GOMAEEN News Archive
These stories reflect Gulf news from June 2009 forward.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 | NOAA Reopens Nearly 8,000 Square Miles in the Gulf of Mexico to Fishing NOAA today reopened to commercial and recreational fishing 7,970 square miles of Gulf waters along the southern boundary of the federal closed area. This area is about 60 nautical miles off of central Louisiana and about 140 nautical miles off Mississippi, Alabama, and the western edge of the Florida panhandle. This is the sixth reopening in federal waters since July 22. more info |
| Thousands of marine animals still in danger from hidden oil in Gulf Days after the BP oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 people, Joye got the wheels in motion to submit a proposal for a "Grant for Rapid Response Research" from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Her goal was to investigate underwater oil and gas plumes, and determine how this disaster was impacting deepwater organisms. more info |
| Several hundred crocs escape enclosure in storm At least 280 crocodiles have escaped from a Mexican refuge near the Gulf of Mexico after heavy flooding caused by Hurricane Karl, Mexican media said Tuesday. more info |
| Tracing Oil Reserves to Their Tiny Origins In 1913, as the automobile zoomed into American life, The Outing Magazine gave its readers a bit of background on what fueled the new motorcars in “The Story of Gasoline.” After a brief vignette describing the death of “old Colonel Stegosaurus Ungulatus,” the article explained that “yesterday you poured the remains of the dinosaur from a measuring-can — which, let us hope, held five gallons, full measure — into your gasoline tank.” more info |
| The US must show leadership on biodiversity This autumn, there are two important moments in our attempt to create a new paradigm for a global response to the world's biodiversity challenges. On 22 September, in observance of the International Year of Biodiversity, world leaders will call for the introduction of sustainable practices in land and resource use, an increase in protected areas around the world, and for plans to reconcile development with conservation. more info |
| Assessing The BP Spill's Impact In a special broadcast in front of a live audience, Talk of the Nation and National Geographic teamed up to explore the reach and impact of the spill in the Gulf. more info |
| Scientists seek insight on BP oil disaster's toll The Gulf of Mexico is morphing from disaster scene to giant science lab, as researchers begin analyzing everything from bacteria to bottlenose dolphins for damage caused by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. more info |
| La Nina to raise Gulf storm risk as it strengthens La Nina weather anomaly became stronger in August and the phenomenon could spark a rash of late-season storms that could menace the energy-rich Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. Climate Prediction Center said on Thursday. more info |
| Rising ‘Dead Zones’ threaten US coastal ecosystem Over 300 of the 647 U.S. coastal water bodies were assessed for the new report, including the Gulf of Mexico, home to one of the largest such zones in the world. 307 of the 647 ecosystems now experience stressful or lethal oxygen levels, threatening commercial and recreational fisheries, the report said. There were just 12 hypoxic regions in US coastal waters prior to 1960. more info |
| Gulf Coast Research Laboratory to catalogue thousands of invertebrates Thousands of invertebrate specimens from the northern Gulf of Mexico collected at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory are to be catalogued and made available online. more info |
| Gulf oil remains below surface, will come ashore in pulses, can be captured Readings from WAVCIS indicate that the direction of the ocean currents near the middle and bottom of the water column are aimed offshore; in other words, this submerged oil will be pushed out to sea, where it will then rise higher into the water column and be washed onto land, particularly during storms. more info |
| Scientists monitor crucial seaweed for tar Lapointe's new research is looking at whether the BP spill increases the amount of tar in sargassum. The geyser of BP crude smeared an oil slick across hundreds of miles of the Gulf of Mexico in an area known to host some of the world's largest sargassum mats. more info |
| Outdated rules limit new drilling technology in U.S. Rather than erect regulatory barriers to markets, DOI and industry should examine how other nations address changing designs in wellhead control. Safer, simpler and more reliable designs for locking down casing and installing rigid annular seals between strings of casing exist. Why not open our doors to alternatives? Unleashing market forces that drive innovation is a remedy for poorly designed wells. more info |
| A look at the cause of dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico Dead zones are regions of the ocean that have become unusually depleted of oxygen and can no longer support oxygen dependent marine life. They can be caused naturally and are not necessarily permanent. The Gulf of Mexico has the second largest dead zone in the world, and the cause was the same as all the others. Ironically, dead zones are caused by too many nutrients. This can be due to upwelling, when deeper water full of nutrients comes to the surface, or run-off from rivers. Human use of fertiliser and disposal of sewage provides the nutrients for most of the ocean dead zones we now see. more info |
