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15 years after the BP oil spill disaster, how is the Gulf of Mexico faring?

April 22, 2025 โ€” Down past New Orleans lies Plaquemines parish, a narrow sliver of land at the tip of Louisiana that reaches southward like a finger pointing into the Gulf of Mexico. Past barbecue joints, a naval base, Baptist churches, white egrets, blue herons, and signs advertising items FOR SALE (live shrimp, empty lots and crawfish), Captain Kindra Arnesen lives with her husband and dog in a tidy brick house that smells like eucalyptus potpourri and home cooking.

โ€œThereโ€™s nothing Iโ€™d rather be doing than be out on the water fishing, especially offshore. I like to get high up on the boat and look out over the water as far as I can see,โ€ Arnesen told Mongabay while stirring a pot of beans. She has worked small commercial fishing boats out in the gulf for decades. โ€œThe only thing I love more is my grandbaby.โ€

โ€œBefore the spill, you could ride out there and everywhere you rode there were bait balls of bonita, blue runners, thread herrings, spinners jumping through them. Everywhere you went it was just a sight,โ€ Arnesen recounted, referring to plentiful schools of small fish and spinner dolphins in the open ocean. โ€œAfter the spill you could ride a hundred miles and not see a bait ball โ€ฆ It slowly died.โ€

April 20, 2025, marked the 15th anniversary of what is known as the Deepwater Horizon disaster, when an oil rig operated by BP Exploration & Production exploded and sank in the Macondo prospect, 66 kilometers (41 miles) off the Louisiana coast.

Read the full story at Mongabay

 

Gulf fish, endangered sea turtles targeted with $210 million for 10 restoration projects

December 9, 2024 โ€” Federal officials have proposed spending $210 million for 10 projects aimed at restoring fisheries, sea turtles and invertebrate species โ€” including shrimp, crabs, reef coral and shellfish โ€” that were damaged during the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in open water areas of the Gulf of Mexico.

The money comes from an $8.8 billion settlement that BP entered into with the federal government and Gulf Coast states in 2016 to try to remediate some of the extensive damage. The settlement set aside $1.2 billion to restore the Gulfโ€™s open water areas, which is what the new draft restoration plan aims to do.

It is the fourth plan by federal trustees to target open ocean resources damaged by the spill. The three previous plans included $421 million for a variety of projects to restore marine mammals, birds, coral reefs and more. Other settlement funds are reserved for projects within the five Gulf Coast states and for projects affecting the entire region.

The new plan includes six projects aimed at restoring fish and invertebrates that live in the Gulfโ€™s water column, and four to help restore sea turtles.

Read the full story at NOLA.com

$99.6 Million Approved to Continue Restoring Gulf-wide Resources Impacted by Deepwater Horizon

September 28, 2021 โ€” NOAA and the Deepwater Horizon Regionwide Trustee Implementation Group have finalized their first restoration plan (PDF, 401 pages). The group includes all four federal agencies and all five Gulf states, collaborating and coordinating to restore the environment after the 2010 oil spill. The plan calls for $99.6 million to implement 11 restoration projects across all five of the Gulf coast states. It also targets specific locations in Mexico and on the Atlantic coast of Florida.

Wildlife and other natural resources affected by the spill often live and migrate across jurisdictional boundaries, which requires a region-wide approach to restoration. This approach also links projects across regional jurisdictions.

Read the full story at NOAA Fisheries

 

 

Gulf Coast Looks to Maintain, Restore Oysters

November 26, 2018 โ€” The oyster dressing is safe this year.

Since the Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010, 4 billion to 8.3 billion subtidal oysters were estimated to be lost across the Gulf coast. Many states are struggling.

Louisiana is the only state producing at a level at or higher than before the spill, according to Seth Blitch, The Nature Conservancyโ€™s Director of Coastal and Marine Conservation in Louisiana.

โ€œOysters Gulfwide are kind of in a bad spot, but Louisiana is actually sort of the bright spot in terms of commercial production of oysters. Louisiana produces more oysters than any other state in the country, which is good,โ€ Blitch said.

TNC recently released a report on oyster restoration in the Gulf.

According to the report, thereโ€™s been about a 50 percent to 85 percent oyster loss throughout the Gulf when compared to historic levels.

