Oceanic Defense: Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

Showing posts with label Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill. Show all posts

2.21.2011

Baby dolphin deaths spike on Gulf Coast

Connie Chevis, DVM, left, and Dr. Joey Kaletsch, DVM, take samples while performing a necropsy on a dolphin calf at the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport on Monday, February 21 2011. The calf, who is believed to be about four days old, was killed by trauma. Mobi Salangi, executive director for the institute, says there is an unusually high number of dolphin calf deaths for this time of year. They have recovered 17 calves and are performing necropsies to determine the causes of death.

GULFPORT -- Baby dolphins, some barely three feet in length, are washing up along the Mississippi and Alabama coastlines at 10 times the normal rate of stillborn and infant deaths, researchers are finding.

The Sun Herald has learned that 17 young dolphins, either aborted before they reached maturity or dead soon after birth, have been collected along the shorelines.

The Institute of Marine Mammal Studies is doing necropsies, animal autopsies, on two of the babies now.

Moby Solangi, director of the institute, called the numbers an anomaly and told the Sun Herald that they are significant, especially in light of the BP oil spill throughout the spring and summer last year. Millions of barrels of crude oil containing toxins and carcinogens spewed into the Gulf of Mexico. Oil worked its way into the Mississippi and Chandeleur sounds and other bays and shallow waters where dolphins breed and give birth.

This is the first birthing season for dolphins since the spill.

Dolphins breed in the spring and carry their young for 11 to 12 months, Solangi said.

Typically in January and February, there are one or two babies per month found in Mississippi and Alabama, then the birthing season goes into full swing in March and April.

“For some reason, they’ve started aborting or they were dead before they were born,” Solangi said. “The average is one or two a month. This year we have 17 and February isn’t even over yet.”

Deaths in the adult dolphin population rose in the year of the oil spill from a norm of about 30 to 89, Solangi said.

Solangi is gathering tissue and organs for a thorough forensic study of the infant deaths and is cautious about drawing conclusions until the data is in within a couple of weeks.

“We shouldn’t really jump to any conclusions until we get some results,” Solangi said. “But this is more than just a coincidence.”

The institute told the Sun Herald that it has collected 14 infant dolphins in the last two weeks and three in Mississippi today.

The Sun Herald will update this story with more details as they become available.

Source: http://www.sunherald.com/2011/02/20/2881134/baby-dolphin-deaths-spike-on-gulf.html

About Oceanic Defense
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8.02.2010

Government says seafood is safe. Fishermen disagree

ON THE GULF OF MEXICO — Even the people who make their living off the seafood-rich waters of Louisiana's St. Bernard Parish have a hard time swallowing the government's assurances that fish harvested in the shallow, muddy waters just offshore must be safe to eat because they don't smell too bad.

Fresh splotches of chocolate-colored crude, probably globules broken apart by toxic chemical dispersants sprayed by BP with government approval, still wash up almost daily on protective boom and in marshes in reopened fishing grounds east of the Mississippi River.

When shrimp season opens in a couple of weeks and fisherman Rusty Graybill drags his nets across the mucky bottom, he worries that he'll also collect traces of oil and dispersants – and that even if his catch doesn't smell, buyers and consumers will turn up their noses.
"If I put fish in a barrel of water and poured oil and Dove detergent over that, and mixed it up, would you eat that fish?" asked Graybill, a 28-year-old commercial oyster, blue crab and shrimp angler who grew up fishing the marshes of St. Bernard. "I wouldn't feed it to you or my family. I'm afraid someone's going to get sick."

Louisiana wildlife regulators on Friday reopened state-controlled waters east of the Mississippi to harvesting of shrimp and "fin fish" such as redfish, mullet and trout. Smell tests on dozens of specimens from the area revealed barely traceable amounts of toxins, the federal Food and Drug Administration said.

The tests were done not by chemical analysis, but by scientists trained to detect the smell of oil and dispersant.

