Deepwater Horizon before it sank.

HATTIESBURG, Mississippi – The scientists over at the University of Southern Mississippi, in conjunction with the Tulane University, have found what appears to be oil in the postlarva of blue crabs, which are making their way into the coastal marshes along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, which may indicate that oil may just be finding its way into estuarine food chains.

The director of the Center for Fisheries Research and Development at the Gulf Cost Research Laboratory (GCRL), Harriet Perry, has discovered traces of hydrocarbons (or we can call it oil), in fiddler crab, and blue crab larva. Perry has indicated that the oil found seems to be stuck in between their hard outer shells, and their inner skins.

Perry had this to say when questioned further, “I’ve been sampling in Mississippi coastal waters for 42 years and I have never seen this, my guess is that the crab picked up this oil offshore while in the megalopal (postlarval) stage and brought the oil with it when it came back to the marsh.”

Dr. Caz Taylor, a researcher at Tulane University, has recently discovered orange-colored droplets in megalopae as far eat as Pensacola Florida, and as far west as Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana, but he has not yet completed the analysis to determine the composition of these droplets.

There have been samples sent to an independent research lab in Florida, which has confirmed that there are hydrocarbons present. While no direct link has been made between the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, there is enough circumstantial evidence to warrant further probing.

Washington, June 30th – Officials are saying that the laws in place in the U.S. Have made it nigh impossible to get skimmers to the Gulf of Mexico in order to aid in sweeping up the oil which is gushing away madly from the Deepwater Horizon spill. This catastrophe is beyond scope, and something really needs to be done about it, however, it has been mentioned that the current legislation simply does not allow for it..

BP has stated that only 433 boats are actually sweeping up the oil, and that only about one tird of those are specially designed skimmers, making the job at hand a lot more difficult.

While the spill in the Gulf of Mexico is the largest spill in all of U.S. History, however it does not invalidate the Jones Act of 1992. The Jones Act of 1992 protects U.S. Shipping, and it also forced a French company to sell nine skimmers to a U.S. Company before they could be allowed to aid in the cleanup process. Many people are in an uproar over this fact, as the Jones Act only covers business interests, and does not allow any contingencies for matters of national emergency, which the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico certainly falls under. There has been no mention if there may be an acceptance added, or any change at all made, in order to allow international skimmers to come in and aid in the cleanup process.

If that weren’t enough, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which states that skimmers need to be on standby in ports all around the country in case of emergency, are making the job of actually getting the skimmers to where need to be, quite a troublesome endeavor. There has been no motion in getting these skimmers moved, which has led a lot of people to wonder if the U.S. Really wants to get the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico cleaned up at all. The reasoning is that if there is another catastrophe in another port, those skimmers need to be on standby, in order to respond quickly and efficiently to deal with the issue. This unfortunately, leaves the workers and cleanup crew currently working feverishly to clean up this horrendous mess completely and utterly on their own for the time being.

What makes this situation so frustrating, is that when one looks at a Coast Guard map, as U.S. Senator George LeMieux pointed out, there are 850 skimmers in the southeast and 1,600 nationwide, sitting in their docks not doing anything. “We are literally talking about more than a thousand skimmers that are available, but we only have 400 — if this number is correct — at work,” LeMieux said. “It is hard to believe that the response is this anemic; it is hard to believe that there is this lack of urgency or sense of purpose in getting this done.”

In the past week, scientists have been cheering at their discovery of what appears to be one of the biggest whale shark groups ever seen in the northern Gulf of Mexico. There were 100 of the amazing creatures feeding on the surface over a deepwater feature known as Ewing Bank, which is located off of Louisiana.

However their cheering was short lived as one of their worst fears was confirmed… They are not avoiding the spill area. Eric Hoffmayer, a scientist with the University of Southern Mississippi, had this to say on the subject, “Our worst fears are realized. They are not avoiding the spill area, those animals are going to succumb. Taking mouthfuls of oil is not good. It is not the toxicity that will kill them. It’s that oil is going to be sticking to their gills and everything else.”

