Oil spill tops 1 million gallons, threatens Gulf of Mexico wildlife – the Washington Post

Plaquemine Parish. 1998 (by Dr. Terry McTigue, courtesy of NOAA CC BY 2.0 DEED via FLickr).

Skimming vessels are working to contain and recover oil from a spill in the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast, which the U.S. Coast Guard on Tuesday estimated to be at least 1.1 million gallons. The spill was discovered Thursday near a 67-mile pipeline operated by the Main Pass Oil Gathering Co., owned by Houston-based Third Coast Infrastructure, and the Coast Guard said it was still reviewing whether that pipeline was the source of the contamination…

Research Confirms Link Between Snow Crab Decline and Marine Heatwave – NOAA Fisheries

Snow Crab detail (by NOAA Fisheries, public domain).

“During the marine heatwave, snow crabs faced a triple threat,” said lead author and Alaska Fisheries Science Center stock assessment scientist Cody Szuwalski. “Their metabolism increased, so they needed more food; their habitat was reduced so there was less area to forage; and crabs caught in our survey weighed less than usual. These conditions likely set them up for the dramatic decline we saw in 2021…”

Groundwater a significant source of pollution on Great Barrier Reef, study shows – the Guardian

The Great Barrier Reef, (by Steve Parish courtesy of Lock the Gate Alliance CC BY 2.0 DEED via Flickr).

Scientists say they have discovered large flows of pollution are reaching the Great Barrier Reef after soaking into underground water, a finding that could have implications for policymakers focused on cutting pollution from river catchments. The new research claims almost a third of dissolved inorganic nitrogen and two-thirds of dissolved inorganic phosphorus in the reef’s waters are coming from underground sources – an amount previously undocumented…

Sponging Up Plastic Pollution – Hakai Magazine

Microplastics in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed: Microplastics from the Rhode River are pictured at the laboratory of Dr. Lance Yonkos in the Department of Environmental Science & Technology at the University of Maryland in College Park, Md., on Feb. 6, 2015 (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED via Flickr).

For millennia, humans have used dried natural sponges to clean up, to paint, and as vessels to consume fluids like water or honey; we’ve even used them as contraceptive devices. Whether synthetic or natural, sponges are great at ensnaring tiny particles in their many pores. And as scientists around the world are beginning to show, sponges’ cavity-filled forms mean they could provide a solution to one of our era’s biggest scourges: microplastic pollution….

Seaweed is mucking up beaches. This robot could stop it — and fight climate change – NPR

Sargassum sacs (by John Turnbull CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED via Flickr).

In shallow waters, sargassum can smother coral reefs and alter the water’s pH balance, killing off local seagrasses and mangroves. It can choke boat motors, constricting local fishing yields if not cutting off whole marinas. Sargassum once clogged a desalination plant so badly that residents of the U.S. Virgin Islands were told the drinking water may not be safe…