Chemical tests on fish for oil-related compounds are routine, but no such test exists for detecting levels of dispersant, said Meghan Scott, FDA spokeswoman. Federal scientists are developing one, she said. It wasn't clear when one would be ready, though.

The dispersants can kill incubating sea life, experts say, though its long-term effects are unknown. In humans, long-term exposure can cause central nervous system problems or damage blood, kidneys or livers, according to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention.
Congressional investigators said over the weekend that the Coast Guard routinely approved BP requests to use thousands of gallons of dispersant a day despite a federal directive to cut its use.

Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said Sunday that federal regulators did not ignore environmental guidelines, but that some field commanders were given the authority to allow more dispersants on a case-by-case basis.

BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles took reporters on a boat tour of beaches and marshes on Sunday and said "they wouldn't open these waters ... if it wasn't safe to eat the fish." He said he would eat Gulf seafood and "would serve it to my family."

Like most fishermen in St. Bernard, the bulk of Graybill's income comes from oysters, blue crab and shrimp. The first two are still off limits, and the shrimp season doesn't start for two weeks. Graybill had been earning money from BP under the "Vessels of Opportunity" program allowing idled fishing vessels to help with cleanup work, but that program was scaled back Thursday.
Signs that anglers weren't jumping back into the waters abounded Saturday, especially at the annual Blessing of the Boats in Shell Beach, Hopedale and Delacroix, where the Rev. John Arnone of St. Bernard Catholic Church blessed far fewer than usual.

As Graybill maneuvered his light blue shrimp trawler Saturday near Comfort Island, which borders the open fishing grounds in Chandeleur Sound, fresh globs of oil glistened in the midday sun, staining the orange and yellow boom protecting the island. A dozen or so brown pelicans lazed on the oily boom.

Just the perception that he'll be pulling in oily shrimp, let alone that it might really happen, can greatly reduce the price he can get, he said.

"They capped the well, they stopped the oil, so now they're trying to hurry up and get us back working to where they can say everything's fine when it's not," he said. "It's not fine."
Giving the OK to reopen one closed fishery does not mean it couldn't be closed again if more oil shows up, FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg said Friday.

"At the moment this is good news," she said after the reopening announcement. "But we have to remain vigilant."

Across the street from where Graybill usually delivers his catch, Dawn Nunez's family has for 30 years operated a wholesale business that sells shrimp to restaurants and seafood processors. She worries no one will want to the local catch.

It's absurd that the government is reopening the fishery when so many doubts linger, she said.
"It's nothing but a PR move," she said. "It's going to take years to know what damage they've done. It's just killed us all."

And relying only on a smell tests stinks, said Ryan Lambert, 52, a charter fishing captain who sometimes takes his clients out in the waters that just reopened. Fishing shouldn't resume, he said, until more data exist and better dispersant testing is devised.

"I have no confidence in their testing methods," Lambert said.

"But BP has just wanted to push, push, push to get us back fishing. You can't hurry it and then find something bad later," he said. "You can only cry wolf so many times before (customers) decide they aren't coming back."

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/02/oil-spill-gulf-fishermen_n_667044.html

7.14.2010

Keeping An Ear On Gulf Oil Spill

UC San Diego researchers are using underwater acoustic equipment to listen in to the sounds of whales and other endangered marine life in the Gulf of Mexico. The goal is to study the oil spill's effects on the animals.

UC San Diego has already sent one research vessel to study the effects of the Gulf oil spill on marine mammals. Another boat left last week and another trip is planned at the end of July.

Along with tagging mammals and taking tissue samples, UCSD researchers also plan to use underwater listening devices.

Scripps Institution of Oceanography Professor John Hildebrand specializes in monitoring marine mammals using acoustic recorders that are made in his UCSD lab.

"It allows us to get the echo location clicks of dolphins and the recorders go all the way down to frequencies that are lower than hearing, infrasonic, and this allows us to get the moans and songs of Baleen whales," said Hildebrand.

Hildebrand is using the recording devices to help monitor the condition of marine mammals during and after the oil spill.

