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Even BP-Funded Scientists Find that the Use of Corexit Dispersant in the Gulf Made Things Worse, but BP Still Tries to Blame Others for Destruction

Submitted by George Washington on 06/02/2011 14:24 -0400

As the Herald Tribune notes, even BP-funded scientists are finding that dispersant made things worse:

BP
succeeded in sinking the oil from its blown well out of sight — and
keeping much of it away from beaches and marshes last year — by dousing
the crude with nearly 2 million gallons of toxic chemicals. But the
impact on the ecosystem as a whole may have been more damaging than the
oil alone.

The
combination of oil and Corexit, the chemical BP used to dissolve the
slick, is more toxic to tiny plants and animals than the oil in most
cases, according to preliminary research by several Florida scientists.
And the chemicals may not have broken down the oil as well as
expected.

Scientists
reported some of their early findings last week at a Florida Institute
of Oceanography conference at the University of Central Florida. The
researchers were funded a year ago through a $10 million BP grant.

There is anecdotal evidence that dispersant was still being applied many months after BP and the government said spraying had stopped. See this, this, this, this, this, this, and this.

In related news:

The Sarasota Herald Tribune notes:

A
mixture of oil and dead organic particles may still be falling to the
deep bottom of the northern Gulf of Mexico, potentially harming the
base of a food web that supports all kinds of sea life, from giant
whales and blue-fin tuna to grouper and snapper.

In water thousands of feet deep, scientists have discovered a “dirty blizzard” that deposited more than three inches oil mixed with decayed plant and animal material near the site of the BP Deepwater Horizon blowout last year.

A
quarter to half of the oil that spewed from the blown wellhead –
between 186 million to 227 million gallons – is still unaccounted for
and thought to be lingering in the deep sea, said Benjamin Flower, a
geological oceanographer with the University of South Florida.

***

Traces
of oil were found in the top layer of the sediments, as well as
single-celled plants and animals, some of which were deformed.

Oily
sediments were also found near the Desoto Canyon, a prime fishing
area. Near the same area, on the West Florida Slope, other toxic
effects on the bottom of the food web have been observed.

Damage
to the small plants and animals that make up the bottom of the food
web can ripple through the ecosystem because it removes important food
sources for larger fish.

Among some of the other observations made by scientists so far:

•
In lab research on conch, shrimp and oysters, the combination of
crude and Corexit - the toxic chemical BP used to dissolve the oil -
is more toxic than oil alone.

•
Oil remains buried in the sand of Panhandle beaches, disrupting
microscopic life in the sand and also posing a threat to shorebirds and
the offspring of sea turtles.

•
Pregnant dolphins in the northern Gulf may have been unable to find
sufficient food following the oil spill, a potential factor in the
unusual die-off of infant and neonatal dolphins earlier this year.

•
Cancer-causing chemicals from the crude, such as benzene and toluene,
may still be lingering in the ecosystem because they do not degrade
easily.

And even the
reports of large numbers of sick fish in Gulf are so widespread that
even NOAA is talking about it. As the Pensacola News Journal reports:

For
the first time [NOAA is] warning anglers that some fish are sick and
may pose health problems if handled or eaten raw.The agency is telling
anglers to toss fish that have lesions, fin rot or discolored skin
back into the Gulf and to be careful about handling them. This warning
comes just one week before the June 1 opening of recreational red
snapper season.

NOAA ... acknowledged that fishermen and
scientists have recently reported and documented lesions on fish they
are catching in federal waters off Alabama.

***

The
reports of sick fish correlate with areas most impacted by the BP oil
spill, said Jim Cowan Jr., the Louisiana State University Department of
Oceanography and Coastal Sciences scientist who is at the center of
the sick fish studies off the Alabama coast.

***

"I'm very
worried because I've talked to both commercial and recreational
fishermen who have been in the business 30 to 40 years and no one has
seen anything like this," he said.

***

Commercial fisherman
Donnie Waters has been fishing the Gulf since 1974. He was shocked to
learn that the sick fish he's been catching and sending to scientists
for study are infected with the dangerous bacteria."I'm seeing
things I've never seen before," he said. "I'm deeply concerned about
the long-term impact of the fishery of the eastern Gulf."

Of course, BP isn't accepting blame for any of the damage. As Plaintiff's attorney Stuart Smith notes:

The
BP-government spin machine belched back into gear last week – and the
intent, as it has been since Day One, is to dupe the world into
believing that a 200-million-gallon oil spill has minimal impact on the
delicate ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico. That’s what the spin masters
would have us believe. So when record numbers of dead and “stranded”
sea turtles started washing ashore across the Gulf Coast, the
BP-government PR team went looking for someone or something to deflect
attention from the 200 million gallons of crude and 2 million gallons
of toxic dispersant that was pumped into the water over nearly 3
months.

