Environment
SpaceX Rocket Base to Be Built Near Endangered Sea Turtle Nesting Beach
Can rockets and endangered species co-exist?
Stories by Melissa Gaskill
Environment
Post-BP Oil Spill Gulf Restoration Projects So Far Lack Basis in Science [Slide Show]
Few funds generated by the Deepwater Horizon disaster have been allocated as yet to return the Gulf of Mexico’s marshes and ecosystems to a healthier state, leading to “random acts of restoration”...
Environment
Post–BP Oil Spill Gulf Restoration Projects So Far Lack Basis in Science [Slide Show]
Few funds generated by the Deepwater Horizon disaster have been allocated as yet to return the Gulf of Mexico’s marshes and ecosystems to a healthier state, leading to “random acts of restoration”...
Counting Fish: Wrap Up and Conclusion
Since July 2012, Ive been posting about a study of artificial reefs along the Texas coast. Scientists at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies in Corpus Christi conducted the research, funded by the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, to determine whether these structures increase fish populations, and whether their location, type and [...]..
Environment
As Lionfish Invade the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, Conservationists Say Eat Up [Slide Show]
The species is wreaking havoc on reef communities, prompting efforts to encourage the public to catch and eat the fish
Counting Fish – End of the season
Scientists at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies stayed busy this summer completing vertical longline sampling and ROV and diving surveys at artificial and natural reefs off the Texas coast...
Environment
Counting Fish: We're Back!
Equipped with a new 36-foot research vessel and summer weather, scientists at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi are getting back to work documenting marine life around artificial reef sites off the Texas Gulf Coast.Last year, HRI launched a two-year study, funded by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, to analyze 15 artificial reef sites off the Texas coast and definitively answer the question of whether these reefs create new, self-sustaining habitat...
Biology
How to Save Sharks off Cuba’s Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico [Slide Show]
Is it possible to create a sustainable fishery for sharks before the ocean's top predators are gone?
Evolution
Rise in Roadkill Requires New Solutions
Vehicle–wildlife collisions kill millions of animals--and harm thousands of people--each year. Scientists are working on solutions
Environment
Counting Fish: Growing Reefs
Natural coral reefs grow oh-so-slowly. Artificial ones sometimes grow by leaps and bounds, as scientists from Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi recently discovered.The scientists are in the midst of a two-year survey of marine life around artificial structures in the Gulf, which I’ve been covering since late summer...
Environment
Climate Change Threatens Long-Term Sustainability of Great Plains
Rising temperatures, persistent drought and depleted aquifers on the southern Great Plains could set the stage for a disaster similar to the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, scientists say
Environment
Counting Fish: Longlines, Lionfish and Liberty Ships
It’s been a busy week for scientists in the Gulf of MexicoLast week, scientists dropped longlines at artificial reef sites off the Texas coast, pulling up some nice-looking red snapper, gray snapper and triggerish...
Environment
Counting Fish: well, thanks Isaac, no counting fish this week
My plans called for heading out from Port Aransas, Texas aboard MoAzul on Wednesday, August 29 – about the time Hurricane Isaac is expected to slam into the northern Gulf Coast.I hoped to watch Greg Stuntz, Jennifer Wetz and other scientists from the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies conduct ROV surveys of two more sites, MU-A-85 and MU-A-16, which you can see from the map are far offshore, where waves were predicted to be as high as four feet or more...
Environment
Counting Fish: on the artificial reefs
We see fish. Big schools of them, swimming around artificial reefs in the Gulf of Mexico, not far from the Texas shore.These reefs have been created from parts of oil and gas platforms, Liberty ships, and concrete and other materials to provide habitat for marine life...
Environment
Triple Whammy Led to High Rate of Bottlenose Dolphin Deaths in Gulf of Mexico
Cold weather, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and an influx of cold fresh water combined to cause record cetacean mortality
Environment
Counting Fish: Gulf of Mexico Artificial Reef Survey
More than three thousand offshore oil and gas platforms currently stand in the Gulf of Mexico. Federal regulations have long required companies to remove everything from the sea once a well ceases production, and over the past several decades, hundreds of structures have been toppled into deep water or towed to shore to become scrap metal.In 2010, spurred by damage to offshore structures from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 and the Deepwater Horizon disaster earlier that year, the Department of the Interior issued a Notice to Lessees...
Technology
It Detects Earthquakes and Lactose Intolerance
A new suitcase-size spectrometer has many functions
Mind & Brain
Motion Sickness Treatments Make Waves
NASA and the U.S. Navy are finding better ways to treat motion sickness, which could be good news for everyone
Environment
Trawls and Trash Represent One-Two Punch for Threatened Turtles [Slide Show]
Studies have identified plastic pollution and fishing practices as major threats to sea turtles for several years. This knowledge is, at last, beginning to translate into action
