Mother of all gushers - BP Oil Disaster in Gulf of Mexico

[treesparrow]

Is this what you call 'back to normal?': Day after scientists hail recovery of Gulf Coast, new pictures show the real damage

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1378679/Is-normal--Day-scientists-hail-recovery-Gulf-Coast-BP-oil-spill-pictures-real-damage.html

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No real big surprise here. Thought I'd post article just for the record.

[c.a.]

This comes to no surprise of the sub human activity's and malfunctions in history.  For those whom became aware of the corruption and made a valiant effort to blow the whistle of the truth of the matter in the gulf, it appears they paid with there lives, sadly to say.

The list seems to be growing and is typical of those that continue to suppress the Truth with the lies, with murder.  One can only speculate, and imagine this activity only implicates those at the very top of the failure to up hold the duties and the pledge to guard against, protect the people of the nation, and the world, from Corporate terrorist activity.

Transparency?.......Redrum.................Fail.

Dead, Missing, Jailed – BP Whistle Blowers: Submitted by Lois Rain on May 2, 2011 – 3:12 pm
http://healthfreedoms.org/2011/05/02/dead-missing-jailed-bp-whistle-blowers/

Over the course of the past year, you’ve most likely come across strange stories regarding the tragic fates of those connected with the BP oil disaster. When compiled, the stories are all together shocking and disturbing. Is it possible that the nine deaths and others affected who were involved in different areas of disaster knowledge are just random coincidences? Check into the details and decide for yourself.

Of the 12 high profile people in question, 9 are mysteriously dead, 1 nearly died in a brutal assassination attempt, 1 is imprisoned under questionable charges, and another has simply disappeared. You can watch a video tutorial of the cases while you read the segments. Below that, you can follow the links to all the cases.

Not all of the people listed are directly related to the disaster, however, they are high profile truth tellers with different areas of expertise. Statistically speaking, it is unlikely that this many experts and activists would suddenly wind up dead within a year of the disaster. It is suspected that those who were indirectly connected with the event, may have had more knowledge or pull than originally thought.

If you know of any others, or updates in the current cases, please send them, along with a source to tips@healthfreedoms.org.

~Health Freedoms

April 2, 2011 –

Tucker Mendoza, gulf truth activist, still recovering, along with his niece. Shot four times through his front door, niece hit twice. Anyone with information regarding this shooting incident should call St. John the Baptist Parish Detectives at 985-359-8769 or Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111.

February 17, 2011 –

LSU scientist Gregory Stone, 54 – Died of Unknown Illness. Stone was an oft-quoted expert concerning the damage the leaked oil might cause to the coast

January 26, 2011 –

Anthony Nicholas Tremonte, age 31 – Mississippi Department of Marine Resources officer, from Ocean Springs arrested on child porn charge

January 19, 2011 –

Dr. Thomas B. Manton, former President and CEO of the International Oil Spill Control Corporation – imprisonment and subsequent murder while jailed.

November 15, 2010 –

Chitra Chaunhan, age 33, worked in the USF Center for Biological Defense and Global Health Infectious Disease Research – Found dead in an apparent suicide by cyanide at a Temple Terrace hotel. She leaves behind a husband and a young child

.

Continued for the complete listing, from the link above.

The Mysterious Deaths of Nine Gulf Oil Spill Whistleblowers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFfkd1NYtkk&feature=player_embedded#at=11

[Lilou]

It is definitely suspicious!  It reminds me of all the dead microbiologists during the early days of the gulf war.

[treesparrow]

USF study finds more sick fish in oil spill area than rest of Gulf of Mexico

By Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer

Craig PittmanTampa Bay Times In Print: Saturday, January 14, 2012



A USF survey of the Gulf of Mexico last summer found more sick fish in the area of the 2010 oil spill than in other areas. The dots show areas where fish with skin lesions were found

A government-funded survey of the entire Gulf of Mexico last summer found more sick fish in the area of the 2010 oil spill than anywhere else, according to the top University of South Florida scientist in charge of the project.

"The area that has the highest frequency of fish diseases is the area where the oil spill was," said Steve Murawski, an oceanographer who previously served as the chief fisheries scientist of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.

That doesn't necessarily mean the red snapper and other fish with nasty skin lesions were victims of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, he said. That same area has lots of oil rigs, leaky pipelines and even natural oil vents in the sea floor that could be the source of any contamination that has affected the fish.

"Even if the disease is from oil," he said, "it's another step to show it's from the oil spill."

But the USF findings, announced at a scientific conference this month, have been hailed as a big step forward by researchers from other institutions pursuing similar studies.

"We still are seeing sick fish offshore and the USF survey confirmed our findings of 2 to 5 percent of red snapper being affected," James Cowan, an oceanography professor at Louisiana State University, said in an email to the Tampa Bay Times.

