Conservation & Environment

Laboratory tests confirmed that oil from a spewing Gulf of Mexico well has accumulated in at least two extensive plumes deep under the surface, scientists with the University of South Florida said Friday.

USF researchers at a meeting in Baton Rouge said lab tests showed their initial findings, based on field instruments, were correct. The extensive layers of oil are sitting far beneath the surface miles from the site of the Deepwater Horizon explosion. The university is collecting data for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The lab tests are the most conclusive evidence yet in a vigorous scientific debate about where much of the oil from the growing spill in the Gulf of Mexico has ended up.

Read the complete story at Bloomberg Businessweek.

 

 

 

 

 

The BP oil spill is moving eastward, threatening beaches like Pensacola, Fla., as oil balls wash ashore and Gulf animals die at unusually high rates.

The focus of the BP oil spill relief effort is shifting eastward – toward the beaches of Alabama and Pensacola, Fla. – as the slick's toll on Gulf wildlife slowly mounts.

Tar balls bobbed toward Pensacola, threatening to make Florida the fourth Gulf state directly affected by the undersea geyser from BP's Deepwater Horizon well off the Louisiana coast.

As a result, federal and state governments are moving booms and skimmers eastward.

Read the Christian Science Monitor story in full

 

 

FAIRHOPE, Ala. — Crude oil from the Deepwater Horizon has reached the Alabama coast. Gooey, weathered oil made landfall along Dauphin Island on Tuesday, and the Fort Morgan peninsula and perhaps even Gulf Shores were expected to receive weathered oil after press time on Wednesday or possibly today.

Moderate south to southwest winds this week are moving the oil closer toward the Alabama and Mississippi coasts. The forecast by NOAA officials was the first suggesting landfall was imminent, and on its current track the oil could also threaten Mobile Bay.

NOAA modeling, however, suggests that the sheen approaching the bay might be prevented from entering at present because of a strong 6-7 knot tidal movement, combined with heavy outflow from upstate rivers fed by recent heavy rains.

Read the full BadwinCountyNow.com story

 

 

Louisiana's shrimping season officially begins on Monday but the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has killed any sense of optimism, reports the BBC's Robyn Bresnahan.

George Barisich's fishing boat has survived three major hurricanes – Gustav, Ike and Katrina.

"My house was underwater, but she survived," he says, giving the boat a loving pat.

But Mr Barisich fears what will sink his commercial fishing business once and for all is not a natural disaster, but a man-made one.

"People laugh at us when we say this oil spill could be worse than Katrina, but we ain't joking," he says.

Read the full BBC News report

 

 

OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. — The fate of one of New England’s most prized fish may be unfolding more than a thousand miles away in the Gulf of Mexico.

Bluefin tuna — so desired by sushi devotees that a single giant fish fetches thousands of dollars — are believed to spawn off the United States only in the Gulf and mostly during April and May. This year, both coincided with the worst oil spill in the nation’s history.

As oil gushes up from the seabed and spreads, scientists are studying whether bluefin larvae the size of a pencil tip will survive the leak. The answer could have important consequences for New England, where many of the tuna migrate each year and where bluefin fishing season opened yesterday.

Read this Boston Globe story in full

 

 

NEW BEDFORD — An Oregon-based environmental group called Ecotrust is coming to New England next week to learn what effects catch shares and sector management are having on the regional fishing industry.

Six members of the Ecotrust's 10-member panel will meet in Boston June 1 to hear from six "regional presenters" — none of whom directly represent New Bedford or Gloucester. The meeting, according to Ecotrust spokeswoman Megan Mackey, will not be open to the public.

Ecotrust, which receives some of its funding from the Pew Charitable Trust, indicates it takes a dim view of catch shares, which it terms "privatizing" the fishery and "selling it to the highest bidder."

Read the SouthCoastToday.com story in full

 

 

NEW ORLEANS — Independent scientists and government officials say there is a disaster we can’t see in the Gulf of Mexico’s depths: the potential ruin of a world inhabited by enormous sperm whales and invisible plankton.

Researchers have said they have found at least two massive underwater plumes of what appear to be oil, each hundreds of feet deep and stretching for miles. Yet the chief executive of BP PLC — which has for weeks downplayed several factors, including the amount of oil spewing into the gulf — said there is “no evidence’’ that huge amounts of oil are suspended undersea.

Tony Hayward, BP chief executive, said the oil naturally gravitates to the surface — and any oil below was just making its way up. Researchers, however, say the disaster in waters where light doesn’t shine through could ripple across the food chain.

Read the entire story in The Boston Globe

 

 

They watch and they wait, and increasingly, fishermen up and down the East Coast of the United States worry about the massive oil spill sitting, for nowr, in the Gulf of Mexico.

Now officially estimated at somewhere between two- and five-times the size of the Exxon Valdez spill, the big unknown is where it will go.

"I think everybody who has a fishing boar or goes fishing is thinking about it a lot," said Captain Howard Bogan, 74, whose family has been in the fishing business for 8 decades.

Read the full NBC New York story in full

 

 

The NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter conducting sampling in the Gulf has expanded its mission to use its sophisticated sonar equipment and other scientific instruments to help define the subsurface plume near the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill site and adjacent area. The mission is a collaborative project among NOAA, academia and the private sector.

Previously conducting plankton sampling in the south Gulf important to establish baseline conditions related to the oil spill, Gordon Gunter will begin additional work using its sonar capabilities that can scan subsurface features. Also aboard is a graduated net used for sampling fish larvae at different depths. The 224-ft. Gordon Gunter will conduct observations for fisheries, water, and acoustics sampling in the oil spill area and to the south.
          
“NOAA continues to provide assets on land, sea, and in the air to help the federal response in this effort,” said Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter has unique capabilities that will help us better understand and define the subsurface plume that is near the oil spill site.”

Read the full NOAA news anncouncement

 

 

NEW ORLEANS — Concerns about the chemical dispersant being used to fight the gulf oil spill are suddenly spiking along the coast here, with workers fretting over exposure and health officials investigating a tiny cluster of complaints.

On Wednesday afternoon, seven crew members aboard fishing vessels who had been working to clean up Breton Sound, southeast of New Orleans, blamed the chemicals for health complaints including nausea, shortness of breath and high blood pressure.

All were working on a cleanup crew one hour south of Venice, La., by boat and were admitted to a hospital. Doctors who examined them said that their conditions were “related to some kind of irritant, combined with dehydration” and predicted that they would be discharged within a day or two.

Read this NY Times story in full