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These eyeless shrimp even lack eye sockets. Photo courtesy: Youtube/screen capture
Last September, a fisherman pulled nearly 400 pounds of mutated, eyeless shrimp out of the Gulf of Mexico. That was shocking and unusual. But because the media seems to feel that nobody's interested the aftermath of the 2010 BP spill, the biggest offshore oil disaster in US history, you probably didn't hear about it. I know I didn't.
Since then, we've seen a similar tale play out: more mutated shrimp. More deformed shellfish. More fish with repulsive-looking lesions stretching across their scales.
Darla Rooks, a lifelong fisherperson from Port Sulfur, Louisiana, told Al Jazeera she is finding crabs "with holes in their shells, shells with all the points burned off so all the spikes on their shells and claws are gone, misshapen shells, and crabs that are dying from within … they are still alive, but you open them up and they smell like they've been dead for a week".
Rooks is also finding eyeless shrimp, shrimp with abnormal growths, female shrimp with their babies still attached to them, and shrimp with oiled gills.
"We also seeing eyeless fish, and fish lacking even eye-sockets, and fish with lesions, fish without covers over their gills, and others with large pink masses hanging off their eyes and gills."
Rooks, who grew up fishing with her parents, said she had never seen such things in these waters, and her seafood catch last year was "ten per cent what it normally is".
Federal agencies are mum as to what's causing the deformities, but a number of researchers and locals, mustering all of the common sense they've got, think they've uncovered a suspect. I won't give it away, but here's a hint: it spewed 4.9 million gallons of crude into the Gulf ecosystem.
Now, this Al Jazeera video segment is a few months old, but ever since I saw these epic high-res photos of the rig exploding, I've been poking around the detritus of the media's seriously lacking spill coverage a little more closely. This one never made it onto Treehugger, and it's a report everyone should see.
BP refused Al Jazeera's request to comment on this issue for a television interview, but provided a statement that read:
"Seafood from the Gulf of Mexico is among the most tested in the world, and, according to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), it is as safe now as it was before the accident."
And if you believe this, I have a bridge I'll like to sell you.
It's a stark reminder that all is not returning to normal in the Gulf, despite what BP's media team would like to believe—the book is still opening on the kind of ecological damage the region will suffer in the long tail of the oily catastrophe.
A dead dolphin washed up on shore. Photo courtesy: NRDC
It has now been nearly two full years since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, loosing a massive geyser of oil into the marine ecosystems. Since then, biologists have been working diligently to understand the full impact that the disaster has wrought on the region's wildlife — even as the spill and its fallout slide further from the public's view.
Of course, much of that fallout still has conservationists deeply concerned. One of the most worrisome phenomena to emerge in the wake of the spill is the mass die-off of hundreds of bottlenose dolphins, which the NRDC calls "unprecedented". Since the spill, over 600 dolphins have stranded themselves in the region hardest hit by oil, and 95% of them have died.
In a fact sheet it just released on the topic, the NRDC elaborates:
Over the last two years, an unusually high number of bottlenose dolphins have beached along the shores of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and western Florida, raising enormous concern; and, for good reason. Even in a species known to experience mass mortalities — from brevetoxin and disease — the current die-off is unprecedented in its duration and magnitude.
And when they say "unprecedented," they mean it: "Never before have the dolphins in the Gulf experienced a die-off that has 1.) lasted as long, 2.) involved as many animals, or 3.) afflicted as many calves." The die-off has lasted a staggering 25 months now.
A larger than normal amount of breached, or "stranded", dolphins began washing up on the shores around the Gulf even before the spill began. But the mass die-off continued throughout the year, and worsened dramatically in 2011. A primary concern of this die-off—the species is known to be prone to occasional events of this nature — is the unusual number of stillborn calves showing up.
Chart showing rise in dolphin deaths. Image courtesy: NRDC
During the spill, dolphins were spotted swimming in the middle of the slick — they're not well-equipped to detect toxins on surface water. But most of the die-offs didn't take place during the event itself, when the sheens were thickest, "meaning that the vast majority of known mortalities cannot be attributed to the immediate, acute effects of exposure."
Theories abound. # 1: "We know that some coastal areas in the northern Gulf were degraded by the BP spill, and when storms come, toxics that have accumulated in the bottom sediment could reenter the water column, as has been observed decades after the Exxon Valdez disaster." And dolphins don't ditch even highly degraded habitats.
