That Fish Blog – Aquarium Advice and Information

Hi, Cory here. In light of Hurricane Alex, I thought I’d take the time to timeline recent activities and speculate on some potential impacts of the Hurricane Season in general on the Gulf Clean-up and wildlife.

July 2nd, Day 73 will hopefully bring oil skimmers back into the gulf of Mexico. The skimmers have been inactive since the middle of the week, due to Hurricane Alex. Alex formed in the southern Caribbean and moved northwest over the Yucatan Peninsula and into the Southwestern part of the Gulf of Mexico. From there, Alex moved west, into the far northeastern portions of Mexico as a Category 2 hurricane. While never posing a direct impact to the oil spill, Alex has affected the cleanup efforts and raised many new questions about what a hurricane may do if the oil spill location is directly impacted.

Despite the center of Alex being over 600 miles away from the disaster, waves were being reported around 6-8 feet, with some higher swells. This sidelined hundreds of oils skimmers and made the oil booms ineffective. With increased seas and a driving southeastern wind, the oil slick was pushed away from the Florida coastline right into the Louisiana coastline. This is causing oil to enter wetlands and marshes that have not yet been affected, and areas that were cleaned up previously.

With the Gulf of Mexico and much of the Atlantic Ocean running 0.5 to as much as 3 degrees above average in temperature along with the forecast for an above average hurricane season, capping the oil spill as quickly as possible has become an even greater necessity. The term “oily hurricane” is being thrown around all over the news and the internet. Since no one really knows what will happen if a hurricane were to impact the area directly, we can only assume the impacts would be devastating. Any tropical storm or hurricane will drive oil onshore, much further than we are seeing now. Depending on the strength of the storm, oil could be pushed miles inland, into cities and towns, completely destroying marshes and wetlands.

The impact of the oil on the storm is not well understood either. The oil slick could inhibit the intensification process of the storm, by preventing the pull of moisture into the storm from the ocean. On the other hand, the black slick could absorb more sunlight, heating up the water further leading to more rapid intensification. High winds along with storm surge will push oil into buildings, vehicles, and water supplies possibly contaminating the region for years.

The impacts on wildlife has been terrible so far. Whale sharks have been spotted nearly 4 miles from the spill site, swimming in oil along with dolphins off shore of Louisiana. Endangered sea turtles are getting hit the worst: it is estimated that more than 450 turtles have died so far. Check out my last post for additional details on wildlife impact.

We can only continue to hope that this catastrophe is contained well before we get the answers to some of these questions…

Until next time,

Cory

More than 50 days after the explosion, and all we have is more oil leaking and more promises of a reliable fix. BP has successfully placed the cap on top of the ruptured pipe, collecting some of the oil. Meanwhile, more oil appears in new locations day by day. Depending on currents and winds, parts of Coastal Louisiana continue to bear the brunt of the slick. Coastal sections of Mississippi, Alabama, and the Panhandle of Florida have seen some oil, mainly in the form of tar balls. However, it is feared that strong southerly winds over the next few days will push more oil into the Panhandle of Florida affecting Pensacola Beach and other popular destination areas. Unfortunately, this is not only bad for the environment but also for the local economies. It is still unclear when BP will get the oil leak stopped, I have heard speculation of a few weeks, months, and even into next year. We can all only hope that it will be sooner than later. Read More »

Last week I received a disturbing call from one of our suppliers of Florida Cultured live rock. The companies dealing in the aquaculture business in Florida are being advised to move as much of their stock out of the water as possible as a precaution in the event oil spreading into the coastal waters where the rock is placed to culture.  It was a call I’ve been dreading…though the area has not yet been impacted by the massive spill, the impending possibility of the muck reaching the pristine waters makes me sick.

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Louisiana, has now been determined to be the largest oil spill in US history, topping the disaster in Alaska in 1989 by Exxon. As BP continues to try and plug the hole, nearly a mile below the surface, the questions continue to flow with no real answers. No one knows exactly how much oil has spilled out or how much more will in the coming weeks. BP gives us numbers, but no specific amounts can be agreed upon. Read More »

It is amazing how little we know about our ocean’s ecosystems! We know that corals can defend themselves against other corals, invertebrates, and to a certain extent fish, but a recent study has found that corals may have another attacker to defend against. Algae has always been a problem with coral and coral reefs as a whole. The rapid growth and expansion of some macro algae will eventually choke out specific corals, killing them in a matter of days. Taxifolia a species of Caulerpa, began invading parts of the West Coast years ago, choking out everything in it’s path as it spread. Normally, we think of the tangling tendrils of green smothering the corals in darkness as they take over, slowly starving them of vital light and nutrients. However, a recent study performed by a professor and his graduate student at Georgia Tech have found algae that can kill coral on contact. Read More »

At this point, most people are aware of how important the coral reefs are to the world’s oceans and the world itself. With this knowledge, you would think that we would show more respect to this fragile environment. However, this is not the case, specifically in the Indo-Pacific region. This area is infamous for their destructive fishing techniques, using cyanide and dynamite to collect stunned fish. The use of cyanide has been banned for quite sometime, but is still being used by some to collect fish for the aquarium hobby. Cyanide fishing can damage or kill corals that are exposed during the catching process, not to mention that the fish that it was intended will most likely die days or weeks down the road. Blast fishing is just as bad if not worse, a battle that has been fought for decades. Read More »