Safety of Gulf of Mexico Seafood

The safety concerns over the Gulf of Mexico seafood continue to mount.

Representative Edward Markey (D-MA), chair of the Energy and Environment Subcommittee in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is leading the congressional investigation into the BP oil spill, sent a letter to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Margaret Hamburg expressing concerns over the safety of Gulf seafood.

“Although I have yet to receive any response to my letter, new developments that seem to indicate that the marine food chain in the Gulf of Mexico has already been contaminated by oil and arsenic raise new questions about the impact that this catastrophic oil disaster will have on marine life in the Gulf waters,” said Markey.

Many of the region’s water and beaches have been closed to fishing and recent tests of Gulf crab larvae have showed high levels of hydrocarbons. The finding raises great concern among Markey and others who understand how important crab is for those who make a livlihood in the fishing industry and for the millions of marine wildlife who rely on crab as part of their food supply.

Another area of concern is the level of arsenic, which is continuing to mount in the Gulf. Usually, arsenic gets filtered out by the saltwater, but the oil spills are preventing the ocean from doing its job thereby increasing the level of the toxin in the seawater posing a real threat to the heath and survival of the Gulf’s sealife.

According to the Imperial College London team of researchers, “High levels of arsenic in seawater can enable the toxin to enter the food chain and can disrupt the photosynthesis process in marine plants and increase the chances of genetic alterations that can cause birth defects and behavioral changes in aquatic life. It can also kill animals such as birds that feed on sea creatures affected by arsenic.”

Arsenic in humans has been linked to cancer of the bladder, lungs, skin, kidney, nasal passages, liver, and prostate.

Celebrities Support Gulf Oil Spill Relief

Celebrities like Sandra Bullock, Blake Lively and John Goodman are urging Americans to support the clean-up efforts through the Restore the Gulf’s “Be the One” campaign.

“What can you offer?” Bullock asks in the PSA, standing along the coast. “Your voice. Speak up.”

The “Be the One” effort intends to galvanize the nation around the cause of coastal restoration in order to demand that government leaders address this critical issue.

The campaign was started by Women of the Storm, a diverse, non-political, nonpartisan group of women from the New Orleans area and across South Louisiana. The organization was born out of a shared desire to rebuild homes, businesses and communities following Hurricane Katrina in 2006.

Women of the Storm is focusing current efforts on restoring America’s vanishing Gulf Coast. The group will secure as many signatures to the petition as possible before delivering the results to Congress and the Obama administration to show strong national support for funding and implementation of coastal restoration.

According to Women of the Storm, America’s Gulf produces nearly half of the U.S. domestic energy supply, and more than two thirds of the nation’s shrimp and oysters. Seven of the nation’s largest 10 ports are located in the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf is a flyway for 40% of North America’s duck, geese, swan and eagle populations. Much of the continent’s waterfowl population winters along the Gulf Coast. And because millions of people annually visit Gulf beaches, embark on fishing trips, participate in water sports and otherwise enjoy this national treasure, the impact of a healthy Gulf on the quality of life in the region and beyond is immeasurable.

Individuals can sign the petition on the Restore the Gulf website.

The Danger of Dispersants

What was believed to be of help, may now be causing harm.

This is the fear of the oil dispersant, Corexit, currently being added to the Gulf of Mexico waters as a way to break up the oil into smaller globlets following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Two of the unanswered questions with Corexit is what exactly is it made from and will happen to the dispersant when it gets mixed with oil and then ingested by millions of aquatic wildlife?

While the dispersant is expected to biodegrade, according to the EPA, just how long it will remain in the fish and its capacity for doing long-term damage to the wildlife is largely unknown.

The Danger of Oil Dispersants

With so much news being made about the oil cap finally siphoning off the gusher from the Gulf of Mexico, it is easy for many to believe that the worst of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is over.

Unfortunately, the long-term effects of the recent environmental disaster remain unknown and one effect that is of great concern is the widspread use of oil dispersants.

