Researchers Predict Larger-Than-Average Gulf 'Dead Zone'; Impact of Oil Spill Unclear

The red and yellow areas show the approximate boundaries of a Gulf of Mexico dead zone from several years ago. (Credit: Graphic courtesy of NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio)

ScienceDaily — University of Michigan aquatic ecologist Donald Scavia and his colleagues say this year's Gulf of Mexico "dead zone" is expected to be larger than average, continuing a decades-long trend that threatens the health of a $659 million fishery.

The 2010 forecast, released by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), calls for a Gulf dead zone of between 6,500 and 7,800 square miles, an area roughly the size of Lake Ontario.

The most likely scenario, according to Scavia, is a Gulf dead zone of 6,564 square miles, which would make it the Gulf's 10th-largest oxygen-starved, or hypoxic, region on record. The average size over the past five years was about 6,000 square miles.

It is unclear what impact, if any, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill will have on the size of this year's Gulf dead zone because numerous factors are at work, the researchers say.
"We're not certain how this will play out. But one fact is clear: The combination of summer hypoxia and toxic-oil impacts on mortality, spawning and recruitment is a one-two punch that could seriously diminish valuable Gulf commercial and recreational fisheries," said Scavia, Special Counsel to the U-M President for Sustainability, director of the Graham Sustainability Institute, and a professor at the School of Natural Resources and Environment.

Farmland runoff containing fertilizers and livestock waste -- some of it from as far away as the Corn Belt -- is the main source of the nitrogen and phosphorus that cause the annual Gulf of Mexico hypoxia zone. Each year in late spring and summer, these nutrients flow down the Mississippi River and into the Gulf, fueling explosive algae blooms there.

When the algae die and sink, bottom-dwelling bacteria decompose the organic matter, consuming oxygen in the process. The result is an oxygen-starved region in bottom and near-bottom waters: the dead zone.

This year, the situation is complicated by uncertainties related to the Gulf oil spill.
If sufficient oil reaches the area typically subject to summer hypoxia, the size of this summer's Gulf dead zone could increase for two reasons: microbial breakdown of oil -- which consumes oxygen -- and the oil's potential to reduce diffusion of oxygen from the air into the water, the process that normally replenishes oxygen levels in the water column, Scavia said.

On the other hand, the presence of oil could restrict the growth of hypoxia-fueling algae, helping to limit the size of the Gulf dead zone.

The five largest Gulf dead zones on record have occurred since 2001. The biggest occurred in 2002 and measured 8,484 square miles.

"The growth of these dead zones is an ecological time bomb. Without determined local, regional and national efforts to control them, we are putting major fisheries at risk," Scavia said.
The computer models that generate hypoxia forecasts have been used to determine the nutrient-reduction targets required to shrink the size of the Gulf dead zone. The models rely on U.S. Geological Survey estimates of the amount of nitrogen feeding into the Gulf from the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers.

Hypoxia is of particular concern because it threatens valuable commercial and recreational Gulf fisheries. In 2008, the dockside value of commercial fisheries was $659 million. The 24 million fishing trips taken in 2008 by more than 3 million recreational fishers further contributed well over $1 billion dollars to the Gulf economy, according to NOAA.

"As with weather forecasts, this prediction uses multiple models to predict the range of the expected size of the dead zone," said Robert Magnien, director of NOAA's Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research. "The strong track record of these models reinforces our confidence in the link between excess nutrients from the Mississippi River and the dead zone."

The 2010 spring nutrient load transported to the northern Gulf of Mexico is about 11 percent less than the average over the last 30 years, said Matt Larsen, USGS associate director for water.
"An estimated 118,000 metric tons of nitrogen, in the form of nitrate, were transported in May 2010 to the northern Gulf," Larsen said.

The Gulf hypoxia research team is supported by NOAA's Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research and includes scientists from the University of Michigan, Louisiana State University and the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium.

The official size of the 2010 Gulf hypoxic zone will be announced following a NOAA-supported monitoring survey led by the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, July 24 through Aug. 2.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100628124611.htm

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Carbon emissions having harmful, lasting impact on oceans: Reports

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a disaster, but it may pale compared to what scientists say is brewing in the world's oceans due to everyday consumption of fossil fuels.

The billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide sent wafting into the atmosphere each year through the burning of oil, gas and coal are profoundly affecting the oceans, says a series of reports published Friday in the journal Science.

One says there is mounting evidence that "rapidly rising greenhouse gas concentrations are driving ocean systems toward conditions not seen for millions of years, with an associated risk of fundamental and irreversible ecological transformation."

Another says that the effects are already rippling through the food web in Antarctica.

And a third says humans, and their ever-increasing carbon emissions, are acidifying the ocean in a "grand planetary experiment" that could have devastating impacts.

Marine scientists Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, at the University of Queensland in Australia, and John Bruno, at University of North Carolina, describe how the oceans act as a "heat sink" and are slowly heating up along with the atmosphere as greenhouse gas emissions climb.

The warming, they say, is "likely to have profound influences on the strength, direction and behaviour" of major ocean currents and far-reaching impacts on sea life.

The oceans also soak up close to a third of the carbon dioxide that humans put into the atmosphere and it reacts with sea water to form acidic ions. The rising acidity "represents a major departure from the geochemical conditions that have prevailed in the global ocean for hundreds of thousands, if not million of years," the scientists report.

Add it all up and they say there is there is "overwhelming" evidence human activities are driving changes on a scale similar to volcanic eruptions or meteorite strikes, which have driven ecosystems to collapse in the past.

"The impacts of anthropogenic (human) climate change so far include decreased ocean productivity, altered food web dynamics, reduced abundance of habitat-forming species, shifting species distributions and a greater incidence of disease," they say.

In a second report, Oscar Schofield at Rutgers University, and his colleagues describe how rising temperatures over the last 30 years have coincided with a shift in the food web along the West Antarctic Peninsula — most notably to a shrinking of marine algae cells. Organisms known as tunicates are so efficient at feeding on the smaller algae they appear to be displacing krill, a mainstay of many creatures up the food web. Fish, seals, whales, penguins and other seabirds could all be affected, they say.

A news report, accompanying the Science papers on the oceans, says by increasing the ocean's acidity "humans are caught up in a grand planetary experiment" that could take a "potentially devastating toll on marine life." The rising acidity could erode the calcium carbonate shells and skeletons of corals, mollusks and some algae and plankton — and there is some evidence it is already starting to occur.

"The physics and chemistry of adding an acid to the ocean are so well understood, so inexorable, that there cannot be an iota of doubt — gigatons of acid are lowering the pH of the world ocean, humans are totally responsible, and the more carbon dioxide we emit, the worse it's going to get," it says.

It goes on to quote a recent issue of the journal Oceanography that said unconstrained growth of emissions is likely to leave the current era of human planetary dominance "as one of the most notable, if not cataclysmic, events in the history of our planet."
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service

Source: http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/Carbon+emissions+having+harmful+lasting+impact+oceans+Reports/3166754/story.html

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Weaning the world off oil

As the world watches, thousands of barrels of oil continue to spill into the Gulf of Mexico.

This ecological nightmare has raised many questions about the safety of oil production and raised the already hot-button issue about whether oil consumption really is the best way for the world to acquire its energy.

Tom Rand is a Toronto-based green technology supporter who wears many hats. He holds the position of practice lead, cleantech and physical sciences at the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto — a not-for-profit company that helps fund science-related research. He also runs a venture capitalist business, VCi Green Funds, which invests in companies developing emission-reduction technologies.

Rand recently published the book Kick the Fossil Fuel Habit: 10 Clean Technologies to Save our World. This book lays out how renewable technologies work, why they can realistically replace oil as an energy source within a single lifetime and what that would mean for the world.

Rand spoke with CBC News in June while taking a break from promoting his book in Europe about why the world should kick its oil addiction — and why he thinks it's possible.

Why should people care about weaning the world off of oil right now?

Well, there are a lot of reasons. Climate change, for me, is the big long game changer. We're very late to the game. I understand what's happening with climate science, that it's extremely dangerous and that's reason enough.

However, there are other reasons. If you think about the Gulf of Mexico you see a pretty acute problem.

We are sticking giant straws down through a mile of water to grab pockets of oil big enough to ruin the Gulf but so small that they couldn't run the economy for a day.

