washes up on the Gulf Coast unless officials can prove it comes from the company's well that blew out in 2010, causing the worst offshore spill in U.S. history, according to a plan approved by the Coast Guard and obtained by The Associated Press. more info |
| Fund for Teachers Grants Now Available for Louisiana's PreK-12 Educators Unlike other teacher grant opportunities, Fund for Teachers puts virtually no limitations on teachers' requests. Any destination or discipline is fair game, as evidenced by the 433 teachers from across America who traveled in 116 countries on 7 continents last summer. Since 2001, 4,500 teachers leveraged $15.9 million in FFT grants into global odysseys that perpetually impact students, classrooms and communities back home. more info |
| Air Force inquiry reopens possibilities for Navarre pass Santa Rosa County Commissioner Jim Melvin said Monday that officials at Eglin Air Force Base are interested in studying the possibility of creating a pass on base property near Navarre for military and public use. more info |
| Clogged Collier Creek inlet on Marco to get dredged, sand to Hideaway shore area The Marco Island City Council adopted an emergency resolution calling for a fix, and Collier County commissioners voted last week to hire a dredging company to do the job more info |
| Coastal homes lack flood insurance because of maps The reason: The maps underlying the nation's flood insurance program do not account for direct hurricane strikes, which can cause catastrophic flooding. Instead, they rely on the average risk of flooding over a long period. more info |
| Bayou La Batre seafood workers consider new careers in wake of oil spill Funded by a portion of a $1.7 million U.S. Department of Labor emergency grant for programs in Mobile and Baldwin counties, the center offers career counseling and pays for tuition in welding, nurse’s assistant, maritime labor and truck driving courses. more info |
| Digital tools pump up tourism Indeed, some of the region's major companies have enlisted specialists who use sophisticated digital tools to blog, tweet and post - seemingly 24/7. more info |
| Gulf Oil Spill Photographs Show Man's Influence On Environment . For this series of photographs, I spent two months in the Gulf on assignment for Greenpeace photographing the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. These photographs explore the tenseness of the situation in the Gulf of Mexico as the oil seeps into an already challenged and complex ocean ecosystem. Though tragic, it is a fitting example of the vast scale of transformation our world is under from man-made stresses. more info |
| Potential Impacts of the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill In the meantime, the production of goods and services by economic sectors located in the GOM states will be adversely affected leading to possible reduction in the levels of economic activity, employment and personal income, and tax revenues. more info |
| Cousteau family speaks at environmental conference "I see this as our generation's space race, to protect the water treasures that are not half a world away, but in our own backyards," Alexandra, Cousteau's granddaughter, said. more info |
| Vote to Help Manatees! Canterbury School students are raising baby redfish to release in Tampa Bay, growing sea vegetables to feed injured manatees being rehabilitated at Lowry Park Hospital, and helping restore coastal wetlands. more info |
| Oceanographer stresses importance of protecting world's seas "We need the ocean," she said. "The ocean delivers most of the oxygen in the atmosphere, holds the planet steady, has most of the water, most of the life. If we fail to take care of the ocean, it's ourselves, not just turtles, that are at risk." more info |
| NOAA Chief: The Climate Crisis the Media is Missing The topic was oceans, and when moderator Nancy Baron of the science education group, COMPASS asked the scientists to “Tell us how it is, really,” panelist and top NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco said that rapidly rising acidity in the ocean is a “huge challenge.” more info |
| New Study to Develop Tech to Clean Up Oil Spills Funding was provided by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, which was set up by oil company BP to administer a $500 million fund it established for independent research over 10 years to study the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and how to better deal with future spills. more info |
| Sea turtle, beach meet, golf tourney Shelly Yates, a spokeswoman for the Gulfarium, said the release will provide an educational opportunity for children. Gulfarium officials will be on hand to answer questions. more info |
| Goliath grouper's comeback creates conflict To help solve the conflict, scientists Christopher Koenig and Felica Coleman of Florida State University are beginning a 3-year study to document the goliath's recovery and figure out whether it makes sense to allow anglers to catch and keep them. more info |
| Run-off, emissions deliver double whammy to coastal marine creatures Their findings will be published in the November 2011 issue of Nature Geoscience. The researchers determined the combined effects of fertilizer runoff carried by the Mississippi River to the northern Gulf of Mexico and excess atmospheric carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels result in an unexpected increase in the acidity of Gulf waters. more info |
| Study: Gulf Seafood Unsafe for Pregnant Women and Children? At issue are what the FDA considers safe levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), compounds found in oil, coal and gasoline that have been linked to cancer in animals and humans. According to Miriam Rotkin-Ellman, a researcher with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the FDA accepts 100 to 10,000 times more PAH contamination in seafood than the NRDC deems safe for vulnerable populations. more info |
| Prospect.2: Leveling Out “Below Sea Level” is also a living thing, appropriate considering its subject matter. Wotjasik has shot footage of the BP oil spill and plans to integrate it into the 38-minute piece during the course of Prospect.2. The installation is respectful – perhaps to a fault – but it’s also a gently effective piece of environmental activism, reminding people what’s at stake if the Louisiana Wetlands aren’t preserved. more info |
| Researcher to present findings at this year's event Twilley will present his research and findings on this very topic at this year’s Louisiana Gulf Coast Oil Exposition in a technical presentation titled “Water and Oil Should Mix: An Alliance in Energy and Environmental Policies to reduce Risk to Oil and Gas Exploration in the Gulf of Mexico.” more info |
| What’s New from The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel Also new to the center: the IMAG-TV studio, which allows guests to report from the studio or go on virtual location to film their story; and Phase I of the outdoor Watershed Wonders: Caloosahatchee Connections exhibit, a comprehensive, interactive scale model of the Lake Okeechobee, Caloosahatchee River, and Gulf of Mexico system. more info |
| Bayou La Batre seafood workers consider new careers in wake of oil spill For years, Chansaveuy Manivong picked crabs in the frigid seafood processing houses around this fishing town, a job that demanded 14-hour days starting before sunrise alongside other Laotian and Thai immigrants. more info |
| Plymouth Harbor pilot whale dies; mystery remains on why whales came north The whale was an unusual visitor, normally a denizen of waters off the southeastern United States and the Gulf of Mexico, the aquarium said. Before the strandings on Columbus Day, there had never been another documented case of the species stranding in the state more info |
| Study: FDA seafood standards flawed “We’re very confident that the steps that we have put in place to assure the safety of seafood have worked,” FDA spokesman Doug Karas said. “We put in an extensive program of sampling, at that time and since then, and the results have consistently been 100 to 1,000 times below our levels of concern.” more info |
| Miss. giving white shrimp harvest a closer look Mississippi Department of Marine Resources workers are sampling white shrimp deeper into coastal bays and estuaries than ever before, to see what remains in those nurseries, officials say. more info |
| Gulf shrimp abound. But for how long, seafood industry wonders? But there are growing fears among fish market purveyors and restaurant owners that shortages of Gulf of Mexico shrimp and, perhaps, other seafood, may be on the horizon. more info |
| Whale Shark Research in the Northern Gulf of Mexico Despite the fact that the whale shark, Rhincodon typus, is the largest fish in the ocean, little is known about their biology and ecology. Other than a few accounts of their occurrence, information is scant for whale sharks in the Gulf of Mexico region. In response to this need for information, we initiated research to understand the basic biology, behavior, and movement patterns of whale sharks in the northern Gulf. more info |
| BP oil spill: Forgotten but not gone Brunner has studied how communities that are empowered to deal with environmental threats tend to make the right decisions. Examples are diverse, including preparing for floods in the Midwest and dealing with melting permafrost in the Arctic. The key is giving those who live in an ecosystem the power to care for it. more info |
| Fairhope Elementary School takes DI fieldtrip Charlotte Norris' second grade class from Fairhope Elementary enjoyed their first field trip this year to the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. It was a day full of fun activities in the "hands-on" lab where the children learned many interesting facts about sea life. more info |
| Feds underestimate snapper recovery, key scientist says An estimate of how many fish in the Gulf population are more than 10 years old is critical to the calculations that determine how many pounds of snapper commercial and recreational fishermen are allowed to catch each year. More older fish means a healthier population. Too few older fish means a population is being fished too heavily. more info |
| Future of the Gulf Last month, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee overwhelmingly approved legislation that would direct 80 percent of the civil penalties from the oil spill to projects to help replenish coastal marshes, rebuild barrier islands, and repair and reverse years of man-made degradation to an immensely productive ecosystem that is also one of the world’s great fisheries. Last week, a federal-state working group released a preliminary strategy for restoration that could help organize the effort — if Congress ensures the funding is there. more info |
| Dreaded red tide spotted in Southwest Florida The FWC will continue to monitor this algae bloom and report changing conditions to the general public. Those who plan to spend time in the offshore waters of Southwest Florida should follow these developments. more info |
| E.P.A. Panel Issues Plan for Gulf Coast Restoration The strategy, which is being made available for a period of public comment before being submitted to the president, lays out several broad goals and specific means to achieve them. more info |
| South Mississippians get their hands dirty cleaning up the coast Several folks woke up early this morning to clean up a whole lot of trash that has been piling up in their communities. In Ocean Springs, Mississippi Power crews along with local volunteers worked at the Gulf Coast Research Lab Marine Education property. They bagged up plant stands, container tops and a dusty, aged bench was also in the trash pile. more info |
| Shark Fest is aimed at adults The Gulf Coast Research Lab kicked off its first Explore a Seashore Shark Fest for adults on Saturday. more info |
| X PRIZE Foundation Announces Three-Year, Multi-Million Dollar Sponsorship with Shell for Prizes Promoting Exploration of Space, Oceans and Land The X PRIZE Foundation and Shell today also launched a viral video competition designed to inspire the next generation of explorers in improving the knowledge of our planet and the universe. The "Why do YOU Explore?" competition, which runs until April 2012, challenges the public to create their own original and "mashup" videos on exploration, using assets such as interviews with great explorers of the past and present, imagery from NASA and footage from groundbreaking missions across the frontiers of space, Earth and the seas. more info |
| Who Is in Charge of What During Major Catastrophes Still Unanswered “It will be very rare — if ever — that a single entity, organization, government agency, department, or nongovernmental organization can completely solve the problems in our world today,” he said. more info |
| Study suggests FDA underestimated Gulf seafood risk The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) may have underestimated the risk to pregnant women and children posed by consumption of seafood from the Gulf of Mexico, according to a new risk assessment study. more info |
| High levels of red tide found off Lee County High concentrations of the red tide organism have been detected in the Gulf of Mexico off Lee County. more info |
| US lawmakers spar over offshore drilling enforcement in wake of Macondo "The kinds of figures you're talking about are trivial to these companies," Bromwich said. "It needs to be clearly well into the six figures to be a significant deterrent to oil companies and to serve as a deterrent to the industry as a whole." more info |
| Working to reverse damage to Gulf of Mexico The restoration plan the Obama administration and the gulf states put forward this month marks an opportunity to begin reversing the ecological and economic damage to a vital national ecosystem. more info |
| Goliath grouper's comeback creates conflict As a result, fishermen — both commercial and recreational — are beginning to demand the right to harvest goliath. Conversely, conservationists want the federal government to give the goliaths further protection by putting them on the endangered species list. more info |
| Red tide bloom threatens Sarasota beaches with fish kill The toxic red tide that formed off the coast of Englewood nearly three weeks ago may now be heading north toward Sarasota County, this time with thousands of dead fish in tow. more info |
| UPDATE: Coast Guard: Deepwater Horizon Isn't Source Of Gulf Sheen . The U.S. Coast Guard said Friday the wreckage of Transocean Ltd.'s (RIG) Deepwater Horizon rig, which sank last year, isn't leaking oil and is not the source of oil sheens seen recently in the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Giant Asian Tiger Prawns May Threaten Gulf Shrimp Giant tiger prawns from southeast Asia may be gaining a foothold in the Gulf of Mexico, threatening to push out prized native shrimp and spread disease. more info |
| The post-oil spill Gulf of Mexico While some aspects of the Gulf ecosystem got through the disaster relatively unscathed, others were devastated. more info |
| Pilot whales stranded in Mass. were far from normal range Short-finned pilot whales typically frequent warmer waters such as the Gulf of Mexico and the ocean off Florida and are distinctly different from long-finned pilot whales, whose range includes Massachusetts waters. more info |
| Studies delay oyster season The assessment will determine whether the health of the state’s oyster population was damaged by the BP Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010, which leaked 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Officials say they hope to glean an accurate picture of the ongoing effect oil and dispersants may have had on local ecosystems and the region’s seafood industry. more info |
| Drought causing unusual aquatic behavior in bay For more than two weeks, such algae blooms have been occurring along the Texas coast, from Galveston to South Padre Island. The result has been scattered fish kills, mostly involving forage species such as menhaden, mullet and spot but also claiming numbers of highly prized sport fish including speckled trout, redfish, pompano, snook and even snapper. more info |
| Gulf scientists swim with whale sharks, tag them i Researchers from Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi joined for the September tagging expedition. They were aided in their search by a spotter plane provided by a California-based nonprofit, On the Wings of Care. more info |
| Conservation Groups Move to Stop Sea Turtle Deaths From Shrimp Trawling The Endangered Species Act requires the Fisheries Service to ensure that its actions do not jeopardize the continued existence of endangered species and to respond to evidence of new threats to their survival. Today’s lawsuit challenges the agency’s failure to protect sea turtles in the wake of a huge increase in strandings and seeks to establish protections for the turtles, including increased enforcement and observer coverage to reduce turtle deaths from shrimp trawls; closure of sensitive areas to shrimp trawling; and broader requirements for shrimp boats to use turtle-excluder devices to allow turtles to escape drowning in all types of trawl gear. more info |
| BP oil disaster documentary rakes over big questions about the spill The Bix Fix, by Josh and Rebecca Tickell, re-opens some of the most persistent questions about last year's oil spill. How BP was able to exert so much control over the crisis as it unfolded? What were the long-term health consequences of using a toxic chemical, Corexit, to break up the oil and drive it underwater? more info |
| 4 dead dolphins wash up on Gulf Coast beaches in 5 days; deaths part of 'unusual mortality event' "We should be seeing one (death) a month at this time of year," said Ruth Carmichael, a Dauphin Island Sea Lab scientist tasked with responding to reports of dead dolphins. "We’re getting one or more a week. It’s just never slowed down." more info |
| Researcher: Northern Gulf fish show signs of disease, but link to spill uncertain But whether any of those fish were sickened by exposure to BP’s oil is a complicated question without an easy answer, said Steve Murawski, a biologist with the University of South Florida, who cautioned that his team is still in the process of examining a lot of data. more info |
| SketchBook: News 'n' notes on Gulf Coast arts Mobile Museum of Art will host “John James Audubon: American Artist and Naturalist” from Oct. 14 through Jan. 8 with a lineup of exciting programs: more info |
| Spinning Disc Skimmer Wins Oil-Spill Cleanup Challenge Today, American company Elastec was announced as the winner of the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X Challenge, a competition to build better machines to clean up oil spills at sea. more info |
| Outdoors notebook: Estuaries taking losses Along that same line, leaders of the outdoors recreational industry are reminding Congress that many of the regulations they claim "kill jobs" actually protect hundreds of thousands of jobs. Their study shows historic preservation of land, water and air generates more than $1 trillion in total economic activity and supports 9.4 million jobs each year. more info |
| NOAA awards nearly $1 million to University of Miami for coral investigation NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science has awarded $998,703 to the University of Miami to investigate how the deep coral reefs of Pulley Ridge may replenish key fish species and other organisms in the downstream reefs of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and Tortugas Ecological Preserve. more info |
| USM will conduct survey of coast since oil spill Students from the University of Southern Mississippi will be visiting more than 250 homes south of Interstate 10 on Saturday, to survey residents about their lives after the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Study: Worms show extinction recovery Researchers at University of Colorado at Boulder studied sediments laid down shortly after an asteroid crashed into the Gulf of Mexico 65.5 million years ago and caused widespread global extinctions, including the demise of big dinosaurs. They found networks of crisscrossing burrows less than 3 inches above the so-called K-T boundary layer marking the impact. more info |
| Zoomarine returns ‘extremely rare’ turtle to the Gulf of Mexico A rare turtle, affectionately named ‘Johnny Vasco’, which crossed the Atlantic Ocean and the freezing North Sea before being found and sent to the Albufeira-based marine conservation park, Zoomarine, is soon due to be returned home to the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Can Coral Nurseries Bring Reefs Back from the Brink? They rarely think of Veracruz, the bustling shipping town on the Gulf, due east of Mexico City. Caribbean reefs, however, are becoming hard to find as the region's corals have nearly disappeared. And although Veracruz might not be a snorkeling mecca, its easily accessible reefs are the perfect place for a coral nursery. more info |
| Giant shrimp invade Atlantic waters, including Southeast U.S Anytime a nonnative species is introduced into an environment, it can upset the balance of the food chain by disrupting the existing fishery. more info |
| What the Conservation Economy Means for the Mississippi River Delta While coastal degradation is a serious concern for communities throughout the country, it poses a particular threat to the ecosystem and economy of the Mississippi River Delta. Louisiana is home to 40 percent of the wetlands in the continental United States but experiences about 80 percent of all wetlands losses across the country. more info |
| Wild Dolphins", the iPad App Featuring Winter, Star of "Dolphin Tale" There is a whole educational section about dolphins: where they live in the world, their external anatomy (through a fun interactive element), and actual sound files of dolphins communicating, including a conversation between a mother and her calf. more info |
| Climate Experts Meet to Discuss Epic Texas Drought Federal and state weather forecasters and climate experts are getting together to brainstorm about the epic 2011 Texas drought and what weather trends might signal for the future. more info |
| Gulf Killifish Shows Adverse Effects of BP Oil Spill Disaster A report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America says that animal species in the Gulf of Mexico will continue to be subject to negative effects of the BP Oil Spill disaster of 2010. more info |
| Ocean Conservancy Launches Trash Free Seas Alliance as 2011 Commitment to Action at Clinton Global Initiative Ocean Conservancy today announced the creation of a Trash Free Seas Alliance as their 2011 Commitment to Action at the Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City. The Alliance will unite industry, science and conservation leaders who share a common goal for a healthy ocean free of trash. more info |
| 10 given Heinz awards for work on environment Nancy Rabalais of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium in Chauvin, La., for research on severe oxygen depletion in the Gulf of Mexico and ways to reduce water pollution through education and public policy. more info |
| Divers the key to taming lionfish To see how widespread lionfish have become, go online to nas.er.usgs.gov/taxgroup/fish/Lionfishanimation.gif. From a few fish in South Florida, the species has spread up the Atlantic coast to New England, throughout the Caribbean and into the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| NOAA Releases First National Bycatch Report A new NOAA report of data collected in 2005 will help the agency’s scientists better monitor progress in reducing bycatch – the non-target fish, marine mammals, sea turtles, and seabirds caught incidentally in fishing. more info |
| Study enlightens on the amount of oil and gas from Deepwater oil spill The new study represents a comprehensive look at the data and findings of the flow rate investigations, focusing on the quality and accuracy of the on-the-fly, under-pressure measurements last summer. 'It provides a rigorous assessment of the statistical and systematic uncertainty in our earlier findings,' said WHOI scientist Richard Camilli, lead author of the PNAS paper. more info |
| Texas Authorities Find Massive Shark Kill This past weekend, wildlife officials in Texas came across a huge illegal fishing operation. They found about 3,000 dead sharks, tangled in miles of nets off the coast. Michele Norris talks with Sgt. James Dunks with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department who found the sharks. more info |
| Economy, environment, politics figure in Keystone fight But making those investments pay off - and getting that Canadian crude to Gulf Coast refineries - depends on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project that is in the final stages of a broad, three-year government review. more info |
| Researchers try solve the puzzle of the MJO Long leads the AMIE team, one of three groups studying a weather disturbance known as the Madden-Julian Oscillation, or MJO. The MJO initiates every 30 to 90 days and affects regional weather phenomenon such as the Asian and Australian monsoons. Farther away, it can enhance hurricane activity in the northeast Pacific and Gulf of Mexico, trigger torrential rainfall at the west coast of North America. more info |
| Big sand tiger shark joins Aquarium of Americas' Gulf of Mexico exhibit Meet the newest shark at join the Gulf of Mexico exhibit at the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas. Dubbed Smooth, the sand tiger shark weighs more than 200 pounds and measures 7 feet, 9 inches. more info |
| Gulf of Mexico Ocean Floor Still Polluted by BP Oil Crozier said remnants of the spill are "economically toxic" for tourism, but he doubts there is much of an environmental threat. The oil lingering on the seabed is of a consistency and chemical composition somewhere between crude oil and tar, he said. more info |
| Coast Guard: Sheen in Gulf not from capped BP well A statement issued Tuesday by the Coast Guard says the sheens could have come from the sunken rig's riser pipe or from other underwater debris. The Coast Guard says recent video footage shows no evidence of a leak from the blown-out well that was capped last year. more info |
| Food for thought – The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly The Good is the many benefits we as a society have reaped from the modern food system including cheaper food in terms of time, economic, and resource inputs. The negative environmental effects of resource intensive food production are represented by The Bad. And The Ugly is the paradox resulting from the good and bad tradeoffs in the food system exemplified here in food waste, which is only one example of the ambiguous outcomes of the modern food system. Through this narrative I hope to show that the food system is a complex web of tradeoffs that must be taken into consideration when proposing sustainable changes to food and agriculture. more info |
| Strange fishing sightings bring about a familiar response It all had to do with the simultaneous leaping of several hundred tarpon, and the sighting of a whale shark in Lake Pontchartrain. more info |
| Federal Oil Spill Probe Finds U.S. Regulations Lacking An ongoing federal investigation into last year's massive rig explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has found that a particularly lax U.S. regulatory regime was a significant factor in the events leading up to the disaster. more info |
| Florida tries new approach to answer lingering misperceptions about Gulf seafood Now, the Florida Department of Agriculture is starting an online training program for restaurant workers, so when they get questions about the safety of Gulf seafood, they can offer answers based on the evidence. more info |
| Revenge of the Tarballs Up the beach, to my west, dozens of BP workers combed the sand for a fresh crop of tarballs that had come in with Tropical Storm Lee and a thunderstorm that had hit earlier that day. more info |
| Drought takes toll on water allotment for Rio Bosque Wetlands Park The park is among a few surviving examples of the varied river ecosystem that stretched from New Mexico to the Gulf of Mexico. The first question people ask when they get out here is, 'Where's the water?'" Sproul said. more info |
| Galveston: The Mother of All U.S. Natural Disasters It was in September that this barrier island on the Gulf of Mexico attempted to tango with two of the biggest storms in hurricane history: Ike in 2008, Carla in 1961. In different ways, both threatened to blow down and wash away much of what has sustained this place for nearly 200 years -- the history and culture, even the tired grit. more info |
| Dr. Valentine's Sea Lab love affair On Saturday, Valentine officially took the reins as director of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, an honor he called daunting and exciting. His main goal: Grow the lab into one of the premier research institutions in the world. more info |
| Kitchener biologist studying effects of Gulf oil spill Galvez, a Kitchener native and graduate of the former St. Jerome’s high school, was part of a team of scientists whose research was published online Tuesday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the journal for the National Academy of Sciences based in Washington, D.C. more info |
| Mayor: Tests link tar balls on Ala beaches to BP Tests show the wave of tar balls that hit Alabama's beaches after Tropical Storm Lee was from last year's BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a coastal mayor said Tuesday. more info |
| Tiny hummingbirds undertake a long flight Ruby-throated hummingbirds will soon be on their way to Central America. Those that live in eastern states may fly to Texas before embarking on the long journey across the Gulf of Mexico to Yucatan and beyond. Some may make rest stops on oil rigs or passing ships. more info |
| Real trouble could be ahead for Gulf fish, wildlife, researcher warns Has the canary in Louisiana’s coastal ecosystem started coughing? That question echoed across the Gulf last week after the release of a study led by LSU revealed that the Gulf killifish, a lowly marsh minnow known locally as a “cocahoe,” showed signs of the hydrocarbon poisoning that was a precursor to the collapse of some fish and wildlife populations in Alaska after the Exxon Valdez spill. more info |
| Researchers find impact of oil spill in marsh fish species The study, funded in part by the National Science Foundation, or NSF, and the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative is being published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, or PNAS. Their study shows that, despite very low to non-detectable concentrations of oil constituents in the water and in fish tissues, biological effects in fish indicate dramatic responses that are indicative of exposures to the toxic components of oil. more info |
| Jellyfish Swarm in the South As for what to do with the piles of jellyfish on the beaches, the species is actually edible. The chef Angelo Sosa has a green apple tea and chili-spiced jellyfish recipe online more info |
| Cap and Trade for Nutrients Coming to Ohio River Valley Idea is to help local farmers, businesses plus Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Is Florida in the clear for hurricane season? It feels like fall right now, but that doesn’t mean it’s time to forget about the possibility of a tropical storm or hurricane. October is generally the second-busiest month of the hurricane season for Southwest Florida, next to September. more info |
| Why our Cuba embargo could lead to another Gulf oil disaster Our trade embargo on Cuba not only prevents us from doing business with our neighbor but it also bars us from sending equipment and expertise to help even in a crisis. So, if there is an explosion, we will watch while the waters of the Gulf Coast get polluted. Now, this is obviously a worst case hypothetical, but it's precisely the kind of danger we should plan for and one we can easily protect against if we were allowed to have any dealings with Cuba. more info |
| Research Team Wins Gulf Grant UCSB Marine Science Institute’s research professor of oceanography Uta Passow and her team received a $22.5 million grant from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative to continue research on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill for another three years more info |
| Federal agencies try to save Ship Island The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says the project is expected to last into 2014 and culminate with filling the Camille Cut with 13 million cubic yards of sand excavated from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| One Good ‘Tern’ Deserves Another: Comedy Film ‘The Big Year’ Suggests a Cardinal Reality to Birding While the film is based on the book “The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature and Fowl Obsession,” by Mark Obmascik, the reality is that thousands of birders every year embark on “Big Days” – friendly, sporting contests to find the most bird species in a given location at a given time frame. more info |
| Little Preparation Under Way for Climate Change at World's Seaports Mike Savonis, a former adviser to the U.S. Department of Transportation now working at the private consultancy ICF International, says his 2003 to 2008 study of the Gulf of Mexico coast made it clear just how serious the threat is. more info |