In addition, Cowan said, laboratory studies of those sick fish "are beginning to trickle out that show that chronic exposure to oil and dispersant causes everything from impacts to the genome to compromised immune systems. Similar findings … are being found in shrimps and crabs in the same locations."

While Murawski is cautious about saying there's a connection, Cowan, who has been studying fish in the gulf for 25 years, said, "I absolutely believe these things are connected to the spill."

There are signs the lesions may be spreading. According to Will Patterson of the University of South Alabama, "they're now showing up in fish being caught in the surf here in Alabama." Patterson said he plans to do some scientific sampling of the surf fish this coming week.

The USF scientists plan a second survey of the gulf next month, and also plan to check whether the sick fish they have caught suffer from immune system and fertility problems. Their goal, according to Ernst Peebles, another USF scientist working on the study, is to be able to report something definite by April 20, the second anniversary of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion.

One problem with the USF study, though, is that nobody made a similar gulf-wide survey of fish health prior to the disaster, Peebles and Murawski said. Without a baseline study, it's hard to say what's normal.

They have found more sick fish than what they would expect based on previous studies, Peebles said, but the earlier studies took place in colder waters.

However, what started the investigation were reports from longtime commercial fishermen that they were pulling in fish with skin problems like they'd never seen before.

The Deepwater Horizon rig explosion killed 11 workers. Two days later oil began spewing from a pipe a mile beneath the surface, and BP and its partners were not able to stop it until July.

Before BP could cap the well, 5 million barrels of oil gushed into the gulf. The company sprayed 1.8 million gallons of chemical dispersant to prevent it from reaching shore, but 2.5 million pounds of it washed up on Florida's beaches and in its marshes. Cleanup crews are still picking up tar balls from the beaches of Alabama and Mississippi.

In late 2010 and early 2011, fishermen working the area the spill had covered reported finding red snapper and sheepshead with lesions, fin rot and parasite infections. On some of them, the lesions had eaten a hole straight through to the muscle tissue.

A few fishermen brought their suspect catch to scientists. When the scientists cut them open, they found the fish also had enlarged livers, gallbladders, and bile ducts — indications their immune systems may have been compromised by oil.

So last summer, with funding from NOAA and cooperation from the state's marine science laboratory in St. Petersburg, the USF scientists chartered fishing boats from Madeira Beach and Panama City and set out to cover the entire gulf. They dropped their lines about 600 feet deep — the spill began at 5,400 feet — and caught about 4,000 fish.

Southern Offshore Fisheries Association president Bob Spaeth helped set up the voyage, and wasn't surprised by its results.

His big worry is not that a percentage of the fish got sick, he said, but that the size of the fish population may have been reduced. That could lead federal regulators to reduce how many fish they're allowed to catch. "If you reduce our quota," he said, "we'll be out of business."

In the meantime, there have been other signs something unusual might be going on in the northern part of the gulf. More than 600 dolphins have stranded along the gulf beaches over the past two years, which in some areas is 10 times more than normal, according to NOAA scientist Erin Fougeres. So far 10 have tested positive for a bacterial infection called Brucella, which the scientists believe may be a sign that the oil spill harmed the dolphins' immune system.

The USF survey included some disquieting results for Florida anglers who think they don't have to worry about the northern gulf where the spill occurred. Peebles' lab examined the ear bones of the fish caught in the gulf, because those bones contain clues to the fish's life.

"I see fish caught off this coast," Peebles said, "who spent the early part of their lives up there."

http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/wildlife/usf-study-finds-more-sick-fish-in-oil-spill-area-than-rest-of-gulf-of/1210495

[treesparrow]

Dozens of dead marine mammals, turtles in Gulf this year, NOAA says

Published: Monday, February 27, 2012, 9:00 AM

 By Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune The Times-Picayune

Reports of dozens of stranded dolphins, whales, and sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico continue to pile up in the first two months of 2012, with federal officials tallying 48 marine mammals, mostly dolphins, and 87 sea turtles. Only a handful of marine mammal strandings were of live animals that may have been saved. None of the turtles were alive.

There continues to be concern that the high numbers of dead animals, especially the dolphins and whales, may be linked in some way to health problems either caused or exacerbated by toxic chemicals left behind by the BP Gulf oil spill.

The new tally comes as BP prepares to defend itself in federal court against charges it violated the Oil Pollution Act and the Clean Water Act.

In October, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists announced that tests on five of 21 bottlenose dolphins found dead in Louisiana waters or stranded on beaches since February 2010 showed they were infected with brucellosis, a bacterial infection more often linked to death of cattle, bison and elk in the United States.

But the researchers said it was still unclear whether the spilled oil played a role in the deaths by making the animals more susceptible to the marine strain of the Brucella bacteria, which caused the brucellosis.

There's more evidence that a number of this year's turtle deaths are the result of other causes, especially from being hit by boat propellers or caught in nets or tangled in fishing line.

