Wes Tunnell Ph.D
Biology – Texas A&M, Harte Research Institute/Gulf of Mexico Studies
Host: Basima Farhat
Previously Aired On: Tuesday, May 11, 2010 – Listen to the Show!
Dr. Wes Tunnell is a broadly trained marine biologist/ecologist with a particular interest in field studies on coral reefs and coastal areas of the Gulf of Mexico. Although his current focus is on biodiversity of the Gulf of Mexico, he has studied and published on coral reef ecology, coastal ecology, molluscan distribution and ecology, oil spill impacts, brachiopods, colonial waterbirds, and vertebrate fossils from the seabed. Dr. Tunnell published a book on the Laguna Madre of Texas and Tamaulipas in 2001 and another on Coral Reefs of the Southern Gulf of Mexico in 2007.
Dr. Tunnell will discuss this most recent Gulf of Mexico Oil rig explosion which should not be compared to the Exxon Valdez disaster but to another Gulf of Mexico oil rig explosion – the Ixtoc 1, off the coast of Mexico. It was the worst peacetime oil spill on record and occurred in 1979.
