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Portions of the Gulf are So Toxic that Dolphins, Fish, Crabs, Stingrays and Other Animals are "Trying to Crawl Out of the Water"
On Friday, Inter Press Service reported:
Danny Ross, a commercial fisherman from Biloxi… said he has watched horseshoe crabs trying to crawl out of the water, and other marine life like stingrays and flounder trying to escape the water as well. He believes this is because the water is hypoxic. …
David Wallis, another fisherman from Biloxi… [said] “I’ve seen crabs crawling out of the water in the middle of the day. This is going to be affecting us far into the future.”
This has been a common occurrence since BP started spilling oil into the Gulf.
The Post Chronicle noted on August 12th:
Some
local fishermen say they are seeing strange behavior by marine life --
mullets, crabs and other creatures which normally stay well under water
have been sighted congregating on the surface -- and they relate this
to the spill.
***
"It looks like all of the sea life is trying to get out of the water,"
said Alabama fisherman Stan Fournier. "In the 40 years I have been on
these waters I've never seen anything like this before."
The Advocate-Messenger pointed out on July 31st:
Besides
potentially maintaining higher levels of toxicity, the oil trapped in
the water column is also suffocating the ocean, causing radical drops
in oxygen levels never before seen, [Monty Graham, a biological
oceanographer specializing in plankton at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab on
the coast of Alabama] said.
Following the oil and methane
spill, Graham’s measurements of oxygen levels in the waters where he
studies plankton dropped to two to three times lower than normal, to a
level so low most animals cannot tolerate it.
That
suffocating effect is why all kinds of sea animals have been showing up
in greater and greater numbers, closer and closer to shore — they can’t
breathe in their normal habitats anymore.
And AP wrote in June:
Dolphins
and sharks are showing up in surprisingly shallow water just off the
Florida coast. Mullets, crabs, rays and small fish congregate by the
thousands off an Alabama pier. Birds covered in oil are crawling deep
into marshes, never to be seen again.
Marine scientists studying the effects of the BP disaster are seeing some strange — and troubling — phenomena.
Fish
and other wildlife are fleeing the oil out in the Gulf and clustering
in cleaner waters along the coast. But that is not the hopeful sign it
might appear to be, researchers say.
The animals' presence close
to shore means their usual habitat is badly polluted, and the crowding
could result in mass die-offs as fish run out of oxygen. Also, the
animals could easily get devoured by predators.
"A parallel
would be: Why are the wildlife running to the edge of a forest on fire?
There will be a lot of fish, sharks, turtles trying to get out of this
water they detect is not suitable," said Larry Crowder, a Duke
University marine biologist.
Tragically, when
sea animals crowd into shallow water in an attempt to escape pollution,
they can quickly use up all available oxygen.
As the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection writes:
The
warmer water is the less dissolved oxygen it is able to hold. If the
fish schooled very tightly in shallows very close to shore for any
reason, they may have simply used up all the oxygen that was available
to them and died.”
Update: Bloomberg reports on August 23rd that scientists confirm that this is related to the oil spill:
BP
Plc’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico may be exacerbating a natural
phenomenon that causes fish, crabs, eels and shrimp to swarm the
shoreline to escape oxygen-depleted sea waters.
Called
"jubilees" by locals because of the opportunity to scoop up seafood in
buckets, they typically appear during the summer along the Gulf Coast.
This year, scientists say jubilees have occurred in open water for the
first time, raising concern that low-oxygen areas are expanding because
of the more than 4 million barrels of oil BP’s Macondo well leaked into
the Gulf.
Low oxygen in the water because of oil and methane
from the BP spill contributed to a “jubilee-like effect” in late June
off the coast of Fort Morgan, Alabama, at the mouth of Mobile Bay Monty
Graham, a senior marine scientist at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in
Alabama, said in a telephone interview. Catfish, shrimp, crab and
flounder piled up along an offshore sandbar, until the sharks moved in,
Graham, 45, said.
“Most of us believe it had something to do
with the oil,” said Robert Shipp, 67, chairman of the Marine Sciences
Department at the University of South Alabama. There was a “consensus”
among faculty at the University of South Alabama and the Dauphin Island
Sea Lab that oil played a part in the event, which was “quite
different” from the naturally occurring jubilees in the Gulf’s Mobile
Bay, Shipp said.