NOAA Fisheries' Office of Protected Resources has reported 660 marine mammal strandings in the Gulf, including dolphins and whales, since Feb. 1, 2010, which it cites as the beginning of this most recent three-year stranding incident in the Gulf.

But the statistics also show that the number of marine mammal strandings has increased dramatically since the spill. There were 114 strandings between Feb. 1 and April 29, 2010, which was considered to be prior to the response phase of the spill.

Between April 30 and Nov. 2, considered the initial response phase when the most oil was known to be in the water, there were 122 strandings or animals reported dead offshore. Since Nov. 3, 2010, there have been 424 marine mammal strandings.

State officials last week said the most recent statistics may not include two dead dolphins and one turtle that washed up in Louisiana last week with visible signs of oil on them.

Although researchers admit statistics involving strandings before the past two years are less than complete, NOAA has documented an average of about 70 marine mammal strandings a year between 2002 and 2009, much smaller than the numbers recorded during the last three years.

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2012/02/dozens_of_dead_marine_mammals.html

[treesparrow]

Baby Dolphin Die-Offs Continue in the Gulf



An unusually high number of dead dolphins - including stillborn and infant calves - have washed up along the Gulf of Mexico shores in the two years since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded into flames, unleashing tens of thousands of barrels of oil into the ocean.

More than 100 dolphin strandings already this year add to a pattern of death and disease among the marine mammals. In a normal year before the spill, about 74 strandings would be reported in the area. That number has increased eightfold in the past two years. Since February 2010, more than 600 have been found on the shores between the Louisiana-Texas border and the western coast of Florida.

And many of these dolphins have serious health problems -- lung disease, liver problems and low blood sugar -- according to autopsies on the animals and other research.

Scientists suspect oil as a major culprit, but linking the spill definitively with the dolphin die-offs has been tricky. Decomposition causes tissue to decay, making the animals difficult to study.

"In all of the dolphin deaths... only 17 percent are stranded alive or stranded in fresh-dead conditions," said Jenny Litz, a research fishery biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who is studying the die-offs. Decomposition makes it much harder to study tissues during a necropsy (A necropsy is the animal equivalent of an autopsy).

There's another fact that complicates the picture. The number of deaths began to rise in March 2010, shortly before the spill. After the spill, the number continued to climb, and the period since represents the longest-lasting dolphin die-off in the Gulf of Mexico, at 25 consecutive months. But the increase just before the spill suggests that other factors may also play a role, such as ocean pollution, or a disease some animals tested positive for called brucellosis, a bacterial infection not typically associated with mass dolphin death. This complicates both investigation into the strandings as well as an impending litigation against BP, Litz said.

Still, it certainly appears that oil is at least partly to blame, Michael Jasny, Senior Policy Analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said.

"It's circumstantial evidence, but it's still very, very strong," he said. "The highest number of dolphin strandings have occurred in areas hit hardest by exposure to BP oil."

Historically, dolphin strandings peak between February and May, which is prime calving season. Consider some of these numbers from before and after the spill:

The average number of infant dolphin deaths or stillborns before 2010 was about 14. In 2010, that number jumped to 29. The following year saw 86 dolphins that were either premature, stillborn or stranded infants. Now that it's peak calving season, that number is once again on the rise.

"It's really quite astonishing," said Jasny. "It suggests that something is deeply wrong with fetal or maternal health."

Toxic compounds ingested by dolphins in oil-contaminated water could contribute to the rise in stillbirths, he said.

"Dolphins live very high on the food chain," Jasny added. "Fish are eating smaller fish, and smaller fish are eating plankton. All of those toxins work their way through each of these organisms in the food chain. So it's a bioaccumulation in the tissues of the top-feeders--dolphins."

But Litz maintains that it's still too soon to tell just what effect oil might be having on dolphin babies in the Gulf, stressing that in most populations, there is a higher mortality rate around birth.

While much of the NOAA-led investigation under the Natural Resource Damage Assessment process is ongoing, scientists are studying the effects oil in the water can have on dolphins.

Randall Wells, director of the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program at Mote Marine Laboratory, compared sick or stranded dolphins in Barataria Bay, an area off the coast of Louisiana that was heavily affected by the oil spill, with a healthy population of bottlenose dolphins in Sarasota Bay, an oil-free area.

"Prior to this, there were studies that show dolphins probably can detect oil in the water," Wells said. "Under most circumstances, they mostly avoid it." But, he adds, that would happen only if the dolphins have had previous experience with oil in their environment. "Even if they can detect it, they might not have known to avoid it."

In addition to lung disease and liver problems, Wells and his team found that many of the dolphins were anemic and suffering from low blood sugar and low stress hormones.

He pointed to continuous pollution in the Gulf of Mexico, rather than just the BP oil spill in particular, as a contributing factor to the deteriorating health of these marine mammals.