| Gulf of Mexico oil spill response should address overall ecosystem needs, scientists say The report, sponsored by the Pew Environment Group, lists 15 recommendations to address threats posed by the Deepwater Horizon spill and other “stressors” that have caused problems for the Gulf and the communities that rely on it. more info |
| Coast Guard puts Transocean on notice for recent slick in Gulf of Mexico Citing the possibility the expanding sheen may be originating from equipment that sunk to the sea floor last year, the U.S. Coast Guard Captain of the Port for Morgan City, La., issued a Notice of Federal Interest (NOFI) to Transocean Holdings, LLC. more info |
| Panama City Beach to Undergo Beach Renourishment Lisa Armbruster, a spokeswoman for Sustainable Beaches, says a large, barge-like vessel will pick the sand up from the Gulf of Mexico's floor and take it to an area close to the beach. From there, it will be piped onto the beach. She says the project will take about three months. more info |
| Community gets lessons on sustainable seafood at Ocean Commotion 2011 Saturday's Ocean Commotion event at Edison State College was all about encouraging visitors to think about how to take steps to make seafood more sustainable and to raise awareness for keeping the oceans healthy. more info |
| Public Opinion Research Points to Americans'Interest in Being "Green" and the Importance of Engaging Youth Latest Results from Largest-Ever Research Initiative Point to New Ways for Aquariums, Zoos, and Museums to Increase Conservation Action more info |
| New coral dating method hints at possible future sea-level changes By calculating more accurate ages for the coral samples than previously possible, they found that sea levels were considerably less stable than earlier believed--oscillating up and down by 4 to 6 meters (13-20 feet) over a few thousand years about 120,000 years ago during a period known as the Last Interglacial. more info |
| Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi students visit Flower Garden Banks A group of Corpus Christi students studying marine science traded classroom lessons for an underwater adventure look at a coral reef bank with a world-renowned oceanographer. more info |
| Gulf Research Pilot Troubled by Oil Sighting in Macondo Prospect "In fact, we found so much oil out in the Macondo Prospect (about 15 miles from the site of the April 2010 explosion) that we have an 11-minute video of it that never covers the same area twice. Not since last summer have we seen this kind of expansive surface sheen," Schumaker says. You can read more from her logs on her website. more info |
| Monarchs, going green, 'fee simple' That's where the boaters come in. From now through October, scientists are trying to collect as much data as possible on when and where these butterflies are seen. more info |
| BP removes tar balls in Alabama BP workers used fishing nets to scoop tar balls off Alabama’s Gulf Coast beaches yesterday after the sands were fouled by gooey, dark gobs churned up by heavy surf from tropical system Lee. more info |
| OUR VIEW: The Gulf Coast roars back However, while it may be years before the full ecological impact of the spill can be gauged, it’s turned out to be just a one-year blip for beach devotees. more info |
| University’s proposals rejected for BP research "These consortia establish a research community of great strength with promise of substantial achievement," said Rita Colwell, chairman of the GRI research board, in a news release. "The results will illuminate the consequences of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and spill and enable appropriate responses should there be future releases not only in the Gulf of Mexico but anywhere that oil and gas is produced in ocean environments." more info |
| BP's $100 million rig worker fund expands to other oil spill recovery efforts Rig workers and other offshore laborers affected by last year's Gulf oil spill and drilling moratorium claimed less than a quarter of BP's $100 million grant fund, so a Louisiana foundation began the task Wednesday of distributing the money to other Gulf recovery projects. With $75 million left over, the Baton Rouge Area Foundation announced four new grants totaling $18 million from its Future of the Gulf Fund. more info |
| Calling Industry’s Bluff The department also told the oil companies that it will charge them higher fees for the privilege of drilling in the gulf — raising the minimum bid for deep-water leases to $100 an acre from the current $37.50 an acre. Minimum bid prices have not been raised since 1999, when oil was selling at between $9 and $24 dollars a barrel, far less than this year’s range of $85 to $105. more info |
| La Niña comeback could mean more hurricanes "La Niñas tend to create conditions that are very conducive for the formation of hurricanes.," said Keim. "The implications to Louisiana are pretty huge regarding this particular La Niña." more info |
| Peak of hurricane season arrives Saturday What makes the peak of this season interesting is that we’ve seen 14 named storms so far, meaning, potentially, we could see another 12 to 14 develop. more info |
| La Niña's return may extend Texas drought Last winter La Niña conditions kick-started a drought that has now engulfed 80 percent of Texas in an "exceptional" drought, the worst category tracked by the U.S. Drought Monitor. The resulting drought has led more than 800 of the state's communities to initiate water restrictions, and caused Texas' worst wildfire year on record. more info |
| Tropical Storm Lee surge reveals tar mats on Fourchon Beach "If anyone has concerns regarding oil or tar balls on the beaches they should call the Response Center at 800.424.8802," he said in an e-mail. more info |
| New offshore drilling rules hinge on Deepwater Horizon probe The panel’s report may provide the foundation for bolstering mandates on the blowout preventers used as a last line of defense against unexpected surges of oil and gas at wells. The joint investigation team’s conclusions about well design also could spur regulatory changes. more info |
| Birding Leffis Key Half way across the bridge is a vista of the aqua waters of the Gulf of Mexico on one side and Sarasota Bay on the other. more info |
| Graham made chairman Dr. William “Monty” Graham has been named chairman of the University of Southern Mississippi Department of Marine Science (DMS). Graham more info |
| $112.5 Million Awarded to Research Consortia Studying Effects of Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Research on the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico took a major step forward today with the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GRI) Research Board's announcement that eight Research Consortia will be funded for the next three years. A total of $112.5 million over three years will support this portion of the GRI research effort. These teams will investigate the fate of petroleum in the environment, the impacts of the spill, and the development of new tools and technology for responding to future spills and improving mitigation and restoration. more info |
| Students invited to join virtual field trip Through funding provided by the Gulf of Mexico Alliance Environmental Education Network (GOMAEEN), Louisiana Public Broadcasting (LPB) produced an electronic field trip and is streaming it live for middle and high school students, especially those in Gulf Coast states, as well as the public. more info |
| Sea Stars: First camp of its kind in Coastal Alabama These Stars will get to explore Gulf of Mexico habitats by visiting the salt marsh, the sandy beach and taking a trip to Mobile Bay aboard the Alabama Discovery; DISL’s 65-foot research vessel. Thanks to a grant provided by the Gulf of Mexico Alliance Environmental Education Network (GOMAEEN), this camp is offered at no cost to camper-guardian pairs! more info |
| New Science to Help Direct Action on Excessive Nutrients in Rivers and Estuaries The USGS has released an online, interactive decision support system that provides easy access to six newly-developed regional models describing how rivers receive and transport nutrients from natural and human sources to sensitive waters, such as the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| WHOI-led study sharpens picture of how much oil and gas flowed in Deepwater Horizon spill In a detailed assessment of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, researchers led by a team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have determined that the blown-out Macondo well spewed oil at a rate of about 57,000 barrels a day, totaling nearly 5 million barrels of oil released from the well between April 20 and July 15, 2010, when the leak was capped. In addition, the well released some 100 million standard cubic feet per day of natural gas. more info |
| Oil spill: Macondo well did release 5 million barrels The results, published in the online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), are in line with the federal government’s official estimates. The accuracy of the measurements was crucial because, “Ultimately, the impact of the oil on the environment depends primarily on the total volume of oil released,” according to a report by the Flow Rate Technical Group (FRTG), a collection of research teams charged with using different means to generate an accurate estimate of the amount of oil released into the Gulf. more info |
| FWS taking on wind, wildlife connection What's happening is the federal wildlife agency is conducting an environmental impact study -- being paid for with money from a group of 19 wind energy companies -- that have asked for an incidental take permit. more info |
| BP spill study flows into city A&M-Corpus Christi has been awarded an $800,000 grant from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative. The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Board is an independent body established by BP to administer the company's 10-year, $500 million commitment to research the effects of the oil spill. more info |
| Scientists report unusually low levels of oxygen in Mobile Bay waters The scientists all blamed hot, windless days coupled with a period of weak tides between Aug. 15 and 20 as contributing factors. With no tidal action and no wind, there was little mixing of water on the bottom of the bay with the more oxygenated water on the surface. more info |
| Study says air in Gulf wasn't toxic Although some said they fell ill, offshore crews involved in the cleanup of BP's oil spill last year did not breathe harmful levels of toxins as crude gushed into the Gulf of Mexico, an independent scientific study found. more info |
| Gulf Coast beach communities chalk up a good summer As the summer's grand finale on the Gulf Coast, Tropical Storm Lee brewed on the horizon Thursday and Friday, chasing away the season's blockbuster throngs of tourists. Just a year after "the lost summer" of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, though, this year's visitors to Gulf Coast beaches filled more hotel rooms and spent more money than any other in history. more info |
| Governor Tours BLB Shipbuilder, Gets Ideas For Job Growth The governor’s visit to South Alabama is even more important given the millions of dollars soon to come to the state through BP fines for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster. more info |
| New Orleans' post-Katrina flood defenses pass big test Chris Accardo, chief of the operations division in the Corps' New Orleans district, said the London Avenue floodgate was lowered to block the lake surge on Friday when the lake reached a "trigger" level of 2.5 feet and rising. more info |
| Poll finds national support for La. wetlands After Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil disaster shut down energy production in the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in skyrocketing gasoline prices, most Americans now realize the importance of Louisiana to the national economy, a national poll shows. more info |
| Manatees Cool Their Flippers At Power Plants During winter months manatees used to migrate from hot spring to hot spring as they made their way south in the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Tropical Storm Lee stirs frustration with Corps levee plans in Plaquemines and Jean Lafitte Flooding from a surge that Tropical Storm Lee pushed north through Barataria Bay has several local officials renewing complaints that the Army Corps of Engineers wrongly delayed or abandoned plans to improve levees in their communities that would have prevented the flooding. more info |
| Gulf task force holds "listening session" in Biloxi The group created by the President to help restore the Gulf of Mexico after the BP oil spill was in Biloxi on Tuesday. more info |
| Heavy rain moves northeast with Lee's remnants Meanwhile, officials in coastal Alabama were trying to determine the origin of tar balls that had washed onto the state's prime tourist beaches. Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon said Tuesday that the tar balls reported so far are very small. He said the surf churned up by Lee was the heaviest he had seen since tar balls were washing up on the beach in 2010 because of the BP oil spill. more info |
| Hurricane preparations should include your landscape Our landscapes also require some attention and thought when it comes to preparing for and dealing with the aftermath of the high winds and heavy rains that hurricanes bring. more info |
| Deepwater trouble on the horizon: oil discovered floating near source of Gulf of Mexico spill Oil is once again fouling the Gulf of Mexico around the Deepwater Horizon well, which was capped a little over a year ago. more info |
| A math-based model for deep-water oil drilling Oil well control is one of the most important processes during drilling operations. In deepwater drilling, controlling pressure in the oil well is crucial, as excessive pressures in the drilled hole can result in blowouts, leading to disastrous events like the 2010 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill. more info |
| How to prepare for a hurricane And because hurricanes pose a variety of threats — flooding, high winds, storm surges, tornadoes — it is important to prepare in advance and to follow the hurricane safety tips from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other emergency management officials. more info |
| Civil Disobedience on Tar Sands Begins Outside the White House The largest act of civil disobedience by environmentalists in decades began outside the White House this morning, as more than seventy activists were arrested at the north gates during a protest against the Keystone XL pipeline, which if approved by the administration would carry 900,000 barrels of oil per day from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Sea Turtle Rescue Group Wants Lights Out Florida is arguably the most important sea turtle nesting habitat in the world. A sea turtle must reach about 20 years of age before it bears offspring. Only one in 10,000 hatchlings survive until maturity. When they do become pregnant, they return to nearly the very spot where they were hatched in order to dig a new nest and lay the next generation. more info |
| US policy fellows to release research The four American fellows have each been based at government agencies relevant to their topic of research, which include comparisons of New Zealand and American approaches to resource allocation for ocean renewable energy, disaster preparedness education in schools, corporate financial disclosure, and scientific influence on decision-making for marine protected areas. more info |
| Cite de l'Ocean et du Surf, Biarritz: Interview With Steven Holl & Solange Fabião The Cité de l'Océan et du Surf in Biarritz, France, can be seen through the light of two to three increasingly interconnected architecture and urban design desires: buildings which become emblematic icons for the city where they are situated, buildings that aim to be parts of the city in and of themselves, and, lastly, interpretation centers - specifically Ocean Museums - interested in informative and educational endeavors and general environmental awareness-raising and their increasingly dominant strategy of interaction design around cultural practices to mobilize populations at large and their diverse cultural niches. more info |
| A Look at the Fisheries Training Center GRFTC conducts approximately 20 classes a year and trains nearly 400 law enforcement agents from the Coast Guard, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and state and federal fish and wildlife agencies ranging from Brownsville, Texas, to Key West, Fla. more info |
| Film festival focuses on water wars and more Twain might well have been talking about the fight for clean water that has embroiled Georgia, Alabama and Florida for more than 20 years. Twain's words open the award-winning, 56-minute documentary film "Chattahoochee: Water Wars to Water Vision," featured in this year's Wild & Scenic Film Festival tour, which visits the Big Bend for stops in Carrabelle this weekend, Apalachicola next weekend and Marianna the weekend after that. more info |
| Mississippi Coast Still Rebuilding 6 Years After Katrina Recovery process still underway. more info |
| Port Corpus Christi hosts first Gulf ports environmental summit This Environmental Summit is designed to help Gulf of Mexico ports to begin collaborating on regional environmental issues. more info |
| Beachgoers swim, unaware of sign warning of bacteria Some say swim advisory signs are poorly placed. more info |
| The Fish That Got Away In our backyard — the Gulf of Mexico — nearly 1,500 varieties of finfish flourish in the salty waters, waters that produce some of the world's most delicious seafood. But no one in the Gulf is processing the fish they catch for sushi. No one is performing ike jime, as the Japanese call it, on their fish. more info |
| Oil spill’s impact on loons, pelicans to be studied in Minnesota Minnesota wildlife biologists now have the money they need to study the impacts of the 2010 BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill on the state’s loons and pelicans. more info |
| Natural gas pipeline project in gulf forced to adapt to economic reality The pipeline will carry the gas past Egmont Key at the mouth of Tampa Bay to come ashore at Port Manatee and hook into an existing pipeline to route it to power plants around the state. more info |
| Erosion a top concern on river A University of Iowa civil and environmental engineering professor and others say erosion may be the greatest threat to the health of Iowa’s rivers and is contributing to a massive, expanding dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Keystone XL Pipeline Obama's 'Biggest Climate Test,' Green Groups Say Many of the country's leading climate scientists have explained why in their letter last month to you. It risks many of our national treasures to leaks and spills. And it reduces incentives to make the transition to job-creating clean fuels. more info |
| Fishing Gear Enhanced To Save Sea Life Marine biologists and local fisherman rarely agree on anything, but with the recent alteration to fishing equipment and gear, it seems they are, for once, seeing eye to eye. Fishing has always been on the threshold of debate due to its harmful effects to all marine life. more info |
| Fighting Bad P.R. with Good P.R. When consumers were scared off shrimp by the Gulf oil spill, one fishery turned a crisis into an opportunity. more info |
| Expert: BP spill likely cause of sick Gulf fish Jim Cowan, professor of oceanography at Louisiana State University, has analyzed many of these diseased fish. more info |
| Why is that dead bird wearing a radio? Known as the “Carcass Drift Study,” the $1 million U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service program will help researchers learn how many birds may have died without making it to shore to be counted by wildlife officials. more info |
| Year after oil spill, Gulf seafood rebounds “It’s not really, and it never has been, an issue of contamination; it’s been an issue of perception. And that perception is something that, at least here locally, we’re gaining some ground on, but nationally, we’re not,” said Joe Jewell, deputy director of the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources' Office of Marine Fisheries. more info |
| Environmentally friendly drilling How can we carry out drilling in a more environmentally friendly way? What practical things can we do that we may not be doing already? more info |
| Saving the Gulf of Mexico -- from Iowa A Dubuque County farmer and a U.S. Army veteran concerned about what flows into northeast Iowa's waterways enlisted in a new project designed to keep them clean. more info |
| 5 Ways to Help Hummingbirds during Their Fall Migration Ruby Throated Hummingbirds fly to Florida, Louisiana or Texas by mid-September before flying across the Gulf to Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and south. However, a significant population now winters along the Gulf Coast between Florida and Texas more info |
| Pigs Have Wings and Elephants Fly: Vertebrates Find a Home in “The Cloud” It seems such creatures—all vertebrates, in fact—may soon settle into a permanent cloud existence. No, not the cottony white variety, but the cyber kind. more info |
| Gulf of Mexico receives new artificial reef Soon, those miles of concrete will be at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, forming an artificial reef that will bring new habitat for fish and new opportunities for divers. more info |
| Best Summer Gig Ever: Nature Conservancy Interns Serve up Adventure, Passion and Improv for Gen Y While the main purpose of the series is to use a fresh approach to educate teens and young adults about important environmental issues (ala rebuilding oyster reefs in the Gulf of Mexico and protecting wildlife along the U.S. Mexico Border) the duo's love of film and the written word, which is evident throughout the pieces, also gives the series an artistic flavor that's hard to ignore. more info |
| Texas Suffers Worst Drought Year on Record Weather forecasters and agriculture experts in the southwestern U.S. state of Texas say there is no relief in sight for what already is the worst drought year on record. more info |
| Oil Spills and Meltdowns Highlight the Need for Energy Resilience With every new emergency comes a raft of discourse, policy change and political posturing that combine to give the impression that Something is Being Done more info |
| EarthTalk: Ocean Dead Zones The Mississippi Basin/Gulf of Mexico Water Nutrient Task Force, a coalition of federal, state and tribal agencies, has been busy monitoring the dead zone and recommending ways to reduce it since its formation in 1997. more info |
| Vanishing island was home to heavily-oiled pelican population While destructive forces were at work here long before the B.P. oil spill, Hahn argues heavy oil killed mangrove roots and marsh grasses, dramatically accelerating the erosion process. more info |
| Meeting on wind energy environmental impact study is Tuesday in Kearney The companies are developing a Great Plains Wind Energy Habitat Conservation Plan to protect a 200-mile-wide corridor from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Scientists convene to solve Gulf problems Policymakers and scientists meet this week in New Orleans to solve some of the big ecological problems facing the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| BP Spill: Gulf Restoration Fund for States Wins Broad Support Conservation groups working across the Gulf of Mexico are supporting a bipartisan bill in the Senate that would direct to five Gulf states the billions of dollars in fines that may be imposed on BP and other companies found responsible for the last year's oil spill. more info |
| Donoho teacher attends “Mountains to the Gulf” workshop Donna Plunkett, a science teacher at The Donoho School, was one of 19 teachers who spent the week of June 25-July 2 touring Alabama and learning about natural sciences in the prestigious “Mountains to the Gulf” workshop sponsored by Legacy-Partners in Environmental Education, McDowell Environmental Center, Alabama Water Watch, JSU Field Schools, Gulf of Mexico Alliance and Dauphin Island Sea Lab. more info |
| Scientists: dead zone stresses Gulf, action needed Scientists say the massive area of low oxygen in the Gulf of Mexico, known as the "dead zone" because it kills marine species, will create more problems unless fewer fertilizers are dumped into the Mississippi River. more info |
| Swim at your own risk? Florida cutting back on water testing at beaches The Florida Department of Health plans to quit testing water for bacteria at 45 beaches statewide to reduce spending. more info |
| BP oil spill's effects hard for our outdoors industry to overcome "Prior to the spill, the guides working out of here would have their businesses booked two to three months in advance. Now they're down to taking bookings a week in advance," said Mike Butler, who owns and operators Venice Marina with his brother, Bill. "Where they always had a lot of certainty for the spring-summer-fall seasons, now it's down almost to last-minute stuff." more info |
| How Do You Picture Science? Explaining the environmental ramifications of the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill [leaves this blog] in the Gulf of Mexico is no easy task. Visualizing those impacts in an easy-to-understand way? Maybe even harder. more info |
| Assessing Emerging Challenges In U.S. Environmental Health From understanding the cumulative impacts of widely used chemicals to preparing for life in a warming world, a host of environmental health issues now face medical experts. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Lynn Goldman, dean of the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, talks about meeting the challenges. more info |
| Tar mat cleanup stops, Gulf Shores officials say location possibly uncertain George Crozier with the Dauphin Island Sea Lab believes the remaining tar poses no health risk, and he’s not sure the tar mat removal is necessary. Plus, he added, cleanup on the beach is easier than cleanup offshore. more info |
| Trashing Dog River: Islands of litter flushed into Mobile waterway every time it rains Every time it rains, thousands of bits of trash — cups, plates, coolers, bottles, cigarette butts — wash down city streets into storm drains and then into Halls Mill or one of the other creeks that converge to form Dog River. more info |
| Students from tornado-destroyed Tuscaloosa school get treated to a day in Mobile Fourth- and fifth-grade students from Holt Elementary School in Tuscaloosa last week took a day trip to south Alabama, where they toured the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center and the Mobile County school system’s Environmental Studies Center. more info |
| Sharks wash up on Montrose Beach It seems Shark Week has taken on a whole new meaning in south Alabama. More than 14 sharks washed ashore just a little more than a mile down Montrose Beach. more info |
| Slimy purple people stingers: Glow-in-the-dark mauve stinger jellyfish invade Gulf Coast beaches Small jellyfish with purple polka dots have been washing up from Fort Morgan to Gulf Shores over the last 2 weeks. more info |
| Oil Spills: Nigeria vs Gulf of Mexico Shell admits liability for two large oil spills in Nigeria. more info |
| Uphill fight to bring Gulf of Mexico's 'dead zones' back to life Last week, scientists from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium completed their annual measurement of the Gulf Dead Zone, which measured 6,765 square miles and is larger than the state of Connecticut. more info |
| New NOAA report highlights economic and ecological value of the Gulf coastal region A new report released today The Gulf of Mexico at a Glance: A Second Glance, will provide coastal managers, planners, policy officials, and others with a reference to support regional decision-making and communications about the importance of healthy Gulf coastal ecosystems to a robust national economy, a safe population, and a high quality of life. more info |
| Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone Smaller Than Predicted, Still Harmful This year's dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is roughly equal to the land area of the state of New Jersey, scientists said this week. At 6,765 square miles, this area of low oxygen is the 10th largest on record and is considered about average for the past five years. more info |
| AP IMPACT: Gulf oil industry-gov't ties persist "It just goes on and on and on," Wyden said. "What we would like to do is fundamentally change the culture here to reduce the kind of conflicts we are talking about." To do that, Wyden says, companies also need to be held accountable. more info |
| Marine Studies Center Gets LEED Status The Texas A&M University at Galveston (TAMUG) Ocean and Coastal Studies Building (OCSB) was awarded the prestigious LEED® Gold building certification on July 25, 2011. more info |
| Explore Wetlands, See Sea Turtles at University of Texas Marine Science Institute Open House The University of Texas Marine Science Institute offers activities for the whole family at its Open House. Visitors can learn about the sea and coastal bays and marshes, and the scientific research that goes on there, with trips aboard research and local boats. more info |
| Gulf Coast report outlines threats from sea level rise Up to 60 percent of the Gulf Coast shoreline is considered very vulnerable to sea level rise, according to a report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released last week. more info |
| Gulf Dead Zone Smaller Than Forecast Instead, scientists charted a large, but not unprecedented, expanse — 6,765 square miles (17,521 square kilometers) — within the gulf where water was low on oxygen. The dead zone, which peaks in summer, creates suffocating conditions for animals living within it and threatens the fishing industry in the region. more info |
| DHS collects $19,000 in child support from oil spill fund To date, the agency has received $18,986.57 in back child support from the spill fund. more info |
| Oil consuming microbes decrease oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico at accelerated rate The vast plume of oil that coated the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of 2010 BP Horizon deep-water drilling disaster is disappearing, and the cause of the big mystery may be some very small organisms. more info |
| Microbes ate Macondo oil, scientists find A study published by Wood Hole Oceanographic Institution concluded from changes in oxygen levels in the oil slick that bacteria helped decompose the oil. more info |
| Lionfish Invasion Reaches Gulf Marine Sanctuary An invasive species of fish has reached the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary off the coast of Louisiana, and officials are working to understand how serious the problem is. more info |
| Drifting bird carcasses used to estimate Gulf oil spill's toll Known as the “Carcass Drift Study,” this particular experiment will help researchers try to learn how many birds carcasses may have disappeared at sea without ever making it to shore. more info |
| Grand Isle warns of bacteria level in water at beaches In a move common during the summer months, green triangle-shaped signs have unfolded to become diamonds on several Grand Isle beaches, indicating that there’s more bacteria in the saltwater than normal and that it could pose some risk. more info |
| The lingering impact of oil spills On July 26, 2010, while oil from the largely publicized British Petroleum (BP) oil spill was still pouring out into the Gulf of Mexico, quite a bit farther north in Michigan, an Enbridge pipeline ruptured spilling tar sands oil into the Kalamazoo River by way of Talmadge Creek. more info |
| Port of Houston Authority Wins First Place Gulf Guardian Award for Fuel-Switching Project The Port Authority's air quality planning staff has worked with the EPA's Office of International Affairs since 2008 on a partnership project with ports in Brazil and Mexico to study the feasibility of fuel switching to lower sulfur diesel while transiting into the Port of Houston and those destination ports. more info |
| Tiny worms serve as the 'miner's canary' for the Gulf of Mexico Samples of nematodes taken before the oil reached the sediment showed 100 species. While samples taken three months after the spill showed fewer species, the nematodes left behind were healthy and had plenty of other microbes to eat, helping them keep their crucial niche in the food chain. more info |
| As crews remove one giant oil glob, more tar mats could be exposed during storm season BP still has about 350 people working in Alabama, 250 of which are out in the field, Saia said. As much as 3 to 3.5 miles of tar mats — some almost a mile long — have been spotted in about a dozen locations in the Orange Beach area, but West said “significantly more” tar mats are likely. more info |
| Laid-off Groton artist puts skills to work for oil-spill victims “And oh, what a journey it turned out to be,’’ Gaj said of the 3,200-mile drive through Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. “What really interested me was the difference in perspective that a New Englander would have as opposed to someone living in the Gulf region. more info |
| Global warming: Sea levels could rise for centuries to come Strong warning on climate threshold from University of Arizona researchers more info |
