Study: Dispersants may have hurt Gulf food chain [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Study: Dispersants may have hurt Gulf food chain
11:25 PM, Jul 31, 2012

NEW ORLEANS — A study on possible effects of the 2010 BP oil spill indicates dispersants may have killed plankton - some of the ocean's tiniest plants and creatures - and disrupted the food chain in the Gulf of Mexico, one of the nation's richest seafood grounds.

Scientists who read the study said it points toward major future effects of the spill. One called its findings scary.

For the study, Alabama researchers pumped water from Mobile Bay into 53-gallon drums, then added oil, dispersant or both in proportions found during the oil spill to simulate the spill's effects on microscopic water-life in the bay.

Over more than 12 weeks in 2010, BP's well spewed nearly 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The company used more than 1.8 million gallons of dispersants - more than 770,000 gallons of it at the oil's source on the ocean floor - to break up the oil into tiny droplets.

Read more: http://www.clarionledger.com/viewart/20120801/NEWS/208010328/Study-Dispersants-may-hurt-Gulf-food-chain