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 | The Gulf's silent environmental crisis If scientists' worst fears are realized, the oil plume in the Gulf could choke off and kill coastal marshes in the productive Mississippi Delta and barrier islands, turning these verdant tufts of life -- which look like hairy putting greens floating out on the water -- into open ocean. That would snap the region's marine food chain, exposing and starving all kinds of organisms. more info |
| Oil spill notebook: Parks, Refuges at Risk Several state parks and wildlife refuges in Alabama and Mississippi are on the list of 15 places most threatened by the BP oil spill, according to a new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization. more info |
| Scientists find evidence of large underwater oil plume in gulf Scientists have found evidence of a large underwater "plume" of oil in the Gulf of Mexico, adding to fears that much of the BP oil spill's impact is hidden beneath the surface. more info |
| Obama denies government botched oil spill response "When you see birds flying around with oil all over their feathers and turtles dying ... that doesn't just speak to the immediate economic consequences of this -- this speaks to ... how are we caring for this incredible bounty that we have?" President Obama more info |
| Flow Rate Group Provides Preliminary Best Estimate Of Oil Flowing from BP Oil Well Based on three separate methodologies, outlined below, the independent analysis of the Flow Rate Technical Group has determined that the overall best initial estimate for the lower and upper boundaries of flow rates of oil is in the range of 12,000 and 19,000 barrels per day. more info |
| Gulf of Mexico 'Poisoned' Millions of gallons of British Petroleum oil have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. As Mark Strassmann reports, countless wildlife have already been threatened or killed as a result. more info |
| Oil spill is boon to bacteria The boon to bacteria most likely has ramifications that will ripple throughout marine food webs in the Gulf, especially at prominent nodes where commercially important species such as fish, crabs, and shrimp, reside. What those ramifications are, however, remain as murky as the huge plumes of oil recently discovered hovering just below the surface of Gulf waters. more info |
| It’s Official: A Fisheries Disaster Commerce Secretary Gary Locke declared the Gulf of Mexico a national fisheries disaster area this week, citing the havoc wrought on the region’s multibillion-dollar fishing industry by the Deepwater Horizon blowout. The fisheries of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama are covered by the disaster declaration, making them eligible for federal relief funds. more info |
| In Louisiana, wildlife shows effects of gulf oil spill GRAND ISLE, LA. -- In the Louisiana marsh, oil-coated pelicans flap their wings in a futile attempt to dry them. A shorebird repeatedly dunks its face in a puddle, unable to wash off. Lines of dead jellyfish float in the gulf, traces of oil visible in their clear "bells." more info |
| Cousteau Jr.: 'This Is a Nightmare... a Nightmare' Philippe Cousteau Jr. and Sam Champion take hazmat dive into Gulf's oily waters. more info |
| Louisiana Fishermen Helping in Spill Cleanup Report Getting Sick Some Louisiana fishermen affected by the massive oil spill in the Gulf — including some hired by BP to help in the cleanup — are reporting cases of debilitating headaches, burning eyes and nausea, and some industry and public officials are pointing the finger at chemical dispersants as the cause. more info |
| Oil reaches Louisiana shores: The Big Picture Over one month after the initial explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, crude oil continues to flow into the Gulf of Mexico, and oil slicks have slowly reached as far as 12 miles into Louisiana's marshes. According to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, more than 65 miles of Louisiana's shoreline has now been oiled. BP said it will be at least Wednesday before they will try using heavy mud and cement to plug the leak, a maneuver called a "top kill" that represents their best hope of stopping the oil after several failed attempts. Based on low estimates, at least 6 million gallons of crude have spewed into the Gulf so far - though some scientists have said they believe the spill already surpasses the 11 million-gallon 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska as the worst in U.S. history. (39 photos total) more info |
| Mexico's Ixtoc 1 oil spill a distant mirror to BP disaster In terms of blowouts, Ixtoc 1 was a monster — until the BP leak, the largest accidental spill in history. Some 3.3 million barrels of oil gushed over nearly 10 months, spreading an oil slick as far north as Texas, where gooey tar balls washed up on beaches. more info |
| What are tar balls and what is their impact? "There is no magic trick to making tar balls disappear. Once tar balls hit the beaches, they may be picked up by hand or by beach-cleaning machinery. If the impact is severe, the top layer of sand containing the tar balls may be removed and replaced with clean sand," NOAA said. more info |
| BP pledges $500 million for oil spill research LONDON (MarketWatch) -- BP said it's pledging up to $500 million to an open research program studying the impact of the Deepwater Horizon incident, and its associated response, on the marine and shoreline environment of the Gulf of Mexico. A first grant of an unspecified amount was made to Louisiana State University. BP said it will appoint an independent advisory panel to construct the long-term research program more info |