***
“Oil residues on the bottom and in
the water columns could exacerbate and make worse this phenomenon,”
Kent Mountford, an environmental historian who has studied estuarine
ecology for 46 years, said in a telephone interview. Mountford, 73,
works for Cove Corp., an environmental consultancy, in Lusby, Maryland.
»
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What’s gone wrong with the world? I can’t even take a bath without 6 or 7 communists jumping in with me.
While I share many's disgust at BP's deplorable behavior; environmental as well ethical and social, what concerns me more is the apparent political manipulation which has been underatken by our government. The very institution pledged to, vested with the responsibility to honestly and openly communicate with the populace, vested with the responsibility of stewardship for the environment has seemingly failed at every moment. How does one separate best efforts (real or promoted) and unreasonable expectations versus simple, basic competence?
Allowing the drilling procedures and equipment which have fallen short of standard, restricting open media coverage, reporting the magnitude of oil "cleaned up" in the face of now, overwhelming conflicting evidence, allowing the massive utilization of dispersant's likely as if not more toxic than the oil itself, further exacerbating nature's own albeit limited ability to clean the damage.
What in God's name are we experiencing here? Words fail me. But I do have a very large pit in my stomach what with the visuals of the poor sea creatures juxtaposed with the loving care and concerns of our elected representatives and the infrastructure for which they are responsible.
Are you talking about the EPA? Because if you don't believe them on the oil spill, why do you believe them on global warming, then? It's all political.
The same thing we have experienced from the beginning of time: a small elite that act in their own interest and without regard for others, their surroundings or the limits of an environment.
As long as we allow a small minority to rule and give them the authority to write laws and maintain standing armies, we will be enslaved. The slavery may have various forms, one type may be preferable to another, but it will be slavery. Our world will be plundered for the benefit of a few. Worse, we will envy their position and dream of being a part.
Humans have to be one of the least intelligent and necessary species on the planet. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if we didn't have 30% of our genetic material tied to bacteria, viruses and fungi that actively work to keep their host alive...
Sean7k
"As long as we allow a small minority to rule and give them the authority to write laws"
Do you know what happens immediately after any revolution? The progressive elements are purged from the power elite. No matter what the ideaology there will always be a few at the top. Those usually have the will to power. They are better at assessing the ebb and flow of their peers. They are the ones fully able to act without fear to move things in a direction they perceive to best to benefit themselves and their vision.
There is no majority rule. We generally call that mob rule.
Your best bet for any type of enlightened policies regarding the genpop is a Benevolent Despot.
Gully,
Do you ever take the time to listen to your comments? You act as if you are some font of wisdom- an unassailable fortress of deliberation. You make assumptions about others and there ideas and often, are full of shit.
I am well aware of what happens after a revolution. One set of elites take over for another set of elites-see the American revolution. It has nothing to do with progressive elements- there are no progressive elements within elite structures, merely those that hope to live off the labor of others.
I am not sure what an ideaology is, but I will guess you mean an ideology. Nor what a will to power is, but I will guess a will to govern. They are without conscience or integrity. As they are sociopaths, their value system allows for the systematic rape of other human beings- even their own families in the pursuit of wealth and power. Often, when coupled with the ability to manipulate situations, they become especially dangerous to society- we call these people politicians, priests and bankers. They act with a singular vision: to enrich themselves at the expense of others, even if their contribution is minimal or insignificant.
If you truly understood Plato and the parable of the "Philosopher King", you would realize the duality was a paradox and therefore an ideal destined to remain unfilled. If you studied further, you would know Plato was a member of the elite that believed they benefited society by providing guidance and wise rule while the people labored as slaves to provide for their lifestyle.
I never suggested revolution, because I see no need. Truly enlightened government is that which governs least. A federal structure that is limited to adjudicating state disagreements and having the power to assemble armies to create a unified defense.
A state government that is limited to the protection of private property and civil rights.
Local governments that conduct the affairs of maximum 25,000 size population groups from perfectly square geographical districts.
Finally, the most power would reside with the individual. The power to include or exclude themselves from any decision as long as it does not infringe the liberty of another.
The next time you choose to condescend to me, rather than provide an opinion, spare yourself the embarrassment- you have neither the intellect nor the education.
It is at times such as this that I do sincerely hope and pray that there is moment in time when men are individually judged for their actions upon this earth. That there is a heaven and hell and that those so complicit in these venal sins against nature and nature's god face that which is surely just, for man's own jurisprudence with respect to matters such as these fall short of fittingly heinous.