| Preventing Ocean Pollution Starts With You Recently, our nation celebrated Oceans Week, where much discussion about ocean pollution and marine debris took place in Washington, D.C. Ocean pollution is a genuine problem, and it’s important that we identify and address the real causes instead of instituting ineffective solutions. more info |
| 'Rare' bacteria in the ocean ain't necessarily so, researchers report For the first time, Campbell says, the team saw some of the bacteria switch from being rare to abundant. Their findings also suggest that although abundance follows activity in the majority of species, a significant portion of the rare community is active, some with growth rates that decrease as abundance increases. more info |
| Waxman calls for national climate-change-education push The top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday urged Energy Secretary Steven Chu to launch a national climate-change-education campaign. more info |
| Scholastic Media Launches New Magic School Bus Game on Nintendo DS™ -- Scholastic Media, a division of Scholastic Inc., the global children's publishing, education and media company, announced today it will bring The Magic School Bus - the Emmy® Award-winning science adventure series based on the wildly popular Scholastic book series - to the Nintendo DS™ system for the first time. The Magic School Bus: Oceans invites gamers to hop on the bus and explore an ocean teeming with life. more info |
| On a 'QUEST' for tools to better teach science QUEST, which stands for Questioning Underlies Effective Science Teaching, is designed to enhance elementary, middle and high school teachers' knowledge of science and mathematics through hands-on laboratory experiments and field experiences, and to acquaint them with specific ideas and activities to use in their classrooms. more info |
| Toxic Mississippi plume could threaten life in Gulf "We have never seen a pulse of this type of water coming in," said Mitchell Roffer, a biological oceanographer who runs a prominent fishing forecast service. "This is probably the largest pulse of fresh, discolored water to ever reach the keys." more info |
| NOAA Seeking Public Comment on Proposed Rule to Repeal Fishery Management Plan for Stone Crab Fishery NOAA Fisheries Service is seeking public comment on a proposed rule to repeal the Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for the Stone Crab Fishery of the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| It's Time We Take the Pulse of the Gulf The Gulf is paying the price for decades of neglect and degradation. There are already signs of coastal erosion, pollution, overfishing and excessive nutrient runoff that has produced a dead zone of depleted oxygen. These problems threaten wildlife and the people who depend on a healthy Gulf for jobs and the food on their plate. And these problems didn't end when the well was capped. more info |
| Public meetings planned on proposed oil pipeline that would cross Oklahoma The pipeline would carry crude oil extracted from tar sands in Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf of Mexico, traveling through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma before reaching refineries in Houston and Port Arthur, Texas. TransCanada also has proposed connecting it to the Bakken oil field in Montana and North Dakota. more info |
| Gulf Turtle Nests Abound, But Worries Remain . Sea turtle nesting season is underway on Gulf of Mexico beaches, and observers say activity seems normal. But these aren't the same animals that nested during last year's Gulf oil spill, and scientists are concerned about a continued rise in turtle deaths. more info |
| Deadliest hurricane risk is not wind, but water Storm surge — the massive mound of water that builds up and comes ashore as a hurricane moves over the ocean or Gulf of Mexico— is the most dangerous aspect of hurricanes, but many public misconceptions persist about it, according to a recent survey of U.S. coastal residents. more info |
| First Gulf of Mexico cruise: Dead zone already bigger than Delaware DiMarco’s cruise found a dead zone that measured 3,260 square miles. Earlier this year Rabelais and colleagues predicted this year’s dead zone will be the largest ever, reaching a maximum extent of about 9,400 square miles. more info |
| Haunting images in graphic novel capture Katrina journey While other survivors have written about their Katrina ordeals, no one has documented such harrowing experiences quite the way Shaw has in "Hurricane Story." Using toys and dolls, some altered and hand-painted, Shaw staged 46 scenes from her family's evacuation, exile and return, then photographed them with a plastic Holga camera with a magnifying lens glued onto it, pairing the often eerie images with simple lines of text. The result is a compelling graphic novel that feels like an art exhibit tucked inside a lovely, clothbound board book. more info |
| Gulf of Mexico's significance felt on state, national levels For me, this year, I was especially drawn to McKinney's piece on the Gulf of Mexico. We all know the kind of lashing the Gulf has taken from recent hurricanes and last year's disastrous Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Louisiana took it on the chin with that one, but the rest of us held our collective breath and waited for the disaster to spread. Luckily it didn't, to any visible degree, but what will the future hold? more info |
| UTMB-Galveston leading seafood review after spill A $7.8 million grant will be used by researchers to examine the safety and human consumption of seafood following oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| New Gulf of Mexico port complex could soon have investors Designed to accommodate mega-vessels that are too deep to navigate the waterway, the state is not expected to contribute financially to the Louisiana International Gulf Transfer Terminal, a cargo transfer point that would be built on a 260-acre tact along the east bank of Southwest Pass in Plaquemines Parish. more info |
| Mobile Bay island sees baby bird boom As this year's crop of baby pelicans and terns hatch out on Gaillard Island in Mobile Bay, biologists in Alabama are breathing something akin to a sigh of relief. At the midpoint of the first nesting season since the BP oil spill, the manmade rookery -- at 1,300 acres, one of the largest pelican nesting areas on the upper Gulf Coast -- seems to be home to a bumper crop. more info |
| Grand Isle roars back to life, but not without fresh scars But town residents have found it is much easier to rebuild a storm-toppled fishing camp than to restore public confidence in the safety of the island's seafood and coastal waters. There also are long-term concerns about the spill's impact on fisheries amid the worst shrimping season in recent memory. more info |
| Shrimpers face new questions over turtle deaths Specifically, Oceana says it used federal and state inspection reports to determine that 17 percent of 76 boats documented across the Gulf of Mexico either lacked TEDs or had them disabled. Louisiana was the worst offender, the group says, alleging that 22 percent of the 36 shrimp boats checked fell into that category. more info |
| Overfishing Hits U.S. Fish Populations U.S. fishermen are exhausting the country’s fish populations. A new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says forty stocks of fish populations are being overfished. The stocks being overfished include cod here in the Northeast, snapper in the Gulf of Mexico and Pacific bluefin tuna off the west coast. Anglers are depleting nearly 16 percent of all U.S. fish populations. But, despite the bad news, federal officials are saying that key stocks have been rebuilt and that strong progress in being made in repopulating at-risk stocks. more info |
| Survey explores health of fish in Gulf of Mexico The first two of three vessels launched from the Florida coast last week on one of many 10-day trips around the gulf aimed at catching and studying fish, such as snapper and grouper, two of Florida's most valuable species. more info |
| Researchers target safety on Gulf shrimp boats During a decade that saw 55 Gulf shrimp fishermen killed at sea, researchers and federal safety regulators in 2004 began looking into the safety shortfalls in Gulf shrimping crews, including a lack of radio skills and basic rescue training. more info |
| Hundreds of whale sharks meet off the Mexican coast Hundreds of whale sharks, the largest fish in the world, have met up for their annual summer congregation in the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Sick Fish, Fish Kill Reported in Gulf Collier County officials have sent dead fish and water samples to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg for testing. more info |
| Black Elk launches Gulf oil platform ecoproject A study would be performed near the conclusion of a platform’s use to determine whether a thriving ecosystem exists there. In the event such an ecosystem has developed, the program recommends that deck, well and pipeline abandonment commence appropriately, but would allow the structure to remain for the preservation of marine life habitat. more info |
| LSU, Tulane granted millions to study health effects from Gulf oil spill Louisiana State University and Tulane University are among four Gulf of Mexico region universities to share a $25.2 million, five-year federal grant to study health effects from the 2010 oil spill and subsequent cleanup, with a focus on women and children. more info |
| Using Open Innovation To Bring The Gulf Of Mexico Dead Zone Back To Life One "rule" for innovation is that the best ideas often come from unusual sources, so we're looking for new ideas to help us solve the problem of excess nitrogen. We've posted two specific Eco-Challenges, and are looking for "solvers" to work on them. more info |
| Lake Forest Open Lands Hosts Water Ecosystem Expert Gustavson will present “Living Upstream: The Midwest’s Role in Restoration of the Louisiana Coastline and the Gulf of Mexico” as well as participate in a panel discussion on local water policy and importance with U.S. Congressman Robert Dold, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commissioner Debra Shore, and Glenn Adelson, director of Environmental Studies Program at Lake Forest College. more info |
| I'll have the boiled crabs, please The best reason I could come up with: The preponderance of scientific evidence indicates the seafood is safe to eat. Louisiana and Gulf seafood, the FDA and others contend, is probably the most-tested food product on Earth in the wake of the BP oil spill. more info |
| Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Awards $1.5 Million in Grants The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GRI) Research Board announced today that it has awarded 17 grants totaling $1.5 million to support the time-sensitive acquisition of critical samples and observations associated with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on the Gulf of Mexico. The funding will support work from July 1 to September 30, 2011 and is provided under the terms of RFP-III, the most recent GRI request for proposals. more info |
| Texas wetland restoration could be model for Gulf "Strengthening the ecology of the Gulf area is critically important. In doing so we can improve the economy of the Gulf region and strengthen the resiliency of the communities of the Gulf," Sherman said. more info |
| Pollution Took Heavy Toll at U.S. Beaches in 2010 Last year was one of the worst in two decades for pollution-related beach closures and warnings, partly due to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and rainy weather, according to the report from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an environmental activist group. more info |
| Back from the dead: 800,000-year-old plankton A single-celled alga that went extinct in the North Atlantic Ocean about 800,000 years ago has returned after drifting from the Pacific through the Arctic thanks to melting polar ice. And while its appearance marks the first trans-Arctic migration in modern times, scientists say it signals something potentially bigger. more info |
| Call for nominations for 2011 Ocean Champion award ANational Ocean Champion is also selected in consultation with the UCI Advisory Committee and national leaders around the country. Nominations may be submitted by an individual or organization, and there is no entry fee. more info |
| UCAR online weather education program gets a redesign At MetEd, the weather-curious can learn about everything from avalanche and fire weather forecasting to the radar signatures of severe convective weather and how to analyze ocean swells. The individual modules -- which can take from 15 minutes to more than two hours to get through -- range in skill level and scope. The material in the modules is presented using videos, diagrams, quizzes, maps, animations and audio. more info |
| Environmental report: Area water is polluted Pollution-related advisory days for beaches in Texas more than tripled, rising from 231 in 2009 to 704 in 2010, the report said. Eight percent of water samples in the state and 4 percent in Galveston County exceeded state pollution standards. more info |
| Date Set for 26th Annual International Coastal Cleanup Today Ocean Conservancy announced that this year's International Coastal Cleanup will be held on September 17th. Over the last 25 years, Ocean Conservancy beach cleanup volunteers have collected enough cups, plates, forks, knives and spoons to host a picnic for 2 million people. The July 4th holiday weekend provides great chances to have fun at the beach, but Ocean Conservancy encourages beachgoers to play a role in saving our ocean by taking small steps such as properly disposing of trash and choosing reusable picnic supplies this holiday and all year long. more info |
| Mobile native Margaret Brown wins grant for oil spill documentary film Margaret Brown -- a Mobile, Alabama, native documentary filmmaker most recently known for her film about the dual racial nature of Mobile's Mardi Gras -- has now turned her attention to the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Tampa Bay's Estuary Program Recieves Prestigious Award Although projects throughout the Gulf of Mexico were nominated, TBEP’s Nitrogen Consortium received the award due to their noteworthy accomplishments of a public-private alliance in reducing nitrogen pollution in the Tampa Bay from wastewater, storm water, air emissions and industrial discharges. The Gulf Guardian Award judges coined the Nitrogen Management Consortium as a model of cooperative watershed management for the entire Gulf of Mexico region more info |
| Underwater Robots Compete in NASA Astronaut Training Tank This competition, sponsored by the California-based Marine Advanced Technology Education Center, is now in its 10th year. more info |
| Shrimpers may face stricter rules to protect turtles Federal regulators also have documented a large decrease in the number of shrimp trawlers using required equipment that allows trapped sea turtles to escape. The National Marine Fisheries Service has increased enforcement of those requirements and is considering new rules that could expand gear requirements by April 2012. Meetings will be held this month to gather public comment. more info |
| Looking out for Alabama and the Gulf of Mexico The challenge, he says, will be to set aside boundary differences in order to focus solely on the damage done by the BP oil spill. This view recognizes that leaders will need to think regionally for the good of all the states that border the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Dead Zone in Gulf of Mexico getting bigger We urge our congressional delegation along with Louisiana's to take action and create laws to regulate waste runoff. Residents along the Mississippi should also be educated about the effect of their runoffs. more info |
| Mississippi Floods to Raise the Dead Zone in the Gulf A record-setting dead zone is predicted to occur in the Gulf of Mexico and expected to kill bottom-dwelling fish and other marine life over a significant portion of the seafloor this summer following the rise in nutrient runoff from the Mississippi floods, according to marine scientists supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. more info |
| Bird group spreads wings The institute's roots date back to the early 1990s when then-graduate student Evers was studying the effects of toxic methylmercury on wildlife. Mercury released by burning coal goes into the atmosphere, then settles on soil and the bottom of bodies of water where bacteria converts it to a toxic form called methylmercury, which accumulates and gets concentrated as it moves through the food chain. more info |
| Thousands of Gulf Sea Turtles Killed by Shrimp Trawls Sea turtles have been swimming in the oceans for millions of years, and now these ancient mariners are being unnecessarily pushed toward extinction. It's time to give sea turtles a breather. more info |
| New storm shelters provide reassurance The good news is that all three coastal counties now have shelters -- called FEMA 361 shelters -- that withstand 200 mph winds. Not only are they sturdy enough for major storm winds, but they also have their own water, sewer and generator systems. more info |
| Task force: Restoring sediment key to Gulf revival Restoring the flow of sediment to Gulf Coast wetlands and barrier islands that are key wildlife habitats and provide crucial protection from storms is one of the biggest challenges officials face as they seek to restore a region whose long-time ecological problems came into focus after last year's disastrous oil spill. more info |
| Caminada shoreline restoration project is ready to go, corps says The Army Corps of Engineers has finally unveiled a long-awaited $446 million plan to rebuild the Caminada shoreline south of Port Fourchon and the mostly disappeared Shell Island to the east of Grand Isle. more info |
| University of Georgia department wins EMMY The broadcast, video and photography unit in the Office of Public Affairs at the University of Georgia has won a Southeastern Regional Emmy Award for "Black and Blue: Beneath the Gulf Oil Disaster." more info |
| Hands Across the Sand Events Across the US Today HATS community organizers in Florida are now working to gather enough petition signatures (700,000 signatures) to get a constitutional amendment on the 2012 Florida ballot that would ban near shore oil drilling (10 miles from the coast on the Gulf of Mexico side, 3 miles from the coast on the Atlantic coast side) during statewide elections. If they manage to do so, and garner a 60 percent “yes” vote in 2012, Floridians will prevent the expansion of offshore drilling for oil and gas in Florida waters. more info |
| NOAA steps up effort to address sea turtle mortality, seeks public input NOAA has scheduled a series of public scoping meetings in mid-July in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and North Carolina, to solicit public comments to assist the agency in identifying issues and options for evaluation in a draft Environmental Impact Statement assessing the environmental impacts of potential regulatory approaches to reduce sea turtle mortality. more info |
| When Sharks Attack Robots. Liquid Robotics’ Wave Gliders have the unique ability to travel for months, years even, across the world’s oceans without having to refuel. They are designed to convert the power of waves mechanically to propel themselves. more info |
| Forecasting 'Dead Zone' Conditions in the Gulf Flooding and runoff along the Mississippi may be combining to produce a bad year for the water in the Gulf of Mexico, enlarging a patch of oxygen-starved water. Nancy Rabelais, executive director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, describes the summer forecast for the Gulf's 'Dead Zone.' more info |
| Coast Guard: Louisiana Oil Spill Cleanup Done, Origins Unknown . The U.S. Coast Guard said Monday the cleanup of a small oil spill near Venice, La., is complete, but federal investigators are still unsure where the plume came from. more info |
| Did You Know: Divide and conquer Waters in Minnesota drain three ways, to Hudson’s Bay, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. The American Indians referred to the Divide as The Top of the World, even though its altitude is only 1,400 feet above sea level. more info |
| Administration issues new rules for fish farms “But with global fisheries reaching alarming and unprecedented levels of depletion, fish cultivation versus wild fish capture has to be considered.” more info |
| Oysters may survive river flooding Gov. Bobby Jindal has already petitioned the federal Department of Interior to declare a fisheries disaster back in May, Watkins said. The federal government hasn't yet responded to that request. more info |
| Kid's Gulf Discovery Day & Kid's Kruise Learn about the ecology of the Gulf of Mexico and Fowl River from area experts and organizations. Enjoy lots of activities and displays for kids of every age, including the Dauphin Island Touch Table. If that sounds fun, you don't want to miss the special Kid's Kruise with Casi Callaway and the Dauphin Island Sea Lab Staff at Bellingrath Gardens. more info |
| NOAA sets fishing quotas for bluefin tuna “We are working closely with longline fishermen to reduce the amount of bluefin tuna that they catch unintentionally,” said Schwaab. “This spring, we began requiring longline fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico to use weak hooks to reduce the unintended bluefin catch while still allowing them to catch swordfish and yellowfin tuna.” more info |
| Animal Attraction: Sea Turtles Released To The Wild . The YappoPalooza fundraising project supports a binational effort between the U.S., Texas and Mexico that has brought back the Kemp’s Ridley turtle from the brink of extinction. The focus involves protecting the Ridley’s primary nesting sites. About 95 percent of the worldwide Kemp’s Ridley Turtles nest in the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico along Gulf of Mexico beaches. more info |
| Fish on Fridays: Twelve Million Lines in the Water Fishery managers, and even Congress, have acted on our need to get a better handle on recreational fishing’s true effect on our fish stocks. Included in the 2006 reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act were provisions to strengthen federal oversight of this activity. more info |
| Library summer programs get in gear About 8 feet long and spouting fire, the dragon was created over a six-week period by children in the after-school program, said children’s librarian, Jaime Lee. Among the many types of materials used to create the dragon were 600 old CDs, each painted magenta and turquoise, for scales; a cardboard box for the head; chicken wire and swimming pool noodles to form the body structure; surgical gloves stuffed with newspaper for feet; bathtub caulking; PVC pipe; a 2x4 to stabilize the dragon; tissue paper; sparkly Christmas ribbon; markers; acrylic paints; masking tape; and tons of aluminum foil. more info |
| Gulf Coast environmentalist, Sea Lab director tangle over Gulf's post-oil spill condition Data collected so far show that the spill’s effects have been "minor" east of Louisiana, according to George Crozier, executive director of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. more info |
| Jellyfish blooms transfer food energy from fish to bacteria The researchers tracked the flow of food energy in the lab by measuring the amount of carbon taken up and released by jellyfish and bacteria within closed containers during "incubation" experiments of varying length. Carbon is the "currency" of energy exchange in living systems. more info |
| DI Sea Lab: Leave tar balls on beach "From a public relations point of view, they want to be able to advertise to the public, 'We cleaned the beach! We cleaned it from stem to stern, top to bottom.' But it's a marketing tool. It's not environmentally that big an issue," Crozier said. more info |
| Shark bite victim released from hospital; officials say number of sharks in Gulf not unusual A 20-year-old man bitten by what officials believe was a shark off the Alabama Coast was released Thursday after being treated for three days at a hospital. more info |
| Troy Professors Receive Money for Gulf Oil Spill Research Two Troy University professors have taken on separate projects with funding from the Gulf Research Initiative to conduct research on the BP Deepwater Horizon Gulf Oil Spill. more info |
| Are jellyfish a harbinger of dying seas? Jellyfish could send once-productive seas, including the Gulf of Mexico, back to a more primitive state, if theories pointing to striking increases in the gelatinous creatures prove true. more info |
| Dauphin Island's resources offer a convenient, enjoyable field trip This facility educates the young and old alike with gripping visual displays, interactive exhibits and live aquariums featuring the native habitats of the Mobile Bay Estuary which encompasses the Delta, Bay, Barrier Islands and Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Alabama hosts AFBF commodity conference The more than 100 attendees participated in workshops and tours of outstanding farms in south Alabama and received an update on the coastal recovery from George Crozier, executive director of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. more info |
| Navarre Beach Marine Science Station wins Gulf Guardian Award The Gulf of Mexico Program recently announced that the Navarre Beach Marine Science Station of Navarre Beach, Florida will receive a Gulf Guardian Award for 2011 in the Youth Education Category. The Awards ceremony will be held in conjunction with the Gulf of Mexico Alliance Meeting on August t in New Orleans. more info |
| Youth group earns federal recognition A group of local high school students has earned recognition from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for their efforts to educate their peers about problems facing the Gulf of Mexico and its communities in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. more info |
| Major expedition launches to study impacts of recent events on Gulf of Mexico EcoSystem BATON ROUGE, La. and BOSTON,Polymer Solutions,Ocean Alliance, the University of Southern Maine and Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB) today launched a 14-week scientific voyage to study the impacts of recent oil spills and natural disasters on the Gulf of Mexico, one of the world's most important ocean habitats. The scientific mission will leave Key West, Florida with a ten-person team aboard the 93-foot floating laboratory, Odyssey. The team will collect samples from fish, squid, krill, sperm and Brydes whales, and the water from depths of up to 3,000 feet to try to monitor and gauge the health of the Gulf ecosystem. more info |
| Commerce and NOAA release national aquaculture policies The Department of Commerce and NOAA today released national sustainable marine aquaculture policies to meet the growing demand for healthy seafood, to create jobs in coastal communities, and restore vital ecosystems. Foreign aquaculture accounts for about half of the 84 percent of seafood imported by the U.S., contributing to the $9 billion trade deficit in seafood. more info |
| Office of Naval Research engages international partners at OCEANS 2011 The Office of Naval Research's Global (ONR Global) department joined the international scientific community at OCEANS 11 IEEE Santander Conference from June 6-9 in Spain to exchange ideas and support student participation to develop future experts in marine technology. more info |
| The Pier Aquarium Wins Two Foundation Grants for Ocean in Motion The Pier Aquarium has announced two foundation grants that will support education programs this year and 2012. The Margaret Ewell Dickins Foundation of St. Petersburg and the Alvah H. and Wyline P. Chapman Foundation, St. Petersburg have both awarded grants to fund educational programming including Ocean in Motion (OIM), a traveling touch tank program with an outreach education curriculum. more info |
| Communicating the Ocean The concept was ambitious from the very start: Bridging the gap between profound science and entertaining broadcasts. And providing crucial and continuous information on the climatic challenges of the ocean - using all kinds of media. 19 years ago, ALDEBARAN Hamburg set its sails and began to pursue this vision no matter what. more info |
| Nautica to Celebrate World Oceans Day Nautica®, a leading global lifestyle brand, and Oceana, an ocean conservation organization dedicated to protecting the world's oceans, will join forces to raise awareness for "World Oceans Day" on June 8, 2011. World Oceans Day pays homage to the world's oceans and the important role the oceans play in our lives. As an official holiday, it aims to engage more people in the fight to reverse the declining health of marine ecosystems. more info |
| Baldwin County to add Perdido Bay weather, water monitoring station Boaters enjoying Perdido Bay should soon see a new monitoring station that will feed data on weather and water quality to a website, along with several other outposts in the Mobile Bay area. more info |
| Tropicalia Wild File: Great blue heron and stingray A press release about the paper states, “Although elasmobranchs have been previously reported in the diets of birds, this observation was the first documenting the attack and consumption behavior by a bird on an elasmobranch.” more info |
| Fertility Loves Company: Why Mauve Stingers Don’t Go Solo By blooming in large numbers, mauve stingers were only doing what comes naturally: sticking together in order to reproduce more effectively. more info |
| In Historic Flooding On Mississippi River, A Missed Opportunity To Rebuild Louisiana For decades, a mixture of industrial development and erosion has carved away at southern Louisiana, eliminating nearly 2,000 square miles of land and making the area increasingly vulnerable to storms that sweep in from the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Simultaneous meetings produce new fish rules State and federal fisheries management panels meet in Key West and St. Augustine to hash out regulations for several species. more info |
| Louisiana: Coast Guard Investigates Origin of Oil Slick in Gulf of Mexico The Plaquemines Parish president, Billy Nungesser, says oil has been spotted in the waters off the coast near Venice and that he believes the seven-mile slick is from last year’s BP spill. Mr. Nungesser says there have been no recent reports to the Coast Guard of spilled oil in the area. The origin of the oil has not been determined. The Coast Guard has sent pollution investigators to take samples. more info |
| Historic flood begins to abate, but far from over Thousands of acres (hectares) of crops, timber and catfish farms are still flooded, mostly by tributaries that backed up because the Mississippi River was so high. Hundreds of people are still displaced from flooded homes. Some people had nothing to go home to. more info |
| DI Sea Lab Announces New Director Dr. John Valentine has been appointed executive director of Alabama’s Dauphin Island Sea Lab by the Marine Environmental Sciences Consortium board of directors. more info |
| Study: Strongest Gulf hurricanes ease near coast Cool waters just below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico cause the strongest hurricanes to almost always lose intensity before they hit that part of the U.S. coast, according to new research. The findings could help scientists more accurately forecast the storms during this year's hurricane season, which begins Wednesday. more info |
| Largest-Ever Gulf Dead Zone Predicted This Summer "When you get excessive nutrients, you get excessive algae. Those algae sink to the bottom, consume oxygen thus the Dead Zone," said Dr. Robert Twilley, Vice President of Research at UL. more info |
| Company says its containment system can go beyond Gulf of Mexico A Houston company says it has developed a system ready to respond to oil spills worldwide using concepts engineered for the Gulf of Mexico after last year's BP disaster. more info |
| Base prepares for hurricane season The Atlantic hurricane season began June 1 and Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany officials are keeping a close watch on the weather in both the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Beach gets built Longboat Key’s highly erosive North End, which only one month ago the churning waters of the Gulf of Mexico within feet of condominiums, is now protected by a new 130-foot wide beach. more info |
| Flood Fears: Fish Will Spread into New Areas Native to Southeast Asia and China, the various Asian carp, including the silver and bighead species, were introduced to the Mississippi and Missouri River basins starting in the 1960s during floods, which caused the overflow of catfish aquaculture ponds where the carp were being kept for their ability to keep algae at bay. more info |
| States along Mississippi River battle over runoff As the surging waters of the Mississippi pass downstream, they leave behind flooded towns and inundated lives and carry forward a brew of farm chemicals and waste that this year — given record flooding — is expected to result in the largest dead zone ever in the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| As Mexico Hurricane Season Approaches, International Insurance Group Offers New Tips For Homeowners The 2011 hurricane season is predicted to be an especially active one, both in the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico. In anticipation of the predicted active hurricane season, Mexico Homeowner’s insurance provider advises owners of property in Mexico to take the following steps to prepare for hurricane season. more info |