In Canada, we're also melting tar, which is just backwards.

We're at the bottom of the barrel. We've gotten ourselves into a very significant issue that we need to begin engineering our way out of.

And, of course, there is another reason, which is the third industrial revolution, which is what some call "low carbon energy."

There are enough reasons to kick the habit that, whatever your constituency and whatever your point of view, I think now that we can get a general consensus amongst the population that we need a considerate effort to fix this.

You mention in your book that you were not 100 per cent certain when you started looking into renewable energy that it was realistic to switch within a short time. So, what was it that changed your mind to make you think that this change is possible within a lifetime?

I think a lot of the public shares my original point of view, which is that renewable energy is a bit like kids stuff with solar panels and so on; that it's not, really, the big time.

But I discovered that I was wrong. I mean, solar plants as big as coal plants can produce power 24 hours a day. Untapped resources like enhanced geothermal can power our entire civilization by themselves.

It turns out that the amount of energy available is absolutely stupendous and that the technology we have can mitigate the transfer of this energy. Solar plants produce power after the sun has gone down. Enhanced geothermal can produce power 24 hours a day.

We've already got this stuff and it really just surprised me at the level of maturity of the technology and the sheer scale at which we are already beginning to deploy these things.

It's capital, people, politics and behaviour that we need to change.

The engineer in me was completely convinced, overwhelmingly so, that 100 per cent of our energy is possible through renewable sources.

So I guess the point that I'm making is that it's not an impossibility, it's an engineering feat.

Is it realistic to say that we can completely get rid of our dependence on oil? Because we don't just use it for fuel, what about plastics and other petroleum-based products?

In theory, you could use halophyte-based biofuel grown in deserts around the world, irrigated by saltwater, for plastics production as well. But you might not need to.

The last thing we should be doing with the oil we've got in the ground is burning it. We have other solutions for the energy side of the equation.

We might want to save the oil we've got left in the ground for our petrochemical industry and have that convert later because plastics don't produce the CO2 that goes in the air, burning the fuel does.

So when I'm talking about irrigating the desert and growing helophytes, I'm talking about replacing the entire world's oil supply. All of it. Whether we're burning it or using it in our plastics factories, whatever.

But, you're right, there are two streams. We might want to just replace the stuff we use for energy and keep the stuff in the ground for our petrochemical industry.

Oil is a very valuable commodity and the fact that we're burning the stuff and we don't need to. It is pretty silly.

From an economic perspective, why does it make sense for companies to invest in energy from renewable resources?

Well, in terms of venture investments, where you're investing in companies who produce technology, the reason you might want to do that is that this is the next big industrial revolution and you might want to ride the train.

But the more challenging question is: how do we create market pull, which is the demand for these technologies? You know, we've got solar plants that produce power 24 hours a day, why aren't we putting up thousands of them?

That's the question: why? And it's an economic question. And the cost of technology is roughly added to the cost of capital. And who decides the cost of capital? Bankers.

That's why I think we need to intercede them in the markets. Because we, the world, we need a very fast change. We need these plants to go up in overtime. But that's not what the bankers will do and that's not what they're supposed to do.

We need a long-term price on carbon for sure but in the short term, we need to have a more proactive financial system to provide depth to this sector.

The cost of renewable energy is really the cost of debt. If you're borrowing money at 20 per cent, it costs a whole lot to run a solar plant. If you borrow money at three per cent, it doesn't cost much.

So then, who needs to get on board to get the transition started?

The government.

A wind turbine feeds renewable electricity into the Ontario grid at the CNE grounds in Toronto. (J.P. Moczulski/Reuters)

I think industry is ready to step up. We need the right financial signals. We need carbon priced. We need the government to step in and backstop low-cost debt to the sector.

Carbon is ready to go but we need the government to step up.

I'll give you two examples:

• The U.S. government back in the 1950s decided to spend a whole whack of dough building the interstate highway system. That formed the backbone of the American economy, which was driven by the automobile sector for 50 years. It created enormous wealth.
• When universities and academic institutions in the military created a demand for the microchip in the 1970s that formed Silicon Valley. And again, that in itself created an enormous amount of wealth.

We're talking about the same thing with renewable energy. We're talking about the government stepping up to the plate and priming the pump in order to kick-start the third industrial revolution. And that is, "de-carboning" our economy.

It would be the largest infrastructure build in human history, which you can view as a daunting challenge or you can view as a massive economic opportunity that we all want to make sure Canada plays a role in.

What effect could the Gulf of Mexico oil spill have on getting the world off of oil and onto renewable energy?

First, we should use the engineering expertise that's drilling for oil in the ocean on land. You could drill pretty much anywhere on land in Canada and the United States about six kilometers down and find hot, dry rock. You can grab the heat out of that rock. It's called enhanced geothermal.

Enhanced geothermal is the holy grail of renewable energy. There is so much down there; there is 30,000 times our current energy needs available to us through enhanced geothermal.

My point is this: if we gave those energy companies a whack [of money] and moved them in the right direction and said, 'guys, why don't you spend your enormous amount of resources drilling for heat on land where the worst thing that's going to happen is that some of that heat will escape?'

If we did that, we would solve our energy problem and we would never have something happen again like what's happening in the Gulf.

What they're doing in the gulf, what a waste of expertise. Because if you could use that expertise here on land for enhanced geothermal and instead of an oil company, you were an energy company, we would solve this problem.

The question is: how do we make an oil company like BP into an energy company?

Maybe, just maybe, this spill in the Gulf will be the event that catalyzes that transformation.

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/06/08/f-qa-environment--oil-tom-rand.html

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We are with you: A guest column by President Obama

In the days since the BP oil spill began, the failure to stop the leak has caused incredible anger and frustration -- especially for the people of the Gulf Coast struggling to survive one of the worst environmental disasters in our nation's history.

This leak is an unprecedented catastrophe and a technical challenge unlike any we've ever seen. We are pressing for every possible remedy to keep oil from flowing into the Gulf, and to capture as much as we can while relief wells are drilled that will permanently stop the leak. We are relying on a team of scientists and experts from our own laboratories and from around the world -- led by our Energy Secretary and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu. And we've ordered BP to send additional equipment to facilitate the capture of oil and the capping of the well.

But with so much oil already in the Gulf, and more likely to spill before this catastrophe is over, we are also doing everything in our power to protect the coastline.

The federal government is in the midst of the largest cleanup effort in the nation's history. I have authorized 17,500 members of the National Guard, and more than 24,700 people are currently working around the clock, across four states, to help contain the oil and clean the mess. More than 5,500 vessels are assisting in the effort, and more than 5 million feet of boom are soaking up oil and protecting habitat.

BP has now captured more than 4.6 million gallons of oil from the Gulf waters -- in addition to 3.8 million gallons of oil burned and 18.5 million gallons of oily water skimmed from the surface. And we have approved the construction of new barrier islands, paid for by BP, to try to stop oil before it reaches shore.

Ultimately, BP is responsible for causing this horrific disaster, and we will hold the company fully accountable and demand that it pay back every dime for the damage caused and lives disrupted. BP has agreed to cover the costs for the people, property and natural resources impacted by the spill -- and we will make sure it delivers on that promise.

BP has set up a website -- www.bp.com/claims -- and a toll-free number -- 1-800-440-0858 - open 24 hours a day, seven days a week for people to file their claims.

We are pushing BP to do everything possible to pay out those claims quickly. For those who find themselves running into a wall with BP, we also have a team on the ground to make sure BP is meeting its responsibilities. Anyone having trouble with BP should call the Coast Guard at 1-800-280-7118, and further assistance is available through a host of other sources outlined at www.disasterassistance.gov.

But, beyond the current disaster, we have an obligation to prevent a tragedy like this from ever happening again. I've named an independent commission to determine what steps need to be taken. Where the laws are insufficient to prevent another spill, we'll change them. Where oversight is inadequate, we'll strengthen it.

In addition, the Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into the explosion, and the Department of the Interior is overhauling the Minerals Management Service, the agency responsible for overseeing oil drilling in this country, so that those responsible for the safety of the oil rigs and the protection of our coasts are not under the thumb of the oil companies.

I understand the frustration and anger that the people of the Gulf Coast are feeling. I share it. But instead of allowing feelings of anger and frustration to overwhelm our efforts, we must stay focused on the work at hand.