"We're looking for trends as the spill goes on and as more time passes," said Hildebrand. "Are the animals leaving the area, do we see or hear less presence of the animals."

The listening devices don't provide real time information.

But Hildebrand said the devices will be removed in late August or early September when he expects to hear sounds of sperm whales. He said the Gulf of Mexico is a foraging ground for the sperm whales because of deepwater squid.

"So what we hope to do is look at the data and assess are there consistent numbers of sperm whales or are there declining numbers of sperm whales?" said Hildebrand. "And then try to relate that to the presence of the oil."

Hildebrand said the sperm whales use a specific "click" when foraging. He said the sound speeds up when they find squid.

Hildebrand said if the click rate does not increase, it could be an indication of the oil spill's wider effects on the marine ecosystem.

Source: http://www.kpbs.org/news/2010/jul/06/ucsd-scientists-keeping-ear-gulf-oil-spill/

7.07.2010

BP's Big Print Ad Buys: At least $5.6 Million

Anybody who's bought a national newspaper in the past two months has probably seen BP's full-page spreads pledging, "We will get it done. We will make this right." The ads have been prominently displayed in the New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Today, among other outlets. Given the ad rates at these papers, it's clear that BP has been forking over plenty of money for the campaign.

Just how much? Greenpeace kept track of BP's ads throughout June and came up with a rundown of how much they likely cost. The company ran 12 ads in the Times, 15 in the Washington Post, and 11 in USA Today. Based on the ad rates for each paper, which vary by color, day of the week, and size (for example, according to their rate card, a full-page color at the Times on a weekday costs $230,266, while a black and white ad costs $194,166), Greenpeace calculated that BP spent at least $5.6 million on ads in these three papers alone in the month of June—no small chunk of change considering how bad the adversting market is for print media these days.

BP has bought enough ads at the Post, for example, to qualify for a bulk rate. It's not a special discount, Marc Rosenberg, senior advertising manager at the paper, explained to me last month. "Anybody who is buying 10 full pages of ads would get the discount," he said. Rosenberg also said that BP can state a preference on where an ad goes in the paper—meaning the company could request that its ads not be positioned immediately across from photos of oil-soaked birds, for example. "Any advertiser has the right to request preferences for placement," he said.

And BP of course has the right to shell out as much money as it wants on the ads—and, knowing full well the state of the print media, I wouldn't begrudge any paper for taking as much BP ad money as they can get their hands on. But how much control BP might have over where the ads are placed and whether the company gets discounts is an interesting subject. After all, these papers have done amazing and abundant work on the Gulf disaster, so it must raise at least a few questions about how to best deal with these giant ads about a controversial subject that is currently all over the news.

"That has obviously been a challenge at times," Rosenberg acknowledged. "There are days that there isn't much in the paper besides oil spill."

USA Today vice president of advertising Bruce Dewar said that it's standard industry practice to work with advertisers on placement, though he said that, to his knowledge, BP has not made any specific requests to avoid placing its ads near spill coverage. "We will work with an advertiser if there is going to be a clear direct conflict that is going to be embarrassing to both of us," said Dewar. He also said the BP is getting a bulk rate on ads there too. "BP is spending at a level that is definitely earning them some discount," he said. The Times didn't return requests for information about their policies.

Greenpeace's Kert Davies argues that perhaps BP shouldn't get a say when it comes to placement given the current situation, or in the very least should be forced to pay full-price. "This is part of a very clear national image washing campaign. It's damage control," he says. "They're clearly broadcasting to an audience of decision makers, thought leaders, and the public through these print outlets." But at the same time, he said, "It's good if this ad revenue supports ongoing, good reporting that the Times and Post are doing."

There's also another important question about just how much these ads are actually helping BP. Congressmen have lambasted the "make this right" line repeatedly, noting that it can never really be "right," given the scale of the disaster. And I've talked to more than one person who felt the ads were more off-putting than anything else. As Gavan Fitzsimons, a professor of marketing and psychology at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, explained, "A lot of folks see those ads and think, give me a break. It's too little too late." The ads, he said, "really strike the wrong cord with a lot of folks."

