The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico turned one year old last week – but this was a birthday that no one celebrated. In addition to human lives, the spill has devastated ocean life: thousands of dead seabirds, stranded turtles, dead oyster beds, mysteriously disappearing dolphins, and plummeting crab catches have been … Read more
After sailing through more than 4,000, during this campaign the international organization has conducted studies such as: shark tagging, plankton surveys, contaminated sediments sampling and marine and seabed documentation. Oceana has just concluded its first expedition to the Gulf of Mexico to assess the long-term effects of the BP Deepwater Horizon spill. During the two-month … Read more
Oceana’s first expedition in the Gulf of Mexico to evaluate the long-term effects of the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe has concluded. For two months scientists, divers, ROV operators and support personnel on board the Oceana Latitude, sailed close to 4,000 miles – practically the distance from Miami (Florida) to Mallorca. Our team of divers completed 24 … Read more
Today we’ve been diving in Molasses reef, Key Largo. We did nice dives, in shallow water, where we saw lots of corals and I had the choice to record a Lyon fish in one of the dives. I think Carlos has great pictures of the dives, as he always does. We’ve just arrived to the hotel after … Read more
After 10 days at sea on board the Oceana Latitude, we put into port in St. Petersburg after more than 150 miles of sailing and running away from a tropical storm that looked uglier as it got closer. For our luck, it turned east towards Florida’s eastern coast. We barely had six campaign days left … Read more
Today we traveled to the Dry Tortugas, a small group of islands at the end of the Florida Keys, to study sharks. On board with is the shark team from University of Miami’s R.J. Dunlap Marine Conservation Program, lead by Dr. Neil Hammerschlag. Other members of the team on board are Lab Manager and graduate … Read more
The underwater ridge looked promising. South of Key West, 10 miles offshore and 200 meters deep. The bathymetric lines piled up steeply on the chart, indicating some steep relief in some otherwise flat habitat. As far as I knew, no one had ever seen what the seafloor looked like in that area. We deployed the … Read more
Lionfish: An Invasive Beauty After a bumpy nighttime transit, we’re now anchored off the lower keys of Key West. I’ve asked the dive team to count the number of lionfish they see at the dive sites today. It’s easy to recognize lionfish, with their long fin rays and spines, and you’ve probably seen them in … Read more
Rough Weather Near Christmas Ridge Rough weather and high seas caused unforeseen problems in launching the ROV yesterday. With no improvement in the weather in sight, we begin to head south to start our next leg of work. Our intended dive location with the ROV was Christmas Ridge, southwest of Tampa Bay approximately 120 miles … Read more
Today the dive team went to Tarpon Springs, which is just a little north of St. Petersburg to dive. Tarpon Springs is named for the tarpons (a species of fish) which can often be seen leaping out of the water in this area. We’ve seen many tarpons leaping out of the water from the Latitude … Read more
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We have already protected nearly 4 million square miles of ocean and innumerable sea life - but there is still more to be done.
Oceana in Europe gratefully acknowledges EU funding support.