We owe it to the people of the Gulf to bring this ordeal to an end, and we owe it to the American people to make sure it never happens again.

Source: http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/06/we_are_with_you_a_guest_column.html

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Humpback whale washes up on Long Island beach

A dead whale measuring nearly 30 feet long was discovered washed up on a popular Long Island beach early Thursday, and authorities said it would take some time to figure out the mammal's cause of death.

New York State Parks Police officers found the male humpback whale at the east end of Jones Beach, in Wantagh. Experts said it was 2 to 5 years old and had probably been dead about a week.

Biologists from the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation were at the beach Thursday afternoon but did not have equipment available to perform a necropsy to determine what caused the animal's death. Instead, the whale was picked up and moved from the shoreline onto the sand. Tests were scheduled for Friday.

“There's no blood; there are no slashes from a propeller or something that we can see,” said parks spokesman George Gorman.

Humpback whales can grow up to 60 feet long and weigh more than 40 tons. Although still listed as endangered, humpbacks have been making a comeback.

It's not the first time unusual wildlife has been found in the area.

A 3-foot sunfish was found dead in another part of Jones Beach three weeks ago. Last July, a dead 20-foot-long basking shark washed ashore a few miles east of Jones Beach.

In April, a dying 30-foot humpback became beached about 80 miles away in East Hampton. It took several rounds of sedatives and three gunshots to euthanize it.

Onlookers gathered for days to mark its passing, taking pictures of the dying mammal. Members of the Shinnecock Nation's Thunderbird family and other tribes sang and prayed for the whale's spirit.

Scientists said the 30-foot humpback was likely headed from breeding grounds in the Caribbean to feeding grounds off the coast of New England, a normal migratory route.

Charles Bowman, president of the Riverhead Foundation, said at the time that beached whales are found in the area every year or two. Most die at sea; a few beach themselves to keep from drowning when they're too sick to stay afloat, Mr. Bowman said.

Beached dolphins are more common and have a better chance of surviving, he said.

Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/americas/dead-humpback-whale-washes-up-on-long-island-beach/article1599804/

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About Oceanic Defense
We are an international non-profit organization with members in over 60 countries, spanning 6 continents with 1 mission; healthy aquatic ecosystems free from human abuse and neglect. Oceanic Defense teaches people to protect our oceans by acting responsibly as consumers and by making smart decisions in our daily lives. Whether we are buying groceries, commuting to work, planning a vacation or advocating within our own communities; each action we take or decision we make either helps or hurts our oceans. We empower people to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem and work together to protect our blue planet.

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EU ends bluefin tuna season early over depleted stocks

The European Commission is closing the bluefin tuna fishing season early because of depleted stocks, imposing a ban that will take effect on Thursday.

The ban covers fishing grounds in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic.

It affects industrial purse seine fishing, which accounts for more than 70% of the annual EU tuna catch, the Commission says.

The fleets are concentrated in France, Spain and Italy. The season was originally due to end on 15 June.

Purse seine nets have a rope that is drawn through rings to trap the fish, like a drawstring.

"The closure of the purse seine fishery is necessary to protect the fragile stock of bluefin tuna and to ensure its recovery, as envisaged by the recovery plan of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (Iccat)," the Commission said.

"The Commission has declared a zero tolerance approach towards overfishing and will take all necessary measures to ensure full compliance across the board."

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/europe/10274242.stm

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About Oceanic Defense
We are an international non-profit organization with members in over 60 countries, spanning 6 continents with 1 mission; healthy aquatic ecosystems free from human abuse and neglect. Oceanic Defense teaches people to protect our oceans by acting responsibly as consumers and by making smart decisions in our daily lives. Whether we are buying groceries, commuting to work, planning a vacation or advocating within our own communities; each action we take or decision we make either helps or hurts our oceans. We empower people to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem and work together to protect our blue planet.

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Gulf Coast Oil Spill – Status Report

by: Omar Mulla
Oceanic Defense Youth Ambassador

Some notes from the ground of what the situation is like around here and what’s been going on recently. I live on Mobile Bay, AL and have been traveling back and forth to the beach over the past few weeks to observe what’s been going on.