| Last 30 oiled sea turtles released back to Gulf The last 30 sea turtles rescued from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, including one that apparently had been bitten by a shark, have gotten well and have been released back into the Gulf. more info |
| Mississippi diverted to revive Delta wetlands This summer, in response to flooding, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has opened two channels to divert part of the Mississippi River away from New Orleans and toward the wetlands. The Bonnet Carre spillway is sending water into Lake Pontchartrain, while the Morganza spillway diverts water through the Atchafalaya River Basin and into the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Systems in Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico unlikely to develop into tropical cyclones A small area of low pressure located over the western Gulf of Mexico about 325 miles east of the Mexican coast is producing limited shower activity. more info |
| Shrimpers, not oil, causing hundreds of turtles’ deaths along Gulf of Mexico, scientists say But the e-mails show that shrimpers across the Gulf of Mexico are routinely failing to place the devices in their nets or installing them improperly. One e-mail describing a series of inspections in Louisiana called “compliance to be poor at best.” At the port of Cameron, one out of nine vessels were found in compliance with the law; in Intracoastal City, La., two out of 17 met federal requirements; and in four other areas where boats were boarded, three out of 29 met the legal test. more info |
| How Oil Spill May Affect Turtles Though the tainted water never reached the Coastal Bend, there is one way some local residents may have been effected. Locally, scientists at the Padre Island Seashore are studying a group of endangered turtles who may have swam in the toxic water. more info |
| Q&A: Jellyfish stings and what you can do about them Monty Graham, senior marine scientist of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama, and Kevin Johnson, Florida Institute of Technology marine and environmental systems professor, provided answers to questions about these common but little understood nuisances of Florida beaches. more info |
| Seasonal Pinellas fertilizer ban in effect The seasonal prohibition on applying fertilizer containing nitrogen or phosphorous on lawns and landscaping began June 1 and will remain in effect until the end of September. more info |
| Biodiversity: Whale sharks gather in Gulf of Mexico Largest-ever aggregation of giant fish discovered off the Yucatán Peninsula more info |
| Wild and deadly weather: Is La Nina to blame? It's been a spring of records -- heat, floods, tornadoes. There appears to be something behind it, reports CBS News correspondent John Blackstone. Remember the weather effect known as "El Nino"? Well, meet La Nina. more info |
| Will you eat Gulf seafood? Poll finds most still say no A survey of more than 1,500 USA Today readers found about 60 percent still will not eat gulf seafood. more info |
| Will jellyfish storm the beaches Monty Graham, a jellyfish expert and marine scientist at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Louisiana, said he wouldn’t be surprised if mauve stingers showed up on Destin beaches. more info |
| High levels of toxic cadmium dumped into Tampa Bay The water gushing from a former phosphate plant into the Gulf of Mexico in North Manatee County contains high levels of two toxic metals and nutrients that could harm a precious Southwest Florida fishery. more info |
| Low Oxygen in Gulf of Mexico Has Fish Sexually Confused Extensive reproductive disruption, ovarian masculinization, and aromatase suppression in Atlantic croaker in the northern Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone. more info |
| Finalists announced for Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE In order to generate some incentive, and provide financial support to the cream of the crop, the X PRIZE Foundation is now in the midst of its US$1.4 million Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE. more info |
| Infected snapper hard to find in Gulf off Alabama coast despite reports of fish with rash Despite media reports describing a rash of red snapper with lesions caught off Alabama in the Gulf of Mexico, such fish proved difficult to catch during 4 days of intensive fishing off the Alabama coast by a team of researchers from the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. more info |
| The Agriculture Chief as Water Advocate On Friday, the Department of Agriculture announced another such program, the Watershed Condition Framework. more info |
| Lovely places: Scenic Byway connects 130 Alabama miles A Dolphin Watch captain won’t promise to get right up next to dolphin; he would know the propeller is their worst predator in these Gulf waters. more info |
| Gulf research teams offer conflicting reports on health of red snapper Despite the reports of diseased fish that are circulating among some commercial anglers and within scientific circles, Alabama researchers fishing within 15 miles of Dauphin Island Thursday caught more than 300 red snapper and found no sign of infection. more info |
| Capitol Hill Ocean Day There was also a panel on the aftermath of the BP Gulf Oil disaster featuring Dr. Jane Lubchenco of NOAA, Admiral That Allen formerly of the U.S. Coast Guard, and Don Boesch of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, and many other conversations around ocean and coastal restoration, plastics in the ocean and more. more info |
| In Pictures: Top ten new species The pancake batfish (Halieutichthys intermedius) was found in the Gulf of Mexico, and walks along the sea floor using its fleshy fins. It is one of the top ten new species of 2010 announced by the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University. more info |
| Even the Ocean Has Grass Roots This weekend in Washington, D.C., the Blue Frontier Campaign is hosting the 2011 Blue Vision Summit, a celebration of the ocean, its wildlife, and the work people are doing to protect it, as well as serious opportunity to get more work done. As founder David Helvarg said during the official opening of the summit last night at the Carnegie Institution for Science, people are not here just to look at ocean disaster photos, “we’re going to talk about real solutions.” Particularly, they’ll be taking smaller, grass roots solutions that are working, and figuring out how to scale them up for even wider success. more info |
| How the Floods May Restore Louisiana's Wetlands The talk of New Orleans has centered on whether the most severe Mississippi River flood in more than a quarter-century will cause catastrophic damage to a city still recovering from Hurricane Katrina. And for good reason: the flood has carved a destructive path from from Cairo, Illinois, to Vicksburg, Mississippi, and prompted Louisiana's Republican governor, Bobby Jindal, to ask the federal government for emergency assistance. But there just might be a silver lining: the flood could actually help Louisiana's fragile wetlands. more info |
| NOAA predicting 6-10 Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico hurricanes this season After two relatively mild Atlantic hurricane seasons, public and private forecasters are warning coastal residents from Texas to New England to be prepared for a lot more tropical storms in the season that begins June 1. more info |
| A House Divided - BP’s Gulf of Mexico Disaster One Year Later The tough decisions about how to describe the spill reflect Louisianans’ split loyalties, which are divided between the fishing culture – the heart of the state’s identity – and the oil industry, the backbone of its economy. Since the 1930s, the two have been intimately connected: Many fishermen work the rigs in the off-season, and some of the best fishing spots are found near abandoned platforms, where sea life flourishes. In Louisiana, there’s nothing odd about celebrating the annual Shrimp and Petroleum Festival. more info |
| Previous floods followed massive rains The biggest difference is the rain, or lack of it. A spring drought dried up bayous, ditches and swamps this year, allowing the parched ground to soak up and slow the floodwater released May 14 when the Morganza Spillway was opened to relieve pressure on Mississippi River levees. more info |
| Nitrogen from sewage emerging as coral threat Nitrogen from sewage is replacing nitrogen from chemical fertilizers as one of the primary sources of pollution that damages fragile offshore reef ecosystems. The effects are particularly pronounced in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, according to a study published recently in the journal Global Change Biology more info |
| Scientists Explore Hidden World of Ancient Maritime Maya NOAA-sponsored explorers are searching a wild, largely unexplored and forgotten coastline for evidence and artifacts of one of the greatest seafaring traditions of the ancient New World, where Maya traders once paddled massive dugout canoes filled with trade goods from across Mexico and Central America. more info |
| Farm Runoff in Mississippi River Floodwater Fuels Dead Zone in Gulf This year, with floodwaters from the Birds Point levee breach and the Morganza and Bonnet Carret spillways spreading over farmland and other residential areas, the river is collecting tremendous amounts of fertilizer and pesticides. This is contributing to what scientists say may become the largest dead zone ever, and posing a serious threat to already taxed marine life. more info |
| At GMU Commencement, New Grads Urged to Address Complex Issues Collectively These disasters, as well as economic globalization and interconnected financial systems, show that old methods of problem-solving aren’t up to the task, said Allen, who gave the keynote address at George Mason University’s May 21 commencement ceremony at the Patriot Center. more info |
| Mississippi fishermen snag manatees near Deer Island Despite the reports of diseased fish that are circulating among some commercial anglers and within scientific circles, Alabama researchers fishing within 15 miles of Dauphin Island Thursday caught more than 300 red snapper and found no sign of infection. more info |
| Progress on a plan to protect the Gulf The plan calls for wide- spread expansion and creation of wildlife safety zones — similar to the National Park system created more info |
| Task Force Tackles Gulf Restoration “It was so important for me to come today to talk with you, because I want you to understand how important Alabama is in this scheme of the five states involved. As the Governor, I love this state and we want the best for this state. But, as I said, we must all work together. I think the perception is changing. I think as we let people know that the beaches are clean and the seafood is safe that they will begin to come back. I think this summer we are going to see an uptick in the number of people coming, and I do believe our economy is going to improve this summer.” more info |
| Ocean Springs school receives award for environmental education Magnolia Park Elementary School received a $5,500 award Friday from the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources Seafood Technology Bureau for an environmental stewardship program. more info |
| Flooding could spur largest ever dead zone Each year, LUMCON sends an annual research cruise from Cocodrie to map the dead zone. This year’s cruise leaves June 25. But a smaller cruise testing for low-oxygen waters off Terrebonne and the Atchafalaya River will leave Monday. Rabalais said she’s already seen low-oxygen areas developing off the coast in March and April. more info |
| Project Ocean Is "Retail Activism" at its Best Here's a new catch-phrase: retail activism. It refers to stores that get involved with political issues to raise awareness, raise money and presumably sell stuff. A great example in London right now is taking place at Selfridges' Department Store (think Saks Fifth Avenue in the USA) which is really pushing out the boat with their new campaign Project Ocean. more info |
| This fishing contest targets spiny alien invaders Beginning at sunrise one day this month, dozens of mercenaries equipped with nets, spear guns and puncture-proof gloves will slip into the warm waters off Florida's coast in search of a ruthless enemy. more info |
| Dauphin Island Sea Lab director: Gulf Coast oil spill produced large fish population Dr. George Crozier, director of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab since 1979, was made an honorary employee of Daphne Utilities by general manager Rob McElroy on Tuesday. That day, Crozier addressed the current state of Mobile Bay and the Gulf of Mexico one year after the oil spill. He said the gulf and the bay are doing much better than originally anticipated. more info |
| Water Flows Through 9 Morganza Bays "We're using every flood control tool we have in the system," Army Corps of Engineers Maj. Gen. Michael Walsh said from the dry side of the spillway, before the bay was opened. The podium Walsh was standing at was expected to be under several feet of water by today. more info |
| Sickened fish in Gulf alarm scientists Patterson is conducting research on the chronic effects of the BP oil spill on Gulf fish. And he sees troubling signs consistent with oil exposure: fish with lesions, external parasites, odd pigmentation patterns, and diseased livers and ovaries. These may be signs of compromised immune systems in fish that are expending their energy dealing with toxins, Patterson said. more info |
| Rising Miss. river raises concerns about channel The corps currently is using four dredges to maintain the channel's 45-foot depth, said Michelle Spraul, the corps' operations manager for the Mississippi River. Although the dredges are keeping up with the sediment, more will likely be needed as high water moves farther south, she said Wednesday. more info |
| Murky Waters While different scientists have reached varying conclusions about how much oil, gas, and related compounds have ended up on the ocean floor, how much remains in the water column, and how thoroughly microbes have degraded the Macondo hydrocarbons, all agree that it is far too soon to know how the unnatural presence of so much oil and gas in the Gulf will ultimately affect its ecosystem. more info |
| Citizen Advisory Committee gets role in Gulf ecosystem task force "Guided by the Federal Advisory Committee Act, the CAC will allow the Restoration Task Force to be more responsive to community concerns, and make sure that those who are most familiar with the threats to our Gulf, our coast and our communities have a seat at the table as the restoration implementation strategy is developed," Viles said. more info |
| EPA administrator directs Gulf Restoration discussions "Whether it's the barrier islands and how they protect your beautiful beaches, or whether its the marshlands and how they are the nursery for seafood as well as a way of life. Or the oil, gas and chemical industries that provide jobs. All those things come together and are based on a resource we can't afford to take for granted," said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. more info |
| Rising River Moving Sediment Out Into the Gulf R. King Milling, AWF chair, noted that scientists who have studied coastal erosion in Louisiana have said the river's nourishing materials need to be redirected back into the marshes the river built up over hundreds of years before the levees were built after the 1927 flood. more info |
| Mother Nature Cleans up Gulf Oil Spill Eisen, diving into his presentation, set out to explain what microbes are, why they are so hard to study and how Lady Gaga—an extreme example chosen to represent the human species in opening remarks—was relevant to the matter. more info |
| Tug destined to be hub of new artificial reef She is the hub of a four pronged proposed reef system named Conch Reef. Conch Reef is the County’s latest reef project funded by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission with a 10% match of County funds. more info |
| Does a Monster Flood Have to Fuel a Monster Dead Zone Too? Researchers are expecting a mighty dead zone will form from this year's mighty floods. The Gulf, staggering back from last year's oily assaults on its ecosystems, will likely pay a heavy price... again, smack in the middle of the most breeding season for everything from seabirds to tuna... and smack in the middle of important seasons for commercial fisheries, sports fisheries, and tourism. more info |
| Marine Lab Tracks Pollutants in Dolphins and Beluga Whales Bottlenose dolphins* and beluga whales**, two marine species at or near the top of their respective food webs, accumulate more chemical pollutants in their bodies when they live and feed in waters near urbanized areas, according to scientists working at the Hollings Marine Laboratory (HML), a government-university collaboration in Charleston, S.C. more info |
| Hummingbirds spark the skies It migrates about 950 kilometres from Mexico to its northern home, across the Gulf of Mexico, flying for about 20 hours straight. more info |
| Scientists urge ocean drilling observation U.K. scientists say they want more discussion of independent monitoring of the deep-sea oil and gas drilling industry to judge its ecological impact. more info |
| Oil Spill: New study outlines global species impacts They found 53 species with a distribution that overlaps the area of the oil spill that are categorized as critically endangered, endangered, or vulnerable by the IUCN Red List. Of these, only 14 receive legal protection in the United States under the Endangered Species Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, or the Marine Mammal Protection Act more info |
| Students win ‘Best in State’ in engineering competition These award-winning ninth- to 12th-graders worked to solve the global energy “supply and demand” problem highlighted by the recent Gulf of Mexico oil spill and current events in the Middle East. more info |
| Kemp's ridley turtle nest count up to 78 The number of Kemp's ridley turtle nests has increase to 78 through Sunday, according to Padre Island National Seashore staff. more info |
| Everyone needs flood insurance Hurricane season officially starts in less than a month on June 1st. One of the items you need to review is your insurance coverage, especially flood insurance. As so many of us found out after Hurricane Katrina, homeowner policies do not cover rising water. more info |
| Washing Away the Fields of Iowa For Iowa — and other Corn Belt states facing similar problems — this means an increasing loss of fertility that has to be replaced chemically. It marks a failure of stewardship, since these soils will have to feed future generations. And every particle that washes away causes problems downstream, including sedimentation — which can increase the risk of flooding — and the alarming dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, the result of runoff of the chemical fertilizers farmers apply to make up for lost fertility. more info |
| 50 Surprising Facts You Never Knew About Oil 4. The states of Texas, Louisiana and California account for over half of all domestic refining capacity. 5. Texas is the leading state in crude oil production with over 5 billion barrels in reserves. more info |
| Proposed parish pipeline provides promise According to the Barataria Terrebonne National Estuary Program, an estimated 163,000 acres of land were lost between 1995 and 2010 alone. more info |
| Study Probes Sources of Mississippi River Phosphorus Overall, the findings suggest that reducing phosphorus pollution will require broad adoption of practices that limit nutrient runoff, such as cover crops, buffer strips, and incorporation of fertilizers. It will also require limits on phosphorus discharge from cities. more info |
| Environmental groups sue Chicago over its sewage Environmental groups on Tuesday sued the city of Chicago's water treatment authority, charging its sewage promotes algae growth that is choking Midwestern rivers and contributes to the Gulf of Mexico's "dead zone." more info |
| Crews rescue whales stranded off FL coast Conservationists have been working to rescue more than a dozen pilot whales stranded off the Florida Keys. more info |
| EPA Administrator to Head Gulf Ecosystem Restoration Task Force Meeting in Mobile, Ala. On Friday, May 6, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson will convene an official meeting of the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force in Mobile, Alabama. The meeting will further the task force’s ongoing commitment to supporting the conservation and restoration of resilient and healthy ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| More Frequent Whale Strandings Has Experts on Edge In the last few years, there has been an unexplained spike in the number of whales washing ashore. While the National Marine Fisheries Service has declared an Unusual Mortality Event (UME) in the Northern Gulf of Mexico, it's more than just oil spills that are causing increased strandings worldwide. And experts are worried. more info |
| South Texas Gulf of Mexico beach cleanup kicks off 25th year Saturday Slather on sunscreen, slip on closed-toes shoes, grab your gloves and pick up your beach Saturday to add to the more than 7,900 tons of trash gathered by more than 406,000 volunteers since 1986. more info |
| Rare turtle gets second chance Haverfield said the best way to rescue a turtle that has been hooked is to raise it in a net or walk it to the beach. Reeling it in causes the hook to go further into the animal, causing more damage more info |
| Partnership to monitor oil, gas releases in Gulf of Mexico, Florida Keys ITT Corporation's AADI brand has teamed up with the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill to develop two new multi-sensor arrays to detect light hydrocarbons and oxygen depletion, conditions associated with oil and gas releases. This research is vital to monitor the long-term effects of water contamination and its threat to coral reef and other coastal ecosystems. more info |
| Disasters challenge GOP governors of Ala., Miss. The deadly storms that pounded the South on April 27 were a quick initiation for Bentley into the massive task of disaster recovery. They were just another chapter for his colleague next door, fellow Republican and second-term Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. Barbour has overseen his state's recovery from Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and is now bracing for Mississippi River floodwaters. more info |
| Environmental Benefits Flow Downstream Reusing water improves water quality by reducing the amount of runoff entering the river and helping filter out nutrients and sediments. It provides benefits for farmers, too: the nutrients in the water fertilize the plants, which prefer the warmer reservoir water to cold aquifer water, since the latter takes more energy for them to process. And the reuse of water means that less water is drawn from the aquifer. more info |
| BP oil spill - Newsnight BBC Newsnight report on the Deep Water Horizon Gulf of Mexico oil spill one more info |
| Delta Woods & Waters Joan Turner from the Dauphin Island Sea Lab shows off the jaws of a shark to students on Thursday, April 28,2011 during the Delta Woods & Waters Expo held at 5 Rivers Delta Resource Center on the Causeway. more info |
| Navarre Beach Marine Station honored Charlene Mauro, project director for the Navarre Beach Marine Science Station, has learned the program has received a 2011 Gulf Guardian Award for education. more info |
| Agriculture tied to gulf 'dead zone' Researchers at the University of Illinois and Cornell University warn that phosphorus and nitrate pollution in the Mississippi River from agricultural runoff is causing a growing hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico that threatens marine life and wildlife habitats. more info |
| NOAA ocean explorations: understanding oil spill-related changes in the Gulf of Mexico NOAA and partners conducted 11 ocean explorations in the Gulf of Mexico during the past ten years, providing a foundation of information against which to measure change to the region’s ecosystems — changes that may relate to the Deepwater Horizon event that took place a year ago. With this foundation, as well as emerging information about the oil spill and the response to the spill, NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research created The Gulf of Mexico Deep-Sea Ecosystem Education Materials Collection, which includes an educator’s guide and 16 associated lesson plans. more info |
| Registration for Sea Camp Open The focus of this year's camp is threatened and endangered marine species. Campers will learn to fish, crab, seine and sieve at the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast Research Laboratory Marine Education Center in Ocean Springs. Registration for this year's event closes May 13. more info |
| Students to compete in ocean sciences bowl More than 20 high schools from across the nation will compete this weekend in the 14th annual National Ocean Sciences Bowl at Texas A&M University at Galveston. more info |
| Eddies found to be deep, powerful modes of ocean transport "Thus, although hydrothermal sources of heat, chemical and larval fluxes do not exhibit seasonality there is potential for long-distance transport and dispersal to have seasonal to interannual variability." more info |
| Coastal governors form coalition to lobby for offshore drilling The push for a new Outer Continental Shelf Governors Coalition is led by four governors who know a little something about oil and gas production offshore: Rick Perry of Texas, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Haley Barbour of Mississippi and Sean Parnell of Alaska. more info |
| More storms 'to hit producing areas' Low pressure over the Gulf Coast states, combined with a weaker high-pressure zone around Bermuda will allow storms to track into the western Gulf of Mexico, Chris Hebert, lead hurricane forecaster for ImpactWeather said today at the OTC conference in Houston. more info |
| Governor: Oil spill media coverage hurt Miss. Barbour said Mississippi's beaches are clean and the seafood is safe. He said he had shrimp Creole for lunch Wednesday, with the prawns caught in the Gulf. more info |
| Water walkers to converge at Bad River in June “We are one of the four (groups of walkers) that are carrying the salt water from each of the four directions. To raise consciousness, to collect the consciousness of the people and for people to be aware that the water is very precious. And the salt water is what we are carrying now,” Mandamin said of her group making the trek from the south. more info |
| Interior Department will seek continual improvements in blowout preventers Hayes said that ministers and senior government officials from at least a dozen nations -- including Mexico and Brazil -- will be gathering in Washington April 14 at the Interior Department for a discussion of developments in containing potential deepwater blowouts, and to "share information we have learned from our searing experience with the Macondo well." more info |
| Where to go, what to do in severe weather Did you know that the United States has the highest incidence of tornadoes worldwide, with more than 1,000 occurring every year? This is due to the unique geography that brings together polar air from Canada, tropical air from the Gulf of Mexico, and dry air from the Southwest to clash in the middle of the country. more info |
| ‘Fine’ news from Gulf Coast Researchers from the University of South Alabama and Dauphin Island Sea Lab have been catching about 300 fish a month since the BP disaster and have done detailed internal tests of many fish. Bob Shipp, head of marine sciences at South Alabama, returned from a recent eight-day expedition and, after examining the catch, told the newspaper that “all the fish are fine.” more info |
| Science gets to the bottom of it Larry McKinney, who heads a Gulf research centre at Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi, has days when he’s confident in the Gulf’s resilience and days when he’s pessimistic. more info |
| Students developed dispersant for oil spills Soy lecithin, which is a byproduct of the soybean plant, is the main ingredient. It is also the primary emulsifier used in the chocolate products that we eat," said Lochhead. "When mixed with oil, such as the type that spilled from the Gulf explosion, the dispersant will create emulsification that will cause the oil to literally fall off anything it touches." more info |
| Number of Kemp's ridley turtle nest found in April at 31 Anyone who finds a Kemp's ridley turtle or nest is asked to call seashore staff at 949-8173, Ext. 226. more info |
| USM researchers focus on seafood safety, oil lurking in Gulf Dr. Milroy and other researchers at USM immediately started gathering data after the rig explosion. At the Marine Science lab at Stennis, technicians are using six different instruments and sensors to detect changes in the Mississippi Sound, like the oxygen level, temperature, and organisms at the bottom of the food chain. more info |
| MERI Director Shaw to Receive Pair of Honors Shaw dove into the oil slick following the 2010 BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill to see firsthand its impact on marine life. She has helped to focus the national debate on the hazards of chemical dispersants. She subsequently launched Gulf EcoTox, an independent investigation into the effects of oil and chemical dispersants in the food web. more info |
| See the storms from space Typically, the storms wane at night as the temperature cools, but with this particular system, so much energy has come in from the Gulf of Mexico that it's allowing the storms to hold together overnight, Rob Gutro, a NASA spokesman, explained to me today in an email. "That's why there were tornados overnight in the central U.S." more info |
| Tornadoes, Floods Wrack U.S. Southeast and Midwest The most intense storms are expected across northern Alabama, far northwestern Georgia, northeastern Mississippi and southern Tennessee, according to the National Weather Service. more info |
| GRI Research Board Announces Request for Proposals for BP’s $500 Million Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative “We have created a structure which facilitates the unique, scientific knowledge of Gulf State academic institutions to study and to ultimately contribute to the viability of the Gulf Coast,” said Dr. Bill Walker, Executive Director of the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources and current Co-Chair of the Gulf of Mexico Alliance Management Team. more info |
| Quick Help for the Gulf In the meantime, the $1 billion (and possibly further interim payments) will be used to restore the ecosystem, as nearly as possible, to the way it was — replenishing damaged beaches, repairing coastal marshes and wetlands, rebuilding oyster beds. more info |
| Members of Ojibwe tribe carrying water from Gulf of Mexico to Lake Superior against pollution Members of the Ojibwe tribe — mostly from Minnesota — are walking from the Mississippi Gulf Coast to Lake Superior to focus attention on how pollution is affecting the world's water supplies. more info |
| New Gulf Coast Conservation project to protect beach nesting birds in 5 States One year after the start of the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, American Bird Conservancy (ABC) announced it will launch a five-state, Gulf Coast conservation effort that will identify and implement protective measures for vulnerable beach-nesting birds such as Least Terns, Black Skimmers, Sandwich Terns, and Royal Terns. more info |
| Gulf Coast Research Laboratory narrowing in on rebuild from Hurricane Katrina The focus of the center will be on conservation of the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem, he said. more info |
| That time again: Loggerhead sea turtle nesting and hatching season Outside lights that can not be turned off for safety reasons can be temporarily shielded with foil, hoods or painted with black heat resistant oven paint on the beach-facing side. more info |
| Volunteers on watch, ready to walk With Gulf of Mexico temperatures in the upper 70s, the crew that monitors sea turtle nesting on Anna Maria Island is on watch. more info |
| Shorebird nesting season off to good start in Fla. Just about a year after the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, National Park Service scientists are closely monitoring shorebird nests in the Gulf Islands National Seashore. Nesting season began March 1 and continues through mid-August. more info |
| Act Local, Act Global, But Act To leverage those 100 million "acts," to engage people worldwide faster and spur people into environmental action, Earth Day Network has forged a collaboration with the ubiquitous social platform Facebook on the Billion Acts of Green® campaign, the world's largest environmental advocacy and service project. more info |
| Divers work toward reef recovery When the Narcosis Scuba Center takes a boat of divers out into the Gulf of Mexico, a "look, don't touch" policy is strictly enforced. To preserve marine ecosystems, the Tarpon Springs, Fla., shop permits nothing to be removed and brought back on board. Nothing, that is, except garbage. more info |
