(Melissa Gaskill/Houston Culture Map)
A host of high-level officials from the federal, state and local governments, scientists from a whopping 66 academic institutions, representatives of businesses such as seafood and oil and gas and leaders of nearly a dozen conservation organizations recently met in Houston for the second Summit on the State of the Gulf of Mexico.
Larry McKinney, director of the Harte Research Institute for the Gulf of Mexico at Texas A&M Corpus Christi and one of the organizers, said the event was intended to get people moving in a common direction.
Its four days covered everything from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to new drilling activity, efforts to deal with sea-level rise and land subsidence, research on what exactly a healthy Gulf ecosystem looks like and everything in between. There’s no way to cover even a fraction of the subjects discussed in one article, but here are some highlights.
First, why you should care: The planet’s ninth largest body of water, the Gulf of Mexico accounts for 90 percent of offshore oil and gas produced in the U.S., and a third of our seafood — 1.2 billion pounds worth $661 million a year — as well as 44 percent of the recreational fish catch. Like tuna? The Gulf is the only place Atlantic bluefin tuna spawn. (Read more at Houston Culture Map)
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