Tank-raised trout released

OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. – The Gulf Coast Research Laboratory released thousands of young trout into local waters Tuesday as part of a replenishing program. A portable fish tank brought 12,000 speckled trout fingerlings from the lab to the Cedar Point boat launch. The fingerlings were released into the estuary waters of the Bay of St. Louis. The lab’s trout re-stocking program was launched several years ago. The fish are raised in tanks then released to replenish wild stock. (Source: WLOX-TV, 09/27/11)

Nonprofit proposes hatchery, aquarium

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. – The Destin-based nonprofit AquaGreen wants to build a marine life center on Okaloosa Island. The pitch for the proposed fish hatchery and aquarium was made to Okaloosa County commissioners at a board meeting. The county owns a 35-acre parcel on the north side of U.S. Highway 98 where the group wants the aquarium. AquaGreen’s facility would include a 30,000-square-foot interactive aquarium and 50,000 square feet of hatcheries, nurseries, classrooms and labs. (Source: Northwest Florida Daily News, 09/20/11)

$112.5M in Gulf research announced

The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative will use $112.5 million to fund eight research teams over the next three years to study the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010. The teams will investigate what happened to the oil in the environment, the impacts of the spill and the development of new tools and technologies for responding to future spills and improving mitigation and restoration. Universities with operations along the Gulf Coast participating in one or more teams include the University of Southern Mississippi, University of West Florida, Louisiana State University, Tulane University, Florida State University and the University of Mississippi. Also participating will be Dauphin Island Sea Lab of Mobile, Ala., and the Naval Research Laboratory, which has a detachment at Stennis Space Center, Miss. The GRI Research Board is an independent body established by BP to administer the company's 10-year, $500 million commitment to research. Additional grant competitions will be announced soon. (Source: PRNewswire, 08/30/11)

BP and Coast Guard: Well not leaking

NEW ORLEANS, La. - Prompted by recent press reports of oil on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico near the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, BP and the U.S. Coast Guard's Gulf Coast Incident Management Team conducted a visual inspection of the well. In a joint statement Friday, they said there is no release of oil occurring at the well. According to a separate Coast Guard news release, two remotely-operated vehicles were deployed from the Grant Candies at 4:30 p.m. Thursday to survey the Macondo 252 wellhead and found no evidence of leaking oil. (Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune, 08/26/11)

Oil found floating near spill

MOBILE, Ala. - Oil has been found floating on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico near the site of last year's Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The Press-Register found hundreds of small patches of oily sheen within a mile of the wellhead. Experts say it could be coming from a natural seep, oil trapped in the wreckage of the drilling rig, oil deposited on the bottom during the spill that's making it way to the surface or from the seafloor surrounding the well pipe, which was sealed last year. (Source: Mobile Press-Register, 08/24/11)

Alabama waters looking healthier

MOBILE, Ala. - A year ago, at the height of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, much of the seafloor off the Alabama coast was dead. Scientists blamed a plume of low oxygen water. But things look much different now. Several times this spring and as recently as last week, the Press-Register returned to three natural gas platforms visited during the summer of 2010. Instead of swimming through a dead sea and finding oxygen levels far below the threshold required to support marine animals, there was abundant life. A portable oxygen meter found it rich in oxygen from the surface to the seafloor. (Source: Mobile Press-Register, 08/21/11)

Ocean in Action Workshop set

BILOXI, Miss. - The Marine Technology Society and Mississippi Enterprise for Technology are hosting the Oceans in Action Workshop Aug. 22 and 23 at the Imperial Palace Casino in Biloxi. The workshop focuses on how marine technology is applied to real-world issues. As part of the event, the Mississippi Enterprise for Technology will host business matchmaking sessions. Representatives have agreed to meet with companies to help determine if their products and/or services can help support projects currently underway or anticipated within local government agencies and prime contractor organizations. The deadline for advanced meeting scheduling is Aug. 15. After that, meetings can be scheduled at the workshop if appointments are still available. Paid registration to the Oceans in Action workshop via the MTS is required before a meeting request can be submitted. For information on the workshop; for information on matchmaking. (Source: MSET, 08/10/11)

Dead zone warning

Scientists at a meeting in New Orleans Tuesday warned the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico will create more problems unless fewer fertilizers are dumped into the Mississippi River. Farm runoff is the leading cause of the high nitrogen and phosphorous levels in the Gulf, and the increase in corn growing to meet new ethanol standards in gasoline will keep nitrogen levels high, scientists said. Researchers who mapped the dead zone, where oxygen levels are too low to support most marine life, found the size this year above average, 6,765 square miles, nowhere near the 9,400 square miles some had predicted due to spring flooding in the Midwest. Scientists have been measuring the dead zone since 1985, and this year's cruise found the dead zone was the 11th-largest. But substantial portions of the affected Gulf weren't just low in oxygen, but virtually devoid of it from the surface to the seafloor. (Sources: New York Times, AP via Sun Herald, 08/01/11, Science News, AP via The Republic, 08/02/11)

Lotz named GCRL interim director

OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. - Jeffrey Lotz, chairman of the University of Southern Mississippi Department of Coastal Sciences, has been named interim director of the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory in Ocean Springs. He succeeds Bill Hawkins, who retired as lab director in June. (Source: University of Southern Mississippi, Sun Herald, 08/01/11)

Scientist: Oil-eating bacteria feasted

OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. - Oil-eating bacteria in the Gulf of Mexico devoured crude oil from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead last year, researcher Terry Hazen said during the University of Southern Mississippi’s distinguished lecture series Wednesday. Hazen, co-director of the Virtual Institute for Microbial Stress and Survival at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and a team of 50 scientists studied the spill from May 25 to Oct. 20, 2010 and found that that 45 percent of the light crude evaporated in a week, then bacteria acted like "oil-seeking missiles" and feasted on the oil. The bacteria had adapted to eating oil over millions of years from seeps in the Gulf of Mexico. "This does not give the oil companies a free pass," Hazen said. "Do not think that. It was devastating. There was a lot of oil out there for 84 days. Plankton and fish, all sorts of things, were swimming through that stuff. It is going to take long-term studies to figure out exactly how that affected them." (Source: Mississippi Press, 07/28/11)

Exports, STEM highlight Mississippi ranking

Among the states, Mississippi ranks No. 5 for export growth, according to the Enterprising States 2011 study just released by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Mississippi is also ranked 10th in cost of living, 11th in per capita income growth and higher education efficiency, and 12th in productivity growth and business birth rate. Mississippi is also ranked 20th in science, technology, engineering and math job growth as well as 20th in entrepreneurial activity. (Source: Tcp, 06/23/11) Study: U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Command at SSC gets new leader

STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. - A change of command ceremony took place at the Naval Oceanography Operations Command at Stennis Space Center last week. Capt. Van Gurley assumed command, relieving Capt. David J. Walsh, who has commanded since November 2009. Gurley has served two previous tours in Mississippi, and was the first commanding officer of the Naval Oceanography Anti-Submarine Warfare Center from 2006 to 2008. The NOOC, an Echelon IV command of the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command at SSC, is comprised of over 1,000 military and civilian personnel located at seven globally distributed subordinate commands supporting every warfare area in the fleet. Rear Adm. Jonathan W. White, Commander, Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, presided over the ceremony. (Source: NNS, 06/14/11)

Oil impact causes rift

MOBILE, Ala. - Questions about the severity of the Gulf oil spill's environmental impact have divided officials along state lines and are now creating discord even within coastal Alabama. Data collected so far show that the spill's effects have been "minor" east of Louisiana, according to George Crozier, executive director of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. But a letter sent by environmental groups to the Obama administration warned of a "growing health crisis." Casi Callaway, whose Mobile Baykeeper group signed on to the letter, said that while it would be irresponsible to "cry wolf," it would also be irresponsible to conclude there's no problem. An estimated 206 million gallons of crude gushed into the Gulf last spring and summer after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, killing 11 workers. (Source: Mobile Press Register, 06/12/11)

