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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …