Reply #11: "What I witnessed was a surreal, sickening scene beyond anything I could have imagined. "

[mhatrw]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/opinion/30shaw.html

As the boat entered the slick, I had to cover my nose to block the fumes. There were patches of oil on the gulf’s surface. In some places, the oil has mixed with an orange-brown pudding-like material, some of the 700,000 gallons of a chemical dispersant called Corexit 9500 that BP has sprayed on the spreading oil. Near Rig No. 313, technically a restricted zone, the boat stopped and I (wearing a wetsuit, with Vaseline covering exposed skin) jumped in.

Only a few meters down, the nutrient-rich water became murky, but it was possible to make out tiny wisps of phytoplankton, zooplankton and shrimp enveloped in dark oily droplets. These are essential food sources for fish like the herring I could see feeding with gaping mouths on the oil and dispersant. Dispersants break up the oil into smaller pieces that then sink in the water, forming poisonous droplets — which fish can easily mistake for food.

Though all dispersants are potentially dangerous when applied in such volumes, Corexit is particularly toxic. It contains petroleum solvents and a chemical that, when ingested, ruptures red blood cells and causes internal bleeding. It is also bioaccumulative, meaning its concentration intensifies as it moves up the food chain. The timing for exposure to these chemicals could not be worse. Herring and other small fish hatch in the spring, and the larvae are especially vulnerable. As they die, disaster looms for the larger predator fish, as well as dolphins and whales. ...

Yes, the dispersants have made for cleaner beaches. But they’re not worth the destruction they cause at sea, far out of sight. It would be better to halt their use and just siphon and skim as much of the oil off the surface as we can. The Deepwater Horizon spill has done enough damage, without our adding to it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/7783656/BP-disaster-worst-oil-spill-in-US-history-turns-seas-into-a-dead-zone.html

From Mr Lensmyer's boat, 60 miles south of New Orleans, the only signs of life were a few seabirds circling above and the occasional porpoise skirting sheens of oil. The astringent smell, a chemical-like odour that stung the throat, only added to the unsettling feel. ...

"This is a disaster on many levels," said Larry Schweiger, president of the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), after touring the area. "About 90 per cent of gulf fishing is dependent on these wetlands. Fish spawn here, blue crabs and other sealife which are a key part of the food chain rely on the marshes, the oyster and shrimp populations rely on healthy wetlands." ...

Yet the BP spill has often seemed like a disaster in abstract. There have been relatively few of the classic post-spill images of helpless oil-coated birds coated or dead fishing floating belly-up. And the mass use of chemical dispersants - in itself, another threat to the fragile ecosystem - has partially broken the slick, creating the residue of distinctive chocolate-brown globules. ... Deep-water cameras sent out on an NWF charter boat last week showed a similar sub-aquatic scene - waters and reefs that should be teeming with fish were near devoid of life but thick with globules of oil. Indeed, scientists believe much of the plume has never even reached the surface.

"When things are this bad, the larger fish get out of town," said Dr Martin O'Connell, director of fish research at the University of New Orleans. But the oysters and shrimp in polluted areas will not have escaped, nor will smaller fish and other organisms that rely on the wetlands for survival. "The impact on the food chain will be felt for many years."