On World Ocean Day we celebrate our truly remarkable ocean planet 🌊 "Consider the ocean as Earth’s life support system. It holds 97% of Earth’s water & is home for most of life on Earth. The living ocean generates most of the oxygen in the atmosphere, shapes climate, weather & planetary chemistry. In short, the … Continue reading Our Remarkable Ocean Planet
Tag: gulf of mexico
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 … Continue reading BP has stopped using dispersants in the Gulf – for now
Today’s Gulf sea turtle – Loggerhead
As The Baltimore Sun’s Candus Thomson notes, all five species of sea turtles found in the Gulf are listed under the Endangered Species Act (this was true even before the BP oil disaster). We’re looking at fast facts about these species – this week, it’s the Loggerhead: Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta) named for their large heads … Continue reading Today’s Gulf sea turtle – Loggerhead
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 … Continue reading The Gulf’s deepwater corals
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 … Continue reading gushing oil, chemical dispersants and sealife
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 … Continue reading Pic o’ the Week: Transparent Sea Cucumber, Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico – resources
The first oiled bird has been treated, Gulf Coast fishermen are training to become oil cleanup workers, and President Obama is heading to the spill site. Visit our Gulf of Mexico resources page for quick sources of info related to the spill and response - will be updated with more helpful resources over the weekend.
Life in the Gulf’s Mississippi Canyon
Oil from the Deepwater Horizon's well is spewing 5,000 gallons of oil a day into the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico's Mississippi Canyon. Engineers try to build a dome over the gusher, while others work on digging a "relief" well nearby in a bid to stop the flow. Today we revisit some of … Continue reading Life in the Gulf’s Mississippi Canyon
refuges in the first oil impact zone?
Much news, none of  it good, is streaming to us from the Gulf of Mexico, where an exploded oil rig has likely claimed 11 human lives and its uncapped well has gushed over 818 tons of crude oil into the sea so far and is spewing out more than 210,000 gallons a day. Today the … Continue reading refuges in the first oil impact zone?