| The Gulf’s real enemy Instead of fouling the ocean from below, we’re fouling it from above, invisibly. And we’re doing it every day, harming the ocean in ways scientists have only begun to understand in the past decade or so. more info |
| U.S. and Cuba discuss alliance to save sharks A team of U.S. scientists and environmentalists met with Cuban officials this week to discuss a proposed alliance, including Mexico, to protect the Gulf of Mexico's declining shark population. more info |
| Ixtoc spill still contaminates coastlines; is that northern Gulf's fate? Tunnell said that harm caused by the lingering tar was evident, but also seemed limited. Algae coated it and crabs were not hesitant to crawl over it. But no corals were clinging to it, and sea grasses, killed by the crude’s initial incursion, had not returned. more info |
| Manatees spotted in Fairhope Residents of Fly Creek were delighted to find a group of eight West Indian Manatees swimming between the marina and about a quarter mile up the creek yesterday morning. The group included a large adult outfitted with a satellite tag and a young manatee swimming alongside its presumed mother. more info |
| “Fox Guarding Hen House” On Oil Spill? Environmentalists said the coastal crisis needs to bring big changes, and that it is time to act on the lessons learned from the Gulf Oil Spill. more info |
| BP's Missing Research Money For ocean scientists anguished about the oil gushing uncontrollably into the Gulf of Mexico, May 24 brought dramatic news. BP pledged $500 million over 10 years for a research program to determine the ecological consequences of the spill, with the money to be distributed through an independent panel to the "best marine biologists and oceanographers in the world." more info |
| Oil-delayed oyster reef project restarts A $2.9 million project to halt coastline erosion and create a 1.5-mile-long “living shoreline” got back on track Friday after a four-month delay caused by the Gulf oil spill. more info |
| Texas A&M Researcher Returns To Deepwater Horizon Site John Kessler, a Texas A&M University oceanographer who reported in June elevated levels of methane from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, returned to the area aboard the NOAA ship Pisces Sept. 9. The mission is part of the Unified Area Command’s ongoing efforts to monitor and study the location, concentration and impacts of subsurface hydrocarbons near the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. more info |
| BP resumes drilling relief well in Gulf as step toward permanent seal BP says it resumed drilling Monday on a relief well as efforts to permanently seal the previously leaking Gulf of Mexico oil well appeared to be entering their final stages. more info |
| Final shutdown of BP oil well in the Gulf of Mexico adds a step With the well no longer spewing thousands of barrels of oil each day into the Gulf of Mexico, National Incident Commander Thad Allen said Wednesday that BP will take advantage of response ships on-site and take care of required "plug and abandonment" procedures in tandem with firing the final shot of cement into the Macondo well through the relief well. more info |
| The Senate and the gulf a ticking clock But the BP disaster was just the latest insult to the vast Mississippi River Delta, a region long under assault from environmental mismanagement. On average, 25 square miles of vital wetlands disappear each year thanks to the misguided re-engineering of the Mississippi River. For decades, our elected leaders chose short-term transportation projects and industrial and commercial development over the natural systems that replenish coastal marshlands and sustain long-term ecological health. With each disappearing acre, the region loses essential natural storm protection, vital habitat for birds and other wildlife and marine species, and the foundation of vibrant coastal economies and cultures. more info |
| Oil Inside Gulf Crabs May Be Shed Blue crab larvae, collected in the Gulf of Mexico near the BP oil spill, have been found to have oil droplets inside their shells. But scientists say the oil may leave the crabs when they grow and molt. more info |
| Dozens of Fires Occur in Gulf of Mexico Each Year, Data Show As Mariner Energy Inc. prepares to investigate the causes of its Gulf of Mexico platform fire, government statistics show that more than 100 fires and explosions have taken place in the gulf each year since at least 2006. more info |
| Atlantic bluefin tuna's fate in the Gulf of Mexico explored a timely book The Atlantic bluefin tuna “is a fish that when prepared as sushi is one of the most valuable forms of seafood in the world. It’s also a fish that regularly journeys between America and Europe and whose two populations, or “stocks,” have both been catastrophically overexploited. The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, one of only two known Atlantic bluefin spawning grounds, has only intensified the crisis.” more info |
| Oil Remains Below Surface, Will Come Ashore in Pulses Gregory Stone, director of LSU’s WAVCIS Program and also of the Coastal Studies Institute in the university’s School of the Coast & Environment, disagrees with published estimates that more than 75 percent of the oil from the Deepwater Horizon incident has disappeared. more info |
| Tampa workshop to shape study of the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies will hold a workshop in Tampa to determine design and methodology for the National Institutes of Health's Gulf Worker Study, or GuLF Study. more info |
