By: Casey Dresbach, SRC Intern Since WWII, the extraction of oil has rapidly revolutionized the way we live. The twentieth century is actually deemed the “century of oil.” The world’s dependency on oil is primarily on Petroleum, also known as crude oil. Crude oil is a complex and naturally occurring mixture of petroleum, which is […]
By: Molly Rickles, SRC Intern The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill occurred in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico and was one of the largest oil spills ever recorded. During the 85 days before the spill was capped, over 4.9 million barrels of oil were released. The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill was unique because most spills […]
By: Delaney Reynolds, SRC Intern After the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawai’I, the United States declared martial law. In the decades that followed, the island of Kaho‘olawe, Hawai’I, an island considered sacred to Hawai’ian Natives, was used as a training ground and bombing range for the United States’ Army. Decades of bombing have not […]
By: Sydney Steel, SRC Intern Nestled in the Mid-Atlantic, the Chesapeake Bay is renowned for being home to countless oysters, which contribute to the overall health of the ecosystem by providing food, protective reef habitat, and necessary water filtration. For centuries, Eastern Maryland’s economy has been dependent on harvesting seemingly-infinite numbers of bivalves, however oyster […]
By: Nicole Suren, SRC Intern As climate change has had increasingly noticeable effects on the earth, scientists have developed more accurate and innovative ways to determine what these effects mean for the natural world. One of these methods is to use indicator species, species that can be used as proxies to diagnose the health of […]
By: Nick Martinez, SRC Intern The world’s oceans face a variety of challenges ranging from rising sea levels and sea surface temperatures, to overfishing and excessive amounts of anthropogenic debris being tossed into the oceans. Many studies have focused on the large scale effects of each of these dire issues, yet few have ventured into […]
By: Olivia Wigon, SRC Intern Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) encompass any and every type of area in the oceans, seas, lakes or estuaries. MPAs have some type of restriction on human behavior and activity in an area with the intention to conserve natural resources in that area. MPAs not only protect animals but the economy […]
By: Chris Schenker, SRC Intern Hundreds of millions of people around the world depend on wild harvests from the ocean as both a livelihood and source of protein (Srinivasan et al., 2010). Ensuring the long term sustainability of fisheries is therefore a matter of utmost importance for global resource security. However, according to a 2016 […]
By: Brenna Bales, SRC Intern One cannot live in the state of Florida and be unaware of the effects of a red tide. It’s lethal destruction spurs concern from conservationists, divers, and fishermen alike. What begins as plankton at the basis of the food web, supplying nutrients to shellfish and larvae, gets sent into overdrive […]
By: Meagan Ando, SRC Intern The migration of the Humpback Whale is one of the longest and mightiest journeys taken by any marine animal in the world. On average, these baleen whales travel about 6,000 miles every year, making this one of the most awe-inspiring ocean crossings. But just where do these animals travel to […]