Data portal earns Gulf Guardian award

STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. - The Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System - Regional Association of College Station Texas will receive a Gulf Guardian Award for 2011 in the partnership category. The awards ceremony will be in conjunction with the Gulf of Mexico Alliance Meeting Aug. 3 in New Orleans. The GCOOS Data Portal Project spans the entire Gulf coast and engages people from academia, state and local government and the private sector. The Gulf of Mexico Program initiated the Gulf Guardian awards in 2000 to recognize businesses, community groups, individuals, and agencies that are taking positive steps to keep the Gulf healthy, beautiful and productive. (Source: EPA, 06/09/11)

Was the dispersant worth it?

PENSACOLA, Fla. - The chemical sprayed in the Gulf to break up the BP oil spill may not have been effective and could be damaging the ecosystem, according to preliminary findings by University of West Florida researchers. When mixed with oil, Corexit is toxic to phytoplankton and bacteria, crucial to the Gulf of Mexico's food chain, said Wade Jeffrey, a UWF biologist with the Center for Environmental Diagnostics and Bioremediation. BP dumped nearly 2 million gallons of the dispersant in the Gulf, which saw more than 172 million gallons of oil leak into the water in the wake of the April 20 Deepwater Horizon explosion. (Source: Pensacola News Journal, 05/31/11)

Oysters likely to be wiped out

BILOXI, Miss. - As record amounts of freshwater head down the Mississippi River toward the Mississippi Sound, the oyster industry can expect to face extreme losses, an official with the Department of Marine Resources said Tuesday. Oysters will be hit hard because they're a stationary species; shrimp, finfish and crabs, which are mobile, are expected to be able to move ahead of freshwater entering the salty waters of the Sound, and the effect on the adults should be minimal, said Scott Gordon, director of the Shellfish Bureau, Office of Marine Fisheries. (Source: Sun Herald, 05/17/11)

Some fish healthy, some not

Alabama researchers fishing within 15 miles of Dauphin Island last week caught more than 300 red snapper and found no sign of infection. The Alabama scientists also caught vermillion snapper, lane snapper, triggerfish and ruby red lips, none of which showed any visible abnormalities. A team from Louisiana State University working off Alabama earlier in the week reported catching some fish in the same area that showed signs of disease, either lesions on the skin or internal damage to the liver. Concern over marine life increased in the wake of last year’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill. (Source: Mobile Press-Register, 05/15/11)

Another concern for Gulf?

The Army Corps of Engineers plans to open the Bonnet Carre Spillway Monday, sending fresh water through Lake Pontchartrain, through a strait and into the Gulf of Mexico. It’s rarely done because of the effect it has on the marine life and the Mississippi Sound. But the Mississippi River is rising, and it is an attempt to divert some of the water before it gets to New Orleans. One concern, in addition to marine life, is it could impact the oil spill research. (Source: Sun Herald, 05/06/11)

GCRL's Hawkins to retire

OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. - Long-time Gulf Coast Research Laboratory director Bill Hawkins plans to retire at the end of June. Hawkins has served as director since early 2008 and was executive director for six years before that. Hawkins, 64, is the seventh GCRL director. During his tenure GCRL has grown. The number of buildings on the 224-acre Cedar Point site has nearly doubled, and there are 15 buildings on the 50-acre Halstead campus. (Source: Mississippi Press, 04/23/11)

Nebula used in ecosystem project

NASA is moving ahead with its work on the Nebula cloud-computing platform even after the departure of the technology's creator. The agency's John C. Stennis Space Center, Miss., recently used the cloud-computing infrastructure to process data for an environmental project aimed at boosting the health of the ecosystem in the Gulf of Mexico. The center's Applied Science and Technology Project Office has been using the results of NASA Earth Science research to address issues identified by the Gulf of Mexico Alliance, a partnership of five states. The group is collaborating to improve both the ecological and economic health of the Gulf region, which sustained a major blow last year with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster. (Source: Information Week, 04/19/11)