| Public Offer Opinions about Post-Spill Gulf Restoration President Obama's Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force listened Monday to environmentalists and residents suggestions on what to do in healing the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon disaster a year ago. more info |
| Role of the Gulf of Mexico, water vapor, and global warming Another contributor to the recent severe weather is an unusually warm Gulf of Mexico, where sea surface temperatures are running 1 to 2.5 degrees Celsius above average. The Gulf is the main moisture source for storm systems as they move east from the Rockies, and the additional moisture is helping to fuel thunderstorm development. more info |
| Fertilizer, farmland research, urban sprawl Agriculture has a seat at this table in solving this problem. Our philosophy is that every pound of fertilizer we keep on the farm field not only helps agriculture but the environment. Pressures continue to mount on doing a better and better job of being efficient. more info |
| Gov Tour Fish and Wildlife Commission Fresh off his fishing trip in the Gulf of Mexico, Governor Rick Scott toured Florida Fish and Wildlife and applauded their work. The trip was part of the rookie governor’s plan to visit every agency and department to better understand their mission and their budget. more info |
| Florida Gets Millions From BP BP will give the Northwest Florida Tourism Council (NWFTC) $30 million to help the state's tourism industry recover from the effects of last April’s disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GRI) Research Board to Announce Request for Proposals The GRI was established to investigate the impacts and fate of the oil, dispersed oil, and dispersant on the ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico and affected coastal States in a broad context of improving fundamental understanding of the dynamics of such events and their environmental stresses and public health implications. BP and the Gulf of Mexico Alliance appointed an equal number of research scientists to the board. more info |
| BP to give $1 billion for Gulf restoration; each state to select $100 million in projects The Natural Resource Trustees for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill announced today that BP has agreed to provide $1 billion toward early restoration projects in the Gulf of Mexico to address problems caused by the 2010 oil spill. more info |
| Local Divers Work to Preserve Oceans’ Health, Beauty The foundation allows divers and non-divers alike to participate in marine conservancy through many hands-on projects, including underwater and coastal cleanups and reef monitoring. more info |
| Web Resource on Gulf of Mexico Oil Disaster Ocean-Oil.org is a free, open-access, peer-reviewed electronic education resource about the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The Ocean-Oil website is seamlessly integrated into the Encyclopedia of Earth (www.eoearth.org), which is a free, peer-reviewed, searchable collection of content, written by expert scholars and educators, about the Earth, its natural environments, and their interaction with society. OCEAN-OIL resources available in the Encyclopedia of Earth (www.eoearth/oceanoil.org) include the following: more info |
| 2 Ocean Springs educators receive grants for innovative teaching projects "This grant opportunity will allow us the chance next year to look at all of his artwork and be able to look at Horn Island and the ecology there and benefits of Horn Island to folks on the coast," Comerford said. more info |
| Year after Gulf oil spill, group gives mixed report card for wildlife The current status of the coastal wetlands -- where a wide variety of animals live or breed -- is classified in the report as "poor," with that classification based on several factors in place before the April 20, 2010, explosion on the drill rig Deepwater Horizon killed 11 workers and triggered what scientists say was the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Even before the spill, the area was hard hit due to erosion, storms and river channeling. more info |
| Sea erosion threatening Dauphin Island residential areas, coastal marshlands Without a significant and costly beach rebuilding program, erosion threatens the survival of the west end of Dauphin Island as a residential area and leaves the bulk of Alabama’s coastal marshland vulnerable to destruction, according to the results of a multi-year study. more info |
| Seagrass restoration project on Baldwin County coast continues The biggest causes? That would be declining water clarity in coastal areas — most due to poor land management practices. That leads to onshore erosion that winds up in creeks and bays before flowing into the Gulf, Heck said. Another culprit is nutrient-rich runoff from fields and lawns. When the nutrients reach marine environments, they spur explosive growth in algae that crowds out seagrasses. more info |
| Auburn University beach study could be ready by end of month in Baldwin County The professors plan to continue analyzing their data well after they submit their report to the city, by publishing findings in scientific journals and seeking grants to continue studying the ecosystem of the beaches. more info |
| Heron eats stingray for breakfast; 1st proof that birds eat rays Danny Dolan was out for a morning walk, camera in hand, when he spotted a great blue heron hunting in the shallows of the Mississippi Sound. more info |
| Pier Aquarium to move into brand new facility at John's Pass on Madeira Beach in late 2012 The Pier Aquarium will soon be moving away from its long-time home in downtown St. Petersburg to a brand new location at John's Pass Village on Madeira Beach. Aquarium officials making the announcement to relocate the Pinellas County attraction Tuesday morning. more info |
| Port of St. Pete eyed as research hub The city recently requested proposals for developing the under-utilized port, and those who responded all agreed the port is right-sized for research vessels. more info |
| Gulf wildlife one year later Nature is resilient and can recover from most catastrophic events, given enough time. Most scientists believe the Gulf will eventually recover, but when and at what costs? more info |
| Scientists Need Funds to Continue Spill-Related Research In Baton Rouge, Andrea Taylor Recher, spokeswoman for Governor Bobby Jindal's Office of Coastal Activities, said: The state is very committed to scientific research related to our coast and the oil spill. Through the NRDA process and many other actions, hundreds of millions of dollars in studies and assessments are underway to determine the impact of the spill on our natural resources. We are working with other Gulf states through the Gulf Research Initiative to provide additional research funding to our colleges and universities in the near term. more info |
| Mixed bag for Gulf wildlife year after BP spill The Gulf of Mexico is one of the country's most important habitats for birds , with more than 300 species living in or passing through it. There are 34 federally-protected species that call the Gulf home. more info |
| Web Extra: Michael DeGruy on disaster underwater in the Gulf Filmmaker and Oceanographer Michael DeGruy spoke with Piers Morgan last night about the situation underwater in the Gulf of Mexico one year after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded. DeGruy says the coral near the well head is stressed and dying. He doesn't think the damage is done. more info |
| Scientists surprised, cautious over environment's apparent post-oil spill recovery With the caveat that much remains unknown — and problems could still emerge at any time — scientists said their worst fears had so far not been realized. more info |
| USM researchers focus on seafood safety, oil lurking in Gulf The numerous bottles inside the freezer contain water and organisms that were collected from the Gulf of Mexico. USM researchers want to know if the fish, shrimp and oyster samples have been exposed to molecules found in crude oil called Polycyclic Aromatic HydroCarbons, or PAH. more info |
| Scientists Brew 'Green' Dispersants in Gulf Spill's Wake There was no chance for their surfactant, early in development, to be used during the spill. But the concept was so well received that, by late August, the National Science Foundation had fast-tracked grants to Somasundaran, along with scientists at Louisiana State University and Iowa State University, to brew and test their green dispersants against Corexit 9500, the chemical widely used during the spill. Modular Genetics would lead the effort. more info |
| BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Wildlife Update: Roseate Spoonbills Despite the fact that the oil spill’s affect on the species is still largely unknown, it seems that the blushing birds largely escaped the worst of it. more info |
| Shorebird nesting season off to good start in Fla. Scientists also are looking ahead to sea turtle nesting season, which begins May 1. They say the number of turtle nests was down last year, likely because of the oil spill and the commotion caused by cleanup crews. more info |
| Public Offer Opinions about Post-Spill Gulf Restoration President Obama's Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force listened Monday to environmentalists and residents suggestions on what to do in healing the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon disaster a year ago. more info |
| Tulane researcher to discuss public health implications of Gulf oil spill at OU lecture A researcher from a New Orleans-based university will visit Oklahoma and discuss the public health implications of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Eleven Year-Old's Drawings Raise $175,000 For Gulf Coast Birds As you all are aware of, the oil spill in the Gulf is devistating (sic). My mom has already donated a lot of money to help, but I have an idea that may also help. I am a decent drawer, and I was wondering if I could sell some bird paintings and give the profits to your organization. more info |
| Sobering trip finds marshes still polluted from spill At the mouth of the Mississippi River, where Pass a Loutre meets the Gulf of Mexico, two state leaders dig in the marsh with their hands Tuesday, and quickly find oil from the BP spill just under the surface. more info |
| ‘SEAFOOD WITH CERTAINTY': Gulf Wild is born in Destin The Gulf of Mexico's Reef Fish Shareholders' Alliance brought in Top Chef Masters finalist Rick Moonen to speak about his dedication to sustainability, the safety of the Gulf's seafood and perform a cooking demonstration using that very seafood. more info |
| As PR crises go, it doesn't get any bigger Speaking at this year's Public Relations Institute annual conference, Mr Chapman, a BP veteran of 17 years, took delegates deep inside the communications challenges of what he described as a "corporate, environmental and human crisis". more info |
| Scientists find higher-than-normal mortality rates in waters affected by spill State biologists collected more than 2,000 oysters in the mortality study. They said they are not sure what caused the oysters to die. However, they say it is possible fresh water diversions affected the salinity of the water -- since the closer to land and the diversions, the worse the mortality rate appeared to be. more info |
| New Web Series Asks the Question: Is the Seafood Safe? The Food Channel® (foodchannel.com) is releasing a WebTV video that takes a look at the future of seafood following the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill which began a year ago, April 20, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico. The film crew shot in New Orleans, La., over a ten day period, checking the pulse of the region's fishing industry and talking to the people who make their living from it. more info |
| CNN Student News Transcript: April 20, 2011 Returning 10 months later, the Louisiana governor's office gave me an exclusive and disturbing look inside this damaged ecosystem. I could still see oil everywhere, sticking to the plants. more info |
| Oil From BP Spill Found on Dead Dolphins in Gulf of Mexico "The northern Gulf of Mexico is no stranger to dolphin mortality deaths," said Blair Mase, a regional marine mammal stranding coordinator for NOAA, referring to deaths researchers consider unexplained. "Since 1990 we've had 11 dolphin mortality events in the Gulf, so it does occur with regularity. What's so unusual about this case is that we've seen a sustained increase in dolphin mortalities since February 2010. So we're particularly concerned." more info |
| Science May Be Murky in the Gulf for Years But the Gulf of Mexico and its coastal wetlands are vastly complicated ecosystems. Scientists had incomplete information on them before the BP oil spill a year ago today, and it will be years before they can start to draw conclusions about the impact of the millions of barrels of oil that spewed into the Gulf. more info |
| Cuba vows to stress safety in search for offshore oil The oil platform expected to begin drilling this summer in Cuban waters of the Gulf of Mexico is one of the "world's safest and most modern" and will operate under "very strict" regulations, a senior government engineer said here Tuesday. more info |
| Public invited to give input on Gulf Coast restoration The Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program is hosting a public meeting on Gulf of Mexico restoration strategies from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Congressman Solomon P. Ortiz International Center. more info |
| One Year Later…How’s the Gulf Doing?. A year after the worst oil spill to strike U.S. waters, oyster beds are struggling along the Gulf of Mexico, the dolphin population is experiencing what the federal government calls an “unusual mortality event,” and red snapper with rotting fins are showing up on fishing lines. WSJ’s Jeff Ball joins us to discuss why scientists aren’t prepared to totally blame the BP oil spill for these problems just yet. more info |
| NASA To Leverage Nebula For Gulf Ecosystem Project The center's Applied Science and Technology Project Office (ASTPO) has been using the results of NASA Earth Science research to address issues identified by a partnership of five states in the Gulf region called the Gulf of Mexico Alliance, according to a post on NASA's Nebula blog. more info |
| Cost to coast unclear Washing birds off is more dramatic, but problems with food sources — seafood and vegetation — can also have a long term impact on waterfowl populations. That, too, can take time to determine. more info |
| What will you discover? Dauphin Island Sea Lab's Discovery Day this Saturday Sat. April 16th 10am-2pm Featuring FREE CHILDREN’S ADMISSION TO ESTUARIUM more info |
| Ocean Connections: National Environmental Education Week This week (April 10-17, 2011) is National Environmental Education Week, the nation’s largest environmental education event held each year the week before Earth Day to inspire environmental learning and stewardship among students and the public. more info |
| GCRL plans Earth Day celebration The University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast Research Laboratory will host a free Earth Day Celebration for the community from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the lab, 703 East Beach Drive in Ocean Springs. more info |
| Cold hard data vs warm baby dolphins Much of the drama that drives these stories to the front page arises out of potential links to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill last year. It’s important to critically evaluate these sorts of reports, however, and not to allow traditional press/media to create causal relationships for us, based on an editor’s impression of a perceived correlation. more info |
| Water reuse is South Florida priority, no matter how icky it sounds Using highly treated sewage to water lawns or to recharge the region's water supply may not sound appealing, but water reuse has become a crucial component for communities under pressure to conserve drinking water and to end the discharge of treated wastewater into the ocean. more info |
| Junior Wildlife Champions Promote Positive Change Increasing children’s awareness of current events can be easy and educational, especially if you empower them to make positive changes in their own ways. There are also fun, new tools to help teachers and parents enhance their children’s science education. more info |
| 'I'd stake my reputation on it': Gulf fishing alliance introduces new brand Local restaurateurs, seafood dealers and fishermen joined forces with the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders Alliance to promote Gulf seafood through a new tagging and tracking system called TransparenSea and under the new “Gulf Wild” name. more info |
| Clips from HBO documentary Saving Pelican 895 More than 7,000 birds were killed as a result of the oil spill that spread through the Gulf of Mexico following the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in April 2010. In "Saving Pelican 895," HBO documentary filmmakers present the story of the 895th surviving oiled pelican to be rescued by the Fort Jackson Oiled Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Louisiana. more info |
| Bluefin Tuna Catch a (Small) Break The hooks are simply thinner than usual, and bend under the weight of a bluefin, whose average size when caught in the gulf is 485 pounds. The hooks still work for yellowfin tuna and swordfish, which weigh a lot less. Fishing for bluefin in the gulf has been illegal since the 1980s, but longline boats often catch them without meaning to. Whether landed or released, the bluefin die. more info |
| Spill-related health concerns persist Oil-spill cleanup workers and commercial divers are the most prone to high levels of cancer-causing chemicals believed to be related to the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, according to tests from an independent group of chemists, advocates and doctors. more info |
| Oily birds the inspiration for science fair project The 15-year-old Archbishop MacDonald high school students presented their findings Saturday morning at the Edmonton Regional Science Fair where their project, called Novel Concepts to Decontaminating Oiled Birds, attracted a steady stream of curious judges. more info |
| Artwork highlights devastation The interactive exhibit, simply called "Spill IT," deals with the environmental and economic impact of the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Magnitude 6.5 Earthquake : 2011 Mexico News A magnitude 6.5 earthquake hit Veracruz, Mexico at 6:11 AM Pacific time today, April 7, 2011. Veracruz, Mexico is located in the central part of the state on the Gulf of Mexico. Veracruz is a major port city which happens to be the oldest and largest port city in Mexico. Because of the depth of the earthquake, no injuries or fatalities were reported. more info |
| Carl Safina Studies ‘Saving The Ocean’ Marine biologist Carl Safina is an optimist, though. In his new PBS series “Saving the Ocean,” Safina turns his attention on promising conservation efforts around the world, from rebounding cod stocks off New England, to an Islamic conservation movement in a poor fishing community in Zanzibar. more info |
| Atlanta radio personality Paul Leslie runs to benefit Alabama Coastal Foundation "They want to help support our cause and it also will hopefully raise some much needed funds to help with our work in continuing to get information to the public in the aftermath of the oil spill as well as our education and habitat programs which are ongoing." more info |
| New study warns on coral reef diversity Over a two-year period, researchers gathered biological field data from nearly 2000 reef sites worldwide detailing fish species' weight, size and abundance, enabling them to calculate the cumulative weight of individual reefs (standing biomass). These results were then compared against demographic data. more info |
| 10 Ways to Help Students Ask Better Questions Students have spent hours learning the art of questioning. Here are ten things I've done in class to encourage students to ask better questions: more info |
| Gulf Coast beaches clean of 2010’s oil spill After days of walking the beaches, driving almost 900 miles, and talking to countless residents and visitors from Grand Isle, La., to the Florida Panhandle — the coastal band most affected by the catastrophe — here is what I found. more info |
| Sea Lab center gets the gold The $4.5 million facility on Dauphin Island is the first LEED Gold certified building in south Alabama, according to John Dindo, assistant director of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. more info |
| Weeks Bay Day Celebrates Reserve's 25th Anniversary Coastal conservation took a significant step in 1986 when the Weeks Bay watershed in Baldwin County was added to the National Estuarine Research Reserves System, which encompasses more than 1.3 million acres of coastal and estuarine habitat in 28 reserves located in 22 states and Puerto Rico. more info |
| Fewer than 50 percent of Lafourche, Terrebonne homes have flood insurance Fewer than 50 percent of households and businesses in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes have flood insurance policies, according to parish officials. But parish officials say that's not enough in a community that faces flooding threats from heavy rainfall, river flooding and an increasing threat of storm surge as wetlands erode away and the Gulf of Mexico continues to march further inland. more info |
| Art inspires hope for cleaner seas It is part of a collaboration with Hurley and the charity H.O.P.E., or Helping Other People Everywhere, which promotes education and peace through social projects. Boyd, 35, created the sea-inspired, hand-drawn images for the special collection of tees and water bottles to raise awareness about humans' impact on the oceans. more info |
| Ohio students learn at Ala. beach Joan Miller, an eighth grade teacher, wanted to teach her visual art students about our area. The students were initially going to take a field trip to the Kentucky Aquarium to learn about nature. Lucy Buffet then offered a chance to experience the Gulf Coast and wildlife first hand. Buffet will fund housing and food for the students during their stay along with entertainment. more info |
| MRH Eighth-Graders Learn About Marine Ecology and History in Alabama Trip On Monday, the students hopped aboard the Alabama Discovery, a research vessel, to learn about more than a dozen species of wildlife and to talk about the ecology of the area, Dillon said. The school is working in conjunction with the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, which has deployed coordinators to travel with the group. more info |
| Oil from last summer's spill evaporated, dissipated or was soaked up, says scientist Graham’s speech to about 200 young graduate students at the Southeastern Ecology and Evolution Conference dealt with how scientists engage the public in the midst of a crisis. more info |
| ONLY ONE OCEAN CD by the Banana Slug String Band Wins Parents’ Choice Award ONLY ONE OCEAN, the brand new children’s educational music CD by the Banana Slug String Band, has been awarded a 2011 Parents’ Choice Award. Established in 1978, Parents’ Choice is the nation's oldest nonprofit guide to quality children's media and toys. more info |
| MacGillivray Freeman Films launches global campaign to protect ocean The campaign is focused on two primary goals to achieve by 2020. One World One Ocean will advocate for at least 10 percent of the world's oceans to be set aside as national and international marine sanctuaries. Currently just 1 percent of the ocean is protected compared to 12 percent of protected land around the world, which is preserved through national parks, monuments and world heritage sites. One World One Ocean will also fund conservation projects aimed at changing the way people eat sea life, which has been decimated by over-fishing and pollution. more info |
| Sanibel Sea School, BIG ARTS present 'Bag It,' Q & A with film's director The Sanibel Sea School and BIG ARTS present the 2010 Blue Ocean Film Festival winner "Bag It," followed by question-and-answer session with the film's director, Suzan Beraza. BLUE Ocean Film Festival is a global film festival and conservation summit for underwater filmmakers and marine researchers. more info |
| Earth, We Have a Problem -- Failure Is Not an Option Today, we are threatened with many challenges that science has labeled our planetary boundaries. In an article in Nature, Johan Rocstrom and his co-authors argue that to avoid catastrophic environmental change, humanity must stay within defined planetary boundaries. If one boundary is transgressed, then safe levels for other processes could also be under serious risk. The planetary boundaries include: climate change, ocean acidification, atmospheric aerosol loading, chemical pollution, land system changes, ozone depletion, overload of phosphorus and nitrates, and decreasing fresh water resources. more info |
| US to share BP oil spill lessons at international forum The United States will share with officials from at least a dozen countries information on how to "put together and put in place strategies for responding to blow-outs," Hayes said. more info |
| U.S. eyes more rules to prevent oil blowouts The U.S. government is weighing more safety standards for blowout preventers on oil-drilling rigs, after a probe uncovered a possible design flaw that may have helped to cause last year's massive Gulf oil spill, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said on Tuesday. more info |
| Endangered Species Act Protection Sought for Nation’s Smallest Seahorse The Center for Biological Diversity today filed a petition seeking Endangered Species Act protection for the dwarf seahorse, a one-inch long seahorse that lives in seagrass beds in the Gulf of Mexico, Florida and the Caribbean. The seahorse is threatened with extinction due to pollution from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, decline of seagrass throughout its range and commercial collection. more info |
| Galveston has little to fear from tsunami The chance of a tsunami crashing into Galveston Island and surging up the Houston Ship Channel is low based on available information, but it could still happen, a scientist at a tsunami conference here said. more info |
| U.S. scientists find 2,000-year-old coral near BP Gulf well "The fact that the animals live continuously for thousands of years amazes me," Nancy Prouty, a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey said in announcing the findings, which are part of several ongoing coral studies. more info |
| Sea turtle deaths up along Gulf, joining dolphin trend "In the past couple of weeks, we've seen an increase" in turtle deaths in the northern Gulf, Connie Barclay, a spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told msnbc.com. more info |
| Will Earth day be overshadowed by another environmental disaster? Richter encouraged everyone to use this year's Earth Day to speak out about the environmental issues that they care about. "They should be thinking about their grandchildren and the world that those children are going to get left with," he said. "People need to let their government know, let their representatives know, that they are very concerned about this issue and they are going to hold their representatives accountable for their actions." more info |
| The Sun Can Power More Than Just Smiles Yes, it’s that simple — and practical! Alternate energy resources are not pie-in-the-sky, they are reasonable and affordable and will enable you to free yourself from a tradition you may not be so happy with. more info |
| Oil-Eating Bacteria Engineered SKIMMING, CONTROLLED BURNS AND DISPERSANTS ARE SOME OF THE MAIN TOOLS USED TO CONTROL BIG OFFSHORE OIL SPILLS LIKE THE APRIL 2010 SPILL IN THE GULF OF MEXICO. BUT ONCE THE OIL GETS ON SHORE OR INTO MARSHLAND, IT POSES A MUCH DIFFERENT SET OF PROBLEMS. more info |
| Gulf mammal deaths likely far higher than body count, scientists say The scientists urge environmentalists and authorities not to rely solely on observed carcass counts in judging the severity of an event, but to develop standard formulas for more accurate estimates. more info |
| Nancy Rabalais’s Revelle Lecture looks at Gulf of Mexico oil disaster Nancy Rabalais, executive director and a professor at the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, will present “Troubled Waters in the Gulf of Mexico” at 4 p.m. on April 5. more info |
| FWC Biologists Discover New Species in Hillsborough County Fisherman's Catch A scientific publication released Thursday officially announced the discovery of Chromodoris fentoni, a type of shell-less snail known as a nudibranch (pronounced “nu-da-brank”). more info |
| Gifted students learn about birds The 43 students from Oak Grove Middle School spend one day a week at the center learning about birds as part of an ornithology unit. more info |
| 2,000 Year-old Deep-sea Black Corals call Gulf of Mexico Home For the first time, scientists have been able to validate the age of deep-sea black corals in the Gulf of Mexico. They found the Gulf is home to 2,000 year-old deep-sea black corals, many of which are only a few feet tall. more info |
| Mexico-USA Water Crises all along the Rio Grande As World Water Day came and went last week, Mexican officials once again sounded the alarm over the depletion and contamination of water resources in the northern border region. In Matamoros, Tamaulipas, a public utility official reminded residents that the Rio Grande, which historically entered the Gulf of Mexico outside Matamoros, was one of the world's waterways in danger of "extinction." more info |
| Marine education is just a mouse-click away The internet revolution has led to the proliferation of accessible web-based educational resources more info |
| La. pushes to get BP money for Gulf restoration Louisiana's congressional delegation is making a new push to get money from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill dedicated to restoring the Gulf Coast. more info |
| Snorkeling reef to be installed at Pensacola Beach next week Escambia County Marine Resources Division is expected to begin installing a long-awaited snorkeling reef in the Gulf of Mexico off of Pensacola Beach next week, weather permitting. more info |
| Tornado watch in effect for Tampa Bay A tornado watch was in effect for Tampa Bay until 8 p.m. Wednesday as severe weather moved into the region from the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Gulf Guardian nominations sought; program honors those protecting waters Nominations for Gulf Guardian awards will be accepted through Thursday to recognize businesses, community groups, individuals and organizations that take extraordinary steps to keep the Gulf of Mexico healthy, beautiful and productive, program organizers said. more info |
| Warm water causes extra-cold winters in northeastern North America and northeastern Asia Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have now found a mechanism that helps explain these chillier winters—and the culprit is warm water off the eastern coasts of these continents. more info |
| Obama Lays Out Plan to Cut Reliance on Fuel Imports President Obama called on Wednesday for a one-third reduction in oil imports over the next decade, and said the effort had to begin immediately. In a speech at Georgetown University , the president said that the United States cannot go on consuming one- quarter of the world’s oil production while posessing only two percent of global reserves. more info |
| Forum to focus on tsunami impacts “The top tsunami experts in the world will gather here in Galveston to discuss the best techniques for modeling tsunami propagation and how we can improve the accuracy of tsunami predictions such as arrival time, wave height and flooding,” Panchang said. more info |
| Crisis management puts huge strains on firms, CEOs Crisis managers say TEPCO is facing one of the most challenging forms of corporate disaster -- potentially open- ended and endangering health and human life. As oil giant BP (BP.L) found in last year's Gulf of Mexico oil spill, that can be a very uncomfortable place to be. more info |
| Water issues worry Americans most, global warming least, says new Gallup poll Water issues worry Americans most – loss of open space and global warming worry Americans least – according to a new Gallup poll. more info |
| Gulf of Mexico Alliance Welcomes AG Associations The Gulf of Mexico Alliance's (Alliance) newest partnership with members of the Southern Association of Agricultural Experiment Station Directors (SAAESD) and Association of Southern Region Extension Directors (ASRED) will expand efforts to balance agricultural needs with improved water quality. more info |
| Marsh provides backdrop for Moss Point fourth-graders' watershed education The marsh at the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve was the backdrop for Moss Point fourth-graders to learn about the watershed - and to have some fun. more info |
| Red tide hurts, but could it also cure diseases? Aside from making healthy people cough and wheeze, red tide can have serious health consequences, scientists have documented after a decade of research. Just one hour of exposure to red tide causes people with asthma -- about 6 to 10 percent of the population -- to suffer breathing problems for up to a week. more info |
| Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative To implement the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, BP has entered into an agreement with the Gulf of Mexico Alliance, a partnership of the states of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. The alliance has worked for several years on issues such as water quality, habitat conservation, ecosystem integration and coastal community resilience. more info |
| Government tightens lid on dolphin death probe The U.S. government is keeping a tight lid on its probe into scores of unexplained dolphin deaths along the Gulf Coast, possibly connected to last year's BP oil spill, causing tension with some independent marine scientists. more info |
| Accepting Nominations for the 2011 Gulf Guardian Awards! The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Gulf of Mexico Program partnership developed the Gulf Guardian awards as a way to recognize and honor the businesses, community groups, individuals, and organizations that are taking extraordinary steps to keep the Gulf healthy, beautiful and productive. more info |
| U.S. Coast Guard Says Tests Link Spill to Anglo-Suisse Well The U.S. Coast Guard said samples of oil that washed up on Louisiana beaches last weekend match crude that Anglo-Suisse Offshore Partners LLC reported spilling from one of its Gulf of Mexico wells. more info |
| Flooded farmland didn't keep ducks out of marshes Flooding farmland after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill didn't keep migrating ducks from flocking to coastal marshes but did provide essential inland wetlands during a major drought, a Louisiana state waterfowl expert said. more info |
| NOAA, FDA Continue to Re-test Gulf Seafood and Post Results NOAA continues to re-test seafood from the Gulf of Mexico to demonstrate to American and worldwide consumers that it is safe to eat, and announced today it will continue this re-testing into the summer. more info |
| Oil Drilling to Resume in the Gulf’s Deep Waters The Interior Department said Monday that it had approved the first new deepwater drilling permit in the Gulf of Mexico since the BP explosion and spill last spring, a milestone after a period of intense uncertainty for industry and a wholesale remaking of the nation’s system of offshore oil and gas regulation. more info |
| Large Intl Presence in Sciences Convention in Cuba Experts in geology, geophysics and mining from the five continents will attend the 4th Cuban Convention of Earth Sciences (Geociencias 2011) to be held in Havana on April 4-8. more info |
| Texas' two decades of oil spill readiness When the Deepwater Horizon undersea oil rig blew out in the Gulf of Mexico last year, adjacent Texas had an advantage no other coastal state can claim — an oil spill response program with pre-positioned equipment, expertise and most importantly, well-rehearsed plans for protecting our state's waters. more info |
| New sightings of apparent oil near Chandeleur islands reported from flyover Even as officials tried to determine the source of weathered oil near Grand Isle, whole new swaths of what could be fresh surface oil have popped up on the other side of the Mississippi River, in the open water between the delicate coastal bayous and the sandy crescent-shaped Chandeleur barrier islands. more info |
| Dawn® Launches a Junior Wildlife Champions Program to Help Educate Future Generations In conjunction with its long-standing partners, International Bird Rescue (Bird Rescue) and The Marine Mammal Center, Dawn collaborated with Discovery Education, the leading provider of high quality curriculum-based digital content whose services are available in more than half of U.S. schools, to help provide teachers and families with new in-class lesson plans and at-home activities that teach youths and encourage them to explore the issues and get involved in their own ways. more info |
| World Water Day Brings a Flood of Corporate Commitments Shoemaker Teva launched a shopping-based program today that will find the company protecting one linear foot of global waterways for each pair of Teva products sold in 2011. The company will donate to nonprofits including the Ocean Conservancy and the Waterkeeper Alliance to protect as much as 4.3 million feet of waterways. more info |
| Trash Free Seas: 25 Years of Snapshots of this Global Problem Ocean Conservancy is releasing today a new report titled “Tracking Trash: 25 Years of Action for the Ocean.” This milestone report compiles data and stories about trash in the ocean, known as marine debris, for every participating state and country, collected from 2010 and as well as 25 years of International Coastal Cleanups—the largest volunteer effort for the ocean. The report also highlights solutions from individuals to inspire behavior change and from companies to accelerate product innovation. more info |
| Cormorants show up in big numbers over coastal areas Huge flocks of cormorants have taken up residence in a few locations around Dauphin Island this year, part of an annual migration that brings the birds each winter. This year, say some in the birding world, it seems like there are more than ever. more info |
| Gulf of Mexico oil spill 2010: Much oil never made it to the surface, scientists say The 40th annual Benthic Ecology Meeting was held at the Renaissance Riverview Plaza this week, drawing about 600 scientists from around the nation who study the creatures that live along the seafloor. The meeting was sponsored by the Dauphin Island Sea Lab and the University of South Alabama more info |
| Alton Brown celebrates the soul of gumbo on Dauphin Island Alton Brown, host of the Food Network’s popular “Good Eats,” lays great store by his ability to explain — in great detail — the science behind why foods taste and cook up the way they do. more info |
| A small sanctuary on a very small Alabama island I want to express my love and appreciation for a little known wildlife refuge on Dauphin Island. It is the Audubon Sanctuary that provides an amazing variety of ecosystems. There is no admission fee, and the site is enjoyed by residents and visitors from throughout the world. more info |
| 800 bags: 400 mangrove seedlings, 400 marsh grass Volunteers plan to set out 800 burlap bags filled with soil, inoculated with oil-eating bacteria and planted with mangrove seedlings and marsh grasses in an area hit hard by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. more info |
| Coast Guard: Gulf sheen likely came from river The sheen is believed caused by “a tremendous amount of sediment being carried down the Mississippi River due to high water,” some of it related to recent heavy rains in the Midwest and “possibly further agitated by dredging operations,” Coast Guard officials said. Reports of a sheen in Timbalier Bay, near Grand Isle, Fourchon Beach and Elmer's Island, are also being investigated and some areas have been boomed off. Jefferson Parish said Sunday that well south of Grand Isle had released oil for 4-6 hours before being plugged. However, no well fires were reported around Grand Isle, and no injuries were reported. more info |
| Mercurial Mysteries “My research is focusing on methylmercury because it is the form of mercury that actually moves through the food web,” says Rumbold, “and people are exposed to it almost entirely by eating fish or other aquatic wildlife that are at the top of that food web.” more info |
| Scientists Release Air Quality Data From Gulf Oil Spill De Gouw says these heavier compounds are not usually measured in conventional air quality monitoring programs, which are designed to capture other contaminants like carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and ozone. The study, reported in the Journal Science, may also shed light on why there are more organic aerosols in polluted air than scientists can explain. more info |
| Nature exhibits rebuilt after Katrina back in place at Davis Bayou center And today, they will be open to the public for the first time in an open-house celebration from 10 a.m. to noon. The formal name of the building is William M. Colmer Visitor Center. more info |
| Loker Kindergartners 'Solve' Marine Mystery The Fishes/Sandlers have been performing their educational acts for 33 years. Their tour has taken them to 20 countries, including Indonesia and Samoa. more info |
| New Report--25 Years of Tracking Ocean Trash part of its Trash Free Seas campaign, Ocean Conservancy is releasing the only annual global snapshot of the problem of trash in our ocean in a report titled “Talking Trash: 25 Years of Action for the Ocean” on Tuesday, March 22. It provides a 25-year look at the trash and other marine debris found on beaches and in the water. The report will be used to educate the public and leaders in government and industry to make strides in preventing marine debris from choking our ocean and waterways. more info |
| Samohi Students Participate in National Student Summit “The summit is designed to teach high school students about the interconnectedness between the ocean, Great Lakes, inland seas, and climate with particular focus on climate change,” according to the summit’s website. more info |
| API to establish offshore safety center in Houston A petroleum industry group plans to establish a center for offshore safety in Houston nearly a year after a disastrous BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Website in works to track seaweed to Galveston Researchers plan to launch a website next year that could help forecast how much seaweed ends up on Southeast Texas beaches. more info |
| DI mayor told there is minor leak in gulf Dauphin Island Mayor Jeff Collier said he was e-mailed information from two sources by a member of Dauphin Island's chamber about a possible leak in the Gulf. One source was from upstate Alabama and the other was from a Coast Guard source. more info |
| Oyster testing can reflect oil spill impact on Pensacola Bay Emerald Coastkeeper and the City of Gulf Breeze are monitoring oysters to measure whether the long-term impact from pockets of submerged oil could be hazardous to the health of the Pensacola Bay. more info |
| Are lionfish coming to a plate near you? tropical fish native to Indonesian waters has now established itself as a permanent resident of the Gulf and south Atlantic, scientists say, posing a threat to valuable commercial and recreational fish like red snapper. more info |
| BP Chief Says Industry Must Change to Guard Against Spills In his first public address to oil industry executives since becoming chief of BP, Robert Dudley said the entire industry needed to change to prevent another devastating deepwater oil spill like the one BP suffered last year. more info |
| On the Mark: Advertising means more than just getting them here Collier County has grown and prospered because of our prime amenity, the Gulf of Mexico. Not only are the beaches a sought after destination, but so are boating and a myriad of other saltwater-related sports. Tourists flock here to spend a week, a month, or a season in what many consider a paradise. more info |
| Five-mile wide suspected oil slick spotted just north of Deepwater Horizon explosion site Officials have confirmed there is a five-mile wide spill of some substance in the Gulf of Mexico, but have not yet identified it. more info |
| Study suggests alternative treatment for bacteria in oysters A joint study by local oyster growers and researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science shows that moving farmed oysters into saltier waters just prior to harvest nearly eliminates the presence of a bacterium that can sicken humans. more info |
| Can art help us understand environmental disaster? Simon Stevens, spokesperson for Invisible Dust, the charity that commissioned HeHe, argues that society is inured to environmental disasters because of constant media coverage. He believes that art is critical in helping us to focus our understanding of past events: "Art goes beyond the headlines, it gives you the space and the freedom to think without the commentary." more info |
| Over 50,000 Sharks Poached in the U.S. Gulf, but Some Good News for Embattled Apex Predators Of the 26 – 73 million sharks killed each year for their fins, the Washington Post yesterday reported that over 50,000 sharks are poached from the U.S. waters in the Gulf of Mexico (this number is based on a 2005 study, so likely many more are killed). The Mexican fishermen who catch these sharks risk confiscation of their boats and capture by the U.S. Coast Guard because sharks fins are such a valuable commodity. more info |
| Florida Senate passes oil spill recovery measure The Florida Senate has unanimously passed a bill designed to help the Florida Panhandle diversify its economy after last year's Gulf of Mexico oil spill dealt a severe blow to its tourism industry. more info |
| Rare shark spotted off Panama City Beach Walkers and fishers on the pier Thursday afternoon were privy to an astounding sight, as a basking shark, about 15 feet long, meandered around the Russell-Fields Pier. more info |
| Lowly Rangia clam as oil-sucking hero? Researchers aim to find out The lowly Rangia clam, so common in the waters of Lake Pontchartrain, Lake Maurepas and other brackish bodies of water in the South, may take on a new role if studies at Southeastern Louisiana University determine the organism can actually contribute to helping clean oil-polluted waters. Caitlyn Guice, a junior chemistry major from Prairieville, has received a $2,300 Louisiana Sea Grant Undergraduate Research Opportunities Grant to study the ability of the clam to remove hydrocarbon pollutants from natural water a[Euro]" like the oil that polluted the Gulf of Mexico last summer. more info |
| Hurricane names Igor, Tomas retired Two of the 19 storm names used in the busy 2010 season have been retired and won't reappear on the list of storms in future seasons. more info |
| More dead dolphins have scientists looking for answers Institute of Marine Mammal Studies Director, Dr. Moby Solangi, told WLOX News that three other dolphins were found dead in Alabama yesterday. more info |
| As Cuba Prepares to Drill for Oil Offshore, New Report Urges Major Changes in U.S. Policy The Center for Democracy in the Americas is devoted to changing U.S. policy toward the countries of the Americas by basing our relations on mutual respect, fostering dialogue with those governments and movements with which U.S. policy is at odds, and recognizing positive trends in democracy and governance. more info |
| ‘Buddies’ help kids understand Then, Karen Thomason had an idea. Why not write a book, or a series of books to explain the spill to youngsters? They were seeing for themselves that the youngest children were scared and confused. more info |
| FOR KIDS: Gulf floor got slimed Memories of last year's mammoth oil spill may be fading, but on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, plenty of reminders persist. Patches of oil litter the seafloor. Some are small, like droplets that sprinkled down from above; others are thick carpets of oil. more info |
| Extent and Speed of Lionfish Spread Unprecedented The rapid spread of lionfishes along the U.S. eastern seaboard, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean is the first documented case of a non-native marine fish establishing a self-sustaining population in the region, according to recent U.S. Geological Survey studies. more info |
| Study: ‘Oil-based’ atmospheric plumes found near BP spill The University of Miami said Friday that a team of researchers led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found two plumes of “oil-based pollutants” in the atmosphere near the Deepwater Horizon rig site in the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Like oil and water in the gulf Cuba and its foreign partners will begin exploring for oil this year in the Gulf of Mexico. Drilling will take place as close as 50 miles from Florida and in sites deeper than BP's Macondo well, the source of last year's disaster. About 5 billion barrels of oil and 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas lie beneath the gulf in land belonging to Cuba, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. more info |
| Cousteau: A life of green action Environmental activist Philippe Cousteau is to explore the Arctic with CNN to show how scientists in the wilderness are studying climate change in one of the coldest places on the planet. more info |
| Global Ocean Race : A vital offshore racing environmental alliance is agreed A partnership between the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and the Global Ocean Race 2011-12 (GOR) was confirmed at the Solo Racing Festival held at the Royal Southern Yacht Club in Hamble, UK, over the weekend. This ground breaking initiative will include a green mandate for GOR teams during the double-handed, Class40 round the world race; a drive to raise awareness of collisions between yachts and whales; an international education programme and vital research and data collection by the GOR teams throughout the circumnavigation. more info |
| Oilenomics: Tampa Bay spill coverage It has been nearly a year since the Tampa Bay Business Journal’s first coverage of the BP oil spill, and while the well is capped and the story is less front of mind, there continues to be a range of issues surrounding the economic impact of the spill in Tampa Bay, despite no oil ever washing up on our beaches. more info |
| Don't forget about the children! It’s that time again…before you know it, hurricane season will be with us again. When making preparations, please don’t forget about involving the children in your preparedness activities so they too are ready! Each year tropical storms develop over the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico. Many stay over the ocean and never impact land, but in an average three-year period, roughly five hurricanes strike the U.S. coastline. more info |
| Legislators to focus on recovering from oil spill Last year's Deepwater Horizon oil spill was an economic and environmental disaster for the Gulf of Mexico and the coastal states that border it. In Florida, the pollution and public relations fallout hit hardest in the westernmost parts of the state. more info |
| DAUPHIN ISLAND SEA LAB "BOARDWALK TALKS" Come to the Estuarium to participate in a dialog with the experts at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. The Northern Gulf Institute presents a series of informal chats encompassing science in the Gulf of Mexico region. These brief talks are free and the series will examine a broad range of topics. On Wednesday, March 16 from 11:15-11:45 a.m. more info |
| Scientists debate cause of dolphin deaths Marine scientists are debating whether 80-plus bottlenose dolphins found dead along the US Gulf Coast since January were more likely to have died from last year's oil spill or a winter cold snap. more info |
| Cold water influx in Gulf may have delivered fatal blow to dead dolphins A combination of factors probably led to this year’s rash of dolphin deaths, although plumes of cold water that entered Mobile Bay in January and February may have delivered the killing blow, according to one of the Gulf’s foremost dolphin scientists. more info |
| Education Service Center Region 2 unveils center for early childhood education Coastal Bend students will soon be able to explore the arctic, ocean and rain forest without leaving South Texas. more info |
| Science education: News coverage of tsunami offers students 'real life' lesson Some students are asking questions about the effects tsunamis have on fish and marine animals. According to NOAA.gov, more info |
| Gulf oil spill gives a glimpse into the source of atmospheric aerosols Atmospheric aerosols (particles with radii of 1µm or less) can reflect sunlight and provide a surface area for chemical reactions to occur (e.g., they enhance chlorine’s ability to destroy ozone), and water condenses on their surface to modify cloud particles. An understanding of aerosol composition and formation is absolutely essential for predicting the impact of pollution and formulating sound environmental regulations. more info |
| Louisiana wildlife advocates meeting March 18 in Alexandria Conservation groups, sportsmen, environmentalists and natural resource management professionals from throughout Louisiana will convene in Alexandria the weekend of March 18 for the Louisiana Wildlife Federation's 72nd annual convention. more info |
| Sharks - A Multiplex of Crisis & Hope For over 450 million years and older than the dinosaurs, and surviving 5 major extinctions, sharks have shaped and balanced the delicate ocean ecosystem reigning at the top of the food chain as the ultimate Apex predator. But within the last few decades humans have drastically depleted the oceans of sharks with most governments turning a blind eye to the mass slaughter of the species. more info |
| Gulf of Mexico is a treasure to protect: Frances Beinecke In it, we laid out specific recommendations on essential steps needed to protect our workers and our waters from the risks of offshore oil production. We were unanimous in our recommendations, reflecting solid agreement among all seven members of our bipartisan commission. more info |
| A Bird’s Eye View: March 11, 2011 The light is clear and the vague outline of the sun is coming through the gray sky as a brown pelican, the poster bird for the Gulf oil spill, is cruising barely inches above the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| UF researchers begin mission Friday to study Gulf of Mexico biodiversity A group of 23 researchers led by University of Florida scientist Gustav Paulay will leave from St. Petersburg Friday on an expedition to survey the biodiversity of the Gulf of Mexico’s ocean floor. more info |
| Chance of devastating tsunami small in Florida Such catastrophic waves are unlikely but not impossible for Florida and the nation's East Coast, according tsunami researchers, while Caribbean island dwellers have more reason to be wary more info |
| Two new reefs form from bridge debris More than 8,000 tons of debris from the demolished fishing bridge have been deposited in the Gulf of Mexico on Gilchrist Reef, according to Escambia County Marine Resource Officer Robert Turpin. Eight barge loads have filled the reef to capacity, and there is now enough debris for two more reefs. more info |
| The Health of the Gulf: Fishermen and Oilmen Clash "Right now, with this new season beginning to unfold, we're likely to see more impacts," he said. "BP wants to settle, settle, settle. But people who study the Gulf and actually understand it know that the impacts will be felt in different ways for different species long after BP's liability will have been discharged." more info |
| Governor Bentley Announces BP Funds for Gulf Coast Tourism Promotion The $16 Million BP grant is specifically designated for promotion of tourism for Baldwin and Mobile counties, the two counties hit hardest by last year’s loss of tourism following the oil spill. As part of the agreement, Lee Sentell, Director of the Alabama Department of Tourism will administer the grant funds with the aid of the Alabama Coastal Development Commission (ACDC), an advisory commission formed for such purposes. The ACDC will develop, implement and plan the tourism promotion program and advise Sentell. more info |
| Whale Shark Feeding Frenzies Mystify, Enlighten Scientists The sharks live their lives largely out of the sight. Little is known about where they go and what they do when they aren't in shallow-water feeding groups like the ones in Mexican waters. Satellite tags, which beam back information about animals' whereabouts, have given some hints, said Robert Hueter, the director of the shark research center at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Florida. more info |
| EPA needs nominations for Gulf Guardian awards The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Gulf of Mexico Program is accepting nominations for its Gulf Guardian awards. more info |
| New Website Tracks Coastal, Ocean Investments and Successes by State NOAA’s Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management (OCRM) has launched a new interactive web page that shows the scope of coastal program investments and successes in NOAA’s 34 partner states and territories. more info |
| Despite our abuse, the Gulf keeps calling us The Gulf of Mexico, the eternal Gulf, nature supreme between Florida and Mexico, ninth-largest in the world, designated by scientists as sibling of the sprawling Atlantic, clings to sand-shored western Florida in everlasting seafaring heritage, ancestry and now worldwide inspection. more info |
| Gulf Shores council agrees to transportation hub In other business Monday, Gulf Shores officials discussed a proposal to launch a marine education program on the beach called Ocean Camp. more info |
| Skimming the Surface: A Birding Moment in Florida As I neared, I gazed at their uniform forward stares and proboscidean bills. If you’ve ever taken a long look at a skimmer, then you know its lower mandible is much longer than its upper. They have a serious and useful under bite. This long jaw they slice lightly through the water, and when they feel a fish, they dip their head, clamp their bill, snatch it up, and swallow. more info |
| Ocean Springs parents concerned about education funding "I agree that cuts have to be made, but we also need to think about the future," Wilson said. "If we're cutting our education, what does that leave us for our students as they become those leaders in our world?" more info |
| Celebrate Books: Children Book Festival The annual Children’s Book Festival presents, “Hair Raising Adventures in Reading,” at 2 and 7 p.m. Wednesday March 9 at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and at 4:30 p.m. at Del Mar College. more info |
| 2 parishes receive $900K in grants BOEMRE awarded four Coastal Impact Assistance Program grants totaling $1.3 million to Louisiana coastal communities for projects that prevent coastal erosion, develop conservation education opportunities and improve coastal transportation infrastructure. more info |
| Widespread cloud cover over Eastern U.S A slight risk for severe weather activity remains across portions of the eastern Gulf Coast region more info |
| Restoration up to locals, study says Recommendations from the DELTAS2010 study include reconnecting the Mississippi River with its natural delta and re-introducing fresh water sediment to the wetlands. more info |
| Migrating Birds Face Increasing Perils on Spring Journey As spring approaches, millions of birds will wing their way back to North America. Red knots near Tierra del Fuego will make a remarkable journey to the arctic tundra. Swainson's hawks leave their winter homes in Brazil and Argentina, flying north for up to 14,000 miles. Ruby-throated hummingbirds have already begun to make landfall after crossing the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Houma-Thibodaux and surrounding areas under flash-flood watch Terrebonne, Lafourche, Assumption and most of southeast Louisiana.are under a flash-flood watch through Wednesdayafternoon as heavy rain is expected starting tonight, according to the National Weather Service. more info |
| Expect to Hear More About Mississippi River Basin Initiative What does central and north-central Indiana have to do with the Mississippi River Basin? As far as NRCS is concerned, there is a strong connection. What happens in fields along watersheds far from the Mississippi eventually affects water quality in the Mississippi River. more info |
| Citizen Science to track lingering oil in the Gulf The Surfrider group has also diligently been collecting samples for long-term monitoring and ‘fingerprinting’ an oil signature to confirm origin from the Macondo well. They’ve been working hard to get funding from various organizations (when I met Michael in September they were doing this all on their own dime), and Patagonia has recently donated $25,000 to support their sediment testing work. more info |
| Rising seas imperil roads, ports, scientists say Their conclusion: With a conservative estimate of sea-level rise and erosion, in the next 20 years La. 1 will be flooding up to 30 times a year just from high tides, cutting off access to the trucks that supply the offshore industry and for residents of Grand Isle, Louisiana's only inhabited barrier island. more info |
| Gulf restoration task force says plan will address both BP oil spill effects and existing environmental problems The presidential Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force will have a first draft of its plan to address ecosystem restoration in the Gulf of Mexico by its next meeting in early May, commission staffers said Monday. more info |
| High schoolers to simulate Gulf oil spill robotics challenges During Wisconsin’s second annual Remotely Operated Vehicle competition, student teams from Waterford High School and The Prairie School will have to use student-designed remotely-controlled underwater robots to navigate simulated challenges similar to those faced by underwater robots used during the Gulf oil spill, according to a competition press release. more info |
| From Here to the Gulf: MWRD's own documents point to their pollution problem New documents have emerged that show the damage caused by a sewage pollution stream in the Chicago River that extends all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Florida amps efforts to boost consumer confidence in Gulf seafood Florida’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services plans to use USD 20 million obtained from BP over the next three years to improve its laboratories’ ability to inspect and boost public confidence in seafood harvested in the Gulf of Mexico since last year’s oil spill. more info |
| Sea turtle returned to Gulf of Mexico after 18 months of rehab “It’s a wonderful feeling to see this turtle go back to the sea,” Clausen said in the release. “We’re so glad the Flying Fish Fleet could help with the rescue. That’s what we’re here for.” more info |
| Urbandale teen uses Web to support mission in Gulf Then Campbell created Vampire Support to serve as a fundraising arm for various causes. She even received a $5,000 grant from Pepsi through its "Do Good for the Gulf" campaign. more info |
| UWA lands grant to study oil spill impact Three University of West Alabama professors in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics recently received a $45,310 grant from the Marine Environmental Sciences Consortium for study of the effects of the recent oil spill on Alabama’s gulf coast. more info |
| BP oil spill may be responsible for dolphin deaths Since the start of the year, 87 bottlenose dolphins have washed up on the coasts of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and along the Florida panhandle, Kim Amendola, a spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. That's about 12 times higher than typical strandings at this time of year more info |
| Sustainable Neighborhoods and Communities: Initiatives, Certifications, and Developments Many groups are working to advance the sustainability of neighborhoods and communities. In addition to various national organizations, local grassroots initiatives for community sustainability, resiliency, and energy independence are gaining steam around the country and the world. Check out the map/list of U.S. Transition initiatives (and see if one has been started near you), and to learn about ecovillages that have been established around the world, visit the Global Ecovillage Network website (click on “Find an Ecovillage” to search for communities in your region). more info |
| Dramatic coastal land loss projected Scientists and others say that without action to protect and restore Louisiana's coast, the Gulf of Mexico will cover large chunks of coastal parishes in 90 years. more info |
| Inspiring Young People to Care about the Environment I have gained new insight into how young people become interested in science and the environment by engaging young adults ages fifteen to twenty in hands-on environmental work through the Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) in Newport, Oregon. Programs like YCC can foster an increase in participants' feelings of emotional and physical connection with their surroundings and the natural world (Louie-Badua and Wolf, p.91). Crew members go through their personal journeys of discovery in which they push their own personal boundaries and learn new things about their surroundings. more info |
| Dolphin, Manatee Deaths Baffle Scientists Near-record numbers of manatees have died in Florida waters in early 2011, the second straight year of above-average deaths, alarming officials who are also puzzled by a surge in dolphin fatalities along the Gulf Coast. more info |
| HISD students learning power of green energy At Washington High School, students are not only generating their own electricity, they're also using their resources to help out the school. more info |
| Costco Pulls Threatened Fish from Stores Among the fish being pulled from display cases are Atlantic cod, Atlantic halibut, Chilean sea bass, grouper, monkfish, redfish, swordfish and bluefin tuna. Sales of these and other at-risk species will not resume until a sustainable source can be identified, the company said in a statement. more info |
| National Wildlife Week March 14-20, 2011 Celebrate National Wildlife Week by doing what comes naturally. Whatever you do--at home, school or play--do it outdoors and have fun! Climb trees, chase butterflies, dig in the dirt and celebrate nature. You’ll become healthier, happier and more connected to the world around you. more info |
