The U.S. portion of the Gulf of Mexico region extends from the Florida Keys westward to the southern tip of Texas, following the coastline of five states. The combined coastline of these states, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas totals over 47,000 miles.

The Gulf formed about 300 million years ago, and in all it encompasses 600,000 square miles. Not only does it border five U.S. states – Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida– but the Gulf of Mexico also borders Cuba and part of Mexico.

Florida. Florida is a state in the southeastern United States that is bordered by Alabama and Georgia to the north and the Gulf of Mexico the south and east.

Florida

The Gulf of Mexico (Spanish: Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent….

It’s a small fraction of America’s roughly 11 million barrels a day of production. “The region that would bear the brunt of this ban are the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico since it’s entirely owned by the government,” said Elisabeth Murphy, ESAI Energy LLC upstream analyst for North America.

They start at the state waterline (nine nautical miles out) and go all the way to the edge of the continental shelf, 100 miles offshore.

Perdido

Reserves are estimated to be 3.34 billion barrels of oil and 8.2 trillion cubic feet of gas. These reserves are recoverable from 620 active fields.

The disaster on April 20, 2010 killed 11 workers as the flaming rig sank into the Gulf of Mexico. It took nearly three months to stem the flow of oil from the ruptured undersea well.

While the Taylor Energy Company has estimated the site is leaking three to five gallons of oil per day, for example, a June 2019 study by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) concluded it’s actually leaking between 378 and 4,536 gallons of oil daily.

He was showering when the explosion happened and suffered injuries as a result. According to Mother Jones, Harrell had feuded with BP for allegedly rushing the drilling, a claim that Harrell himself denied.

A decade after the BP oil spill: Sick fish, Gulf pollution, and human health problems. The BP oil continues polluting the gulf even today, according to recently released findings by scientists from the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Sciences. It’s still affecting fish and other marine species.

On average, the researchers graded an 11 percent drop in the overall health of the Gulf of Mexico. The surveyed scientists on average said that before the spill, the Gulf was a 73 on a 0 to 100 scale. Now it’s a 65.

What Causes the Dead Zone? Heavy rains and melting snows washed massive amounts of nutrients—particularly nitrogen and phosphorus—from lawns, sewage treatment plants, farm land and other sources along the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico.

Overall, the ecological condition of the coastal northern Gulf of Mexico was judged as fair to poor, water quality was fair, and expressions of eutrophication were high.

15,420 species

Orcas do live in the Texas Gulf but are rarely sighted. According to the National Wildlife Federation, there could be as many as 500 orcas that live in the Gulf of Mexico. They feed on tuna and even dolphins in the deep water far from land. He has seen some pretty cool things in his career, but never orcas.

For some reason, the notion that there are octopi in the Gulf of Mexico is simply inconceivable to most people. The fact that you might encounter one in Orange Beach, impossible! And yet, they are here and they are abundant.

They prefer shallow coastal water, which means they can often come into contact with humans. Bull sharks are often considered to be the most dangerous sharks to humans because of their aggressive tendencies and ability to migrate up rivers. However, shark attacks are extremely rare.

Octopuses are also beyond average invertebrate intelligence. The only species found in Texas water is Octopus vulgaris, the common octopus.

Are there octopus in the Gulf? Absolutely. The Flower Gardens Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS) is the the most observed and studied habitat in the Gulf and according to FGBNMS research coordinator Emma Hickerson there are at least four different species there.

The American Eel is largely widespread throughout the Gulf of Mexico basin, but also occurring in the Coastal Rivers, Lake Pontchartrain and drainages from Pascagoula, Pearl and Tombigbee. Adult eels are found in brackish and freshwater estuaries, coastal streams and land-locked lakes (Fahay 1978).

Octopuses are found in every ocean of the world and along every coast of the United States. Octopuses live in coastal marine waters and spend much of their time in dens—small holes and crevices in rocks and coral. They are generally solitary and territorial.