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Gulf Shrimpers Find Oil In Reopened Fishing Areas. Governnment Says "Shut Up". Sierra Club Alleges Areas Were Solely Reopened to Limit BP's Liability
While the government says that the oil is gone, shrimpers say its still there.
The Press-Register reports:
Opening
state offshore waters to fishing and winding down the cleanup effort
on the coast is premature, said Louie Miller, state director of the
Mississippi Sierra Club.
"We've got shrimpers out there saying
there is oil out there," Miller said. "We had a meeting Wednesday night
where we had over 150 shrimpers... who are saying there is oil out
there and these underwater plumes are varying in size and shape. This
stuff is obviously moving around out there."
***
[William
Walker, executive director of the Mississippi Department of Marine
Resources] "If you are not going to validate what you are saying through
accepted scientific protocol and approaches, then quit talking about it
without any evidence what you are saying is true," Walker said.
In other words, shut up.
Obviously,
gulf shrimpers have a strong motivation to have everyone think that the
shrimp is safe and the oil is all gone. They wouldn't be speaking out
unless the problem was fairly bad.
Indeed, the Sierra Club accuses the government of reopening oiled fishing grounds to limit BP's liability:
The
existence of oil is irrefutable, Miller said. Oil has reappeared on
beaches in Alabama, Petit Bois and Horn islands and continues to wash
ashore in Louisiana, he said.
Miller said there also is evidence of submerged oil.
"It
is a weird thing. It is like strands, this black water, as they are
calling it. It is like strands that are about three to four times the
thickness of human hair. These things can be about foot-and-a-half, to
five- to six-feet-long."
Miller said the assumption is oil that has been dispersed.
"To open up these waters, in my opinion, is nothing more than to limit the liability of BP to pay claims," he said.
"Because now they can deny any claims after the time at which these waters were opened back up," Miller said.
PBS Newshour also covered the shrimpers' distrust of the government's claims that all is well:
PBS:
[Vice president of the Louisiana Shrimpers Association Acy] Cooper
says despite government claims that most of the oil is gone, there’s
plenty of it still on the bottom.
COOPER: I went out there and
we made about four or five passes with the wheel, with the boat,
stirred up the mud, and before you know it, oil was coming up. So these are the kind of areas that we need to distinguish where it's at, and these are the new places we need to keep closed. We don't need to open this. Keep them out of there.
Truthout reports:
Two
days after [William] Walker's announcement [that all was well] and in
response to claims from state and federal officials that Gulf Coast
waters are safe and clean, fishermen took their own samples from the
waters off of Pass Christian in Mississippi.
The
samples were taken in water that is now open for shrimping, as well as
from waters directly over Mississippi's oyster bed, that will likely
open in September for fishing.
Commercial
fisherman James "Catfish" Miller, took fishermen Danny Ross Jr. and
Mark Stewart, along with scientist Dr. Ed Cake of Gulf Environmental
Associates and others out and they found the fishing grounds to be contaminated with oil and dispersants.
***
On
August 13, Truthout visited Pass Christian Harbor in Mississippi. Oil
sheen was present, the vapors of which could be smelled, causing our
eyes to burn. Many ropes that tied boats to the dock were oiled and
much of the water covered with oil sheen.
***
"BP has
bought off all our government officials, and shut them up. You can't
say the oil is gone, it's right here! Them saying it's not here is a
bunch of bullshit."
***
He
worked in the VOO program looking for oil. When his team would find
oil, upon reporting it, they would consistently be sent away without
explanation or the opportunity to clean it. "They made us abort these
missions," he said. "Two days ago I put out boom in a bunch of oil for
five minutes, they told me to abort the mission, so I pulled up boom
soaked in oil. What the hell are we doing out there if they won't let
us work to clean up the oil?"
***
"I can take
anybody in here out and show them oil, every single day," David White, a
local fishing charter captain responded. "I was in the VOO program,
driving around calling in oil, telling them where it is and nobody ever
came. I never saw any skimmers there and I'm talking about some
serious oil. I can show you tar balls going across the bottom like
tumbleweeds."
Yerkes provided Truthout with a
written statement from Lawrence Byrd, a local boat captain who was a
task force leader in the VOO program from June 4 to July 21. On July 27
and 28, Byrd took BP officials, Coast Guard officials and an EPA
official on a fact finding mission in search of oil.
"The
Coast Guard told us if we could show them the oil, they'd put us back
to work," Yerkes told Truthout, "So Byrd took him, and other officials
out on his boat and showed them the oil."
