Significant areas of coastal wetlands have been restored and enhanced in Port Arthur, Texas. The largest restoration took place in the Lower Neches Wildlife Management Area near the Gulf of Mexico where historic water flow has been brought back into roughly 1,300 acres of wetland.

The other main restoration site is located within the J.D. Murphree Wildlife Management Area where approximately 1,500 acres of coastal emergent marsh plant communities have been restored to historical conditions through the installation of berms and other water control structures.

Almost 90 acres of estuarine intertidal marsh and over 30 acres of coastal wet prairie have also been established by NOAA in conjunction with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the Texas General Land Office, and the Chevron Corporation.

“Coastal wetlands are extremely valuable habitats that provide numerous services for both humans and the environment,” said John H. Dunnigan, assistant administrator for NOAA’s National Ocean Service. “The wetlands restored through this cooperative project will help improve water quality and provide a buffer as tropical storms and hurricanes move onshore.”

The restored wetlands are a way for Chevron to compensate the public for the injury caused by the Clark Chevron refinery in Port Arthur. The refinery, which commenced production in 1902, caused substantial injury to natural areas and waterways inside and adjacent to the processing plant by releasing hazardous substances into the environment.

“These completed projects will not only provide habitat benefits to the fish and wildlife of the region, but will also enhance public use and outdoor recreation opportunities,” said Wildlife Management Area manager Jim Sutherlin.

The restoration is a part of NOAA’s Damage Assessment, Remediation and Restoration Program. Through this program, NOAA works with industry, agencies and communities to restore environments harmed by oil spills, hazardous substance releases and ship groundings. Last year, the program settled nearly 200 natural resource damage assessment cases, generating almost $450 million for restoration projects.

Does anyone remember the Danish artist Marco Evaristti. No? I am not surprised. But if I ask you if you remember the artist who put goldfish in blenders a few years back I am sure most of you know who I am talking about. A quick recap for those of you who don’t remember the story. Marco Evaristti displayed an exhibition at the art museum in Trapholt, Kolding in Denmark. In the exhibition he placed goldfish in household blenders and invited the viewers to turn on the blenders and kill the fish if they wanted to. This was in the year 2000, now he wants to display a new exhibit where he feeds the dead body of an executed prisoner to goldfish.

The convict in question is Gene Harthorn who is awaiting the death penalty for murder in Texas. He has given the artist consent to use his body as fish food in the name of art.

Marco Evaristti, who doesn’t see anything ethically wrong with his project want to freeze the body of the convict and make fish food out of it. He has found a German company that is willing to freeze the body. He wants to have an exhibition featuring a large tank with hundreds of goldfish and allow the visitors to feed the dead body to them.

The purpose of the art is to inspire discussion about the death penalty. He wants to create opinion surrounding the fact that people are killed legally in our western civilization.

He has yet to find a venue to display his art in.

Scientists from the University of Edinburgh believe that the Amazon Molly may be using genetic survival tricks to avoid becoming extinct. The species in Texas and Mexico interact with males of different species to reproduce. The fry are clones of the mother and never inherit any traits of the male. This species will soon develop problems reproducing and will often become victims to extinction.

At Edinburgh University, the scientists have studied mathematical models on a computing system to look at the case of the Amazon Molly. Researchers have decided that the time to extinction for the fish may be over many thousands of generations. They can now say that this fish should have been extinct within the past 70,000 years. Scientists think that the Amazon Mollies are still dwelling in the rivers of Southeast Texas and Northeast Mexico and are using the special genetic tricks to stay alive.

To read more on this visit http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7360770.stm