The nation's track record with the environment and fragile coastlines needs to change, Jasny said: "There are clear lessons to be learned from what is happening in the Gulf. It is obscene that we are not learning them."

I know scientists have to be cautious before reaching any conclusions about what's causing an increase in the die off rate in such an event as this, but I do wish they would just sometimes bloody well call a spade, a spade.

[treesparrow]

I suppose this discovery of contaminated migratory birds a long way from the gulf was inevitable and no big suprise really.

Gulf oil spill pollutants found in pelicans migrating to Minnesota

By Dan Gunderson
Minnesota Public Radio

Pollutants from the British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico two years ago are showing up in Minnesota birds that migrate to the gulf.

Researchers for the state Department of Natural Resources have found evidence of petroleum compounds and the chemical used to clean up the oil in the eggs of pelicans nesting in Minnesota, Minnesota Public Radio reports.

Scientists are looking for pollutants on a western Minnesota lake that is home to the largest colony of American white pelicans in North America. About 34,000 adult pelicans will raise some 17,000 chicks this year on islands in Marsh Lake.

The area is a perfect place to look for oil spill effects. Most of the birds spend winters in the Gulf of Mexico, from Cuba to
Texas. Young pelicans spend a full year on the gulf before they start breeding.

Pollutants inside the eggs could be a big problem, said Mark Clark, an ecologist at North Dakota State University who studies pelican eggs. Clark is helping DNR researchers look for oil-related contaminants.

"Even if they're present in small amounts they may have a large impact on the development (of pelican chicks)," he said.

As Clark and researcher Jeff Dimatteo stepped from a boat onto the largest island, thousands of gulls that also nest there protested the intrusion.

The scientists stepped cautiously among the pelican, gull and cormorant nests that cover the ground.

"The first question is, 'Well, are the contaminants there?' and the next step
is, 'What do they do?' " Clark said.

Scientists are most concerned about polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons known to cause cancer and birth defects in animals. The other contaminant they're testing for is Corexit, a dispersant used to break up oil slicks on the water that according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency contains cancer-causing chemicals and endocrine-disrupting compounds. Endocrine disruptors can disrupt the hormone balance and affect embryo development.

Clark has collected dozens of unhatched eggs to be tested for petroleum compounds and the chemical dispersant used to break up oil slicks.

Pelicans are big birds -- a bit larger than a Canada goose. They grudgingly fly off their nests at the researchers' approach, exposing eggs or recently hatched naked chicks.

The parents watch carefully from a distance as Dimatteo, a graduate student at North Dakota State University, locates chicks he had tagged earlier that he is tracking. After he measures and weighs them, the scientists quickly gather their data and leave. The birds grunt and grumble as they settle back on the nests.

If pelicans are bothered too much, they've been known to abandon colonies.

Clark said very little research has been done on how petroleum affects developing bird embryos. Scientists don't yet know how the effects might show up in newly hatched birds.

But he said tiny amounts of specialized hormones guide the chick's development in the egg, so there's a good chance adding pollutants to the eggs will increase the risk of damage to the embryos.

"Any contaminant that makes its way into the bird could be bad, but it could be especially bad if it gets into the egg because that's where the developing embryo and chick starts," Clark said. "And when things go wrong at that stage there's usually no recovery."

Researchers are a long way from understanding the potential effect of the oil spill pollutants as they have received only the first preliminary results of lab tests.

Petroleum compounds were present in 90 percent of the first batch of eggs tested. Nearly 80 percent of the eggs contained the chemical dispersant used in the gulf.

"This high percentage really surprised me," said Carroll Henderson, the DNR's Nongame Wildlife Program supervisor.

Henderson cautions that the results are still too preliminary to draw any conclusions as there are no tests of eggs before the spill to compare them to. But he said the results raise a lot of questions.

"I think it gives us a real heads-up here that we may have created a very vital study," he said. "I'm not aware of any other Northern states that are looking at the impact of the gulf oil spill on migratory birds."

Henderson said results are back on 30 of 220 eggs submitted to a lab in Connecticut. The DNR has no results yet on loon eggs or tissue samples from adult loons sent to the lab. Those lab tests will be completed over the next several months, and more samples will be submitted to the lab this summer.

The project is funded through 2014 by a $250,000 grant from the state Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund, generated by the state lottery.

DNR officials are asking Minnesotans to notify them of any dead loons so researchers can test the remains.

Researchers will return to the pelican colony, monitoring the success of each year's hatch. They know very little about how petroleum might affect the young birds and it will likely take at least five years to find answers. But so far, there is only enough state money for three years of research.

http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_20644540/bp-oil-spill-chemicals-found-minnesota-birds

[LQB]

Thanks for the update treesparrow     - at least they spend time away from the Gulf.