Whale sharks are the largest fish on the planet. They feed by filtering plankton and other tiny sea animals from the water through a colander like feature in their mouths. As mentioned before, it is not the ingestion of the oil that is the major problem, although it is not healthy for the Whale sharks.

“Based on all the information I’m getting, they are doing the normal things regardless of the oil. The idea that sharks have these evolved senses that will protect them — well, they haven’t evolved to detect oil,” Hoffmayer said.

Hoffmayer had been tagging Whale sharks on the Ewing Bank in June of last year. The trackers he managed to get onto the whale sharks showed that some of the animals spent July making their way hundreds of miles toward the coast of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. If they follow the same pattern this year, it will put them smack dab in the middle of the oil spill.

Not a lot is known about the migratory patterns of the whale shark, and they are not sure exactly how many of them make their home in the Gulf of Mexico.

The best way to get a handle on their comings and goings of the whale shark is by utilizing photographs of the spots and the bars on their sides. These patterns are as unique to the whale sharks as fingerprints are to us.

Hoffmayer has warned that the implications are far more grand than they appear to be.. “Last year we had two sighted off Florida and Alabama that were from Honduras and Belize,” Hoffmayer said. “That means these oil impacts are not only for the Gulf population, but for the Caribbean and maybe even further. The implications are pretty big here.”

He also said that the relatively high temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico, and the position of the offshore Loop Current, signifies that the environmental conditions in the Gulf this year, are extremely similar to the conditions which drew the whale sharks to the same area last year.

This all adds up to big trouble for the poor whale shark.. one can only hope a solution is found quickly.

As if the Gulf of Mexico didn’t have enough problems, what with the oil slicks and tar balls, the dispersant being used to clean up the mess, may be having an adverse effect on the local marine life.

Ben Raines, an environmental reporter for the Mobile Press-Register, has been shooting video of some pretty strange going ons in the Gulf. It is widely believed that the dispersant are the root of the trouble, rather than the oil spill itself.

Ben Raines counted out over 20 sharks swimming around his tiny vessel, in 6 feet of water located off the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge. He managed to capture the silhouettes from above the water. They were so immense in number that he stuck his camera under the water for a better view, and a bunch came into focus.

Ben proceeded to film from the beach out. An incredible number of tiny fish swept by in the shallows; literally tens of hundreds anchovies could be seen piled up, their lifeless bodies splayed on the sand.

There was a shark within 100 yards, and that is just not normal. Raines is not alone in his observation of the odd shark behavior. In the past month, beach goers in Florida were shocked to find an 11 foot, 800 pound tiger shark, close to shore, swimming in the surf. The shark was acting as if exposed to oil.

This wasn’t the only shark to exhibit this odd behavior, researchers have taken note of at least two dozen deep water sharks have been discovered within six miles of the shore, far closer than normal.

It isn’t just sharks which are exhibiting this behavior but all manners of marine life are also acting off.

The reason for this has been boiled down to the dissolved oxygen pockets which are developing all over the Gulf. It is thought that it’s not just the oil that is causing this, but also the 1.5 million gallons of dispersant which BP has used to try and clear up the mess.

The reason for this is that the bacteria which break up the oil need oxygen. These bacteria take the oxygen from their surroundings, and this causes the marine life to leave the area. If they can’t leave they just die, and this is bad because then the bacteria need even more oxygen to complete the cycle and break down the decaying sea life.

There have been many arguments that P didn’t have to use dispersant in order to clean up the spill. Many people feel that there are better ways, such as burning it, skimming it, or any other multitude of ways.

It is unclear why an alternative method for cleaning up the spill, however it is quite clear that in attempting to clean up the spill using dispersant, they haven’t really helped the matter, but rather compounded it. Sure they were taking care of the problem on the surface, but not below it.. Lending credence to the saying “Out of sight.. Out of mind…”

Due to the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill, also known as the BP Oil Spill, parts of the Gulf of Mexico is closed for both commercial and recreational fishing.