June 1st, 2010

-One of the big things I’ve been noticing a lot recently around here is the increase in military vehicles. Pretty much every time I get out on the road I see at least one either heading towards the beach or coming back from it. The same goes for helicopters. Almost every time I’m outside I can hear one and look up and it will be traveling towards the Gulf over Mobile Bay. From video I’ve seen and what I’ve read, Dauphin Island, AL has turned into what looks like a war zone as military set up protective barriers and gabions to protect the shoreline and other vital habitat.

-The first tar balls washed up on the white sands of Dauphin Island, AL on May 8th. A few days after, people were starting to see a few wash up in Gulf Shores, AL. As of right now (5:00pm, June 4th, 2010) I have not personally heard anything about beaches being closed but I’m sure that information is soon to come.

- On Saturday May 29th when I went to the beach I walked along the shore near the jetties at Alabama Point in Orange Beach. I could not see any signs of oil nor could I smell it in the air. A couple of friends and I climbed to the end of the jetty and saw a school of what looked like at least 100 rays. I went back to Orange Beach on Tuesday June 1st and still could not smell any oil in the air. However, the wind was NOT blowing from the south/southwest which was probably why I couldn’t smell anything. The beaches were all still open and there were still boaters in the water, even people swimming although not nearly as many as in the previous weeks. While at Alabama Point I saw a charter boat come into the pass with what looked like tar on the hull. The bottom of the boat was coated in a brownish-orange grime.

-I don’t know the exact date but in the first week of May a dead dolphin washed up behind my friend’s house in Orange Beach.

-Frustration is escalating amongst locals. People are very unhappy with the decisions being made by federal agencies because they are not near adequate and you can hear a lot of people saying “They’re not the ones who live here.” Personally I agree with what those people are saying. Listen to Billy Nungesser and you’ll hear it all. As frustration and anger is growing, people are talking more and more about taking the matter into their own hands. Volunteer efforts are picking up and I must say it is a beautiful thing to see how powerful we really are when we come together. Like with the hair booms that are being made… The BP response team already announced that they will be using commercial sorbent boom instead and said that the hair booms will not be applied to combat the oil. The general response from locals was “If BP doesn’t use hair boom, we will.” And obviously we will continue the production of the hair boom.

-As most people have already heard, there has been a no-fly zone set up so that the media cannot view the reality of what is happening. However, my friend Brinkley Hutchings and her dad took a plane over the spill twice to unveil what was actually going on and publicize the full extent of the spill –something national media was not doing. Anger and concern is also building over BPs use of Corexit 9500 –the dispersant they are pumping into the well head. What this is doing is hiding the oil from sight so it can’t be seen from the surface of the water, and making it more difficult to clean up by literally “dispersing” it. Not to mention it is far more toxic than the oil itself...

-People living on Mobile Bay are lashing out at Governor Bob Riley for his lack of effort to initiate protection of the bay and time is running out. Boom has been strung out in parts of the bay and a team is assembled in Fairhope at the public boat launch on Mobile Street. Something that people here want to see from the Coast Guard is for them to literally close off the mouth of the bay to further reduce the chances of oil coming up into the estuary but they said that that’s something they aren’t going to do.

-June 2nd: Oil hits Dauphin Island in full and was met immediately by cleanup crews on shore.

-June 4th: Oil has officially washed up on the beaches of Gulf Shores and Pensacola. 3 oiled birds are being treated in Pensacola. The smell of kerosene is looming all along the coastline and some people are falling sick. My friend’s personal trainer who lives down there had to see his doctor because his throat was bothering him after just being outside all weekend and breathing in the air.

This is basically the “status report” of what things are like around here right now. Today, oil has been confirmed on our beaches. As I said to a friend earlier this afternoon, it’s time to put on the war paint. We’ve got to fight with everything in us. These are our coasts; we live here and it is our responsibility to protect it by all means possible. We’ve got to take the matter into our own hands and stand our ground.

Sunday, June 6th is World Oceans Day. There will be a "26 Mile Prayer" on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi that I will be attending. I'm planning on taking a lot of pictures and some video, so keep checking my page/profile.

A quote that has been stuck in my head through all of this: “It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” And something very inspiring I heard recently at youth group “Don’t be mad at the darkness for being so dark, be mad at the light for not being bright enough.”

It’s up to us now; Fight.

