Eyeless Shrimp, Mutant Fish, Clawless Crabs: Courtesy of the BP Oil Spill

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.

Brazilian Oil Spills Remains Unchecked

Photo courtesy: © Skytruth

Things just keep getting worse for Chevron. First, a deepwater drilling mishap off the coast of Brazil last month caused thousands of barrels of oil to spill into the Atlantic, which only after some dodging did Chevron take responsibility for, followed by Brazil's petroleum agency deciding to suspend the company's drilling rights altogether. And then there are the fines which could end up costing Chevron close to $100 million. But lo, it gets worst yet. Today, the oil giant admitted that the situation is far from resolved as many had assumed. That's right, the leak continues, and Chevron's not sure when it can be stopped.

Weeks after the spill began, loosing an estimated 110,000 gallons in the waters 230 miles off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, Chevron moved to plug it with cement. Still, several hundreds of gallons continued to trickle up from the sea floor.

And now, nearly a month after their initial fix was put in place, Chevron Brazil's environmental supervisor Luiz Alberto Pimenta Borges told leaders that oil is still leaking, and that his company isn't sure quite how or when it can be capped.

"The amount of oil is becoming gradually smaller," Borges said at a hearing today. "We expect to have total control of the matter some time in the future. I cannot tell when because we are still evaluating the amount of oil to know how exactly it reached the surface."

This ongoing spill is Brazil's worst in recent memory, though many fear that it will hardly be the last. Allowing companies like Chevron rights to drill in the region's oil-rich Frade field was just one element of the nation's ambitious energy ambitions directed at becoming one of the world's leading exporters of petroleum over the course of the next decade. The latest incident serves as a unwelcome reminder of the dangers of offshore drilling; evidence of just how easily things can go wrong, and just how difficult they can be to right.

Chinese Coal Ship Rams Great Barrier Reef

The 700-plus-foot vessel leaked oil into the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park near Great Keppel Island off the east coast of Queensland state. (Australian Maritime Safety Authority / April 4, 2010) Photo courtesy: Los Angeles Times

Easter Sunday, one of most sacred of all religious holidays found a Chinese-owned bulk coal carrier rammed into one of the most environmentally-sensitive coral reefs in the world. The Shen Neng 1 had run full speed into the Great Barrier Reef near Australia on Saturday, April 3, 2010. Australian officials are now racing to try to prevent as much of the cargo from escaping into surrounding waters as possible.

The Great Barrier Reef is one of the wonders of the natural world and was selected as World Heritage Site in 1981. Peter Garrett, Environmental Protection Minister, says the Australian government is extremely concerned about the effect an oil spill would have on the reef.

Environmentalists are horrified at the possible damage the accident might cause to the ecosystem. This is no small ecosystem, it is more than 1,200 miles long and comprises more than 3,000 individual reefs, cays and islands, providing a habitat for countless sea species. Coral reefs are an incredibly rich source of marine species. While coral reefs cover slightly less than 1% of the oceans, they are home to approximately 25% of all identified marine species; and, the Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef in the world.

The Great Barrier Reef is like any other coral reef in that it is built of small, colonial animals that grow one on top of the other building on the dead shells of each other. These skeletons of calcium carbonate fuse together into a rock-like formation that can cut through the hull of any ship like a hot knife through butter.

The real damage is not only what has been done to the reef; but, the potential damage the roughly 300,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil it carries will do to the environment and marine species it coats. The damage to the reef will take decades, if not centuries, to repair; as, coral is notoriously slow growing.

Shipping companies still bear the lions' share of the guilt when it comes to environmental disasters like this even if they have never run aground or spilled one drop of their fuel into the ocean. Why?

Shipping companies (and the powers that run them) have turned a blind eye to the type of fuel used in their ships. These companies favour (and use) a low-grade fuel that is cheap. However, it is also incredibly viscous (thick and sludgy) and needs to be heated before being injected into the engines. This alone should be a red flag AND a warning bell.

The gooey texture of the sludge they use for fuel makes this class of fuel an ecological and environmental nightmare if it escapes into the ocean. It coats birds, fish, and other wildlife causing almost certain death. It is difficult to clean up; and, therefore washes onto corals and beaches to be held for decades before the area finally returns to pre-spill status.

Great Keppel Island, about 340 miles north of Brisbane,is a major tourist destination on the Great Barrier Reef and has provided Australia with a source of both national pride and tourist dollars. The Shen Neng 1 has floundered about nine miles outside of a shipping lane. There appears to be an oil leak that has travelled into the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park near Keppel Island.

Despite all the measures the government has taken in recent decades to protect this national natural treasure, the reef has suffered significant decline from overfishing, fertilizer runoff from agriculture, and coral bleaching from hotter water than usual associated with global warming.

Marine ecologists often talk about oil spills as the tipping point that can push coral reefs or other undersea areas past the point from which they can recover; particularly, if their resilience has been weakened by other chronic stresses.

"Climate change is a problem for virtually all coral reefs, and fishing has had some problem there," said Ben Halpern, a marine ecologist at UC Santa Barbara. "If you add into that a major oil spill, it tends to push the system past the tipping point."

What happens beyond that point, Halpern said, is the subject of much study. What's known is that corals tend to die and the reefs become overgrown with invasive algae. Then the fish and other marine life that rely on a living reef can no longer survive.

"This is a serious situation and we've mobilized air, sea and land resources in response," Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said.

"The situation remains serious as the extent of the damage means that there is a very real risk that the vessel may break apart. Every effort is now being made to limit the impact of this incident."

What hasn't been mentioned so far in this blog is that the Shen Neng 1 was in a restricted zone of the park. The impact sliced open the fuel tanks prompting Australian officials to activate a national oil spill response plant.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau will be conducting a full investigation of how the incident occurred and why the Shen Neng 1 was in a restricted zone. The carrier ran aground on a shoal and is not expected to be moved without salvage assistance.

Capricorn Conservation Council, a national environmental group, said in a release that it was "horrified that a Chinese coal carrier has run aground near Great Keppel Island."

The group called for a marine pilot to be required for all vessels operating in the area.

"We can be certain that this is a sign of things to come," spokesman Ian Herbert said.

"Who knows what damage will be done to our local coral reefs and marine animals from the oil spill from the ship. We are outraged that no marine pilot is required on ships between Gladstone and Cairns. This will increase the likelihood of similar events."

Via Care2 and Los Angeles Times

Thousands of Dead Octopods Washed Up on Portugese Beach

Screenshot via BBC video

In what scientists and environmentalists are calling an environmental disaster, thousands of dead octopods have washed up on the shore on northern Portugal. The bodies litter a 5-mile stretch of the Vila Nova de Gaia beach.

There is not much information about this disaster at this time. Scientists have no idea what has caused the octopods to die; but, Portuguese authorities are issuing a warning to the public not to eat the animals.

This short video shows the beach where the dead octopods were found.



Via TreeHugger and BBC News