The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced the recipients of their ‘Genius Grants’ yesterday, and one of them is a scientist dedicated to studying the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Nancy Rabalais is a marine ecologist and the executive director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium. A ‘dead zone’ is an [...]
On August 29, researchers at the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) published an analysis of NOAA Mussel Watch Program contaminant monitoring data for mercury and methylmercury levels and distributions around the Gulf of Mexico. Data gathered from oyster and sediment samples from Texas to Florida revealed relatively elevated mercury concentrations (hotspots) in the [...]
NOAA is actively participating in the 23rd meeting of the Mississippi River Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force in Des Moines, Iowa, September 11, 2012. The Task Force provides executive level direction and support for coordinating scientific activities and actions on nutrient management within the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed. NOAA research has demonstrated [...]
From August 26 to September 6, Schmidt Ocean Institute Fellow Peter Etnoyer is serving as chief scientist aboard the R/V Falkor, owned by the institute, as part of sea trials for the new vessel and its equipment. Researchers and crew will employ the Global Explorer MK3 remotely operated vehicle and its state-of-the-art 3-D video and biological [...]
On August 10, 2012, the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative awarded researchers from the Medical University of South Carolina, a partner institute of NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science Hollings Marine Laboratory, one of 19 grants that support studies determining environmental effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010. The university researchers [...]
Shrimping season opened Monday off Louisiana and fishermen can’t get over what they’re now finding in their nets. Some say the coastline is under invasion. The giant invaders are valuable, but may be destroying the Gulf ecosystem. From Texas to North Carolina, fishermen have been catching giant shrimp, big enough to stretch across a 12-inch [...]
In yet another display of the inexorable interdependence of Earth’s ecosystems, a bad summer for Midwestern farmland has turned out to be a good one for life in the Gulf of Mexico. Researchers from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium have found that this summer’s hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico – the oxygen-devoid area [...]
Last weekend, media outlets reported a NOAA announcement that this year’s Gulf of Mexico low oxygen ‘dead zone’ is the fourth smallest since 1985. A severe drought baking the nation’s midsection is responsible for less nutrient-laden Mississippi River water that triggers the annual phenomenon. By contrast, last year’s floods resulted in low oxygen over an [...]