So now we are being subjected to the same sort of attempt
at damage control that we saw when all the dead dolphins came ashore
not long ago. Is anybody else starting to see a pattern here? The spill
has broken the back of the Gulf ecosystem, and now we’re dealing with
the fallout.

In the case of the turtles as it was with the
dolphins, the BP-government objective is to divert attention away from
last year’s massive oil spill. So who or what to blame? What killed or
stranded the 600 sea turtles – six times the annual average –
that washed ashore in 2010 during the height of the BP spill? How do
the damage-control wizards explain why, already this year, 563 sea
turtles have been stranded in just four Gulf states?

Well, here’s what the spin maestros – backed by NOAA scientists – came up with: The shrimpers did it.

That’s
what they’d have us believe. The shrimpers killed hundreds and
hundreds of sea turtles – most of them endangered Kemp’s ripleys – with
their big nets (and their devastated lives). It wasn’t the 200 million gallons of oil, it was the shrimpers.

***

Despite
the far-fetched nature of the accusation, the BP-government spinners
came out firing – implying that the sharp spike in turtle deaths is due
entirely to the fact that shrimpers aren’t using their
regulation-mandated “turtle excluder devices.” TEDs, as they’re called,
are designed to keep sea turtles like Kemp’s ripleys out of shrimpers’
gear and nets.

“This is a serious problem,” said Barbara
Schroeder, NOAA’s national sea turtle coordinator. But Grand Isle Mayor
David Camardelle, who’s also a shrimper, disagrees: “The only turtles
that are being destroyed are the turtles in the oil spill.”

Did I mention that the
official shrimp season just opened last week? And I should mention it
opened to reports of small catches, and the shrimp that are being
caught are much smaller than usual.

Click here to see photos.

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Thu, 06/02/2011 - 18:05 | 1334127 majia

sorry for the interruptive non-sequitor but there is major major steam/smoke at fukushima right now 3:06 az time and 7:06 june 3 webcam time

http://www.tepco.co.jp/nu/f1-np/camera/index-j.html

Thu, 06/02/2011 - 16:58 | 1333934 That Peak Oil Guy

Between the BP spill and Fukushima I've taken all seafood out of my diet. Impossible to know what is safe.

TPOG

Thu, 06/02/2011 - 17:03 | 1333927 medicalstudent

black fin lesions found on snapper in east gulf, upto 10% of fish allegedly sick.(http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1854&category=Environment) something similar allegedly happened to princewilliam sound alaska and herring. (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/7113052.html)

crab populations dessimated. shrimp populations reduced.

was bp's artificial bacterium (dna vector to enhance petrol metabolism) vibrio...? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuDO0l8K90I)

earths stress resistance to be tested.

has insanity become a survival asset? because all of this is absolutely insane. (newton's third law)

Thu, 06/02/2011 - 16:52 | 1333920 America- Some A...

America- Some Assembly Required's picture

Strange how Halliburton built the well, and then bought the world's biggest oil clean-up company a week before the well blew up. Halliburton proifits went up 60% the following quarter.

Thu, 06/02/2011 - 16:41 | 1333874 Rodent Freikorps

Strangely, I find that I am completely on-board with destroying BP. Kill it, burn it, and piss on the ashes.

Best of luck.

Thu, 06/02/2011 - 16:24 | 1333830 Bicycle Repairman

"....the official shrimp season just opened last week? And I should mention it opened to reports of small catches, and the shrimp that are being caught are much smaller than usual."

I'm sure the small shrimp are due to climate change. /sarc

Thu, 06/02/2011 - 17:05 | 1333953 Ray Bones

Aren't shrimp always small?

Fri, 06/03/2011 - 13:37 | 1336692 TexDenim

No, the great shrimp are "jumbo" and the greatest shrimp of all, from Nigeria, are gambas.

Thu, 06/02/2011 - 17:22 | 1334021 RichardENixon

The ones on the "Jumbo Shrimp Platter" I ordered last night sure were. Not only that, they glowed in the dark and attempted to escape from the plate several times.

Thu, 06/02/2011 - 16:14 | 1333789 hangemhigh77

Rahn Emmanual was renting, (living in cost free) a condo in Georgetown owned by BP. No conflict of interest there. Maybe we need to get Jeffrey Immelt involved so he can determine the economic impact of the BP oil crime. Immelt says, no problems here case closed. However, watch those criminal shrimpers killing turtles and arrest them and prosecute them.

Thu, 06/02/2011 - 16:14 | 1333777 hangemhigh77

Sure the "authorities" are all ready to go out and blame and fine and arrest the shrimpers for all this destruction. But where were all these ASSHOLES when BP was destroying the entire Gulf? They were on the beaches prosecuting people for taking pictures. Hand these assholes.

Thu, 06/02/2011 - 15:59 | 1333725 nah