It's also worth noting that the $5.6 million on print ads in major papers alone is probably only a tiny fraction of what the company has bought so far. They've also run ads in local Gulf papers, on television, and all over the internet, which isn't included in that figure.

Source: http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/07/bps-big-ad-buys

6.20.2010

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

6.13.2010

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

6.05.2010

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!

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

5.26.2010

Florida safe (for now) as loop current changes

A large rotating cyclone of cold water is pushing into the southern body of the Gulf of Mexico's Loop Current and now appears likely to destabilize or even sever the current and the oil it contains from its connection to Florida, scientists said today.

While the BP PLC oil spill has begun to enter the current, a powerful stream that could transport a small part of the slick to the Florida Keys in about a week, there are also signs that less oil -- at least on the surface -- has taken the turn south that was feared.

Over the past weeks, small ocean flows spinning off the body of the Loop Current, known as cyclones or eddies, have pushed and prodded the Gulf slick. In particular, one counterclockwise eddy east of the oil's main body has determinedly dragged the crude toward the main current, resulting in its current entrainment (Greenwire, May 18).

However, imagery today has shown that, while filaments of oil have escaped into the current, "the main pool of oil is remaining up there in the eddy" and not progressing south, said Mitch Roffer, an oceanographer at the scientific consulting firm ROFFS.

More importantly, Roffer said, satellite shots this morning showed that an eddy farther south along the Florida coast is expanding in size and strength. That cyclone appears likely to destabilize or even sever the Loop Current, greatly reducing the oil threat to the Florida Keys and beyond, he said.

"If it forms, it's going to pull a lot of the oil away from Florida," Roffer said. There are no guarantees, he added, "but it looks very likely that this is forming."

Such a beheading is common to the current, which becomes more unstable as it pushes deeper into the Gulf of Mexico. Typically, a forceful counterclockwise cyclone near southwest Florida "punches through the Loop Current," severing the flow from its connection to the Atlantic, said Nan Walker, the director of the Earth Scan Lab at Louisiana State University's School of the Coast and Environment.

"It looks like that kind of scenario is imminent," Walker said.

After a severing, the warm rotating water of the Loop Current's head -- called a "ring" -- begins to flow west toward Texas. But the ring can dawdle, too, and sometimes reattaches with the main current. Such fluctuations defy forecasting and remain an active area of research (Greenwire, May 5).

"At this stage, it's a watch and waiting game," Walker said.

Loop rings tend to survive for about six months as they drift toward Texas, said Frank Muller-Karger, a professor of biological oceanography at the University of South Florida. Scientists have little idea how much oil could be captured by such a ring and pulled westward.

Even if the large southeastern eddy does not sever the current, it could capture oil that would have otherwise made its way to the Florida Keys, said Villy Kourafalou, a Gulf of Mexico modeler at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

'Impossible to predict'

It is too soon for East Coast residents to breathe a sigh of relief, however. Oil is still bobbing 120 miles off Tampa's coast, captured in the northern eddy, and before the Loop Current expires -- if it does -- it could still surge north and entrain more of the oil, Walker said. Or it could be caught in a ring and flow westward.

The oil tendrils -- which federal officials have called a "sheen" -- are extremely visible on satellite imagery, suggesting to Walker that there is heavier oil present in the northern eddy than has been suggested. The government may be employing some "wishful thinking" when they call it a sheen, she said.

Also, there is little certainty about how much oil has been captured by the Loop Current in deeper waters. Since much of the oil has been broken up by dispersants and is unlikely to reach the surface, it will tend to spread sideways through the Gulf, Muller-Karger said.

"Just the same we see at the surface, where the oil is being entrained into the Loop Current, I can imagine that the same thing is happening at depth, that oil is being entrained and moving around and spreading with these currents," he said. "Now what the impact is? It's impossible to predict."