| BRAIN FACT: Development Of Children's Brains Is Enhanced When Regularly Exposed To Green Spaces For Play The development of children’s brains is enhanced when regularly exposed to green spaces for play or physical activity. Outdoor play can lead to better motor coordination, fewer attention problems, and an increase in memory. more info |
| Sailors For the Sea Creates Environmental Lesson Plans For Young Sailors Young sailors should be more than just captains of the high seas — they should be ecologically aware as well. That’s the message behind Sailors for the Sea’s new Rainy Day Kits. The kits — packaged into fun activities like a tag-inspired game that helps young sailors learn about pollution — are free, downloadable environmental lesson plans with a focus on environmentalism and marine ecology. more info |
| Nature photographer Tom Ulrich to hold workshop at Gulf Coast Research Laboratory At his free lecture Thursday, Ulrich will give a 70-minute program on his past year's work that includes Texas nature scenes, hummingbirds of Ecuador, and scenic shots of Glacier National Park and the Grand Tetons. more info |
| UF researchers begin mission Friday to study Gulf of Mexico biodiversity A group of 23 researchers led by University of Florida scientist Gustav Paulay will leave from St. Petersburg Friday on an expedition to survey the biodiversity of the Gulf of Mexico’s ocean floor. more info |
| Flagship debris videos hit the web Videos purported to prove claims that substantial amounts of debris such as glass and concrete have fallen or been pushed into the Gulf of Mexico from the Flagship Hotel appeared on YouTube late Tuesday. more info |
| Largest Study on Oil Spill Impacts on Human Health Kicks Off Following the tragic Gulf Oil Spill last year, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) is leading the largest study ever conducted on the possible effects of an oil spill on human health. The study will assess Gulf of Mexico residents who help with the oil spill clean up, surveying their health over the next five years. The Gulf Long Term Follow-Up Study (GuLF STUDY) will compare the health of clean-up workers to those who did not assist in the clean-up efforts to determine if particular health problems are more prevalent in the clean-up workers. more info |
| Three Urgent Questions about the Die-Off of Gulf Dolphins If the BP spill is responsible, drawing a link could well depend on other types of research, such as comparative studies of exposed and unexposed populations, which could take years. For now, NOAA may make more progress in ruling out other causes than in ruling oil in. And that’s important, too. more info |
| 'A Matter of Survival' If nothing is done to protect and restore coastal Louisiana, large portions of the state's coastal parishes could be underwater in 90 years, scientists and others say. more info |
| BP Executives: No 2010 Bonus, But Reward "Good Business Results" Restoration, research and other donations In conjunction with the Gulf of Mexico Alliance (a partnership of the states of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas with the goal of significantly increasing regional collaboration to enhance the ecological and economic health of the Gulf of Mexico), we have established the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GRI) providing $500 million to study and monitor the spill's potential long-term impacts on the environment and local public health. Specifically, the 10-year programme will examine the spread and fate of the oil and other contaminants, the degree of biodegradation, effects of the spill on local ecosystems, and detection, clean-up and mitigation technology. While the details of the programme were being developed, BP awarded a series of fast-track grants to five research groups, totalling $40 million. BP and the Gulf of Mexico Alliance appointed an equal number of research scientists to the governing board of the GRI and, in December, the GRI held its first meeting. more info |
| Safe for human consumption While that concern can easily be allayed by the ample information saying our seafood is safe to eat and still delicious, not everyone bothers to get the information. So general feelings about oil and its impact on our seafood can be hard to combat. more info |
| USF study finds beaches essentially cleaned of oil In their National Science Foundation-funded study, geologists Ping Wang, Rip Kirby and Jun Cheng found little to no visible oil on the surface, below the sand or in the swash zone — where waves wash up onto the beach and typically deposit seaweed and debris. The areas they surveyed last month stretched from Panama City Beach west to Dauphin Island, Ala. more info |
| Tarpon Springs hosts Gulf Maritime Festival Showcasing the city’s cultural treasures and Florida’s maritime heritage, the annual festival features demonstrators and performers hailing from the Gulf of Mexico coastal communities from Cortez to Apalachicola. more info |
| River ports support push for more dredging money About $85 million is needed annually to keep the Mississippi River deep enough for ships to navigate from the Gulf of Mexico to Louisiana’s capital city, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers only receives about $53 million for dredging operations. The result of the shortfall is shipping restrictions, which are plaguing some operations on the lower Mississippi. more info |
| World's Sixth Mass Extinction May Be Underway Even so, "it's very important to devote resources and legislation toward species conservation if we don't want to be the species whose activity caused a mass extinction." more info |
| Offshore 'blue hole' caters to sea turtles, amberjack Along Florida’s Gulf shore, the continental shelf extends out as far as 300 miles before reaching depths greater than 100 feet. About 25 miles offshore Marco Island is an unusual feature called a “blue hole.” Several of these deep caverns created by sinkholes exist in Gulf waters. They may have once seeped fresh water, but most are inactive today. more info |
| BP’s Gulf of Mexico Disaster One Year Later Dalton Beninato is writing an in-depth profile of Joannie Hughes, a Plaquemines Parish single mother turned environmental activist after the BP blowout in April 2010 turned her hometown into a public health risk. Hughes founded Coastal Heritage Society of Louisiana and found laboratories willing to study the environmental effect of the Deep Water Horizon disaster on rainwater in Belle Chase. Her findings so far have been eye opening. more info |
| FAMU Video Featured at Smithsonian Ocean Hall of the Museum of Natural History Florida A&M University (FAMU) Environmental Science Institute (ESI) students are featured in the video “From Education to Exploration: Students at Sea,” which is on display at the Smithsonian Ocean Hall of the Museum of Natural History more info |
| Would Better Marketing Help the Coral Reefs? "At their core, reefs are about people as well as nature: ensuring stable food supplies, promoting recovery from coral bleaching, and acting as a magnet for tourist dollars," said Mark Spalding, senior marine scientist at the Nature Conservancy and a lead author of the report. more info |
| What's killing the dolphins? Baby bottle-nose dolphins are washing up dead in record numbers on the shores of Alabama and Mississippi, alarming scientists and a federal agency charged with monitoring the health of the Gulf of Mexico. CNN's Kiran Chetry speaks to senior scientist of the National Wildlife Federation, Doug Inkley and he says the BP oil spill may have had a negative impact on the dolphins' fitness. more info |
| Electronic field trip opens world of seashores For many students across the nation, the shores of the Gulf of Mexico are something they might not see in real life, but the National Park Foundation has found a way to bring the shores of Gulf Islands National Seashore to them. more info |
| 'Fog Of Research' Clouds Study Of Oil's Effects In Gulf Shortly after the spill, BP gave several universities and research groups in the Gulf about $50 million, with the promise of another $450 million over 10 years. BP and the Gulf states picked a board of scientists to decide who gets it. more info |
| Scientist finds Gulf bottom still oily, dead Oil from the BP spill remains stuck on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, according to a scientist's video and slides that demonstrate the oil isn't degrading as hoped and has decimated life on parts of the sea floor. more info |
| Documentary explores state of the Gulf "Ninety five percent of all the fish in the Gulf of Mexico live some part of their life cycle in Texas waters and so protecting value of those fisheries and the health of the wildlife are absolutely essential to our states health and vitality," said Smith. more info |
| Mississippi Delta's fish are fine, but wetlands vanishing It was the concern by VanDam and many other top tournament anglers that there won't be a Delta for them to return to if we don't soon stop the erosion that's wiping America's most productive wetlands from the map. more info |
| Artist reflects on five years since Katrina Su Stella secretly prayed for two things when Hurricane Katrina smashed into her yard in Biloxi, Miss. She asked for a new roof and a different job. more info |
| Lawsuit Launched to Protect Endangered Whales From Gulf of Mexico Oil Exploration The Center for Biological Diversity, Gulf Restoration Network, Natural Resources Defense Council and Sierra Club filed a formal notice of intent to sue Interior Secretary Ken Salazar Wednesday for ignoring marine-mammal protection laws when approving offshore oil and gas activities in the Gulf of Mexico. The suit will challenge 10 projects approved since Oct. 15, 2010, without permits required by the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act that are designed to protect endangered whales and other marine mammals from harmful offshore oil activities. The 60-day notice of intent to sue is a legally required precursor to filing a lawsuit under the Endangered Species Act. more info |
| Bay High students share oceanography experiences with Sen. Cochran Bay High School students Joseph Luttrell, Gerard Frommeyer and Chad Burch on Thursday shared their experiences of working with the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory (GCRL) with U.S. Senator Thad Cochran. more info |
| New free, hands-on tool supports sustainable living choices People who want to eat healthy and live sustainably have a new way to measure their impact on the environment: a Web-based tool [http://n-print.org/sites/n-print.org/files/footprint_sql/index.html#/home] that calculates an individual's "nitrogen footprint." more info |
| Public invited to LUMCON Gulf Lagniappe Workshop The Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium is offering a one-day workshop series - "Gulf Lagniappe" - at the DeFelice Marine Center in Cocodrie. The first session, titled "Plankton Populations/Water Quality," will be held March 12. Dr. Geoff Sinclair is the scheduled presenter. more info |
| Royal Oak students spend break restoring wetlands Once again, Royal Oak High School students took a bus south to New Orleans, where they continued clean-up efforts from Hurricane Katrina. This time, 38 students and 11 chaperones spent a week replanting Louisiana wetlands as part of what organizer Steve Chisnell said is the largest environmental restoration project in human history. more info |
| Dauphin Island Sea Lab's Skimmer Newsletter for February 2011 On March 26th, 4pm to 7pm, the Estuarium at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab will be host of the first ever "Eatin' Good in Alabama!" - an exciting event celebrating the continued vibrancy of our Gulf Coast with a guest appearance from celebrity chef and the Food Network's Peabody Award winning science geek, Alton Brown. more info |
| First harmful algal bloom species genome sequenced In the first genome sequencing of a harmful algal bloom species, researchers found that Aureococcus' unique gene complement allows it to outcompete other marine phytoplankton and thrive in human-modified ecosystems, which could help explain the global increases in harmful algal blooms (HABs). more info |
| Plans to drill for oil near Cuban coast put Florida at risk That's closer than oil rigs can get to Florida under U.S. law, which prohibits rigs in U.S. waters within 125 miles of the Panhandle and keeps them as far as 250 miles away from the rest of the state's shoreline. more info |
| Scientist finds oily, dead gulf floor In five expeditions, the last one in December, Joye and colleagues took 250 cores of the seafloor and traveled across 2,600 square miles. Some of the sites she had been studying before the oil spill on April 20. Much of the oil that she found on the seafloor - and in the water column - was chemically fingerprinted, proving it came from the BP spill. Joye is still waiting for results to show whether other oil samples she tested were from BP's Macondo well. more info |
| Dolphin Calves Dying in the Gulf So far, she and her colleagues are seeing about 10 times the number of dead infant dolphins in the area, which is home to some 2,000 to 5,000 dolphins. more info |
| 4 more dead dolphins in Miss., 1 more in Ala. So far, 28 dolphins of all ages have been found dead in the two states since the beginning of the year. There were 89 reported in all of 2010. more info |
| Shareholders Offer a Spate of Climate and Environmental Resolutions Several companies, including many outside the energy sector, have also been asked to provide more detailed greenhouse gas inventories and to assess the risks of climate change to their bottom lines. more info |
| Florida sea turtles and the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill This year's sea turtle nesting season will begin on May 1, with Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation staff and volunteers gearing up to cover island beaches. more info |
| Oil's impact on ecosystem being studied As the oil leak from the Deepwater Horizon off the coast of Louisiana continues to spew, the researchers - and others like them from Texas to Florida - will continue to sample the Gulf fish and nutrient-rich estuaries to determine the oil's impact on the fragile ecosystem, where everything is related. more info |
| Sperm whale found on Galveston beach Rescuers were struggling to save a pygmy sperm whale that washed up on the beach in Galveston early today. more info |
| Jackson Library travel series opens with a visit to The Gulf of Mexico Kim Lewis, a science teacher at Buckeye Hills, spent 17 days aboard the research vessel, The Oregon II. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) selects teachers each year to work along with scientists to conduct their oceanic research. Kim Lewis worked aboard the Oregon II in the Gulf of Mexico July 1-17, 2010 surveying the species of organisms found along the ocean floor. more info |
| New oil washes up on shore at Elmer's Island, more new oil sighted near coast Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries agents are reporting the sighting of new oil washing up on shore at Elmer's Island. Oil has also been spotted at Red Fish Bay, Bay Jimmy, and Pass-a-Loutre. more info |
| Seafood safety: To eat or not to eat? Fishing closures remain in areas where there is a potential that seafood is in some way tainted, even if only because of appearance. No tested seafood bound for market, federal authorities maintain, has come up unsafe. And Louisiana's closures, for the most part, were precautionary. Oysters that were killed in one area died because of freshwater diversion, industry voices maintain, not because of oil. more info |
| Researchers Report On Broader Public Health Impact of 2010 Spill "From a public health standpoint, we need to understand that when there is a significant environmental crisis, we need to extend public health outreach and education, psychological monitoring and mental health services beyond the immediately affected areas, paying particular attention to people at risk for income loss. There are things that can be done to help people manage their stress and anxiety, and cope in these situations, so these interventions need to be available immediately in the communities where the impacted individuals live," adds Grattan, who is also a neuropsychologist at the University of Maryland Medical Center. more info |
| Orange Beach considers paying Auburn scientists to probe for lingering oil spill damage city in coastal Alabama is considering paying for a scientific study that could determine whether its beaches are clean after last year's massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| 3.5 earthquake reported off Ala. coast The United States Geological Survey reports the 3.5 magnitude earthquake happened at 5:15 p.m. The epicenter was located in the Gulf of Mexico about 10 miles southwest of Gulf Shores. more info |
| Are you prepared for severe weather? Monday marks the beginning of Severe Weather Awareness Week in Mississippi. more info |
| Kell students building oil cleanup machine Members of Kell High School's robotics team are using a $10,000 grant to build a machine that could aid in the cleanup of oil spills. more info |
| Doubt On Deep Clean Crozier says he understands why communities like Dauphin Island are going through with the deep clean. He says they want to show tourists they’re doing everything they can to make sure the beaches are clean and safe, but the deep clean amounts to a public relations effort. more info |
| Diver goes nose-to-nose with sharks to help stop shark finning NRDC ocean expert Leila Monroe talks about the importance of passing a ban on shark finning with William Winram, a free diver and photographer who swims with sharks to help protect them. more info |
| Ocean Sciences center offering lecture on Feb. 24 The lecture, "Exploring and Protecting Planet Ocean," will be held at the Science Center Auditorium (Building N) on the Main Campus of Indian River State College on Virginia Avenue and 30th Street in Fort Pierce. more info |
| Studying killer whale diet not for the squeamish American and Canadian researchers who spent more than 100 days over four years among scores of so-called "transient" killer whales got an unprecedented education in how the whales hunt their food. more info |
| NOAA announces next step in Gulf restoration plan NOAA and the DOI plan to develop a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) that involves state co-trustess from all affected states (Louisiana, Florida, Mississippi, Texas, and Alabama) in a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS). The first phase is meetings in all the affected areas. more info |
| Oil or algae?: NOAA investigates recent sighting NOAA scientists have conducted sampling of this rust colored substance and have confirmed the material is algae,” said Mike Morrison, a WCSO spokesman. more info |
| Take the plunge as season to swim with manatees grows short Manatees share a common ancestry with the elephant and every day consume 10 to 15 percent of their body weight — which typically reaches about 1,000 pounds. So where there are aquatic plants, there are manatees. more info |
| Oysters stage a comeback after BP disaster With all of these precautions in place, any food that is legally harvested from the Gulf of Mexico is absolutely safe at this point, said Don Kraemer, an FDA seafood safety expert. more info |
| For one island, future is now It is easy to empathize with the families who have a connection to the island. For them, the island is home, and anyone with a heart can understand the powerful sentiments that entails. Intellectually, the story is different. Over and over, taxpayers have committed to rebuilding a road that has little chance of surviving much longer. more info |
| UWF revealing oil's reach The center is gaining new attention as it conducts research aimed at cracking what may turn out to be one of the top environmental puzzles of the age: How much of the 270 million gallons of spilled BP oil remains in the Gulf? And what is its impact on the food chain and ecosystem? more info |
| UM researchers study Bluefin tuna in the Gulf Many scientists have stated that the Gulf of Mexico is the only spawning area for the Western Bluefin tuna. For a species that was already on the verge of making the endangered species list, this set back could be devastating to future generations. more info |
| Coverage of Green Issues Becomes More Specialized So where does coverage go from here? One issue journalists are increasingly latching onto is the emptiness of politicians’ vows on energy and climate. As the comedian Jon Stewart recently pointed out, every U.S. president since Richard M. Nixon has vowed to wean the United States off foreign oil and develop substantial alternative energy sources at home. None has succeeded. more info |
| Natural habitats at wildlife refuge getting gentler version of beach cleanup Unlike the public beaches used mostly for human pleasure, the refuge has never undergone a beach renourishment process. And officials say that the heavy beach cleaning equipment could do more harm to the creatures that live below the surface and those that feed in the area than the oil that spread across Alabama’s shoreline after the BP PLC spill. more info |
| Are Alabama beaches clean? 2 Auburn professors seek funding for post-oil spill study "We know that BP has done a lot of work to clean the beaches, but what does that mean with respect to clean? It depends on how you define clean," Hayworth said. "There’s a real need to be able to state that in some defensible scientific way as quickly as possible." more info |
| Gulf research cash still in limbo In response, BP said on 29 September that the Gulf of Mexico Alliance (GMA), a partnership of the states around the Gulf, would administer the grants. Awards would be made by an expanded advisory council of 20 members, with BP and the alliance each appointing half of the members. more info |
| Our Impact on Water It sought to explain that as individuals, we have great impact on the water quality in our lives, and we can get money back for improving it. more info |
| Galveston District monitors Gulf for signs of cold-stunning The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District’s Operations Division and Environmental Branch are closely monitoring the Gulf of Mexico water temperatures in South Texas for signs of sea turtle “cold-stunning.” more info |
| Nearly killed in oil spill, dolphin now thriving Despite his progress, it is too risky to release Louie into the wild because of his young age. So this week, with the help of the U.S. Coast Guard, Louie was transported the Dolphin Research Center in the Florida Keys, a nonprofit organization that cares for rescued dolphins. more info |
| Endangered whooping crane discovered shot to death With only 540 whooping cranes left in the world, the loss of just one is significant. Investigators with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are looking into the death of a male whooping crane found dead at Weiss Lake in Cherokee County on Jan. 28. The investigators believe the six-year-old whooping crane, designated as 12-04, was shot to death. more info |
| Tompkins women helping to restore Gulf wetlands Leslie Carrere and PJ Marshall started Gulf Savers last year. The project seeks to clean the oil from the Gulf Coast by using bags containing humus mixtures and native marsh grasses that have oil-eating microbes. more info |
| Weather warms, rescued sea turtles back to Gulf Curator Jeff George with Sea Turtle Inc. says about 1,200 turtles were found last week on beaches between Corpus Christi and Boca Chica Beach at the south tip of South Padre Island. George says about 250 were already dead. more info |
| Moving the Gulf Coast Toward a Sustainable Future Numerous university research consortiums, federal-state restoration plans, and other collaborations, such as the five-state Gulf of Mexico alliance, exist across the region—providing a natural infrastructure to convene world-class innovation. more info |
| Whooping cranes to be reintroduced in Louisiana Ten whooping cranes, the most endangered species of crane in the world, will be reintroduced in a Louisiana conservation area more than 60 years after the birds' numbers dwindled to near zero, the U.S. Interior Department said on Tuesday. more info |
| New program brings Walter Anderson's art into classrooms The program is called Suitcase Lessons. That's because the art educator, Suzanne Weidie, carries her supplies in a suitcase and travels from classroom to classroom. She integrates the art classes into other core subjects like Science, Language Arts and Math. more info |
| US to conduct enviro review of 5-year drilling plan The environmental impact statement will cover all proposed lease sales that would be held off the coasts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama during the 2012-2017 period. The agency has scheduled public meetings in Houston on Feb. 15, New Orleans on Feb. 16 and Mobile, Alabama, on Feb. 17 to discuss the five-year drilling plan. more info |
| EPA's Power Plant Rules Would Spur Job Creation -- Report The power sector is bracing for a slew of new federal requirements, including the proposed Clean Air Transport Rule (CATR), a program aimed at smog- and soot-forming pollution that travels across state lines. By next month, EPA must also propose new limits on mercury and other types of toxic air pollution to replace a George W. Bush-era program that was thrown out by a federal court. more info |
| Framing the Message on Sustainability: Part One So what can we learn from social psychologists (and the ad industry that uses them)? What really motivates people to make -- and demand -- a change? more info |
| NEPA Reviews Could Stall Return of Offshore Drilling Projects in Deep Water The future pace of drilling approvals in the Gulf of Mexico might be slowed less by new laws or regulations stemming from last year's massive spill but by a decades-old law that opens the door to longer environmental reviews and litigation. more info |
| Volunteers trying to save the lives of 500 rescued sea turtles A staggering number of sea turtles washed ashore on Thursday and Friday due to freezing waters out in the Gulf of Mexico and Laguna Madre. more info |
| Gulf of Mexico oil spill signals need for more investment in green technology, activists say The message delivered Tuesday at the opening day of a three-day Green Jobs conference sponsored by a "Blue Green Alliance" of labor unions and environmentalists -- led by the United Steelworkers and the Sierra Club -- who see the disaster as a clarion call for greater investments in green technology. more info |
| Post BP Oil Spill Mardi Gras will be a Party The Louisiana tourism department recently rebranded its materials with the logo "LOU!S!ANA, Pick Your Passion." In Louisiana, that is often synonymous with its unique cuisine, and central to that is its seafood. more info |
| Poplarville surges to Hurricane Bowl victory, again Eighteen teams totaling 85 students and representing 13 high schools from Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee squared off Saturday in the 2011 Hurricane Bowl -- a rapid-fire, quiz bowl–style ocean sciences competition at the University of Southern Mississippi’s Gulf Coast research Laboratory. more info |
| U.S. Students to Tackle Global Energy Crisis in 2011 JETS TEAMS Competition Last year's Gulf of Mexico oil spill spotlighted the need to develop economically and environmentally responsible forms of energy in the face of growing global demand. This year, American high school students will work to solve the "supply and demand" problem as the Junior Engineering Technical Society (JETS) launches its annual TEAMS competition. more info |
| Oil in Gulf of Mexico: Biologists cite need for critical data to determine ecological consequences Twenty years after biologists attempted to determine the ecological damages to marine life from the Exxon Valdez oil spill, scientists dealing with the BP disaster find themselves with the same problem: the lack of critical data to determine the ecological consequences of human-induced environmental disasters, a University of Florida researcher said. more info |
| Anne Rudloe: One with the sea, even if for a moment Marine biologists and writers, my husband and I run Gulf Specimen Marine Lab in Panacea, a tiny nonprofit aquarium, and write books about the ocean. A precarious life, it is dependent upon the unforgiving sea for survival, both financially and sometimes literally. Years before, I began spending time alone in the forest and along the shore in order to better handle the mental challenges of each day, and it had eventually become a major focus of this intense and always uncertain way of life. more info |
| Don't worry: That stinky goo isn't oil "I see this a lot," he said. "We have seen this after rough weather where large quantities of organic material are stirred up, and then it settles out in troughs." more info |
| On Gulf Oil Spill’s Effects, Doing Science With a Deadline Dr. Tunnell is associate director of Texas A&M’s Harte Research Institute in Corpus Christi, which focuses on the Gulf of Mexico and marine research. It brings together biologists and chemists, but its ranks also include an economist and an expert on marine law and policy. more info |
| Gulf Coast Seafood Safety Concerns Attitudes about seafood safety have run the gambit in the nine months since the oil spill. A recent study out of Louisiana shows 70 percent of those surveyed still have concerns about seafood that comes out of the Gulf of Mexico. Folks along Alabama's Gulf Coast say those attitudes are mostly based on misinformation and rumor and they are not worried. more info |
| Sustainable Seafood Is Everyone’s Business A nationwide, sustainable seafood movement has come into being as a result of declining -; and in cases such as Atlantic bluefin tuna, collapsing -; fisheries. For many species, anglers and fishermen simply took fish from the ocean faster than the fish could reproduce. more info |
| NPR reporter says he tried to ask right questions about Gulf spill Harris, who won a Kavli Science Journal Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science in November for his coverage of the BP oil spill, became the go-to news source for updates on the spill. more info |
| Hardships serve to strengthen We enjoy a bountiful slice of nature, which gives us everything from a thriving seafood industry to active tourism to beloved natural attractions. They are at Grand Isle or our favorite fishing spots we have shared with generations of our family members. more info |
| MDEQ offering free recycling bins to schools, non-profits Teachers and parents who want their schools to be more environmentally friendly are being encouraged to apply for a new grant program. The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality is now offering free 22 gallon recycling bins more info |
| Students compete in Hurricane Bowl at Gulf Coast Research Lab Some of the best and brightest science students from across the South will be in Ocean Springs Saturday morning for the Hurricane Bowl. It's a regional ocean sciences quiz bowl competition for high school students. more info |
| Alabama and the Oil Spill: Gulf Fish Numbers Up Student researchers at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab load up a boat with some essentials. It's about two hours to their destination in the Gulf of Mexico: T-35, so named because the water's 35 meters deep. They're going to collect thousands of samples of tiny arthropods (shrimp and crabs are an example), then count them at the lab. more info |
| Toxic blob drifting in Gulf mystifies scientists Just off the Florida Panhandle coastline, within site of Perdido Key, an underwater mass of dead sea life that appears to be growing as microscopic algae and bacteria get trapped and die has been found by scientists. more info |
| Scientists urge new research policies in wake of Gulf disaster Scientists are having a difficult time gauging the recovery of marine species from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico because they lack sufficient data about historical population size and the distribution, growth rates and reproduction rates of many species. more info |
| Centre College students get 'eye-opening' look at post-oil spill Alabama Hurst was one of more than a dozen freshman students from Centre College, a private, liberal arts school in Danville, Ky., who traveled 1,400 miles round trip last week to Dauphin Island as part of a course on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. more info |
| Letter to a Young Ocean Activist After learning about the pacific garbage patch Sarah wrote a passionate letter in which she expressed her love and concern for the planet, and asked, "How can I get people to want to help as much as I do?". Jill forwarded the email to me because of an initiative I am developing, Reclaimin' The Oceans. more info |
| Panelists explore questions of oil spill The symposium Wednesday featured scientists, media representatives, government and Gulf-area officials speaking on their challenges and advantages from interaction with each other. more info |
| Flipping the Switch: See the Wild, Find Yourself If you decide to travel, consider doing it in a way that flips your switch, helps an endangered species and supports the conservation efforts in communities near those animals. more info |