Omar Mulla
Oceanic Defense Youth Ambassador
omar.mulla@oceanicdefense.org

Check my profile and page for photos that I will be uploading!

Links to the reports from today:

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/06/alabama_beaches_oil_gulf_shores.html
http://blog.al.com/live/2010/06/gulf_of_mexico_oil_spill_2010_20.html

Feel free to contact me about community involvement / volunteer opportunities!

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About Oceanic Defense
We are an international non-profit organization with members in over 60 countries, spanning 6 continents with 1 mission; healthy aquatic ecosystems free from human abuse and neglect. Oceanic Defense teaches people to protect our oceans by acting responsibly as consumers and by making smart decisions in our daily lives. Whether we are buying groceries, commuting to work, planning a vacation or advocating within our own communities; each action we take or decision we make either helps or hurts our oceans. We empower people to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem and work together to protect our blue planet.

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White House approves Louisiana berm plan: Jindal

Louisiana (Reuters) - The White House on Wednesday approved plans to construct several large offshore sand berms that BP Plc will fund to help buffer the Louisiana coast from the giant oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana's governor said.

U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen told BP to pay for the five berms approved by the White House, in addition to one he and the Army Corps of Engineers approved last week. The British energy company later said it supported the six projects and would pay the estimated $360 million cost to build them.

The decision marked a victory for Jindal, a rising Republican star who has lobbied for weeks to win support for the plan even as he steadfastly criticized BP and the Obama administration for what he has called a sluggish response to the oil spill.

The growing petroleum slick has damaged more than 140 miles of Louisiana's fragile coastline and largely shut down its seafood industry, idling thousands of fishermen.

Meanwhile, the BP offshore oil rig blowout and ensuing oil slick have posed a key test of the Obama administration's ability to handle a rapidly unfolding crisis.

"Our federal government does not need to be making excuses for BP," Jindal said at a news conference just moments before he received word of the White House decision. "Every day they wait, every day they make us wait, we're losing our battle to protect our coast."

ARTIFICIAL BARRIER ISLANDS

The sand-berm construction plan essentially calls for the manufacture of six artificial barrier islands with sand dredged from the floor of the Gulf to help safeguard Louisiana's fragile bayous and marshlands from encroaching oil.

Critics have questioned whether the berms can be built up quickly enough to keep more oil from washing ashore.

But supporters of the plan say the spill is likely to remain a threat for months and that the berms could prove crucial in holding back oil debris that would otherwise be swept inland by hurricanes.

As much as 19,000 barrels of oil (800,000 gallons or 3 million liters) a day has been pouring into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana since the rig drilling a BP well exploded six weeks ago, killing 11 workers.

Almost 4 million feet (1.2 million meters) of protective boom has been deployed to protect wetlands, but Jindal said it was not enough and that it was more effective to clean the oil from sand than from fragile marshes and other coastal ecosystems.

"The right thing for us to do is to fight this oil on our sand," he said. "I'd much rather fight this oil on the sand than in our wetlands."

He was speaking after touring the wetlands in Pass a Loutre, an area that he said had been fouled by heavy oil over two weeks ago and where the oil remained, underscoring the difficulty of the clean-up effort.

Jindal said the impact on wildlife in areas that normally teemed with insects, birds and fish was obvious and that you "could hear the silence and smell the fumes."

Locals, worried for their future, applauded his efforts.

"Everybody is rallying around the governor," said Mike Frenette, the head of the Venice Charter Boat and Guide Association. "His pleas and demands and concerns are about as truthful as you can get."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6520OV20100603?type=domesticNews

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About Oceanic Defense
We are an international non-profit organization with members in over 60 countries, spanning 6 continents with 1 mission; healthy aquatic ecosystems free from human abuse and neglect. Oceanic Defense teaches people to protect our oceans by acting responsibly as consumers and by making smart decisions in our daily lives. Whether we are buying groceries, commuting to work, planning a vacation or advocating within our own communities; each action we take or decision we make either helps or hurts our oceans. We empower people to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem and work together to protect our blue planet.

Join us on Facebook:www.facebook.com/OceanicDefense
Visit our official website:www.oceanicdefense.org
Follow us on Twitter:www.twitter.com/OceanicDefense