I am greatly saddened, as tears come to my eyes, for what we have observed, is evil.
knukles
What we have observed is simple evolution. Any species which decimates it's food source or living space will doom itself to extinction. If it does not evolve to encompass the change.
It always pisses me off that people apply evolution to everything BUT today and Humankind.
What the fuck, did it suspend because we have reached the ultimate rung on the ladder?
Don't think so, it is an ongoing process.
Even the self centered profiteering actions of men can not be considered "evil". Evil is something rarely observed, yet widely proclaimed. Pray to whatever Gods you have that we never see true evil in action.
I couldn't agree more. Of course 'natural selection' implies that a conscious choice is made. I believe that we have to focus our intent and actively choose to evolve. Each of us individually make these choices for ourselves thousands of times every day. Unfortunately, most of the choices we make are not made to keep the evolutionary wheel spinning or for the the betterment of our species, but rather to our own selfish ends. The next time you're about to throw an empty bottle of coca-cola out of your car window onto the freeway, you might ask yourself what that action does to further mankind. It might be an interesting way to self-reflect.
I wonder why we evolved the capacity for selfishness/greed in the first place. It's seems to have over extended any evolutionary necessity it may have had.
BP execs in jail!
A BP jubilee.
I would prefer to introduce them and our emptysuited DCites to hemp.
The government's claim that the oil is gone is Obama's "Mission Accomplished."
+1
Big Banner
Alongside Katrina reaponse time clock.
This is heart breaking.
I'm sure the seafood coming out of the gulf is fine...all is well. Don't worry about toxicity it won't kill you...immediately.
So what! Just reassure me that the gulf and eastern seaboard beaches are oil free and oh so pretty. It's all about the dollar, baby, screw the planet. I heard there are BILLIONS and BILLIONS of planets out there. Lets just move to another one. I love destroying prisitine planets with my SUV. HAHAHA .....ach, mein Fuhrer, a planet gap.
(yawn...)
God lord ...and this is nothing compared to whats coming to the human population......with all the nuclear arsenal in this world....the trigger has been pulled on us a long time back ...we are just the living dead.....remember those ZOMBIE movies
We the sheeple deserve every bit of what's coming to us. We just killed billions in sea life with our hunger to rape and pillage this planet for our luxuries. Mother nature will pay us all back in kind for our atrocities even if we don't nuke ourselves to death first.
terrible... in those Zombie movies, the chicks with the biggest tits and the perfect ass always die first... imagine a world without blond, tight ass D-cup chicks... I'd rather die!
Sudden Debt
Well you may wish to view Hell Comes to Frogtown.
Kind of the opposite problem.
One of Roddy Pipers better films.
Sir, do not let us delay your wish.
That alone makes me wish there was a simple "very funny" flag on these posts. Also I wish Tyler et al., would fix this darn input box. It should never horizontally scroll.
+1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Good one!
Time to go fishing! It would be cool of you George if you also included some gps coordinates where the fish is at this moment :)
GW, you are a gift. This information is not being disclosed in the press in other parts of the country.
Humans have the tendency to act as if they are only ones on the planet. We hardly have compassion for each other, much less the other creatures that populate the earth and populate the chain of life.
We act as if we can sit on the top of the chain and not be toppled when all the links are destroyed below us.
Worse still, we inflict pain and death on innocent creatures- creatures that think, feel, raise families, live in communities and maintain social structures- in other words, creatures very similar to us. If we acted with such cavalier irresponsibility toward humans (and we do of course), we would be convicted of genocide.
We continue to act as the greatest cancer on the earth. A terrible mutation of inexhaustable violence affecting every form of life on the planet. If we were to study ourselves as an organism-we would probably recommend complete destruction with a tightly controlled inventory of material for further study.
We don't need to create bioweapons-we are one.
+1
Communities? If you're referring to the Snorks, I hate to break it to you, but that was just a cartoon...
http://postgrungedrifter.com/wp-content/uploads/224042986_9a362d09cc.jpg
Dolphins live in large complex social units. As they have learned to live in balance with their environment, it would appear they are much smarter than we are. However, I was referring to all creatures.
Just because we don't know how to communicate with other creatures does not mean they do not have intelligence. All creatures manifest the skills necessary for THEIR survival. This would imply differentiation. The use of tools is one mark of intelligence, not the only one or best marker. Humans use it because...surprise we use tools.
Megalomania is a poor marker of intelligence. Just as your obvious insensitivity to the plight of others. I didn't realize just how much you resemble your avatar.
