The practices of the oil giant BP came under sharp attack this week in a courtroom by an expert witness who said its negligence caused the 2010 explosion aboard a Gulf of Mexico drilling rig that killed 11 workers and spewed millions of barrels of oil.

A full day of testimony in the third day of a trial against BP was dominated by the witness, Alan R. Huffman, a petroleum geophysicist who was testifying for the government and private plaintiffs. Mr. Huffman accused BP of submitting misleading and selective data to federal regulators while drilling the Macondo well and of playing “fast and loose” with a safety test intended to measure the offshore well’s stability.

The National Park Service (NPS) announces the availability of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the General Management Plan (GMP) and East Everglades Wilderness Study (EEWS) for Everglades National Park (park). After it is finalized, the GMP/EEWS will guide the management of the park over the next 20+ years.

The last comprehensive planning effort for the Park was completed in 1979. Patterns and types of visitor use have changed, the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan was approved, and in 1989 the East Everglades Addition of approximately 109,600 acres was added to the park to protect and restore the Northeast Shark River Slough. Recent studies have enhanced the understanding of resources, resource threats, and visitor use in the Park. The GMP will provide updated management direction for the entire park. The EEWS provides a forum for evaluating lands within the East Everglades Addition for possible recommendation to Congress for inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System.

DATES: The NPS will accept comments from the public on the DEIS for 60 days from the date the Environmental Protection Agency publishes the Notice of Availability in the Federal Register. The date, time, and location of public meetings will be announced through the NPS Planning, Environment, and Public Comment (PEPC) Web site http://parkplanning.nps.gov, the Everglades National Park Web site, and in media outlets in winter 2013.

It was a perfect Florida February day, with mostly sunny conditions and a high in the low 70s.   Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris, NASCAR champion Tony Stewart and the director of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) Division of Freshwater Fisheries Management, Tom Champeau, were on a tour of the upper St. Johns River in the vicinity of Three Forks Marsh Conservation Area.  Led by fishing guide Capt. Mike Tipton, they caught 36 bass in just a few hours.  Champeau got a strike and then landed an 11-pound, 8-ounce trophy.  Such is the stuff dreams are made of and the basis for which the FWC launched TrophyCatch (TrophyCatchFlorida.com).

“Catching and releasing a trophy bass while fishing with the founder of our major sponsor was an incredible experience,” said Champeau. “The only way I could have scripted it better would be for either Johnny or Tony to catch her,” he added.

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council will convene a Science Workshop of the Goliath Grouper Joint Council Steering Committee Tuesday, March 12, 2013, from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. The meeting will be held at the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council office, 2203 N. Lois Avenue, Suite 1100, in Tampa, Florida.

The U.S. Coast Guard is responding to a report of an allision between a vessel and an inactive wellhead about nine miles southwest of Port Sulphur, Wednesday.

Coast Guard Sector New Orleans watchstanders received a report that the 42-foot crewboat Sea Raider allided with a wellhead owned by Swift Energy at around 8 p.m., Tuesday. The platform is discharging an oily-water mixture, but the amount is unknown at this time.

Bob Williams of Alloway, N.J., was fishing on Rodman Reservoir with guide Sean Rush of Trophy Bass Expeditions around 8:30 a.m. Monday when the 23-degree chill must have seemed to leave the air. Hooking a 13-pound, 14-ounce largemouth on a big shiner, Williams knew he had the catch of a lifetime.

Rush knew exactly how to celebrate and memorialize the catch. He picked up the phone and contacted the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) to have the fish certified in Florida’s new TrophyCatch program, the result being that Williams gets more than $1,000 in rewards for documenting and then releasing his catch. 

BP is preparing for the federal civil trial beginning next Monday (2-25-13) in the Deepwater Horizon Multi-District Litigation pending in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. This proceeding is the first of at least two phases the Court has set for the trial. The first phase will be focused on the causes of the Deepwater Horizon accident, who should be held responsible, and to what degree. Judge Carl J Barbier will preside over the trial.

The following is an official statement from BP:

NMFS proposes regulations to implement management measures described in a regulatory amendment to the Fishery Management Plan for the Reef Fish Resources of the Gulf of Mexico (FMP), as prepared by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council (Council). If implemented, this rule would (1) establish a closure date for the 2013 recreational sector for gag harvest based on the projected annual catch target (ACT), and (2) reduce the geographic extent of the recreational shallow-water grouper (SWG) fixed seasonal closure, which are in place to prevent overfishing of gag, and to reduce fishing pressure on other SWG species. The reduction in the geographic extent of the closure still would provide some spawning season protection for several SWG species, but provides a better opportunity for the recreational sector to achieve optimum yield (OY) from the stocks in the SWG complex in the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf). This proposed rule is intended to help achieve OY for the Gulf gag and other SWG resources and prevent overfishing from the stocks in the SWG complex.

Written comments must be received on or before March 25, 2013.

On November 26, 2012, NMFS published a proposed rule (77 FR 70552) for draft Amendment 5 to the 2006 Consolidated Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Fishery Management Plan (FMP) based on several shark stock assessments that were completed from 2009 to 2012. The comment period for the proposed rule closed on February 12, 2013.

After reviewing all of the documents received, we are not planning to proceed at this time with the dusky shark measures as proposed. We will address the dusky shark overfishing and rebuilding plan in a proposed separate action.  Comments received on the dusky shark portions of the November 2012 proposed rule will be considered in that action.

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council will convene a Science Workshop of the Goliath Grouper Joint Council Steering Committee Tuesday, March 12, 2013, from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. The meeting will be held at the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council office, 2203 N. Lois Avenue, Suite 1100, in Tampa, Florida.