#2: "... dolphins feed high on the food chain, and toxins absorbed through fish consumption can bioaccumulate in their tissue. Some toxic compounds found in oil such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons have been shown to cause birth defects in humans; it is conceivable that they are responsible for some of the recent stillbirths in dolphins."
Or maybe, #3:
"perhaps dolphins’ exposure to oil or dispersants compromised their immune response and left them susceptible to the bacteria. Or perhaps the impact was indirect. Loss of prey can also undermine the immune system and can deplete the energy that mothers need to calve and nourish their babies, resulting in reproductive failure, lower birth weights, and smaller chances of survival."
The NRDC admits that any causal links between the mass die-offs and the BP spill are still largely inconclusive, but maintains that there is now enough evidence to suggest that the oil disaster is probably a contributing factor to the dolphins' calamity. The report makes a strong case for continued vigilance, especially by government agencies tracking fallout from the spill, and for looking carefully for other long-term impacts on ecosystems. After all, it notes, it took decades for the oil from the Exxon Valdez to work its way fully into the food chain, and for the gravest impacts to be made manifest. The same may be true with the BP spill — and on an even larger scale.
All the attempt to plug the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico have failed so far (even if the top kill seemed to be succeeding at first), and even the latest attempt to cut-and-cap the well has hit a snag when a diamond-bladed saw operated by a remote-controlled underwater robot got stuck in the riser pipe. All of this is making experts skeptical of BP's time estimates, and if we have a rough hurricane season, things could get apocalyptic.
Photo courtesy: BP
If the relief well misses the target and takes longer to complete because of hurricanes. Other unforeseen technical problems could happen... It's not that far-fetched to imagine that the leak could still be gushing oil in the fall of 2010, and even the winter. That would be worst case scenario, but so far, we're pretty far from the best case scenario. It might turn out that we can plug the well within a couple of months, but that we discover that a lot more barrels were leaking each day than we first thought (maybe because of those underwater oil plumes that BP says don't exist).
The following is a reprint of an article from Bloomberg. I didn't feel I was able to do the justice to the tragedy that this writer has.
“The worst-case scenario is Christmas time,” Dan Pickering, the head of research at energy investor Tudor Pickering Holt & Co. in Houston, said. “This process is teaching us to be skeptical of deadlines.”
Ending the year with a still-gushing well would mean about 4 million barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf, based on the government’s current estimate of 12,000 to 19,000 barrels leaking a day. That would wipe out marine life deep at sea near the leak and elsewhere in the Gulf, and along hundreds of miles of coastline, said Harry Roberts, a professor of Coastal Studies at Louisiana State University.
So much crude pouring into the ocean may alter the chemistry of the sea, with unforeseeable results, said Mak Saito, an Associate Scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.
BP, based in London, says it can’t guarantee the success of its attempt now underway to capture the flow of oil and divert it to a ship at the surface. Thad Allen, the U.S. government’s national commander for the incident, said operations may need to be suspended to allow for an evacuation ahead of a tropical storm or hurricane, during which oil would continue to gush into the Gulf.
The so-called relief well being drilled to intercept and plug the damaged well by mid-August might miss -- as other emergency wells have done before -- requiring more time to make a second, third or fourth try, Dave Rensink, President Elect of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, said.
Robert Wine, a spokesman for BP, declined to detail the company’s own worst-case scenario.
In its original exploration plan for the Macondo well about 40-miles from the Louisiana coast, BP estimated the worst-case scenario for an oil spill was 162,000 barrels of crude a day, according to a filing with the U.S. Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service.
BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward has more recently put the maximum potential leak rate at 60,000 barrels a day.
Wine reaffirmed BP’s estimate that it will take 90 days to stop the leak with a relief well, which would be the first half of August. He said an early, vigorous hurricane season could have an impact on the schedule.
The ultimate worst-case scenario is that the well is never successfully plugged, said Fred Aminzadeh, a research professor at the University of Southern California’s Center for Integrated Smart Oil Fields who previously worked for Unocal Corp. That would leave the well to flow for probably more than a decade, he said in a telephone interview.
More likely, the relief wells will eventually succeed, though it might take longer than the three months predicted by BP, he said.
It took Mexico’s state-owned oil company, Petróleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, nine months to plug its Ixtoc I well after an explosion and fire in 1979.
The company’s first attempt with a relief well failed, so it had to drill a second. Eventually, more than 140 million gallons of crude spilled into the Gulf of Mexico -- the biggest offshore oil spill on record.
