BP oil spill

An Excuse to do Nothing

How did 300 tons of rusted metal halt federal legislation in its tracks?  That’s the question looming over the Deepwater Horizon’s blowout preventer (BOP), a “fail-safe” mechanism designed as the … Read more

Oil Spill Commission on Trial

The federal Oil Spill Commission meets a daunting roadblock: Congress. Read more

Pensacola Beach sample showing oil below clean surface.

Uncovering the Secret in the Sand – Buried Oil Remains After Cleanup

Many of the oil-fouled beaches along the Gulf coast and barrier islands have been scoured, scraped, raked and filtered clean. Tourist beaches and beaches in front of high-rise condominiums along the … Read more

Louisiana Uses Discarded Christmas Trees to Fight Wetland Loss

“When you deploy these things, they create a sediment trap and really help the shorelines with erosion protection.” Read more

5 Mass Wildlife Deaths to Really be Worried About

In the last week, we heard news report after news report of mass wildlife die-off events, making it seem like the Apocalypse was drawing near. Birds dropped out of the … Read more

Breaking: New Tar Balls Reported Ashore in Louisiana

This just in from WDSU in Louisiana: Oil is beginning to wash ashore at Grand Isle. The mayor’s office said tar balls are coming ashore on Elmer’s Island and sand … Read more

Gulf Oil Disaster “Might Well Recur” Absent Reform, Says Commission

Someone’s leaked a chapter of the final report of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill & Offshore Drilling. This morning, media coverage is focused mostly on … Read more

Blue-winged teal by David Heritsch

Gulf Coast Birds–And Ours–Doing Alright (for now)

On a recent chilly morning in southwestern Louisiana’s White Lake Wetland Conservation Area, Kim Trahan, a rice farmer who leases land in the state-owned area, surveyed the scene around him … Read more

Protecting our “Blue Heart”: Talking with Sylvia Earle about Whale Sharks, Sargassum, Oil and Oceans

Movie and TV stars don’t do it for us. But when my wife Belinda and I met Dr. Sylvia Earle as she came ashore from a dive boat, walking the … Read more

Entire Habitats Wiped Out by Oil, Dispersant and Fires

Hyperbole? If you’re visualizing an entire ocean, marshland, bay or miles-long beachfront destroyed, perhaps. But if you consider pelagic sargassum, that yellowish-brown seaweed that forms up into floating mats, clumps … Read more