The latest update from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the United States agency responsible for handling the closure, arrived on June 7 and became effective 6 p.m. eastern time on the same day. According to this update, the prohibited area now measures 78,264 sq mi (202,703 sq km), or about 32% of the Gulf of Mexico exclusive economic zone.

Map:

As stated above, all commercial and recreational fishing is banned in the area, including catch and release. It is however still legal to transit through the area.

Since it is impossible to know the exact extent of the oil spill at any given time, NOAA has advised fishermen to refrain from fishing if they notice any oil or oil sheen, even if it is outside the prohibited zone.

For those who wish to receive information as soon as the prohibited zone is modified, there are several channels to utilize:

– Get bullentins to your inbox by sending an e-mail to SERO.Communications.Comments@noaa.gov

– Get SMS notifications. Sign up by texting fishing@gulf to 84469.

– Follow NOAA on Twitter: usnoaagov

– Visit http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov/deepwater_horizon_oil_spill.htm

– Listen to NOAA weather radio

Nearly 40 miles (60 km) of beaches along the Australian east coast has been declared a disaster zone due to the massive amounts of oil and chemicals that leaked out from a Hong-Kong registered cargo ship on Wednesday.

According to Queensland state official, the beaches along the Moreton Island[1], Bribie Island[2], and the southern area of the Sunshine Coast[3] have taken the hardest hit and the oil spill is the worst to affect Queensland in decades. You can see an animation showing the sequence of events here: http://www.msq.qld.gov.au/resources/file/eb697a008fb8b4f/Pacific_animation.wmv

The Hong-Kong registered ship, a 185 metre container ship named Pacific Adventurer, was enroute from Newcastle to Indonesia via Brisbane when it got caught in Cyclone Hamish and lost over 30 shipping containers in the heavy seas about seven nautical miles east of Cape Moreton. The falling containers damaged the ship which resulted in heavy fuel oil getting into the water.

As of now, the Environmental Protection Agency, Emergency Services, and local government are working together in an effort to limit the consequences of the spill. Massive cleaning up efforts has been launched and affected animals are being treated by trained wildlife carers. According to Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, the clean-up effort could end up costing millions of dollars.

Queensland State Premier Anna Bligh says that Swire Shipping, the company owning the ship, could end up paying for the clean-up. “We are investigating the entire incident and if there is any basis for a prosecution, we will not hesitate to take that action – the total cost of the clean-up will rest with this company.” If found guilty of environmental breaches, Swire Shipping may also be facing fines of up to AUS $1,500,000 (US$ 977,000).

Initially, reports of the accident contained the number 20-30 tonnes of leaked oil, but the true number has now turned out be ten times this figure – a shocking 230 tonnes of oil. Oil is not only dangerous to wildlife in the short run; it is carcinogenic and can cause long-term effects.

The oil is however not the only problem; the shipping containers from the Pacific Adventurer where filled with ammonium nitrate fertiliser and environmental experts now fear that the nutrients will cause algal blooms and oxygen scarcity in the region. Radar-equipped aircrafts are therefore currently searching for the missing 620 tonnes of chemical fertilizer, in hope of finding as many containers as possible intact.

In a statement from Swire Shipping the company ensures that it and its insurers will meet all their responsibilities.

“The company very much regrets the environmental impact caused as a consequence of the vessel being caught in Cyclone Hamish. The company and its insurers will meet all their responsibilities. It has chartered a helicopter to survey the extent of the oil slick and to try to locate the containers. The company is in contact with Queensland government officials and has offered to provide any information that will help the clean up campaign to be targeted efficiently to minimise beach pollution and environmental impact. The companys oil pollution expert is arriving from the Middle East tonight to assist local authorities and technical experts with the clean up.”

You can find more information about the disaster on Maritime Safety Queensland, a government agency of Queensland Transport:
http://www.msq.qld.gov.au/Home/About_us/Msq_headlines/Headlines_pacific_adventurer

For information about volunteering or reporting sick or injured wildlife, contact the Queensland Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.epa.qld.gov.au

Statements and information from Swire Shipping can be found here:
http://www.swireshipping.com/web/news.jsp?fid=368