If dolphins had hands with thumbs they would be just like us. It is a human conceit to think that they are better than us - rape is common in the dolphin community, for example.
e1618978
And they gang massacre Porpoises.
dolphins are beautiful creatures, but anyone who claims they are smarter than humans should rephrase that statement to smarter than himself, I'd agree with that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG6b3V2MNxQ&feature=search
yes, loved the latest dolphin symphony, their literature is fabulous too, etc etc
if dolphins had thumbs maybe they would have evolved into more intelligent creatures as we did (well, some of us)
and if pigs had wings ...
so ironic! we thought we were the best/brightest! D'OH!
define intelligence and ask yourself if it's arbitrary. there are different types, you know
Great comments Sean
Darwin would have a field day when he could have seen this!
BP = EVOLUTION
Who would have known!
And if this brings cloudless skies, halving amazon rainfall and turing the gulf states into a desert...? With ordinary people unable to afford anything. This is a collapse in M4 and M5, not a stock market thing. We need to implement smallholder suer-efficient farming modules across nations as of yesterday! What are the brightest minds in finance doing with the money?
Check out Lovelock's latest book. He makes a good argument that we must start building ecological lifeboats, as Earth systems begin transitioning to a hot state.
We'll be no different than the craps, dolphins or sharks rushing to the few lifeboat areas of biogeography still capable of supporting human habitation.
How about putting a high pressure oxygen lines with Mazzi injectors (to produce tiny bubbles) in the bottom of the ocean. The oxygen could help oxygenate the water over time and help the fish? Pumping O3 ozone will create greater reaction and oxygenate the water. If oxygen depletion is the problem, there are solutions and granted that the gulf is a huge area, it will take time. It certainly cannot hurt.
Interesting. That reminds me of the geoengineering proposal out there, to do the same between the higher/lower thermocline as a way to sequester CO2.
DarkAgeAhead
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eScDfYzMEEw
George Carlin!
We’re so self-important. So self-important. Everybody’s going to save something now. “Save the trees, save the bees, save the whales, save those snails.” And the greatest arrogance of all: save the planet. What? Are these fucking people kidding me? Save the planet, we don’t even know how to take care of ourselves yet. We haven’t learned how to care for one another, we’re gonna save the fucking planet?
I’m getting tired of that shit. Tired of that shit. I’m tired of fucking Earth Day, I’m tired of these self-righteous environmentalists, these white, bourgeois liberals who think the only thing wrong with this country is there aren’t enough bicycle paths. People trying to make the world save for their Volvos. Besides, environmentalists don’t give a shit about the planet. They don’t care about the planet. Not in the abstract they don’t. Not in the abstract they don’t. You know what they’re interested in? A clean place to live. Their own habitat. They’re worried that some day in the future, they might be personally inconvenienced. Narrow, unenlightened self-interest doesn’t impress me.
Besides, there is nothing wrong with the planet. Nothing wrong with the planet. The planet is fine. The PEOPLE are fucked. Difference. Difference. The planet is fine. Compared to the people, the planet is doing great. Been here four and a half billion years. Did you ever think about the arithmetic? The planet has been here four and a half billion years. We’ve been here, what, a hundred thousand? Maybe two hundred thousand? And we’ve only been engaged in heavy industry for a little over two hundred years. Two hundred years versus four and a half billion. And we have the CONCEIT to think that somehow we’re a threat? That somehow we’re gonna put in jeopardy this beautiful little blue-green ball that’s just a-floatin’ around the sun?
The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through all kinds of things worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles…hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worlwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages…And we think some plastic bags, and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference? The planet…the planet…the planet isn’t going anywhere. WE ARE!
We’re going away. Pack your shit, folks. We’re going away. And we won’t leave much of a trace, either. Thank God for that. Maybe a little styrofoam. Maybe. A little styrofoam. The planet’ll be here and we’ll be long gone. Just another failed mutation. Just another closed-end biological mistake. An evolutionary cul-de-sac. The planet’ll shake us off like a bad case of fleas. A surface nuisance.
You wanna know how the planet’s doing? Ask those people at Pompeii, who are frozen into position from volcanic ash, how the planet’s doing. You wanna know if the planet’s all right, ask those people in Mexico City or Armenia or a hundred other places buried under thousands of tons of earthquake rubble, if they feel like a threat to the planet this week. Or how about those people in Kilowaia, Hawaii, who built their homes right next to an active volcano, and then wonder why they have lava in the living room.
