Breaking News: Oil Spills

• share
• favorite_border

On the second anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, a pair of researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science are using a 1-year, $350,000 contract from the U.S. Department of the Interior to test whether sound waves can be used to determine the size of oil droplets in the subsea—knowledge that could help guide the use of chemical dispersants during the cleanup of future spills.

• share
• favorite_border

As the 2nd- anniversary of the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico approaches, Nova Southeastern University (NSU) offers environmental experts are available to speak about the impact of the spill, the lessons learned, and what remains to be done to clean up the environment and improve deep water oil drilling in the future NSU’s Oceanographic Center (OC) used part of a $10 million block grant from BP to conduct research on the Gulf Oil Spill’s impact on the marine ecosystem.

• share
• favorite_border

University of New Hampshire researchers have found that residents of Louisiana and Florida most acutely and directly affected by the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster -- the largest marine oil spill in U.S. history -- said they have changed their views on other environmental issues as a result of the spill.

• share
• favorite_border

McGill engineering professor has been working for years on ways to better understand patterns in the seemingly chaotic motion of oceans and air. Working with geophysicist Josefina Olascoaga in Miami he has developed methods of predicting the movement of oil and ash following environmental disasters.

• share
• favorite_border

Nova Southeastern University and Florida International University researchers collaborate on long-term sustainability study to prepare for an oil spill that could catastrophically impact Florida

• share
• favorite_border

Johns Hopkins University environmental engineer Edward J. Bouwer is available to speak to reporters wondering what could happen to the gasoline and oil on board the Costa Concordia if fuel starts to leak from the wrecked cruise ship.

• share
• favorite_border

Charles Greene, a professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at Cornell University, is an expert on the protection of threatened marine ecosystems. Greene comments on the potential for ecological disaster posed by the 2,300 tons of fuel oil still aboard the capsized cruise ship Costa Concordia.

• share
• favorite_border

Nancy Kinner, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of New Hampshire and an expert on oil spills, is available to comment on the environmental impact of the cruise liner Costa Concordia, grounded off the coast of Italy with more than 2,000 tons of oil onboard.

• share
• favorite_border

A scientific consortium led by the University of Mississippi has been awarded $20 million over three years to study lingering environmental effects of the massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

• share
• favorite_border

The nation will be looking to Florida State University and its expertise in the marine sciences as it studies the long-term aftereffects and changes in the Gulf of Mexico following last year’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

• share
• favorite_border

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) played a key role in monitoring and protecting the health of workers responding to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster and Gulf of Mexico oil spill—an experience with important implications for planning the response to future disasters, according to a paper published in the July issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, official publication of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM).

• share
• favorite_border

The Texas Tech study found only 8 to 9 percent coverage of oil on the shells of fertilized mallard duck eggs resulted in a 50 percent mortality rate. However, scientists also reported the amount of time the oil remained at sea and exposed to weather had a significant effect on its toxicity to the fertilized duck eggs.

• share
• favorite_border

More than a year after leading a statewide academic task force to help the Gulf Coast region respond to the devastating Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Florida State University researchers are now working to understand the longer-term environmental and economic consequences of the disaster. Though the spill was officially contained one year ago, the story is far from over. About 4.9 million barrels of oil were dumped into the Gulf of Mexico, and FSU research faculty hope to better understand the repercussions. These experts are available to answer media questions and provide historical perspective on this ongoing story.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers from Texas A&M University have returned from a trip to examine the scope and size of this year’s “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico and have measured it currently to be about 3,300 square miles, or roughly the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined, but some researchers anticipate it becoming much larger.

• share
• favorite_border

Tulane University will conduct a $6.5 million study into the effects of the Deepwater Horizon disaster on the health of pregnant women in Louisiana's coastal parishes.

• share
• favorite_border

An NIH-funded network of researchers will evaluate potential harmful effects of the Deepwater Horizon disaster on reproduction and birth outcomes, the cardiorespiratory system, and behavior and mental health. The network of community and university partnerships, under the leadership of NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), will conduct research to evaluate the level of potentially harmful contaminants in air, water, and seafood, and assess their relationship to health outcomes.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists say Gulf of Mexico seafood is safe but Americans remain deeply suspicious about the Gulf's fish, shrimp and crabs because of the BP oil spill, a panel of seafood specialists said Sunday at the 2011 Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Annual Meeting and Food Expo®.

• share
• favorite_border

The safety of seafood from the Gulf of Mexico became a central concern following the Deepwater Horizon blowout a year ago. Even after previously closed Gulf waters began reopening in summer 2010, consumer confidence in the safety of Gulf seafood remained shaky. A new review published online May 12 ahead of print in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP) affirms that levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) found thus far in Gulf seafood samples in fact have been well below levels that would be of concern for human health.

• share
• favorite_border

Marine species facing threats from the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico far exceed those under legal protection in the United States, a new paper finds. Researchers found 39 additional marine species beyond the 14 protected by federal law, ranging from whale sharks to seagrass, that are at an elevated risk of extinction.

• share
• favorite_border

Tests of a new antibody-based “biosensor” developed by researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science show that it can detect marine pollutants like oil much faster and more cheaply than current technologies. The device is small and sturdy enough to be used from a boat.