Byrd's statement contains many instances of the group encountering oil on the trips:
"Within
30 minutes in the Rocky Bayou and Boggy Bayou we found 4 different
football field sized areas of oily sheen on the water ... We moved east
from there in search of weathered oil, just past Mid Bay bridge we
found a 2 acre oil slick with a water bottle full of crude oil. At this
time the Coast Guard Lt. had seen enough to warrant a 2nd trip with BP
officials and EPA."The next day, July 28, Byrd wrote:
"On
board were BP officials, a Parson official, 2 Coast Guard Lts and EPA.
First stop Crab Island Destin where we found tar balls, dead fish and
plenty of dead sargasm grass. All officials seemed very concerned about
all of our findings."***
"There
are surfers coming in with oil on them," Yerkes continued, "There are
divers telling us it's on the bottom. We have VOO workers coming in
after finding oil three inches thick atop the water as of last week and
they go back out there and it's gone."
Project Gulf Impact filmed local fishermen saying much the same thing:
“Fishermen do not want to lose our credibility or deliver contaminated seafood to market and make people sick.” – Kathy Birren
“While
President Obama and state officials claim that the Gulf is ‘open for
business,’ these fishermen say the spraying of dispersants in the Gulf
of Mexico is ongoing and they’re concerned that seafood pulled from
impacted waters is unsafe for eating.”
“The tissue testing of
this seafood is inadequate and testing for the toxic dispersants is
non-existent.” – Tracy Kuhns, Louisiana Bayoukeeper
“I think it
is crucial for the public to be made aware of the concerns of the
commercial fishermen. And if a commercial fisherman who makes his
living off of those products doesn’t want to deliver them to the
public, the public needs to know why.” – Chris Bryant, Commercial
Fisherman.
And see this:
Indeed, fishermen hired by BP are still finding tar balls, but are being instructed to hide their discoveries.
Is the Sierra Club right? Are still-oiled fishing areas being reopened solely to limit BP's liability?
Are fishing areas instead being reopened to try to save the Gulf
fishing industry (even though local fishermen and shrimpers would rather
have dangerous areas remain closed so that Gulf seafood's reputation
isn't permanently destroyed)?
Or is it just part of the same old attempt to cover up the severity of the crisis?
One thing is for sure: the oil is not just in the imaginations of shrimpers and fishermen. While government scientists claim that 75% of the oil has
disappeared, independent scientists say that up to 80% of the oil is
still there:
- advertisements -
Alaska adventure travel and Ketchikan Fishing Trips-offering affordable adventure trips and wildlife tours, vacation packages with charter trips.
how long will this be in denial? does Dr Phil know about this :)
http://covert2.wordpress.com
Even GW will have to drop this crisis - its half life is used up. Time to find another crisis GW.
If Corexit is as toxic as it appears to be, I seriously doubt that bacteria will thrive, much less survive in such an environment. Looks like Gummy Tar will be on the menu for some time. Chalk-up another one for man-not-so-kind.
Bubba, go take a nice long swim in the Gulf, and start from Gulf Shores, Ala. The water is nice and oily there.
For more info on the Gulf oil problems, check out James Fox's videos on YouTube. He is an excellent citizen journalist down there in the Gulf. Gregg Hall has some videos on YouTube from Gulf Shores, Ala. that are good. There's quite a few good people down there doing some excellent reporting and posting it on YouTube. Be sure to check them out.
Hi Gw,
Thanks for all your energy, please open a paypal, so i can put a donation for all your work!
Second:
Can't your guys simply make a little list every time from these guys as Bubba. This Jim Rockford has gone, VWbug came in, it would help to keep tthe comments shorter?
I have no reason to spit on these guys, sure as Bubba states, they make their money, like Bp does and a lot of other guys.
A couple of scientists were saying a while back this wouldnt be like Alaska because of the warmer weather in the gulf and that stuff would get eaten up pretty quick by microbes which would thrive in the warmer water. I think the East coast during WW2 had more oil dumped there than this leak and you hardly hear about it except for stories about some tarballs at the beach then.
If there is a BP cover up, the government has been complicit in it from day one.
Bama doesn't want to get Katrina'd and his lackeys in MSM have really beaten the BP's fault meme to try to keep the slick off of him, but at the same time obfuscating, downplaying, and really working to keep this on the DL
Thanks GW.
I see the kitty went bye bye. Sad. But I understand.
Nothing is static, not even kitties. ;)
There is no way I will ever eat Gulf fish again. Matter of fact, I won't buy it in a resturant or grocery store unless they can verify it's not from the Gulf. Period.
I am stunned that they are acutally allowing shrimp to be pulled out of the Gulf and put on the market. How bout' a tea spoon full of poison with that.
This country is fucked beyond repair.
I will miss the shrimp but I won't eat Gulf produce anymore either.