Last year, an explosion at a well off the Australian coast owned by Thailand’s national oil company, PTT Exploration & Production Pcl, required five attempts before it could be plugged by a relief well 10 weeks after the spill began.
BP has improved its odds by drilling two emergency wells at once. If a first attempt fails, it will have the second well ready to try again. The company is using techniques such as a larger well bore, raising its chances of hitting its mark, said Robert MacKenzie an analyst with FBR Capital Markets in Arlington, Virginia.
Plugging the well is another challenge even after BP successfully intersects it, Robert Bea, a University of California Berkeley engineering professor, said. BP has said it believes the well bore to be damaged, which could hamper efforts to fill it with mud and set a concrete plug, Bea said.
While these efforts are underway, BP could face delays if a hurricane enters the Gulf, forcing an evacuation. BP says it is developing a mechanism to quickly disconnect the ship collecting oil from the well so that it can evacuate ahead of a storm. That would leave the well gushing oil, Bea said.
Ocean biologists are concerned the oil could linger in deep layers in the sea, generating oxygen-depleted “dead zones” that kill marine life.
Plumes of oil spinning off of the spill have been detected in two directions, and researchers suspect there are more.
“Clearly, oxygen levels are going to be decreased in the vicinity of the plume area, and it looks like it could be a very large plume area,” said Saito, of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
The crude oil could enter a current that would draw it out of the Gulf and up along the East Coast of the U.S. all the way to Nantucket, Roberts, of Louisiana State University, said.
The American Bird Conservancy has identified 10 key regions on the Gulf Coast where birds could be harmed. If the oil is spread widely by a hurricane, there could be long-term damage to bird populations, the non-profit organization has said.
“What is difficult to measure is the loss of future generations of birds when birds fail to lay eggs or when eggs fail to hatch,” George Fenwick, the organization’s president, said in a statement on at-risk areas in the Gulf Coast.
Marine life may take decades to recover, wiping out businesses along the coastline that depend on the fishing and seafood industry.
Al Sunseri, who runs P & J Oyster Co., the oldest continually operated oyster dealer in the U.S., said he could end up out of business:
“This could be the end of our 134-year-old business,” he said. “I’ve been doing this 30 years. I have a son and I don’t know if he’ll be able to carry on this next generation.”
No joke, this is Philippe dipping his hand into oil on a Louisiana beach. All photos and video courtesy of Philippe Cousteau.
The following is a blog by Philippe Cousteau regarding the BP oil spill reaching the mangrove swamps of Louisiana. Enjoy (in a manner of speaking)!
Guest blogger Philippe Cousteau is chief ocean correspondent for Planet Green, and will host the network's forthcoming Blue August programming. He is reporting from the Gulf oil spill in Louisiana.
Grand Isle, Louisiana - May 25, 2010 Another early morning, all the more early because we didn't stop work till 2 a.m. last night. Today we head off to Grand Isle, about three hours away from Venice, to visit with Louisiana Wildlife and Fish department. Oil has made its way into the mangroves which means some of our worst fears have been realized. These wetland habitats are some of the most fragile in the world and also some of the most important: 40% of all the wetlands in the lower 48 states exist along the coast of Louisiana and they are directly in the oil's path. Look at the photos and you will see why once the oil gets into these tight intricate bodies of water, there is no getting it out.
By the time we arrived, it was midday and the sun was hanging hot in the sky. Horse flies surrounded us as we made our way to the Wildlife and Fisheries boat and headed out into the bay. The despair was visible in the eyes of the scientists and researchers who accompanied us. There was frustration, too, and it wasn't long before they told me why.
The red tape (darker spots) on this map shows where the oil has already hit.
"BP has been sitting around for almost a month without preparing this area for the oil," I was told. "The local authorities had to commandeer their equipment just a few days ago when it was clear they were doing nothing. Now the oil has made it into the marshes and mangroves and we have no idea what the long-term impacts will be but we are concerned that this will be worse than Katrina."
They went on to explain that as the oil penetrates the vegetation, it kills it and leaves bare soil to be washed away, which will decimate this once vital and productive eco-system.
"We are seeing birds covered in oil during the height of nesting season and tar is washing up on the beaches," they explained. There was real concern in their voices, people who have grown up here and who are now watching the entire ecosystem and economic bases of the community fall apart before their eyes. As I dipped my fingers into a puddle of oil--one of many strewn across the sand--I was angry, too. This is the price of our arrogance, I thought. This black poison is choking the life out of one of the most incredible places on earth.
Cousteau speaks with a local naturalist about weathered oil on the beach.