Oil dispersants are intended to break down the oil so that the slick dissipates and as it does, small water-soluble particles are formed allowing the oil to be dispersed over a large area of water. The intention with adding dispersants into the oil-infested Gulf following the spill was to dilute the slick so that it biodegrades instead of it remaining as one massive sludge that could choke wildlife and vegetation.

But these well-meant intentions may be doing much more devastation than good. Laboratory tests have shown that dispersants increase toxic hydrocarbon levels in fish and may also kill fish eggs.

“The unprecedented use of dispersants, which are toxic to shrimp and young marine life, is very concerning,” said John Williams, the director of Southern Shrimp Alliance.

“The widespread dumping of dispersants… on the surface of the water and deep in the Gulf of Mexico near the source of the oil spill is an unprecedented and risky response that may be more damaging than the oil itself.”

The dispersant chemicals “relocate the oil from the shores to the water column where it will be spread by currents to vital reproductive grounds throughout the western Gulf of Mexico,” said Williams.

The kind of dispersant that is being used is called Dispersant Corexit 9500. BP has dumped more than 1.8 million gallons of  the dispersant in the Gulf since the disaster on April 20.

According to the New Jersey Department of Public Health, this dispersant “may be absorbed through the skin; should be handled as a carcinogen – with extreme caution. It can irritate the skin and eyes with possible eye damage; can irritate the nose and throat; can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain. Can cause headache, dizziness, lightheadedness, and passing out and may damage the liver and kidneys.”

On July 15, the New York Times reported that  the U.S. EPA Administrator, Lisa Jackson, urged Congress to take up legislation strengthening her agency’s authority over oil dispersants in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico gusher, calling for more testing and disclosure of the chemical ingredients in the controversial spill-fighting products.

Under the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act, Nalco, the manufacturer of Corexit 9500, does not have to release the ingredients of its product.

Oil Cap Tests Resume

After tests on the oil cap resumed after clearance came from the federal government yesterday afternoon, BP is moving forward with its efforts to determine in the new oil cap top can plug the gusher.

The cap is a 75-ton metal stack of lines and valves. After a series of setbacks and failed attempts to contain the leak following the April 20 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the oil cap solution has raised hopes among BP, engineers and the government that this will finally be the device that plugs the leak that has been spilling oil for almost three months.

According to the Associated Press, if the cap is successful, it will stop oil from pouring into the Gulf of Mexico via two means: By holding all the oil inside the well machinery like a stopper or, if the pressure is too great, channeling some through lines to as many as four collection ships.

Retired Coast Guard Adm., Thad Allen is the administration’s leader on the relief efforts. He remains hopeful and determined that oil cap will be just the solution needed to stop the leakage, until a permanent solution of two relief wells plugging the leak from deep underground can be installed.

The United States government estimates that between 1.5 million to 2.5 million gallons are leaking every day.

Oil Spill Cap Delayed

The story should sound familiar by now: Oil spill relief workers try to plug the leak under the Deepwater Horizon platform, and fail.

Familiar but disheartening.

Despite the high hopes that the recent installation of the oil cap was going to be the solution to trap the oil in the well, work on the oil cap has been delayed. And in another tone of familiarity, BP has been rather vague at describing the reasons for why efforts have been halted.

Kent Wells, a senior vice president at BP said that the decision was made by the federal government who wanted to re-evaluate the cap and its effectiveness. The plan has been put on hold for the next 24 hours during which time, oil continues to gush uncontained in the Gulf of Mexico as BP and federal officials reconvene about the best way to move forward.

The timeframe estimates provided by both BP and the government have been far from clear. In fact, approximations for when the cap might be installed have ranged from the end of  July to mid August.

This is not welcomed news to anyone: Not for BP, who is under intense and mounting pressure to cap the leak; not the government who is also under scrutiny for its management of the environmental disaster; and definitely not for the lives directly impacted by the oil spill, most notably those living and working in the region’s fishing and tourist industries.

