Saturday, June 26, 2010

The Future of the Gulf of Mexico

You will have to go to landlocked Iowa to see it.

"Aquarium depicts a defiled gulf" by Associated Press | June 24, 2010

DES MOINES — A new exhibit at an aquarium in Iowa that had intended to showcase the beauty of the Gulf of Mexico will instead be void of life to underline the environmental impact of a massive oil spill in the ocean basin.

The 40,000-gallon aquarium at the National Mississippi River and Aquarium in Dubuque, about 1,000 miles from where the river dumps into the gulf, was supposed to have been teeming with sharks, rays, and other fish. Two smaller tanks were to show a seagrass bed and coral reef.

Yeah, but it is global warming that is killing the reefs.

“It may be the only time that people have ever seen a major aquarium that, instead of showing its fish, is showing an environmental disaster,’’ said Jerry Enzler, the museum’s executive director....

Anywhere from 67 million to 127 million gallons of oil have spilled since an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 workers and blew out a well 5,000 feet underwater on April 20. BP PLC was leasing the rig from owner Transocean Ltd.

The Iowa exhibit, which is scheduled to open Saturday as part of the museum’s $40 million expansion project, will feature a video showing the oil spill unfolding....

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Also see
: The New Dead Zone

Obama's Asphalt Ocean

A Different View of the Gulf Oil Gusher

Containment Cap Comes Off Gulf Gusher

More: DEEPWATER ~ GASSED IN THE GULF