Oil-drenched and fresh booms precariously surround an island where birds are nesting.
As I drove back to New Orleans last night, the images I saw helped to reinforce the urgency of this issue. We have a clear choice: continue to pollute our planet or fight for a cleaner world. As Ted Danson reinforced yesterday on "Larry King Live," this is not an economics-vs.-environment issue. A true champion for the environment, Danson reminded us that clean energy creates more jobs than oil and gas and that this illusion that our economy can't afford to go green is just that--an illusion. The truth is that we can't afford not to.
Tanker truck are being used to store oil skimmed from the water.
Despite promising efforts to stop the Gulf oil leak through a 'top kill' effort, a mind boggling amount of damage has already been done to this precious ocean ecosystem.
It can be hard to keep track of all the devastating statistics, quotes, and facts concerning this disaster, but it is essential that the public maintain a working knowledge of what's going on, both politically and environmentally.
As a people, we must demand change from both an oil industry that drills first and asks questions later, and the corrupt government agencies that let them get away with it. We must also realize that we have encouraged this sort of behavior through lifestyles that are addicted to oil, and an unwillingness to make sacrifices for a cleaner, healthier future.
Here are 10 of the most horrifying facts about the Gulf oil spill. Read them and let their gravity weigh heavy on your hearts and minds. Let them motivate you to take action so our planet never experiences this kind of manmade disaster ever again.
1. New estimates show the undersea well has spilled between 17 and 39 million gallons. These estimates dwarf those of BP, who claimed the spill had only released 11 million gallons to date, and mean that the Gulf leak is far bigger than Exxon Valdez, making it the worst spill in American history.
2. The National Wildlife Federation reports that already more than 150 threatened or endangered sea turtles are dead. And 316 sea birds, mostly brown pelicans and northern gannets, have been found dead along the Gulf Coast as a result of the spreading oil.
3. The Minerals Management Service, directly under the supervision of the Interior Department failed to impose a full review of potential environmental impacts of the BP drilling operation because preliminary reviews of the area concluded that a massive oil spill was "unlikely."
5. A significant amount of the oil slick is being drawn well to the south in the east-central Gulf of Mexico, meaning that it has been captured by the Loop Current. Oil in the loop is a hazard to the Florida Keys, (and entire East Coast) as well as areas of the west coast of Florida. Cuba and the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico could also be at risk of exposure to the oil, which also could be drawn into the Gulf Stream through the Florida Straits, and perhaps northward to part of the Atlantic Seaboard.
6. As much as we'd like to forget it, the Gulf Coast is prime hurricane country, and if a storm blows in, the result could be devastating. The presence of oil could lead to a more powerful hurricane because crude accumulating at the surface could be raising the temperature of the surrounding water.
7. Transocean Ltd., the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig leased by BP, has been flying under the radar in the mainstream blame game. Because of past experience with Gulf Oil spills, Transocean decided to insure the Deepwater Horizon rig for about twice what it was worth. In a conference call to analysts earlier this month, Transocean reported making a $270 million profit from insurance payouts after the disaster.
8. Perhaps because it knows the possibility of remedying the situation is practically impossible, BP has made publicly available its laughable "Oil Spill Response Plan" which is, in fact, no plan at all. Besides mentioning the protection of Arctic wildlife (probably lifted directly from the Exxon Valdez plan), the plan does not include any disease-preventing measures, oceanic or meteorological data, and is comprised mostly of phone numbers and blank forms. Most importantly, it includes no directions for how to deal with another deep-water explosion in the future.
9. A large number of fishermen are becoming seriously ill - and many of them believe that the chemicals that BP is using in the Gulf are to blame. Local shrimpers in Louisiana are already predicting that it will be seven years before they can set to sea again.
10. Gambling websites are now placing odds on what species will be first to become extinct as a result of the oil belching from BP's ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico.
I'm fortunate to have several passions in my life. I am absolutely an eco-nut. I am always trying to find new ways to reduce, reuse, recycle. We, as a species, have done more harm to this planet in the short time we have been here, than any other catastrophe or happening ever has. It's up to us to fix it.
I care about the environment whether it is as small as a single cell or as large as the universe.
I adore creativity and think we can all do more with much less. This earth has enough resources for us all to live comfortably if we all learn to share. Wasn't that a lesson we were supposed to learn in kindergarten?
I also love the bizarre, unusual, the weird and the strange. Be prepared for the odd "different" blog.
These eyeless shrimp even lack eye sockets. Photo courtesy: Youtube/screen capture
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