And I will never, ever,ever buy any fuel from BP again.And my friends won't buy from those criminals either.When I see a BP station.....I keep going.
It is the least I can do.
I will do one better. Selling my truck. No need to go anywhere. I can walk to the store, or ride a bike. Growing my own food, this is the beginning of independence from societys economy. I have my own, get seeded and get your freedom too. A simpler life worth living with less THINGS to get in the way
I agree 100%. neither will I. and i damn well love shrimp. determining its origins is a different story altogether... but i guess if it comes down to it, it will all end up in the drinking water, so really, does it matter ? :(
I will never eat shrimp again, that's for sure. What are the shrimp options? Buying farm-raised shrimp from Asian countries with no environmental laws or from the GoM. Can anyone tell me a region where the shrimp wouldn't be toxic?
+1
My family has sworn off of any store-bought fish as well. Unless I can guarentee where it came from, we're not eating it - that goes for everything.
I didn't trust food processed in China before this fiasco, and I certainly don't want to eat Corexit tainted fish processed in China even more.
If there ever was an event to solidify the local slow food movement - this has been it.
Citxmech
I understand buy local, but what is the "Local Slow Food movement"?
Even local one would prefer U-pick. Sugars turn to starch pretty quickly.
"Slow food" is just a kitchy name for the opposition movement to "fast food." In other words, food produced without resorting to chemical fertilizers, pesticides, unhumane corn-based feedlots, no GMOs, etc.
As you know, the local movement is just what it sounds like: Refraining from buying stuff that's been shipped across half the world and instead looking for locally produced foods. I just combined the two into a logically related single meme. Check out Pollen's book "Omnivores Dillemma" for a good intro into the debate.
American,
Wow - thats what you resort too? Do you see the irony here - the spill affects the Southern US and yet you make fun of a "Southern" name. Oil is lighter than water. The whole notion of underwater plumes or oil on the bottom of the ocean was always nonsense. OF course during the event there was some oil in the water column. And of course at the molecular level some is still there. But is it harmless. The oil is gone. GEt over it
Bubba you are actually in the act of trying to kill yourself right now, but you may not see it. Helping these fuckers get away with it is harming yourself. When the earth is harmed, you are in harm's way. It is all interconnected. If you want to die, I support your right to do that. Please don't take us with you.
MsCreant. thank you for showing up. Many of our regulars posters are gone and its good to see a familiar face
Hey Bubba, would you mind naming the specific 'real scientists' you referred to?? CB
You probably don't realize it, Bubba, but anywhere outside the deep south that name alone gives you less than complete credibility. I'm sure all your buddies think you're clever and hilarious, but that dirty white armless t-shirt and your beer gut ( just guessing, but with high level of confidence) really does complete the picture of an ignorant redneck. As for raving lunatics - takes one to know one. Bubba. ( I'll bet you want to take a swing at someone, don't you? Figures.)
Max,
I didn't mean silly. You are actually idiotic. The GOM is completely different than alaska - mainly because of the water temperature. And the crude was very different as well. Do a little research. And Citxmech - yes I can say conclusively that Simmons was 100% wrong. Clearly there was no other leak - if there was oil would still be all over the gulf.
You've been so busy throwing shit every time you've come here you haven't even figured out how to reply to someone. If there's ever a ZH low-life competition you're a virtual shoo-in.
Using dispersants to get the oil to break up enough to go to the bottom (isn't that where shrimp are?) isn't what i'd call ; no oil left to be cleaned up.
Do you get paid extra for the name calling?
GOM is a special condition aside from Alaska.. Indeed.. quite special..
They've been lying since day 1 and will continue to lie. I would guess they have spent more on maintaining an image through sponsoring adds than they have given to people effected by the spill..
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/08/17/scientists-toxic-oil-settling-on-gulf-floor/
Max,
Yes you are right. Bp made sure that the raving lunatic Simmons never spoke again. I mean cmon. He was completely discrediited. In fact in my opinion he committed serious securities violations by shorting the stock and than making false claims (with information he said he got from inside sources). That was illegal. You realize how asinine you sound right?
Do you get paid on a per-word basis? You sure do like parading your stupid about.
No, actually i don't realize that I am sounding that way.
1. 5-10X the amount of oil spilled in Alaska has been spilled in the GOM.
2. The leak finally stops.
3. Oil is gone, none can be found for clean up.
4. Shrimpers say there is still oil, tells gov officials to stop lying.
5. BP's most outspoken opponent claims 1 trillion will be needed for clean up and that it won't happen.
6. BP's most outspoken opponent found dead.
7. Oil still gone in GOM, gov tells shrimpers to shut up..
Ohhh yeah.. I'm so silly...
