Unified Command gives actual dates for last dispersant use

It took them a few days - and a certain working of the phone lines by us - but Unified Command's press shop finally came up with its officials dates on dispersant use in the Gulf. A Coast Guard staffer at Unified Command gave us these dates: the last application of sub-sea dispersant was July …

Unified Command: BP “cannot remember” when dispersant last used

We checked in with the Unified Command press shop today, to verify that BP still is applying no dispersants in the Gulf. The staffer told us that no dispersants have been applied sub-sea since July 15. This jives with their response to us last week. However, the staffer (same one we talked to before - …

BP has stopped using dispersants in the Gulf – for now

We've crunched the numbers from the Deepwater Horizon Unified Command press shop, compiling their daily stats for dispersants used in the Gulf of Mexico so far - and the official dispersant numbers for the past week are surprising: According to official releases, a "very small" amount of  dispersants have been used in the oil spill response …

The Gulf’s deepwater corals

The New York Times has an excellent article today discussing state of science and research about deepwater corals in the Gulf of Mexico. As we've blogged, the site of the BP oil disaster has been explored and mapped to some degree by NOAA - some of it funded by the Minerals Management Service. During last …

gushing oil, chemical dispersants and sealife

Video released by the Deepwater Horizon Response team from the oil leak site shows the sheer volume of crude spraying into the deep sea 24/7 (visible especially starting at 1:58) And we got word from the EPA yesterday that it has approved further use of chemical dispersants, both on the surface and underwater, even though …

Pic o’ the Week: Transparent Sea Cucumber, Gulf of Mexico

A transparent sea cucumber, photographed 1.7 miles down (2,750 meters) in the Northern Gulf of Mexico. Scientists found this transparent sea cucumber, Enypniastes, creeping forward on its many tentacles at less than 1 inch (2 cm) per minute while sweeping detritus-rich sediment into its mouth. From LiveScience; photo by Larry Madin, Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst.  The …