Law

Oceana, the world’s largest ocean conservation organization, applauded the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) today for approving a plan to protect more than 23,000 square miles of known deep sea coral from North Carolina to Florida from destructive fishing gear. The plan, proposed by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council in September 2009, will ban the use of bottom-damaging fishing gear in the largest known area of healthy deep sea coral ecosystems in the world, helping to ensure the productivity of commercial fisheries that depend on them.

“An entire ocean ecosystem was lent a helping hand today,” said Dave Allison, senior campaign director at Oceana. “Bottom trawling consumes more fuel than most other kinds of fishing and is capable of destroying these ancient coral reefs in a single pass.”

As the oil spill continues in the Gulf of Mexico, Oceana is urging the Obama administration to follow-through on protection of these vulnerable deep sea ecosystems by banning new offshore drilling immediately and permanently. Today’s actions are a brilliant example of the kind of leadership we need to protect deep sea corals along the southeast coast of the United States, at the same time as the ongoing Deepwater Horizon oil spill brings light to another extremely dangerous threat – oil.

Read the complete story at Oceana.

The massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is unlikely to affect Massachusetts, environmental experts told a panel of state legislators today.

Although there is a small chance that oil from the worst spill in U.S. history could travel as far as North Carolina along the Gulf Stream, state experts said that is likely the farthest north any residue — likely in the form of tar balls — would go.

At today's hearing, representatives from the Department of Environmental Protection, the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, and the Division of Marine Fisheries said it would take very unusual weather patterns to wash any tar north of the Gulf Stream’s current, and that the state also has little to worry about in the way of harm to marine wildlife.

Read the complete story at The Boston Globe.

A groundbreaking, two-year research project led by the DEP shows minimal environmental impact would occur at sites proposed for several wind energy projects off the coast of New Jersey, which is a national leader in an effort to develop offshore wind-to-energy power.

Designed by scientists from the DEP, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Minerals Management Service, the study will help identify optimum sites off the Jersey coast for wind energy projects that would have the least impact on the environment.

The draft final report unveiled today shows there would be negligible impacts to bird, fish and marine mammal life caused “green energy’’ turbines which could be located from 3 to 20 miles out to sea, from Barnegat Bay to Hereford Inlet off the coast of Atlantic, Ocean and Cape May counties.

Read the complete story at The Cape May County Herald.

It wasn’t until seven weeks after the BP oil well began gushing that the company acknowledged oil remained hidden under the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, and it continues to dispute the extent of miles-long submerged plumes.

But an unusual experiment conducted in 2000 off the coast of Norway, a trial run of a deep-water oil and gas spill that BP helped pay for, showed that oil could remain underwater for some time.

The North Atlantic exercise was designed to understand how a spill would behave as the drilling industry plumbed new depths to extract oil and gas. The federal Minerals Management Service and 22 companies took part in the test, at about half the depth of the gulf disaster.

Read the complete story at The Boston Globe.