"Based on the size of the plume and the estimates that we're hearing of what is being injected at the bottom, this is a very large problem," Muller-Karger added.

The deep ocean is not a complete unknown, and oceanographers are working with the government to model how the oil may be spreading, Kourafalou said.

"We know that there are counterflows and counter-rotating eddies ... and we know that circulation is much slower," she said. "Some data sets exist and have allowed the study of basic underlying dynamics. What does not exist is a comprehensive, sustained, observational system."

While the Loop Current may be headed toward a severing, that will not stop oil from slowly spreading across the Gulf, especially when the hurricanes begin to hit, Walker said. Some of the oil is almost certain to affect countries like Cuba and Mexico, Muller-Karger added.

"This is a problem," he said, "that we'll have to deal with for years, as opposed to months."

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/05/20/20greenwire-loop-current-destabilizes-lowering-gulf-oil-sp-23004.html

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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5.13.2010

Obama asks for 129 million dollars to fight oil-spill fallout

WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama on Wednesday asked Congress for at least 129 million dollars in new emergency funding to cope with wide-ranging fallout from the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

"I will spare no effort to clean up whatever damage has been caused, assist those whose livelihoods have been affected by this spill, and restore the Gulf coast," Obama said in a letter to House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi, on requesting the budget amendments, released by the White House.

Among the requests were at least 100 million dollars for the Coast Guard. The money would be taken from the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, under the US president's plan.

Additionally, Obama asked for 29 million dollars for the Interior Department "for additional inspections, enforcement, studies, and other activities that are outside of those recoverable from responsible parties or the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund."

Facing potential political fallout and frustrated by three weeks of failed efforts to stop the huge Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Obama Wednesday sent top experts to aid BP in its battle to cap a sunken rig.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu, a Nobel prize-winning physicist, and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar met earlier with BP engineers and executives at the British oil giant's command center in Houston, Texas.

Crews and US lawmakers are still struggling to understand what caused the the Deepwater Horizon rig to explode on April 20, off the Louisiana coast, killing 11 workers and sinking two days later.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100513/pl_afp/usblastoilenergypollutioncongressbudget_20100513131130

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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5.05.2010

Unpredictable Current Is Wild Card in Gulf Disaster Scenarios

An undersea conveyor belt to Florida is approaching the Gulf Coast oil spill, and should it stretch past its typical bounds, oil from the BP PLC accident, blobbing placidly off the Louisiana coast, could soon stream into the Florida Keys and up the United States' Eastern Seaboard.

Or the current could miss the spill entirely.

Government officials and scientists from Mississippi to Florida are holding their collective breath to see whether a strong but unpredictable current in the Gulf of Mexico, known as the Loop Current, will continue to expand north toward Louisiana. Two days ago -- the latest time for which satellite data are available -- the current sat 125 miles south of the spill, its rotating tendrils licking at the slick's eastern edge.

"It is a very important concern," said Bob Weisberg, an oceanographer at the University of South Florida, who has long warned of the flow's potential impact on his state. "The Loop Current is actually moving toward the oil."

For the current to begin conveying the oil at any volume, it would still have to surge much farther north, which some computer models like Weisberg's are predicting. However, as Weisberg confesses, many of these models are deeply flawed, and the behavior of the Loop Current -- when it will decide to surge or instead break apart -- is prohibitively complex to forecast.

In other words, "no one has really been able to predict with much accuracy what the Loop Current will do," said Nan Walker, the director of the Earth Scan Laboratory at Louisiana State University, who is monitoring the oil and current with several sets of satellite data.

The worst-case scenarios have been concerning enough for communities in Florida ranging from Tampa Bay to Key West to begin mobilizing contingency plans. Should the current reach the spill, oil would begin to flow down past Florida's western coast, which would be largely spared due to its wide coastal shelf, and into the Florida Strait. There, the chemical dispersants used to break up the oil could turn on vulnerable wildlife.

"The dispersants could kill corals," Walker said. "Obviously, oil is not going to be good for corals. That is probably one of the biggest concerns if [the oil] was entrained."

