By Times-Picayune Staff Monday, April 18, 2011 One year ago Wednesday the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, killing 11 workers and starting a months-long spilling of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Here is what other media outlets are saying about it: One Year Later: Assessing the Lasting Impact of the Gulf Spill (Yale Environment […]
By Jessica Marshall11 Apr 2011 Numbers of Chinstrap and Adélie penguins in the Antarctic Peninsula region have dropped by more than 50 percent in the last 30 years, driven mainly by dramatic declines in supplies of tiny, shrimp-like krill, their main prey, says a new study. Krill, meanwhile, have declined by 40 to 80 percent, […]
By Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune 6 April 2011 The dwarf seahorse, which makes its home in seagrass beds along the coastline of Louisiana and other Gulf states, should be given endangered or threatened species status because of threats to its habitat by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill and its overcollection for the aquarium trade, […]
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL and WILLIAM J. BROADPublished: March 28, 2011 The announcement by Japan’s Agency for Natural Resources and Energy that high levels of radioactive cesium have been detected in seawater near the crippled nuclear reactors raises the prospect that radiation could enter the food chain. Cesium 137 levels were 20 times the normal level […]
By Shahid ShahSaturday, March 26, 2011 KARACHI: Pakistan’s fish stocks are depleting at a rate of 15 percent a year, a top exporter said. M Faisal Iftikhar, chairman Pakistan Fisheries Exporters Association (PAKFEA), said that fish stocks were depleting quickly. A fisherman with more than 40 years in the business said no survey of fish […]
By Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune February 21, 2011 BP has reneged on promises made in November to negotiate early payments to Louisiana to help rebuild oyster beds, repair damaged wetlands and build a fish hatchery to allow the state to respond immediately to the collapse of commercial fisheries in the wake of the BP Gulf […]
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science WriterFebruary 20, 2011 Oil from the BP spill remains stuck on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, according to a top scientist’s video and slides that she says demonstrate the oil isn’t degrading as hoped and has decimated life on parts of the sea floor. That report is at […]
Washington (AFP) Feb 3, 2011 – A survey of oyster habitats around the world released Thursday found that the succulent mollusks are disappearing fast and 85 percent of their reefs have been lost due to disease and over-harvesting. Most of the remaining wild oysters in the world, or about 75 percent, can be found in […]
[We have other reports of increases in fish populations following the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Desdemona has been assuming that the oil/dispersant mixture selectively removed predator species and, possibly, entire trophic levels from the ecosystem, allowing some prey species to reproduce with greatly reduced predation pressure. Time will tell.] By Gigi DoubanFebruary 4, 2011 Dauphin Island–Since […]
By ANDREW SHARPLESSTuesday, 01.18.11 Sometimes, seemingly small numbers can have remarkably big consequences. Miss a single free throw, and your team loses the championship. The economy slows by few percent, and millions of Americans are out of work. Your temperature rises by a degree or two, and you are down and out with a fever. […]