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

About 70% of our planet is covered with water. Since the other 30% is currently fixated on the ongoing World Cup competition in South Africa, why should the piscean players not get involved as well?  It was interesting to me as a fish hobbyist to find the following happenings in media from around the world…check out the links to read/see more!

Looking for some help figuring out your spread and who will win the next bracket? Ask Paul. Paul has gotten his last four predictions right. Paul will never lead you astray. Oh, by the way, Paul is an octopus. The 2-year-old British expatriate most recently predicted that his new German home team will defeat his old English hometeam on Saturday. So, Paul, who’s gonna take the Cup (and what are my lucky lottery numbers)? Read More »

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 »

Some of the things that the scientific community is “discovering” are things that have been known for years by reef hobbyists.  I’ve been reading through some articles about recently published studies. A couple of them really got my attention as things that many hobbyist already know, just from keeping aquariums in their homes.

Distressing Damsels

Ask a long time reef aquarist about keeping damselfish in a reef aquarium…they will probably tell you that damsels are aggressive, and sometimes destructive to a reef aquarium community.  A study recently published on PLoSONE.org found that Threespot Damselfish are damaging coral reefs in their efforts to find new habitat.  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 »