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Archive for June, 2010
Biologists says oil spill won’t wipe out shrimp
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 1st, 2010
Associate Press: Wildlife scientists think shrimp can survive the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Martin Bourgeois of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries says brown shrimp spawn offshore in January, February and March. Once the eggs hatch, the larva count on prevailing winds and currents to carry them to the Louisiana marsh, where they grow until it's time for them to swim back offshore to spawn. May is the peak fishing season for brown shrimp. White shrimp season begins ...
Red-brown oil washes ashore at Ala. island
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 1st, 2010
Associated Press: Red-brown oil is making its first appearance on an Alabama island near the mouth of Mobile Bay, three weeks after tar balls were found there. Donald Williamson, director of the state Department of Public Health, said weathered patches of oil washed up on Dauphin Island's east end Tuesday, prompting officials to close some state waters to fishing and post warnings urging beachgoers to stay out of the water. Dauphin Island is a popular tourist destination.
Oil spotted about 9 miles off Fla. coast
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 1st, 2010
Associated Press: An oil sheen was confirmed about nine miles off the Florida coast, and officials are saying it could hit the white sands of Pensacola Beach as soon as Wednesday. Escambia County officials started putting out boom Tuesday and making other plans for the arrival of the oil. Crude has already been reported along barrier islands in Alabama and Mississippi, and it has impacted some 125 miles of Louisiana coastline. Fla. officials say their request for about $150,000 from BP to buy ...
Gulf oil spill: parallels with Ixtoc raise fears of ecological tipping point
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 1st, 2010
Guardian: <figure> <figcaption>Sanderlings feed as workers search the beach for oil debris in Grand Isle, Louisiana. Photograph: Lee Celano/Reuters</figcaption> </figure> Juan Antonio Dzul was a teenager when the Ixtoc 1 oil rig collapsed in June 1979 in the Gulf of Mexico, 70 miles from the fishing town of Champotón where he grew up and still lives. The memory of the huge spill that followed is etched on his mind. "The oil covered the reefs and washed up on the shore. Fish died and the ...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Gulf oil spill: parallels with Ixtoc raise fears of ecological tipping pointBP oil spill could make Gulf hurricane season ‘devastating’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 1st, 2010
Christian Science Monitor: The 2010 Atlantic hurricane season opens today, and with it concerns over the effect the BP oil spill could have on coastal ecosystems if a major storm moves into the northern Gulf of Mexico and reaches land. On one hand, hurricane forecasters and federal emergency officials say the first concern in any hurricane that makes landfall will be people. Yet healthy wetlands along the Gulf Coast – mainly west of the Mississippi Delta – are widely seen as a first line of defense against the ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on BP oil spill could make Gulf hurricane season ‘devastating’Relief for Gulf is 2 months away with another well
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 1st, 2010
Associated Press: The best hope for stopping the flow of oil from the blown-out well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico has been compared to hitting a target the size of a dinner plate with a drill more than two miles into the earth, and is anything but a sure bet on the first attempt. Bid after bid has failed to stanch what has already become the nation's worst-ever spill, and BP PLC is readying another patchwork attempt as early as Wednesday, this one a cut-and-cap process to put a lid on the ...