Banks Encouraged to Make Loans with Oil Victims

In an effort to help offset a fraction of the financial damage inflicted upon workers whose livelihoods were near but decimated following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, regulators are encouraging banks to make loans with credit-worthy businesses and workers to help them rebound from the worse man-made environmental disaster in the nation’s history.

“Banks can help customers recover financially and be better positioned to honor their obligations,” the regulators said. “In the affected areas, these efforts can also contribute to the health of local communities.”

The agencies include federal regulators, such as the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, which oversees banks at the local level.

Banks are instructed though to exercise caution when giving out loans so as to not create a financial meltdown akin to what occurred in 2008 following the unstructured and unregulated loans that were doled out without much concern.

The April 20 Deepwater Horizon oil spill killed 11 platform workers and injured dozens others. It has caused  the fishing and tourism industries, two of the main professions in the region, to come to a near screeching halt.

This new urge from regulators is aimed at softening the blow of the environmental disaster by helping those directly affected by it to get back on their feet.

Oil Spill Cap Expects to Plug Leak

A new containment cap is expected to be installed on Monday, and officials are hopeful that if all goes as planned, the device will be able to start capturing all the oil. This would be the first time in the three months since the April 20 disaster that experts would be able to contain the massive oil spill leak. 

“At this point our confidence is growing,” says BP’s chief operating officer, Doug Suttles.

Upon the hopeful news, BP shares increased by eight percent as the day of trading began.

On Saturday, the old cap was removed to make way for the new containment cap. But part of the process of removing it also allowed for 2.5 million gallons a day of oil to pour from the uncontained well.

The much-awaited relief well that BP is drilling to stop the oil flow permanently is now just 5 feet away from intersecting with the broken well, the company said.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill has killed and harmed wildlife, closed beaches, halted the regional fishery industry and caused overwhelming financial devastation in the five-state region of the Gulf of Mexico affected the environmental disaster.

Ban on Deepwater Oil Drilling Rejected Again

In a disheartening decision, given the recent Gulf of Mexico oil spill, afederal appeals court on Thursday, July 9, 2010, rejected the Obama administration’s request to keep a six-month moratorium on deepwater oil drilling. The reason cited is that the government lacked to show sufficient evidence that a ban would prevent “irreparable harm” if drilling resumes on the approved well sites in the Gulf region.

The moratorium would have ceased drilling in waters below 5oo feet while investigators and engineers work to find the cause of the April 20 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The 2-1 decision came from a three-judge panel in the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in Louisiana. Companies that support the deepshore drilling were led by Hornbeck Offshore Services, which contended that the drilling stoppage would inflict economic harm onto the region. But the Obama administration is back at work devising a revised drilling moratorium plan, and oil and gas companies are likely to suspend deepshore drilling until a final decision has been determined.

The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill killed 11 workers and injured numerous others working on the Deepwater oil platform. As of July 8, it has been 80 days since the disaster and within that time, 120 to 200 million gallons of oil have been spilled into the Gulf region and surrounding waters.

New Fish Species Found in Gulf Oil Spill

The news from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has been downright dreadful since the explosion rocked the Deepwater Horizon oil platform on April, 20. But after more than two months after the largest man-made environmental disaster in the United States’ history, one positive news highlight has emerged.

Researchers identified new species of pancake batfishes, a flat fish that is not often seen because they are bottom-dwellers and therefore live within the great depths of the ocean floor.

“One of the fishes that we describe is completely restricted to the oil spill area,” said John Sparks of the American Museum of Natural History told the Associated Press. “If we are still finding new species of fishes in the Gulf, imagine how much diversity, especially microdiversity, is out there that we do not know about.”

The discovery of this new species serves as a slight buffer against the news of fish dying or cloaked in oil have become regular features in the day’s recap news of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Yet the unfortunate fact still remains that the enormous effects of the spill has near devastated the region’s commercial fishing industry and its largely unknown effects to aquatic wildlife is likely to swell for years to come.