| Will appealing to human emotions save the environment? Conservationist Wallace J. Nichols, known for his work protecting sea turtles and the ocean, argues that environmental problems should be addressed using neuroscience and empathy, in addition to the existing facts, figures and statistics. He says people make decisions based on various emotions (product marketers certainly can attest to this), but environmentalists don’t really speak to those emotions in their work. more info |
| Ice Cores Yield Rich History of Climate Change On Friday, Jan. 28 in Antarctica, a research team investigating the last 100,000 years of Earth's climate history reached an important milestone completing the main ice core to a depth of 3,331 meters (10,928 feet) at West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide (WAIS). The project will be completed over the next two years with some additional coring and borehole logging to obtain additional information and samples of the ice for the study of the climate record contained in the core. more info |
| NOAA, Partners, Launch New Website Highlighting African-American Maritime Heritage NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, in partnership with Murrain Associates, Inc., and the National Association of Black Scuba Divers (NABS), today launched Voyage to Discovery, a new website and education initiative highlighting untold stories of African-Americans and the sea more info |
| Sea Camp 2011 registration starts Open to students ages age 6-13, registration begins today. During the camp, participants learn to fish, crab, seine and sieve at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory Marine Education Center in Ocean Springs. more info |
| Study: Undersea Dispersant in Gulf of Mexico Lingered in Deepwater Plume A core ingredient of the dispersant injected deep underwater at BP's runaway oil well remained trapped in an undersea plume of oil, methane and other hydrocarbons, resisting decay even as it became vanishingly dilute, scientists reported yesterday in the first detailed study of undersea dispersants in the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Officials encouraged by latest manatee count Despite the record number of manatees killed by the cold in 2010, wildlife officials are encouraged by the most recent manatee count, in which spotters tallied nearly 5,000 sea cows along Florida's coasts. more info |
| The Certified Fisher Invested in Sustainable Harvests Program Charter captains and deckhands along Alabama's Gulf Coast will have another resource as they prepare for spring fishing trips. The Certified Fisher Invested in Sustainable Harvests (CFISH) program will provide captains with a unique training opportunity, the first of its kind in the nation. more info |
| Amazonian apple snails found in Baldwin pond For decades, apple snails were sold in pet stores as a means of keeping tanks free of algae. The snails are prodigious plant eaters and have proven to be successful at colonizing new habitats, to the detriment of native creatures. They have become a nuisance in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida. In some areas, they have been blamed for wiping out up to 95 percent of the native aquatic vegetation. more info |
| Projects may help restore our wetlands There are projects that show great promise. One is the Davis Pond Freshwater Diversion Project, located in the Mississippi Delta region of our state. There is a newer diversion structure closer to the Gulf. more info |
| Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary goes solar Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary has gone solar thanks to a cross-country donation with a message. more info |
| BP Oil Spill: Dispersants study from Woods Hole Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute issued a press release on January 26, 2011, documenting their findings to date concerning the residue of the dispersant Corexit used in the Gulf Oil Spill. The research was reviewed and published by the American Chemical Society in the journal Environmental Science & Technology on the same day. more info |
| Leadership changes for Northern Gulf Institute announced Two top research professors from Mississippi State are joining the leadership of the Northern Gulf Institute. more info |
| Katrina Cut on Dauphin Island closed with giant heap of rock The mile-long gap that Hurricane Katrina ripped through the middle of Dauphin Island in 2005 has been replaced with a giant heap of rock. more info |
| "Gulf Safe" seafood campaign continues The DMR is counting on its Gulf Safe Seafood campaign to convince everyone that seafood from the Gulf of Mexico is the best you can buy. more info |
| Corps sets meeting on restoration plan The Army Corps of Engineers plans a meeting Feb. 3 on the draft plan for restoring the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet area near New Orleans. more info |
| From science to action in environmental justice On the east side of Houston, Texas is the Ship Channel, a narrow vein that gapes into the bay just north of the Gulf of Mexico. Through this waterway, freighters carry Western oil to sea. The banks are tangled with refineries, docks, pipelines, and rails. Fuel tanks stack the shore like poker chips, and when the air is heavy, it lowers over the channel in a dull, gray haze. more info |
| Nature tours to begin Feb. 1 at Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge The winter series of Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge guided nature tours starts next week, but residents and visitors have already been calling to sign up for the free excursions, officials said Monday. more info |
| Registration under way for Sea Camp in Ocean Springs Threatened and endangered marine species are the focus of Sea Camp 2011. Open to students ages 6-13, registration started last week. During the camp, participants learn to fish, crab, seine and sieve at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory Marine Education Center in Ocean Springs. more info |
| Sea Turtle Populations Drop Following Spill The BP oil spill was especially unkind to sea turtles, experts say. A new report finds that more turtles were killed or injured in the Gulf of Mexico in the time after the April 20th disaster than in any similar period in the past twenty years. more info |
| Water, Water, Everywhere Whether filmmakers look to water as an environment in which to stage Mega Shark versus Giant Octopus, hide The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, find The Water Horse or create another sequel to Jaws, the ocean is a constant battleground for survival. Whether water allows filmmakers to look deep into The Abyss, to Run Silent, Run Deep, or spend time with Kevin Kostner in Waterworld, water offers a constant source of wonder. more info |
| Oyster task force votes to keep Louisiana grounds closed This week, the task force voted unequivocally against a motion by Al Sunseri, an oyster dealer, advising the opening of more public grounds east of the Mississippi River in Louisiana. According to a state Wildlife and Fisheries report, recent surveys found that hardly any young "spat" oysters there are in question. more info |
| Area farmers featured in "Troubled Waters" film screening A beautiful if controversial film exploring the dead zone problem in the Gulf of Mexico and how innovative farmers from southeast Minnesota and elsewhere are helping fix it will be aired Sunday, Jan. 30, as part of the Frozen River Film Festival at Winona State University. more info |
| Summer oystering faces tougher rules New summer oyster rules, introduced last year to further reduce the incidence of a potentially deadly food-borne bacteria, did not work out as planned, and will likely give way to an even lengthier period of restrictions in 2011. more info |
| Louisiana Says BP Hurt Coastal Schools Plaquemines Parish School Board and Louisiana sued BP and others involved in the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe for contaminating the state's fragile wetlands. The Plaquemines Parish School Board holds certain wetlands in trust for the use of schools, and says that "oil and dispersants released into the Gulf of Mexico by defendants have contaminated and continue to contaminate PPSB's real property." more info |
| Congressman Accuses White House Of Putting Spin Above Science A Democratic congressman on Tuesday released heavily-redacted documents suggesting that White House officials overruled scientific concerns as they rushed to release a controversial report last summer on what happened to the oil that had spilled from a BP rig in the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Exporters warn that mouth of Mississippi River is silting in; critics blame spending cuts River pilots and exporters are warning that the mouth of the Mississippi River is silting in, threatening a major commercial route, because there is not enough money to pay for dredges that normally keep the channel open. more info |
| Mexico’s exports rise as fruit flies fall Maersk’s director general for Central America Erik Bo Hansen told the publication that in the last few years many clients have expressed interest in a route that would connect the Gulf of Mexico with the world. more info |
| Stimulus dollars at work on Pelican Island Gulf Copper obtained about $2.25 million in stimulus money, which it used to help pay for the machinery at the facility. The U.S. Maritime Administration dealt out the money, meant to help small shipyards become more efficient, Jonathan Hale, vice president of Gulf Copper, said. more info |
| Hundreds of Volunteers Convene in Mobile Bay, AL to Restore the Gulf On January 22-23, 2011, nearly 550 volunteers from Alabama and beyond donned boots and gloves and donated their time to place 16,000 bags of oyster shells along the shore – the first step to building 100 miles of oyster reef over the next three to five years in Mobile, AL. Watch a video of the volunteers in action! more info |
| Professional development opportunity for teachers: Ocean Exploration Join NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research (OER) for the latest professional development opportunity for educators based upon the voyages of NOAA’s new ship and America’s Ship for Ocean Exploration, the Okeanos Explorer. more info |
| Northrop Grumman gives more than $60k to schools The company is presenting more than a dozen educational grants to school districts in Alabama and Mississippi. The money will support math and science programs, robotics competitions, and general scholarships. more info |
| Bayou lifestyle jeopardized According to NPR's radio show "Living on Earth," before Hurricane Katrina, the Grand Bayou Village consisted of 23 extended families, only nine of which returned post-disaster. more info |
| Two ocean opportunities for students/educators EE Week Opportunities for Students and Educators more info |
| USM may be left looking for funds When it comes to federal earmarks, Washington's new "Just Say No" policy may have the University of Southern Mississippi and its peer state institutions scrambling to find other funding sources for millions of research and infrastructure dollars. more info |
| Oil spill discussions slated at U of Ga. Participants in three days of talks that begin Tuesday will discuss how scientists, government leaders, oil industry representatives and journalists presented information to the public and each other. more info |
| Whooping cranes, tourists spend languid days on Texas gulf coast The Aransas National Wildlife Refuge is the winter home of the whooping crane, a bird on the verge of extinction. I drove 20 miles off the main road to get there. I climbed a tall observation tower. In the distance, at least four football fields away, were, or at least seemed to be, two white dots in the waving reeds. more info |
| MDEQ director: Mississippi still has 'isolated and sporadic' tar balls from Gulf oil spill Mississippi is still seeing some lingering, visible effects from the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the director of the state Department of Environmental Quality told lawmakers Monday. more info |
| Hope on the half-shell in the Gulf This is an open invitation for people looking for an opportunity to take direct action to restore the Gulf of Mexico. Join the Conservancy and our partners this weekend (Jan. 21-22, 2011) at Helen Wood Park near Mobile, Ala., as we lay the first quarter-mile of oyster reefs in the 100-1000: Restore Coastal Alabama project. more info |
| Dredge Work Started at Little Lagoon City officials in Gulf Shores point to the entire Little Lagoon project as one of the success stories in the entire disaster that was the BP oil spill. more info |
| Focus On Nature: Beach birds of the Fork and Florida The skimmer’s red-orange bill is uniquely designed so that when the bird flies close to the water it can lower its bill into the water and pick up a meal on the wing. When the lower bill touches a fish it snaps down instantly to catch it. It’s always a thrill to see Nature’s design work out so beautifully. more info |
| Caladesi Island a natural attraction Over 100 years after Henry Scharrer settled here, people still come to enjoy the fishing, paddling, hiking and beach more info |
| 242 sea turtles released into the Gulf of Mexico Two hundred forty-two cold-stunned sea turtles removed from St. Joseph Bay this winter were released Wednesday into the Gulf of Mexico off Cape San Blas in Gulf County. more info |
| Apache works to kill leaking well in the US Gulf of Mexico The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) is continuing to oversee Apache Corp.’s source control efforts for a natural gas leak near East Cameron Block 278 Platform B. more info |
| Tampa Bay under slight risk of severe storms Tuesday A powerful upper-level system is moving out of the southern Plains and into the Gulf of Mexico during the day Tuesday. The system will produce heavy rain and storms across the deep south and the Florida Peninsula. more info |
| Louisiana seafood industry poised for rebound "We need to allow what happened, but we've got to move forward. This industry is too important to the state, the people that fish in this industry, it's too important to our culture. We have to do everything we can to keep our fishing communities moving forward," says Smith. more info |
| Miss. commission releases Gulf restoration report Bill Walker, co-chairman of the Mississippi Gulf of Mexico Commission, said the report focuses on three areas: a sustainable environment, sustainable economy and programs to address mental health issues associated with the spill. more info |
| Tee off to support Mote Help marine life out of the ‘rough’ by signing up now for the Second Annual Mote Marine Laboratory Golf Tournament, which supports Mote’s ocean science, conservation and education programs. more info |
| Conspiracies Don’t Kill Birds. People, However, Do. “Five billion birds die in the U.S. every year,” said Melanie Driscoll, a biologist and director of bird conservation for the Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi Flyway for the National Audubon Society. more info |
| Positive change can be child’s play Deshaies connected with Ocean Academy through Northeastern’s student group Peace through Play, which was named Student Organization of the Year for 2010 by the Office for Student Affairs and Student Activities, Leadership & Scholarship. more info |
| Bunker Middle School students apply real science to remote water vehicles And while they didn’t find any sunken ships, David Craymer’s earth science students learned a thing or two about design, buoyancy and persistence. more info |
| NSF Webcast: Water And Oil Everywhere, And Now It's Safe To Drink Building upon research conducted during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, engineers have incorporated a swellable nano-structured glass called Osorb® into a system for extracting pollutants like dissolved petroleum from water--and collecting the petroleum for later use. more info |
| Agreement seeks to balance Missouri River wildlife management with water quality needs Efforts to build habitat for the endangered pallid sturgeon also add to the nutrient load of the Missouri River, feeding the hypoxic area known as the dead-zone in the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Sea Turtles Rescued from Cold Water Sea turtles are being rescued from the Gulf of Mexico and taken to Gulf World Marine Park in Panama City Beach. Marine park officials animal trainers confirmed more than 100 turtles were rescued Friday. more info |
| Success of Gulf restoration report depends on funding and political will, say commissioners Implementing the recommendations contained in the Mississippi Gulf of Mexico Commission's report will hinge on summoning funds and political will, 2 commissioners say. more info |
| Keeping an eye on the loons When the loons make their return journey north to Minnesota from the Gulf of Mexico this year, wildlife watchers will be following them closely. more info |
| Estimating spill may be more law than science The amount of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico from the Deepwater Horizon rig blowout will be determined by protracted court proceedings rather than purely scientific calculations, the nation's top environmental enforcement officer said Thursday. more info |
| With new app, you've got the whole world in your hand The app allows users to get in-depth looks at Earth's geological features, forces and phenomena everywhere from the bottom of the ocean to the planet's atmosphere. more info |
| Naval Academy Students Contributing to STEM Education Yet this is not the only mission that is taken on while at the Naval Academy. Students are also helping answer another need in our country, a higher focus on science, technology, engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). more info |
| The Mystery of the Black Goo Back at the University of South Florida laboratories, the experiments began. It turns out the black goo is made up of dead plankton and other organisms that adhered to each other. But why did all these life forms die? John Paul, a professor of biological oceanography, tested the waters from the mud and they came back, in his words, "toxic as all bejesus." more info |
| How Smart Science Makes or Breaks Marine Protected Areas Marine protected areas, MPAs, are needed badly across the planet to help ocean ecosystems recover from decades of abuse. And as a global society, we're making progress in creating them. However, sometimes practical human issues take precedence over the science that would make a protected area worthwhile. more info |
| Earth's Hot Past: Prologue to Future Climate? The magnitude of climate change during Earth's deep past suggests that future temperatures may eventually rise far more than projected if society continues its pace of emitting greenhouse gases, a new analysis concludes. more info |
| Florida Senate panel approves oil spill bill A key provision would require that 75 percent of any fines or settlements collected by the state be spent in seven coastal Panhandle counties. The money would fund research on the spill's effects, environmental restoration and economic development incentives. more info |
| Training underway for Emergency Management Officials When Bay County Emergency Management officials moved into their new operations center last April, they put it to use immediately. more info |
| 'Pink meanie,' new species of giant jellyfish, identified in Gulf of Mexico Now, with the aid of genetic fingerprinting and other techniques, scientists have determined the Gulf version is a unique species, Drymonema larsoni. More importantly, the pink meanie and its Mediterranean cousin represent a new family of jellyfish altogether, the first new family of jellies identified since 1921, according to The Biological Bulletin. more info |
| Cold weather means "sea cows" try to stay warm, too With the Gulf of Mexico temperatures running in the low 60s, a quiet migration is in progress. Florida's manatees make their swim toward warmer waters in south Florida. more info |
| Tuna Fight Muddies Waters Over Damage From BP Spill The U.S. government will wrap up public meetings next week on whether to recommend declaring the Atlantic bluefin an endangered species. If the government declared the fish endangered, it would bar fishermen from targeting the fish in U.S. waters. An environmental group filed the request last year, claiming in part that the western-Atlantic stock of the fish, long believed to spawn only in the Gulf of Mexico, would "be devastated" by last year's spill from a blown-out BP PLC well. more info |
| After the Great Spill: How the Gulf Cleaned Itself While the jury is still out, the early evidence shows something surprising: the Gulf proved to be much more resilient to the oil spill than scientists might have expected. The vast majority of the oil and other hydrocarbons seem to be gone, less than six months after the crude stopped flowing. And the biggest heroes of the cleanup turned out to be not the thousands of workers who scoured oil from the beaches or the shrimp-boat captains who turned their vessels into oil skimmers. They were actually the microscopic bacteria in the Gulf that digested much of the hydrocarbons while they were still deep under the surface. more info |
| 'Pink Meanie' a Jellyfish Like No Other Meet the "pink meanie," a new species of jellyfish discovered by scientists at Dauphin Island Sea Lab and the University of California, Merced. more info |
| Baker’s educational vision lives on That place is a reality at Orange Beach Elementary School, called the Steven W. Baker Sea, Sand and Stars Science and Nature Center. more info |
| Saltwater aquarium is mesmerizing The Gulf of Mexico aquarium that took Dubuque firefighters five hours to fill is the star attraction of a new $40 million expansion of the National Mississippi River Museum that opened in June. more info |
| Plan for Nature: How to Protect Endangered Species from Climate Change By protecting these imperiled species, we will protect ourselves, ensure that our grandchildren have clean water, safeguard our coastal communities from the ravages of increasingly severe storms, and pass down America's unique natural heritage for future generations. more info |
| Dr. Angel White: It’s mid-course correction time for the ‘plastics in the ocean’ issue The mass communication of the problem of plastic pollution in the North Pacific Gyre has been overblown for several years now. more info |
| ‘Hot-Bunking’ Bacterium Recycles Iron to Boost Ocean Metabolism Newswise — In the vast ocean where an essential nutrient—iron—is scarce, a marine bacterium that launches the ocean food web survives by using a remarkable biochemical trick: It recycles iron. more info |
| DNR to study Gulf oil spill's effect on Minnesota loons “The loons that hatched in Minnesota in 2008 and 2009 were in the Gulf during the entire spill. They usually don’t make the trip north until their third year,” said Carrol Henderson, nongame wildlife supervisor for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. more info |
| Scope and Pace of Gulf Cleanup Is Criticized Eight months since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill began, the cleanup of the Gulf of Mexico goes on, with over 5,000 people and more than 300 boats still at work. Tar balls are still washing up on beaches. Visible sheen is still showing up in certain places in the wake of motorboats. Oil is being washed out of some areas, where it was buried, only to show up someplace else. more info |
| Toms River teen named one of National Wildlife Federation's 'Unsung Heroes' of the Gulf oil spill The National Wildlife Federation recently compiled a list of "Unsung Heroes" who helped in the aftermath of last year's oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Among the list are governors, actors, Pulitzer Prize winners — and Erin Kenny. more info |
| BP funding UA research into oil spill About $786,000 was awarded to 18 UA scientists stationed at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. more info |
| White House Official: Preserving Gulf Coast a Massive Job A White House appointee says preserving the ecosystem of the Gulf Coast -- damaged by the BP oil spill and decades of erosion -- will be a massive undertaking, the "grandaddy" of restoration projects. more info |
| Bacteria gobbled methane from BP spill: scientists Bacteria ate nearly all the potentially climate-warming methane that spewed from BP's broken wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico last year, scientists reported on Thursday. more info |
| Attacking the Oceanic Garbage Gyres with…Art?! The Waves of Change contest broadens the reach of the message in an interesting way: Entrants are asked to submit art between now and March 13th that reflects our society’s addiction to single use plastic. The first example shows the creative, humorous, impactful way this could look: Sushi To Die For shows what initially looks like your average sushi – but it’s made entirely out of plastic waste. more info |
| Built A Boat Out Of Bottles At Sanibel Sea School They may be gratified to know that the water bottles and milk bottles and juice and tea bottles did their duty to float the Calypso, a “boat” built by Sanibel Sea School campers in honor of Jacques Cousteau’s original ocean research vessel. more info |
| Tar balls still being cleaned off Grand Isle beaches With the 2011 tourism season looming, Jefferson Parish Councilman Chris Roberts wants BP to hasten its pace in cleaning up Grand Isle, where tar balls are continuing to wash ashore in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Failure in the Gulf The document released Wednesday by the presidential commission investigating last spring’s oil blowout in the Gulf of Mexico is a riveting and chilling indictment of “systemic failures” throughout the oil business and of the federal agencies that allowed themselves to be captured by the people they were supposed to regulate. more info |
| Where did BP's methane clouds end up? Kessler and the co-authors of a paper published today by the journal Science believe large amounts of bacteria bloomed rapidly as the methane levels rose and metabolized the natural gas as food. more info |
| A Son of the Bayou, Torn Over the Shrimping Life While Americans were debating their reliance on fossil fuel in the wake of the worst offshore oil spill in United States history, Aaron Greco was trying to decide what to do with his life. His story illuminates the singular appeal and hardships of a livelihood in jeopardy. more info |
| "Boat House Buddies:" Teaching kids about the oil spill The books, which were privately published, follow a group of kids, including Sandcastle Sally, Jet Ski Jimmy, and Gizmo Geek, as they learn about the impact oil has had on their beach, what it's done to their seafood, how it's affected the wildlife, what they can do to help. more info |
| Program offers hands-on science experience A scientific research vessel cut through the cold wind to Terrebonne Bay Saturday on its way to collect samples of shrimp and microorganisms. Seagulls hovered over the boat’s wake, and dolphins playfully splashed along its sides. But despite its mission, more than half of the vessel’s occupants were not scientists. more info |
| USGS Undertakes Additional Studies of Reef Damage in Gulf of Mexico to Assess Cause A team of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and academic scientists are analyzing samples of coral and surrounding sediments from an area damaged near the Deepwater Horizon site in the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Texas Parks and Wildlife documentary to feature Gulf of Mexico A one-hour documentary, The State of the Gulf -- America's Sea, will air in late February on all Texas public television stations, taking a broad look at the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of the BP oil spill that followed the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon offshore rig April 20. more info |
| Leak shuts Exxon Mobil platform in Gulf of Mexico An Exxon Mobil oil and gas production platform in Gulf of Mexico block West Delta 73 has been shut due to a small leak, a filing with the U.S. National Response Center said Monday. more info |
| Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Blog LUMCON The money comes from the Gulf of Mexico Alliance, working with the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama. The workshops are intended to provide people ages 18 and older with information on water quality, nutrients, ecosystems and conservation along the Gulf coast. more info |
| Gulf of Mexico Foundation Newsletter: Gulf News GMF Science & Spanish Club students and partners from Marathon Oil Corporation volunteered to help restore marsh habitat in Galveston this fall as part of the Restore America's Estuaries National Conference. more info |
| Gulf of Mexico Master Mapping Plan The Gulf of Mexico Alliance is developing a Gulf of Mexico Master Mapping Plan as part of the Governors' Action Plan II for Healthy and Resilient Coasts. The major components of the mapping plan are: a comprehensive assessment of requirements for high-quality, high-resolution elevation and imagery data including repeat intervals for collection, collation of ongoing mapping programs at the federal, state, and local levels and within academia that may address these requirements, a gap analysis between the mapping requirements and programs to identify which mapping needs are currently unmet, and a strategy to not only acquire baseline data, but to establish a program of mapping to support the goals of the Alliance throughout the Gulf of Mexico. more info |
| Study shows drifting fish larvae allow marine reserves to rebuild fisheries Marine ecologists at Oregon State University have shown for the first time that tiny fish larvae can drift with ocean currents and “re-seed” fish stocks significant distances away – more than 100 miles in a new study from Hawaii. more info |
| Gulf of Mexico oil spill continues to foul 168 miles of Louisiana coastline Louisiana's coastline continues to be smeared with significant amounts of oil and oiled material from the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, with cleanup teams struggling to remove as much as possible of the toxic material by the time migratory birds arrive at the end of February, said the program manager of the Shoreline Cleanup and Assessment Teams, which are working for BP and the federal government. more info |
| Endangered Predator A 2000 law banned finning off the Atlantic Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico. Last month, Congress approved a bill prohibiting shark finning in all United States waters. It requires boats to bring sharks to port with the fins attached. This limits each vessel’s catch, since a whole shark takes up a lot more room than the fins alone. The bill’s immediate impact on the global market will be modest. But it gives the United States credibility to push other big fishing nations to follow its lead. more info |
| Manatee died from cold, malnourishment The initial necropsy results are in for the manatee that washed up in Mobile Bay on Christmas day. Cold Stress, or hypothermia, combined with not having enough food likely led to the animal's demise. more info |
| Dead manatee found in Pascagoula River "The preliminary assessment based on the gross necropsy is that is related to a cold stunning," Solangi said. more info |
| Manatees paddle to warm water to escape Fla. chill Manatees — those giant aquatic mammals with the flat, paddle-shaped tails — are swimming out of the chilly Gulf of Mexico waters and into warmer springs and power plant discharge canals. On Tuesday, more than 300 manatees floated in the outflow of Tampa Electric's Big Bend Power Station. more info |
| Native American art needs exposure "The Haudenosaunee culture in which I was raised requires humans to give thanks to Mother Earth. Every person and animal is dependent on clean water for survival. As an artist, the spill in the Gulf touched me enough to make a comment about it," said Jemison, a Seneca and member of the Heron Clan. more info |
| Many questions for Louisiana economy in 2011 The state took a wild ride in 2010 with major successes — such as nabbing a major steel plant — and chilling setbacks, including a slowdown in petroleum activity after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the shutdown of NASA's space shuttle program and the planned closure of a shipyard that is Louisiana's largest industrial employer. more info |
| Sand berms off La. stopped little oil in gulf spill, panel finds One of the most controversial tactics used against this summer's Gulf of Mexico oil spill - the construction of large sand islands off the Louisiana coast - managed to stop only a "minuscule" amount of oil, according to a draft report from a presidential commission. more info |
| Fishing Nets Killed More Sea Turtles than BP Spill Endangered sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico may face more dangers from fishing operations than the BP oil spill, according to an essay published Wednesday in the Miami Herald. more info |
| Deep-Water Sub Dives Into The Fountain Of Youth A deep-diving submersible named Alvin made one final trip to the ocean floor this week, before being hauled ashore for an extensive, 18-month makeover. more info |
| Sea life still struggling from oil spill Scientists at the institute of Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport are studying why two endangered manatees died near the Gulf Coast in the past two weeks. more info |
| Tunes in the Key of Green: music that hit home after the Gulf Spill |