The planet will be here for a long, long, LONG time after we’re gone, and it will heal itself, it will cleanse itself, ’cause that’s what it does. It’s a self-correcting system. The air and the water will recover, the earth will be renewed, and if it’s true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new pardigm: the earth plus plastic. The earth doesn’t share our prejudice towards plastic. Plastic came out of the earth. The earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn’t know how to make it. Needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old egocentric philosophical question, “Why are we here?” Plastic…asshole.
So, the plastic is here, our job is done, we can be phased out now. And I think that’s begun. Don’t you think that’s already started? I think, to be fair, the planet sees us as a mild threat. Something to be dealt with. And the planet can defend itself in an organized, collective way, the way a beehive or an ant colony can. A collective defense mechanism. The planet will think of something. What would you do if you were the planet? How would you defend yourself against this troublesome, pesky species? Let’s see… Viruses. Viruses might be good. They seem vulnerable to viruses. And, uh…viruses are tricky, always mutating and forming new strains whenever a vaccine is developed. Perhaps, this first virus could be one that compromises the immune system of these creatures. Perhaps a human immunodeficiency virus, making them vulnerable to all sorts of other diseases and infections that might come along. And maybe it could be spread sexually, making them a little reluctant to engage in the act of reproduction.
Well, that’s a poetic note. And it’s a start. And I can dream, can’t I? See I don’t worry about the little things: bees, trees, whales, snails. I think we’re part of a greater wisdom than we will ever understand. A higher order. Call it what you want. Know what I call it? The Big Electron. The Big Electron…whoooa. Whoooa. Whoooa. It doesn’t punish, it doesn’t reward, it doesn’t judge at all. It just is. And so are we. For a little while.
Yep, I love that George Carlin bit. He's right!
That's essentially Lovelock's point. 25% of global CO2 emissions are people simply breathing...
The analogy of dolphins, sharks and sea life fleeing the concentrated oil and dead zones, is essentially what will most likely happen to the human species as climate change worsens.
Lovelock's basically saying 90% of humanity's already f@cked. And...Gaia, his concept for the living Earth and its related systems, She'll be just fine.
DarkAgeAhead
I found a different version with this in the intro.
We're so self-important. So self-important. Everybody's going to save something now. "Save the trees, save the bees, save the whales, save those snails." And the greatest arrogance of all: save the planet. What? Are these fucking people kidding me? Save the planet, we don't even know how to take care of ourselves yet. We haven't learned how to care for one another, we're gonna save the fucking planet?
I'm getting tired of that shit. Tired of that shit. I'm tired of fucking Earth Day, I'm tired of these self-righteous environmentalists, these white, bourgeois liberals who think the only thing wrong with this country is there aren't enough bicycle paths. People trying to make the world save for their Volvos. Besides, environmentalists don't give a shit about the planet. They don't care about the planet. Not in the abstract they don't. Not in the abstract they don't. You know what they're interested in? A clean place to live. Their own habitat. They're worried that some day in the future, they might be personally inconvenienced. Narrow, unenlightened self-interest doesn't impress me.
Awesome, thanks for that alternate version. Most of environmentalism has gone down that road. As examples of Carlin's point, one needs only check out treehugger.com, worldchanging.com, inhabitat.com, etc. to see the self-righteousness and small-mindedness of "leading" environmentalist thought.
The greatest arrogance right now, perhaps, is in the climatologists making policy and proclamations based almost exclusively on abstract computer models that ignore the complexity, nonlinearity and laws of living systems.
In my day to day job, I do my best to break this already broken narrative...and generally never win. Maybe I should just start leading off with George Carlin.
I agree about the planet. She'll be fine, with or without us. I don't think that humans necessarily have to die out though. We can evolve instead, if we so choose. The problem is, most of us chase down couch time in front of the tv instead of looking for ways to better ourselves. We'll see what happens.
Evolve?? Have you read the top half of the comments?
Fortunately, my evolution is not dependant on others. If it was, I would give up right now. It is as impossible for you to evolve as you know it is.
Ah but your evolution does depend on others. Go test your blood and report back with how many industrial chemicals you've got in you. Don't use hospitals or your local gym...you may already be colonized with MRSA. We are inseparable from our surrounding ecology, human and otherwise.
Don't forget your evolution sheeple. Your distant ancestors crawed out of the water millions of years ago. Perhaps that was triggered by......