The oyster industry pulls about $220 million to Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. The decrease could affect not only oyster harvesters but restaurants and industries that use the shell, such as using it to supplement chicken feed.

Read the full story from The News-Star of Monroe at U.S. News and World Report

A 14-year-long oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico verges on becoming one of the worst in U.S. history

October 23, 2018 โ€” An oil spill that has been quietly leaking millions of barrels into the Gulf of Mexico has gone unplugged for so long that it now verges on becoming one of the worst offshore disasters in U.S. history.

Between 300 and 700 barrels of oil per day have been spewing from a site 12 miles off the Louisiana coast since 2004, when an oil-production platform owned by Taylor Energy sank in a mudslide triggered by Hurricane Ivan. Many of the wells have not been capped, and federal officials estimate that the spill could continue through this century. With no fix in sight, the Taylor offshore spill is threatening to overtake BPโ€™s Deepwater Horizon disaster as the largest ever.

As oil continues to spoil the Gulf, the Trump administration is proposing the largest expansion of leases for the oil and gas industry, with the potential to open nearly the entire outer continental shelf to offshore drilling. That includes the Atlantic coast, where drilling hasnโ€™t happened in more than a half century and where hurricanes hit with double the regularity of the Gulf.

Expansion plans come despite fears that the offshore oil industry is poorly regulated and that the planet needs to decrease fossil fuels to combat climate change, as well as the knowledge that 14 years after Ivan took down Taylorโ€™s platform, the broken wells are releasing so much oil that researchers needed respirators to study the damage.

โ€œI donโ€™t think people know that we have this ocean in the United States thatโ€™s filled with industry,โ€ said Scott Eustis, an ecologist for the Gulf Restoration Network, as a six-seat plane circled the spill site on a flyover last summer. On the horizon, a forest of oil platforms rose up from the Gulfโ€™s waters, and all that is left of the doomed Taylor platform are rainbow-colored oil slicks that are often visible for miles. He cannot imagine similar development in the Atlantic, where the majority of coastal state governors, lawmakers, attorneys general and residents have aligned against the administrationโ€™s proposal.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Report suggests offshore drilling is a โ€˜bad dealโ€™ for Florida

March 9, 2018 โ€” Oil drilling along Floridaโ€™s coast could put at risk almost 610,000 jobs and $37.4 billion in economic activity, according to a new report by an ocean advocacy group.

Nationally, the nonprofit Oceanaโ€™s new economic analysis found that the Trump administrationโ€™s offshore drilling plan would threaten more than 2.6 million jobs and almost $180 billion in Gross Domestic Product for only two yearsโ€™-worth of oil and just over one yearโ€™s-worth of gas at current consumption rates.

โ€œFrom ocean views scattered with drilling platforms, to the industrialization of our coastal communities, to the unacceptable risk of more BP Deepwater Horizon-like disasters โ€” expanding offshore drilling to new areas threatens thriving coastal economies and booming industries like tourism, recreation and fishing that rely on oil-free beaches and healthy oceans,โ€ Diane Hoskins, campaign director at Oceana, said in a statement. โ€œCoastal communities and states are outraged by this radical plan that threatens to destroy our clean coast economies.โ€

Oil industry officials disputed the findings, saying their industry has operated safely alongside commercial fishing, tourism and other industries for decades.

Oceanaโ€™s report was based on the most recent available data for ocean-dependent jobs and revenue from tourism, fishing and recreation in Atlantic and Pacific coastal states, as well as Floridaโ€™s Gulf coast, and compares them to the โ€œundiscovered economically recoverable oil and gas reserves in those states.โ€

Read the full story at Florida Today

 

Louisiana will use $20 million in BP fines to expand a coastal monitoring program

September 14, 2017 โ€” Louisiana has received $19.5 million in fines from the 2010 BP oil spill to expand a system to collect data on the effect of coastal restoration projects.

The System-Wide Assessment and Monitoring Program, or SWAMP, monitors changes in Louisianaโ€™s ecosystem over time.

Among other things, it evaluates how human factors like restoration projects and climate change affect the environment, including wildlife, fisheries and certain types of vegetation.

SWAMP will be used to understand changes in the ecosystem, evaluate responses to sea-level rise and protect communities from flooding and other natural disasters, said Syed Khalil, a geologist assistant administrator for the state Coastal Protection & Restoration Authority.