| Mobile scientists' warnings about oil dispersants ignored by BP, Coast Guard Dispersant chemicals are used to break oil into tiny drops that become suspended in the water column. At least some of the water quality testing recently conducted by the EPA around the spill site suggests dispersed oil may have begun to impact oxygen levels in the water. more info |
| Oil Mars More Than 50 Miles of Louisiana Shore But they warn an aggressive cleanup could ruin the marshes and do more harm than good. The only viable option for many impacted areas is to do nothing and let nature break down the spill. more info |
| Gulf oil spill has 'perfect precedence' in 1979 disaster With top BP executives, scientists and Obama administration officials searching for a solution to capping the Deepwater Horizon blowout off the Louisiana coast, perhaps they could find a blueprint in the Ixtoc I experience, observers say. They also may find lessons from the Montara oil spill last August off the northern coast of Australia, where it took five tries and nearly three months to stop the flow of as many as 84,000 gallons a day into the Timor Sea. more info |
| DISL's Role in the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Faced with what could become the worst oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the Dauphin Island Sea Lab (DISL) through several State and federally funded programs of the Richard C. Shelby Center for Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management, is sending a series of cruises out to sample several critical conditions in the path of the massive oil spill threatening the central Gulf coast. more info |
| Scientists brace for oil impact Jim Franks, a fisheries biologist at the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast Research Laboratory (GCRL), is heading out soon on a sampling trip to collect blue fin tuna larvae, his sixth data-collecting trip in as many years. "All of us who are going on the trip just concluded two days of hazmat training," he told The Scientist. "It was a requirement of all people here who are going to be involved with spilled oil in the coastal area." more info |
| Scientists Measure Fish Populations Before Oil Spill Hits Just off the Alabama coast, on Dauphin Island, researchers are hurrying to take fishing population samples, train people to help de-oil birds and ask hard questions about the containment operation and its effect on the environment. more info |
| Federal task force assembled to measure volume of Gulf of Mexico oil spill The agency is tracking the oil with helicopters and a research aircraft, typically used to track hurricanes. Probes that transmit data about the temperature and salinity of the current on the surface and subsurface are being dropped into the water, Lubchenco said. more info |
| Spill's impact on wildlife is like a "train wreck," scientist says One needs to think about these impacts in terms of not just lethal impacts but sub-lethal that can affect the capacity of species to successfully reproduce. more info |
| Oil Spill: One Month Later A light sheen of oil has entered the loop current in the Gulf while heavy, thick oil is washing ashore in La. Kelly Cobiella reports. more info |
| Pictures: Heavy Oil Seeping Into Louisiana Marshes When oil gets trapped underground in coastal sediments, it can stay there for decades, according to Gregory Stone, director of Louisiana State University's Coastal Studies Unit. In addition to killing seabirds, the oil spill is likely harming other animals less visible to the public, John "Wes" Tunnell, associate director of the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi, said by email in early May. more info |
| Leaking Gulf Oil 'Washes Ashore On Marshland' And as a new Nasa satellite image shows the widening extent of the slick, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says a "small portion" of oil sheen has entered the powerful Loop Current, which could carry it down to the Florida Keys and even up the US east coast. more info |
| Oil Arrives on La. Shore, Edges Into Key Current "This is the heavy oil that everyone's been fearing that is here now," Gov. Bobby Jindal said during a boat tour Wednesday in southeastern Louisiana. The wetlands at the mouth of the Mississippi River are home to rare birds, mammals and a wide variety of marine life. more info |
| Photo Gallery: Gulf oil spill May 20th Here's a gallery of the best photos this week highlighting the Gulf oil leak's affect on the southern coast of the United States. more info |
| Governor Jindal Joins Officials for Flyover and On-The-Ground Assessment of Coastal Protection Plan Governor Jindal said, “DEQ reports as of this morning confirmed oil impact at Whiskey and Raccoon Islands in Terrebonne Parish – which further stresses the importance of our western coastal parishes getting the resources they need to be proactive and boom their coast to help protect their shoreline. more info |
| Governor Riley on the Scene and in Contact Throughout Gulf Crisis Governor Bob Riley and members of his administration have spent much of the past two weeks in Mobile and Baldwin counties and remained in frequent and regular contact with federal, state and local officials throughout the oil spill crisis in the gulf. On April 30, Governor Riley declared a state of emergency and directed state agencies to assist communities affected by the oil spill. He also directed the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, the lead state agency for this event, and the Alabama Emergency Management Agency to make appropriate assessments of damage and seek the necessary state, private and federal assistance for affected areas. more info |