Not just 5-10X the amount of oil spilled in Alaska, but starting from 5000 ft below the surface, rising through all the layers of the water...
There are three options regarding Simmons' opinions: Either he was right, he was wrong, or he was partly right on some issues and partly wrong on others.
On what basis do you say that we have conslusive proof regarding the veracity of Mr. Simmons' opinions at this stage?
I hope these loud mouth shrimpers don't have pools in their backyard. If so, I would advise against swimming alone especially if you have a "heart condition".
These shrimpers are "bad for business".. :)
I spoke to an old college buddy from Georgia, his father was a colonal in the Air Force at Warner Robbins during the cold war. Retired to near Panama City Florida. Story being told is allot fo dead fish are washing up. This is the worse enviromental disaster for the lower 48. Bubba don't accuse people of thought crime when you are guilty of it.
GW,
You guys are pathetic. It was because of non thinking people like you that I was able to make money buying APC stock at 36. I currently have no position. Why did I buy the stock? Becuase I did my research. 2 months ago REAL scientists were saying that the Gulf of Mexico is uniquely positioned to deal with oil and that once the well was capped it would quickly clean itself up. The damage of this spill pales in comparison to the dea zones spawned by chemicals dumped in the GOM every day. Why don't you write a story about that?
Strange definition of pathetic.
Why don't you go help yourself to a big serving of corexit-covered shrimp, finished off with a lobster cooked in oil?
Can posters be filtered out?
20x junk, I believe. Keep hammering him.
Hah, I pushed him over 20 on that last one.
Is that really your best argument regarding the current safety of Gulf seafood?
Please name the "real" scientists and referances to their published reports.
We'll all thank BP for black plaguing gulf efforts; soon!! The deepwater drilling was not for oil but for vaults to secure social security funds from the dead head fed goons before it was all raided & porked out!! LOL Think I'll plan my financial future and involve the gov! Then I'll take my food storage out in open containers to the jungle and act surprised; when discovered it's all gone!!
crisis over move on (LOL)
yes I have such faith that we are being told the truth.
guess all those other outlets are telling lies as well. Of course BP has such a stellar reputation of safety who would question them.
There is no way our government officials would lie to us!!!! We live in the greatest country in the universe and can do no wrong. America God's chosen people!!!!!
AMERICA!! Fuck-yeah!
GW,
You lie about the spill - you commit slander against these companies yet we are supposed to believe you? Sorry - I'm not buying it. Either way, any credibility you have is gone - and that is a shame. You were wrong - admit it and move on. This was an extremely minor ecological even and it is over. You shame the memory of the people who lost their lives with your asinine columns.
With a name like bubba I assume you are from Texas. Consequently, you should go to Galveston, Surfside or Freeport beaches and look for oil, the average person won't see it and you sir appear to be average, but there is oil all over every beach I have mentioned, it is in the form of very small particles, about the size of this comma , of which I have used too many in this post. They may be small but there are thousands of pools and puddles with these droplets that will not wash of your hand. and not one mention of the oil in any local paper. Draw your own conclusion. Hint.. corexit
COREXIT 9527 having been replaced by COREXIT 9500 after the former was deemed too toxic.[3] Oil that would normally rise to the surface of the water is broken up by the dispersant into small globules that can then remain suspended in the water. From Wikipedia.
Not too sure of the concensus here at ZH, but I for one think that the US government shall have no authority on all things climate change- including cap & trade, as the approval of the use of corexit (which is so eloquently described above) traps and suspends oil in the water. What do you think will happen when the sun shines on BLACK water all day? Someone should be checking the temp of the ocean over time.
My guess is that the rise in water temp will be spin proof positive that we need to TAX the crap out of businesses.
Every jerk-off with authority associated with this travesty should be made to serve their loved ones water straight from the gulf w/ every meal.
Don't bother. He's clearly here to cast doubt on the issue. He knows damn well the function of Corexit, but conveniently "forgets" this, as it serves his purpose to "forget".
There's a lot of corporate whores out there, and on this website. Bubba's just one of them.
STFU
Slander requires malicious intent. GW seems to be posting quotes from sources and accompanying these reports with his own commentary. It seems that these quotes can be verified. Have you done so?
It's really not clear if you are accusing GW of having invented content and then ascribed it to non-existent sources, or that the sources GW is citing have made bogus statments that would constitute slander in and of themselves, and that GW is vicariously libel by passing them along?
I don't think reporting the libelous words of another constitutes defamation unless it its done with knowing intent. On what basis do you claim that GW has committed an intentional tort?
BTW, I'd also like to know on what basis you claim this was "an extemely minor ecological even[t]?"
Inquiring minds want to know.