But this devastation is far from a sure bet, scientists say.

The Loop Current runs from the Yucatan Peninsula to the Florida Strait, where it eventually feeds the Gulf Stream. Often, the current lies low in the latitudes, barely extending into the Gulf of Mexico. But then, in erratic but frequent intervals, the current plunges deep up into the Gulf's eastern waters, like a sharp elbow extending from Cuba into the gut of Louisiana.

Without fail, however, the current cannot sustain this intrusion, and the current's northernmost reaches break apart. Small currents, known as eddies or ring separations, begin rotating toward the west, against the current's flow. And eventually, the whole top of the current breaks apart and floats west toward Texas.

The current "usually grows and eventually runs out of room," said Villy Kourafalou, a Gulf of Mexico modeler at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School. "The whole top of the Loop Current gets disconnected."

When this will happen to the present iteration of the current is nearly impossible to say, though scientists hope it will shed its top before approaching the oil spill. The current's lifetime can run from a half-year to almost 18 months, showing little seasonal variability. When and why the separation occurs is an area of very active research, Kourafalou said.

Even satellite imagery of the current, which can run up to 1,000 meters deep, is difficult to compile. It takes a week of data to get an accurate picture, said Tony Sturges, an oceanographer at Florida State University. Sturges, one of the foremost experts on the current, is concerned that oil could sluice down to Miami.

But "do I have any idea whether it will come to pass?" he said. "Not a clue."

No prediction system

Weisberg has been using several models to attempt to predict the Loop Current, hoping their various flaws will average out, much as is done with hurricane prediction. Those models indicate the current is moving toward the oil, but Weisberg can't say for certain when or if the current will hit.

More likely, but still uncertain, is that small eddies could swirl off the current and entrain at least a small amount of oil, Walker said. These currents are generally weak; some are already helping to both push the oil toward the shore and draw some of it toward the east. How much oil could circulate this way is difficult to say.

The prevailing winds on the Gulf Coast, which typically run from east to west, are likely to begin blowing instead toward Florida. Some of the oil will go toward Louisiana beaches and marshes, and some will push farther east, though with all the complex currents running in the area, long-term predictions are tough, Walker said, though there is one certainty.

"This oil spill is going to be around for a while, I'm afraid," she said.

There is some precedence for the conveyor belt action of the Loop Current. In the 1990s, the current transported floodwaters flush with nutrients out of the Mississippi Delta all the way to eastern Florida. But instances when the current comes so close are rare, Walker said.

It is also far from certain that the current would provide a straight shot to the Florida Keys. In particular, Kourafalou is eyeing a large vortex down the current's path east that could delay the oil or even pitch it off. Or, she added, the oil could miss it entirely and flow like a "flume" eastward.

If the worst comes to pass, Florida's eastern shores would be particularly vulnerable, she added. The narrow shelf of the Florida Keys could cause the current to break apart, delivering oil and dispersants to the shore. Unlike the state's west, the Atlantic shore lies close to deep water and the Florida Current, which the Loop Current feeds.

Everglades researchers are already expressing fear that the oil could run into Florida Bay and potentially devastate its fisheries, sea grasses and shallows. More water evaporates from the bay than flows into it from the Everglades this time of year, creating a sink-like effect that leaves the delicate ecosystem at some risk of attracting oil flows, said James Fourqurean, a sea-grass ecologist at Florida International University.

"That means, then, that if a surface slick runs down very close to shore along the southern tip of the peninsula, that slick could be pulled into Florida Bay and remain resident there for a number of years," he said.

While the fate of the Everglades remains to be seen, Kourafalou finds it shameful that the government and oil companies have not been better prepared and committed the money to get a full-fledged, accurate prediction system operating for the Gulf, she said.

"It's amazing that there's no prediction system in place for the Gulf of Mexico," she said. "It should be in real time. It should be ready."

