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BLOG POST Listening for Clues About Sonar’s Effects on Marine Mammals Many animals depend on their eyes to navigate, find food, locate mates, and for other important activities. But marine mammals often rely on sound—sometimes far more than sight—for such crit...MORE STORIES


	OCEAN STORY MORE STORIES The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Two Years Later On April 20, 2010, an explosion on the oil-drilling rig Deepwater Horizon caused...
	VIDEO MORE VIDEOS Investigating Nutrient Pollution's Impact on Mangroves At Carrie Bow Cay in Belize, Dr. Candy Feller explains her research on the effec...
	BLOG POST MORE STORIES Witness to a Plastic Invasion It blew in for two solid days: a flotilla of plastic forks, soda bottles, rubber...

EDUCATOR RESOURCES

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					The Great Pacific Garbage Patch May 6, 2013 - 8:10AMThe “garbage patches,” as referred to in the media, are areas of marine debris concentration in the North Pacific Ocean, circulated by the North Pacific gyre. The gyre spreads across the Pacific Ocean from Japan to the western US...

Investigating Nutrient Pollution's Impact on Mangroves

Apr 26, 2013 - 9:47AM

At Carrie Bow Cay in Belize, Dr. Candy Feller explains her research on the...

Oil’s Impact on Marine Invertebrates

Oct 9, 2012 - 9:17AM

In the aftermath of the Gulf oil spill, what is the effect of oil on...

SPOTLIGHT


Ocean Trash Plaguing Our Sea In the Pacific Ocean, four ocean currents merge to form the North Pacific gyre, also known as the North Pacific Subtropical...

Oil on the Water Jun 7 2010 - 12:24pm Major oil spills like the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill are devestating, but aren’t the only way oil gets into the ocean. Nearly 85 percent of oil in U.S. coastal waters comes from runoff (roads, parking lots, etc.), polluted rivers, airplanes, and small boats and jet skis. These sources...	2011 Student Summit on the Ocean & Coasts Webcast, Part 3 Mar 28 2011 - 3:02pm Recorded Feb. 15, 2011, this video from the Third Student Summit on the Ocean and Coasts includes presentations that were given by delegations from the Monterey Bay Aquarium (2:30), Oregon Coast Aquarium (16:40), Texas State Aquarium (30:10), Georgia Aquarium (44:00), South Carolina Aquarium (59:00...
Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Workers Jun 6 2010 - 3:34pm Workers contracted by BP load oily waste onto a trailer on Elmer's Island, just west of Grand Isle, La., May 21, 2010. More about the Gulf oil spill can be found in our Gulf oil spill featured story.	Science in a Time of Crisis: Assessing the Impacts May 10 2011 - 4:01pm Part 6 of a 6-part series describing WHOI's efforts to understand the scope and impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. "Assessing the Impacts" describes a range of work by WHOI scientists in the months after the spill.
State of Emergency in the Gulf Apr 30 2010 - 6:04pm The explosion of Deepwater Horizon, an oil-drilling platform roughly 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana, is quickly growing into an environmental disaster that will leave its mark on coastal communities, fisheries, wildlife, and ecosystems along the Gulf Coast for decades to come.	Underwater WWII Wrecks – Pollution or Cultural Heritage? Jan 15 2013 - 1:26pm 2012 marked the 70th anniversary of a series of World War II battles in the Pacific Ocean and on its islands, which are collectively known as the “Pacific theatre.” While the battles are long over, thousands of wrecked boats and planes from many nations still rest on the seafloor. These wreck sites...
Netting an oiled pelican in the Gulf of Mexico Jun 16 2010 - 11:36am Carl Pellegrin (left) of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and Tim Kimmel of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service prepare to net an oiled pelican in Barataria Bay, La., Saturday, June 5, 2010. The pelican was netted and transported to a facility on Grand Isle, La., for stabilization...	Design Your Own Bag Sep 15 2011 - 12:05pm Marine debris damages habitat, entangles wildlife, helps transport invasive species, and harms marine animals that mistakenly ingest the trash thinking it is food. As part of the Smithsonian's Art's and Science program, the museum hosted "DYOB: Design Your Own Bag." The program aimed to...
Kemp’s ridley sea turtle recovers from oil Jun 4 2010 - 10:56am A young Kemp's ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys kempii) recovers at the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas, after the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Turtles were cleaned and nursed back to health with the help of New England Aquarium staff.	Lessons from the Panama Oil Spill Jun 23 2010 - 11:22am On April 27, 1986, an estimated 50,000 barrels of medium-weight crude oil drained from a ruptured storage tank at a refinery in Panama, polluting the coast and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute’s Galeta Marine Laboratory, located at the Caribbean entrance to the Panama Canal. For 15 years...
The Gulf Oil Spill: Send in Your Questions Apr 12 2011 - 4:08pm With the nuclear and humanitarian crisis in Japan, major political changes in North Africa and the Middle East, and heated budget battles here in the United States, you'd be forgiven for not remembering that nearly one year ago the Gulf of Mexico was dominating the news. On April 20, 2010, the...	Oil and Water Don't Mix, Even After 40 Years May 3 2010 - 6:02pm More than 40 years after the 1969 oil spill in Massachusetts’ Wild Harbor salt marsh, environmental chemist Dr. Chris Reddy from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution finds that the oil is still present. In this video, learn about how Dr. Chris Reddy tests the marsh for the presence of oil,...
Brown Pelican covered in oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill Jun 6 2010 - 7:34pm On June 3, 2010 a brown pelican, the Louisiana state bird, stands mired in oil in East Grand Terre. According to reports, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries was contacted, and biologists rescued about 20 oiled birds from the area. In November 2009 the brown pelican’s removal from...	Autonomous Underwater Vehicle in Gulf of Mexico Jun 11 2010 - 9:38am An autonomous underwater vehicle from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) being launched from the NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter in the Gulf of Mexico. More about the Gulf oil spill can be found in our Gulf oil spill section.
Changing Tides: A Series of Ocean Discussions May 24 2010 - 3:32pm PAST PROGRAMS IN THE SERIES	Lecture: "Troubled Waters in the Gulf of Mexico" Mar 27 2011 - 10:51pm The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill brought the world's attention to the Gulf of Mexico and raised awareness of the region's chronic loss of wetlands as well as the massive dead zone caused by excess nutrients from the Mississippi River. Today the challenge is to develop and implement large-scale...