WORKING LANDSCAPE:

It can be hard to tell where the land ends and the waters begin in southern Louisiana—as well as what parts of the landscape are natural and which are part of nearly 50,000 kilometers of pipeline, channels and other infrastructure for the offshore oil and gas industry....[More]

WORKING LANDSCAPE:

It can be hard to tell where the land ends and the waters begin in southern Louisiana—as well as what parts of the landscape are natural and which are part of nearly 50,000 kilometers of pipeline, channels and other infrastructure for the offshore oil and gas industry. Louisiana's wetlands work both to transport and process oil and natural gas as well as to feed one of the most productive fisheries (including shrimp and other non-fish species, such as crabs) in the world.  [Less] [Link to this slide]

OIL INUNDATION:

By late May, oil from BP's blown out Macondo well began to reach the Louisiana coast, as captured here by NASA's Terra satellite. The largest and longest boom deployment ever was not enough to keep it off the coast and it even began to infiltrate the mouth of the Mississippi River, although large releases of fresh water from upstream storage kept the oil out of the river itself....[More]

OIL INUNDATION:

By late May, oil from BP's blown out Macondo well began to reach the Louisiana coast, as captured here by NASA's Terra satellite. The largest and longest boom deployment ever was not enough to keep it off the coast and it even began to infiltrate the mouth of the Mississippi River, although large releases of fresh water from upstream storage kept the oil out of the river itself. The subsequent freshening of the normally more briny coastal waters killed Louisiana's oysters.  [Less] [Link to this slide]

DEAD DOLPHINS:

This year an unusually high number of dead baby dolphins have washed ashore in Alabama and Mississippi—roughly 300 dolphins in all since April 20, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration....[More]

DEAD DOLPHINS:

This year an unusually high number of dead baby dolphins have washed ashore in Alabama and Mississippi—roughly 300 dolphins in all since April 20, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Many of the calves show signs of having been stillborn, and oil spill-related toxicity may be to blame. But that question remains unanswered as BP and government agencies have seized and sequestered all such carcasses, says Casi Callaway, baykeeper for Mobile Bay in Alabama. Regardless, such a high number of deaths is at least two times more than the long-term average, according to NOAA figures.  [Less] [Link to this slide]

OILED BIRDS:

Brown pelicans got a little browner, thanks to the oil spill, with potentially fatal results. Preening causes the pelicans and other birds to eat the oil as well as the hypothermia caused by oil's interaction with the bird's natural oils....[More]

OILED BIRDS:

Brown pelicans got a little browner, thanks to the oil spill, with potentially fatal results. Preening causes the pelicans and other birds to eat the oil as well as the hypothermia caused by oil's interaction with the bird's natural oils. Worse, oiled birds at sea sink, meaning the true toll of the oil spill on birds will likely never be known.  [Less] [Link to this slide]

OILY MARSH:

Bay Jimmy in Plaquemines Parish remains one of the heavily oiled sites in Louisiana. Here, workers attempt to vacuum oil out its marshes without causing too much damage to the ecosystem....[More]

OILY MARSH:

Bay Jimmy in Plaquemines Parish remains one of the heavily oiled sites in Louisiana. Here, workers attempt to vacuum oil out its marshes without causing too much damage to the ecosystem. Such industrial attempts at cleanup actually did more harm than the oil spill itself in the case of the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska. "There is a loss of habitat due to the disturbances during response activities," Glenn Plumb, chief of aquatic and wildlife resources at Yellowstone National Park, warned last May. "We don't want the cure to be worse than the disease."  [Less] [Link to this slide]

OTTER TRAWL:

Scientists—and fishermen—employ an otter trawl with a pair of doors at the front and a nearly two-centimeter mesh net behind it to capture much of what thrives on the bottom, particularly brown and white shrimp....[More]

OTTER TRAWL:

Scientists—and fishermen—employ an otter trawl with a pair of doors at the front and a nearly two-centimeter mesh net behind it to capture much of what thrives on the bottom, particularly brown and white shrimp. Between the two doors is a chain that "tickles the bottom to scare the shrimp up," according to the R/V Pelican's Thomas Widgeon.

The two Caterpillar 450-horsepower diesel engines pull such a trawl along the muddy bottom, causing the pink buoy that marks its tie to the surface to dance in the water. The larger trawls pulled by fisherfolk also boast metal cages—excluders for endangered sea turtles—that open under a turtle's weight, releasing the otherwise trapped animal.

The two Caterpillar 450-horsepower diesel engines aboard the R/V Pelican pull such a trawl along the muddy bottom, causing the pink buoy that marks its tie to the surface to dance in the water. The larger trawls pulled by fisherfolk also boast metal cages—excluders for endangered sea turtles—that open under a turtle's weight, releasing the otherwise trapped animal.  [Less] [Link to this slide]

GOOD FISHING:

Even a short 20-minute trawl pulls up a profusion of catfish and other marine organisms, testimony to the richness of the ecosystem. That richness is a result of the nutrients, such as nitrogen, phosphorus and silica, carried by the mighty Mississippi River....[More]

GOOD FISHING:

Even a short 20-minute trawl pulls up a profusion of catfish and other marine organisms, testimony to the richness of the ecosystem. That richness is a result of the nutrients, such as nitrogen, phosphorus and silica, carried by the mighty Mississippi River. "That's why we have such rich fisheries," explains biological oceanographer Nancy Rabalais, executive director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON). It's also why the mouth of the Mississippi creates a dearth of oxygen as a result of algal blooms spurred by nitrogen-runoff from the over-fertilized fields of the U.S. Midwest—a so-called dead zone.

Further out to sea, drilling rigs and other industrial infrastructure provide a hard contrast to the soft muck provided by the Mississippi. As a result, some of the best sport fishing in the world can be found near such infrastructure, which is why boats were in the vicinity of the Deepwater Horizon when it exploded on April 20, 2010. "They are fishing aggregating devices sitting out there in the middle of the ocean," says LUMCON biological oceanographer Edward Chesney.

Further out to sea, drilling rigs and other industrial infrastructure provide a hard contrast to the soft muck provided by the Mississippi. As a result, some of the best sport fishing in the world can be found near such infrastructure, which is why boats were in the vicinity of the Deepwater Horizon when it exploded on April 20, 2010. "They are fishing aggregating devices sitting out there in the middle of the ocean," says LUMCON biological oceanographer Edward Chesney.  [Less] [Link to this slide]

BYCATCH:

When trawling for shrimp, everything else is bycatch—unwanted marine life—and there is a lot of bycatch. A short trawl brought up this juvenile flounder as well as blue crabs, catfish and more....[More]

BYCATCH:

When trawling for shrimp, everything else is bycatch—unwanted marine life—and there is a lot of bycatch. A short trawl brought up this juvenile flounder as well as blue crabs, catfish and more.  [Less] [Link to this slide]

A very small mud grab or ponar grab, like the one pictured here, takes a sample of the top layer of the Houma Navigation Channel bottom.

MISSISSIPPI MUCK:

The brownish-green waters of the Delta say two things: mud and algae—further out to sea the water suddenly turns blue. The mud brought up from the bottom is silty, with a lighter layer of brown at the top from a dusting of diatom shells....[More]

MISSISSIPPI MUCK:

The brownish-green waters of the Delta say two things: mud and algae—further out to sea the water suddenly turns blue. The mud brought up from the bottom is silty, with a lighter layer of brown at the top from a dusting of diatom shells. The silt turns thick and black in deeper layers.  [Less] [Link to this slide]

A good spraying reveals a host of tiny shells within the muck.

ROSETTE:

This canister of scientific paraphernalia tests the conductivity, temperature and density of the water. Other devices can also be added to sample for dissolved oxygen (to find dead zones) or fluorometers (to identify materials, like hydrocarbons, in the water)....[More]

ROSETTE:

This canister of scientific paraphernalia tests the conductivity, temperature and density of the water. Other devices can also be added to sample for dissolved oxygen (to find dead zones) or fluorometers (to identify materials, like hydrocarbons, in the water).  [Less] [Link to this slide]

A 160-micron mesh net leading to a tiny canister allows scientists to sample for tiny plants and animals known collectively as plankton. Such plankton has been taking on oil, with unknown effects.

TAR BALLS:

The biggest visible legacy of BP's Macondo well blowout is an increase in the number of tarballs on beaches throughout the Gulf Coast. Heavy machinery is used to comb the beaches and scoop up the top layer for cleaning elsewhere, pictured here working Grand Isle Beach in Louisiana, which remains closed to visitors....[More]

TAR BALLS:

The biggest visible legacy of BP's Macondo well blowout is an increase in the number of tarballs on beaches throughout the Gulf Coast. Heavy machinery is used to comb the beaches and scoop up the top layer for cleaning elsewhere, pictured here working Grand Isle Beach in Louisiana, which remains closed to visitors.

At the same time, evidence from prior spills in the Gulf, such as the 1979 Ixtoc spill near Mexico, suggest that oil likely settled to the sea floor as well. Sediment samples extracted by some researchers suggest this is indeed the case, with unknown impacts on deep sea life such as Lophelia corals.

At the same time, evidence from prior spills in the Gulf, such as the 1979 Ixtoc 1 well spill near Mexico, suggest that oil likely settled to the sea floor as well. Sediment samples extracted by some researchers suggest this is indeed the case, with unknown impacts on deep sea life such as Lophelia corals.  [Less] [Link to this slide]

CRISIS AVOIDED?:

Billy Maher, a Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries biologist releases a sea turtle after treatment for oil exposure last October. Transferring eggs or turtles to clean beaches or clean waters also helped avoid an apocalypse among endangered Kemp's Ridley sea turtles and four other endangered or threatened turtle species that live in the gulf....[More]

CRISIS AVOIDED?:

Billy Maher, a Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries biologist releases a sea turtle after treatment for oil exposure last October. Transferring eggs or turtles to clean beaches or clean waters also helped avoid an apocalypse among endangered Kemp's Ridley sea turtles and four other endangered or threatened turtle species that live in the gulf. In fact, loggerhead turtle hatchlings made the jump from Gulf to Atlantic beaches, where they were released into the Atlantic Ocean. But the long-term effects of the oil spill on turtles and other marine life remain to be seen.  [Less] [Link to this slide]