Reporter Paul Quinlan contributed.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/05/05/05greenwire-unpredictable-current-is-wild-card-in-gulf-dis-51911.html

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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5.01.2010

Bird Habitats Threatened by Oil Spill

The American Bird Conservancy (ABC) has released a list of key bird sites most immediately threatened by the ongoing Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (as of Friday, April 30). The sites previously had been designated Globally Important Bird Areas by the organization, and they are directly in the path of the advancing oil slick.

“This spill spells disaster for birds in this region and beyond,” said ABC President George Fenwick. “It is ironic that next weekend is International Migratory Bird Day. At a time when we should be celebrating the beauty and wonder of migratory birds, we could be mourning the worst environmental disaster in recent U.S. history.”

The Gulf Coast is extremely important for hundreds of species of migrants, which variously breed, winter and rest here during migration. The population effects on birds from this spill will be felt as far north as Canada and Alaska and as far south as South America.

The complexity of the Gulf coastline, with numerous bays, estuaries, inlets, marshes and creeks, will make cleanup extremely difficult; impacts could last for decades for much of the habitat, and some species may suffer significant long-term population declines.

All coastal nesting species (herons, terns, skimmers, plovers, gulls, rails, ducks) are currently present on the Gulf Coast, including several species on the U.S. WatchList of birds of conservation concern. The impact to these species depends on how long the leak lasts and what happens with weather and currents. The leak could persist for weeks or months, and end up being the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.

For species with long life spans and low reproductive rates (such as reddish egrets and least terns), acute mortality events such as this can have long-term population-level impacts if they affect a large proportion of the breeding population. This is because adults that survive do not produce young quickly enough for populations to recover quickly.

Species where large proportions of populations concentrate in a few, discreet locations (including species with only a few breeding colonies and species that concentrate en masse during migration stopovers) are particularly vulnerable to these events.

Compounding problems for songbirds, not normally directly affected by oil spills, is smoke billowing skywards from the burning oil that was set alight to try to minimize damage to marine life.

“Millions of our songbirds are crossing the Gulf now, and will arrive stateside perilously weak and undernourished from their journey. The smoke may well compound their precarious situation and potentially lead to birds failing to make it to shore, or arriving so weakened that they are unable to survive,” said Fenwick.

The Top Ten Sites at Most Immediate Risk from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Gulf Coast Least Tern Colony
One of the world’s largest colonies of the threatened least tern.
Lower Pascagoula River – including the Pascagoula River Coastal Preserve
The coastal marshes at the mouth of the river support yellow and black rails, snowy plovers and endangered wintering piping plovers.
Gulf Islands National Seashore
Hosts thousands of wintering shorebirds, including endangered piping plover, Wilson’s plover and American oystercatcher (above) as well as brown pelican, black-crowned night-heron, white ibis and black skimmer.
Breton National Wildlife Refuge – including the Chandeleur Islands
Largest tern colony in North America, predominantly of sandwich, royal, and caspian terns. Also American oystercatcher, brown pelican, reddish egret and endangered piping plover. Also an important wintering area for magnificent frigatebird, and stopover site for redhead and lesser scaup.
Dauphin Island
An important stopover site for migrant birds including shorebirds, gulls, terns, herons and rails.
Fort Morgan Historical Park
An important stopover site for migratory birds including shorebirds, gulls, terns, herons and rails.
Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge
An important stopover site for thousands of trans-Gulf migrants.
Eglin Air Force Base
Best known for its inland population of red-cockaded woodpeckers, Elgin also has significant coastal habitat for shorebirds and wading birds.
Delta National Wildlife Refuge
Large numbers of wading birds nest here, including white ibis, snowy egrets and herons; thousands of shorebirds use the mudflats in winter and during migration, including dunlin, long-billed dowitcher and western sandpiper as well as endangered piping plover.
Baptiste Collette Bird Islands
This artificial barrier island, created from dredge spoil, is one of the many Louisiana coastal islands that could be affected. Birds found here include caspian tern, brown pelican, gull-billed tern and black skimmer.

Source: http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Birds/Archives/2010/Oil-Spill-Birds.aspx

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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