โ€œEcosystem restoration is very complex,โ€ Khalil said. โ€œWhat we are doing does not have any boilerplate template, so we need to monitor the results of restoration and then correct or modify our approach, if need be.โ€

Read the full story at The Lens

Shell game: researchers release 21 diamondback terrapins hatched from eggs collected during BP restoration work

July 6, 2017 โ€” Squirt, an 11-month old turtle raised by a team of volunteers, flailed its legs in the air as it was lowered into the marshes off a barrier island near Grand Isle.

โ€œWelcome home, Squirt,โ€ said Rachael Creech as her husband Stephen placed the reptile along the bay side of the island, known as Chenier Ronquille.

After some hesitation, Squirt navigated the marsh grasses and plopped into the bay, where it quickly settled on some floating vegetation.

Squirt was the smallest of a batch of 21 diamondback terrapins released Thursday after their eggs were discovered last year during restoration work on the island after the BP oil spill.

The 2- to 4-inch terrapins, which hatched last August, were deemed ready to return to the wild by state researchers, who had helped oversee their collection and care.

By ones and twos, scientists and volunteers grasped the reptiles by their distinctive shells and lowered them into the grass at the waterโ€™s edge.

Some of the turtles headed straight for the water, while others were more tentative. More than one made a U-turn and headed back toward the crowd that had gathered to watch the release. Others dove in and their noses could soon be seen yards off the bank, popping up to the surface before they dove again.

โ€œMaybe weโ€™ll see you again someday,โ€ state biologist Keri Landry said.

If not for the BP oil spill, the presence of terrapins on Chenier Ronquille might never have been known.

It was only when federal contractors working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were searching for bird eggs along the islandโ€™s sandy shores last July that they noticed the terrapin eggs there as well. They called the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to collect the eggs. Until that point, the state was unaware that terrapins lived on the island.

Read the full story at The New Orleans Advocate

Oysters help Pensacola waterways and economy after BP spill

March 20, 2017 โ€” Ann Birch is a big fan of oysters โ€” not because of how they taste on crackers with a little cocktail sauce and horseradish  โ€” but because of what they do when they are in their natural environment.

โ€œThey are amazing critters,โ€ said Birch, a marine biologist for The Nature Conservancy who is overseeing a major project to restore oyster reefs in parts of Pensacola Bay.

An individual oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water a day, meaning an entire oyster reef works as a cleaning system for all of the surrounding water.

โ€œThe reefs also serve as a nursery for shrimp and blue crab and as a feeding ground for many fish species while protecting shorelines from waves and preventing erosion,โ€ she said.

The Nature Conservancy in Florida has a $1.5 million grant for the reef project from the Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund, a $2.5 billion fund created after the 2010 BP Gulf Coast oil spill from legal settlements paid by the British oil giant and others involved in the massive spill.

The group plans to restore 6.5 miles of reefs in Santa Rosa Countyโ€™s East Bay along the Escribano Point Wildlife Management Area. The $1.5 million will cover the first phase of the project, which includes surveying the existing water quality and wildlife along with design and permitting for construction.

Read the full story at the Pensacola News Journal

LOUISIANA: Former LDWF boss claims allegations โ€˜fabricatedโ€™

January 6, 2017 โ€” Former state Wildlife and Fisheries secretary Robert Barham used the public comment period during Thursdayโ€™s Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission meeting to refute allegations of misspending and fiscal irresponsibility during his eight years at that post.

Most of the questions center around LDWF spending in the months and years following the BP-Deepwater Horizon oil disaster.

The allegations came during Charlie Melanconโ€™s stormy 11-month tenure as head of the state agency. Melancon resigned the position last week, and Gov. J.B. Edwards named state Rep. Jack Montoucet, D-Crowley, to take the post effective Jan. 16.

โ€œIโ€™m here to address the news reports of the last year,โ€ Barham said. โ€œWhen I took the job (LDWF secretary) eight years ago, the department was entrenched in systematic financial mismanagement.

โ€œIt became clear the department would be in the red within a year, and we made programmatic changes through operation and management decisions that we would be four current years in the black.โ€

Read the full story at the Acadiana Advocate

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