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
BP oil spill
Oil Spill Commission on Trial
The federal Oil Spill Commission meets a daunting roadblock: Congress. Read more

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

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