Deepwater Horizon: Two Years On

 
photo credit James H “Rip” Kirby III/Surfrider Foundation

The 20th of April was likely a familiar date in the minds of many of the readers who frequent this blog.  That morning in 2010, an explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig drilling in the Gulf of Mexico that would lead to largest peacetime marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry.  For five months, crude oil poured into the waters of the Gulf.  Approximately 200 million gallons of oil and two million gallons of the controversial dispersant Corexit flowed into the sea, covering everything it touched - be that plants, animals or cleanup workers.

Two years on, what have we learned about the effects of such a large spill?  To be honest - not much.  British Petroleum (BP) has effectively bought up all the researchers in the area.  Scientists who have joined the research program are forbidden to publish, share or speak about their findings for at least three years.  Fingers crossed for some news next year?

Add to that the fact that the $500 million BP promised for 10 years of research in the area has been mostly absent.  A board of 20 people controls the grant money, and only $40 million has been dolled out - local politicians demanding most of it for their respective areas.

Many scientists feel that the lack of action is allowing precious data to slip away.

"Oil is a moving target; with every day of passing time, we get further and further from the acute effects of the oil and it becomes harder and harder to trace those effects," said Ian MacDonald, a biological oceanographer at Florida State University in Tallahassee.

"A number of people are worried that we are going to miss getting out in the field in the strengths and numbers we need to," adds Christopher D'Elia, dean and professor at Louisiana State University's School of the Coast and Environment.

In regards to fisheries, shellfish populations are still suffering severely.

"Has anyone found a successful spring spat set on their leases yet?  Is there any evidence that the long-awaited oyster industry recovery has begun east of the River or in the Barataria Bay area?" asks Mississippi-based oyster expert Ed Cake

Oyster fisherman Nick Collins added that there is nothing but dead shells in the Louisiana oyster beds - something that was also mentioned last year.

Another group of animals that have been highlighted post-spill are dolphins.  The number of beached dolphins after the BP spill - both alive and dead - has far surpassed the normal number of occurrences in a given year.  Many of those found alive have been underweight and suffering from anemia, lung and liver diseases and stress hormone deficiencies.  The particularly scary point to recognise from this is that dolphins are, like us, mammals, and the afflictions they have been exhibiting may reflect what could happen to humans after long-term exposure.

Let's not forget that the oil is - after all - still there.  BP is paying $179 million in tourism promotion and another $82 million in seafood testing and marketing.

"Many Gulf residents think BP just wants to close the book on the disaster.  That's unlikely to happen until the environmental bill is paid, and funds are set aside to restore Gulf ecosystem."

Tar balls are still being periodically reported on the beaches.  Although being supposedly harmless, a study at Auburn University has found them teeming with the bacteria Vibrio vulnificus, which is in the same family as the bacteria that causes cholera.  This is particularly threatening to individuals with compromised immune systems, diabetes or liver disease.

"Whether or not a specific Vibrio vulnificus is pathogenic matters not to the bacteriologist who is determining the relative levels of that bacterium in molluscan shellfish or in growing waters for management purposes, but it will matter to an at at-risk (immuno-compromised) person who should avoid exposure to V. vulnificus including those strains in BP's tar balls since he or she could find out too late that the strain encountered was, in fact, pathogenic--and deadly," says Cake.

The most recent posting I've seen on the BP catastrophe are the photos (also above) and video of Corexit absorbed into human skin.

"Worse, the toxins in this unholy mix of Corexit and crude actually penetrate wet skin faster than dry skin."

Bad news all around, I'm afraid.  Although BP would like you to believe the spill has been successfully cleaned up, the evidence proves otherwise.

"The herring fishery in Prince William Sound is only now beginning to recover - 22 years after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska...The oyster fishery in Mexico's Terminos Lagoon has not fully recovered 32 year after the 1979  Ixtoc-1 oil spill."

Keep that in mind.

Read more:
Lessons from Gulf spill slipping away
No Sign of Oyster Recovery Two Years After BP Oil Spill
BP's Corexit Oil Tar Sponged Up by Human Skin

BP Holds Gulf Spill Assessment ‘Financially Captive’ - Forbes

photo credit Getty Images

Honestly I really don't understand how this is legal, let alone morally sound. Why do we glorify business over everything else? Anyway...

"BP has been able to delay and deny efforts to assess the damage caused by its 2010 oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico because it controls the funding for those efforts, a Louisiana state official told senators today."

Basically, since BP is supplying the money, BP gets to decide what to do with it. Also - and here's the scary part - BP gets to decide when projects like cleanup and restoration are "done" or need "no further action".

BP's To-Do List (or Not-To-Do List...) includes the following: Leaving anchors in the water from oil booms, designating areas effectively "cleaned up", signing off on projects before they begin and delaying reviews and approvals of projects.

Garrett Graves, chairman of Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, thinks that control should be stripped from BP and given to the public:

“I think that equation needs to be flipped over. I think the public needs to be in the driver’s seat. By being able to control the checkbook, you can control what’s in these workplaces, how the assessments are conducted [and] the timelines of the assessments.”

Full article here (Forbes)

Dolphin Deaths: BP Oil Spill may have had Indirect Role, Researcher says - al.com

photo credit Institute for Marine Mammal Studies Gulfport, MS

I know I've mentioned the dramatic increase in dolphin deaths in the Gulf before - particularly young ones. Evidence is building to suggest the BP spill is playing a role.

Both oil and chemical dispersants could have upset the food web enough to prevent pregnant mothers from building up enough blubber to carry healthy young and insulate them from the cold.

"Worthy says 153 bottlenose dolphins have washed up on Gulf coasts since January, including 65 newborn, infants, stillborn or those born prematurely."

Full article here (al.com)

Hands Across the Sand 2011 Summary

It's been a few days since the 25^th when people around the world joined hands in unity against offshore oil drilling, and to be honest I needed to not think about it for a few days.

This year was decidedly less spectacular than last. No doubt the lack of an environmental disaster this spring meant people easily forgot that this was an annual event.

Three people showed up in London - far less than I was expecting given the amount of effort I put into promoting it, the early press we got and the promises from other people saying they would be there. Was I disappointed? Well, yes. How could I not be? But do I regret doing it? Absolutely not. I did my best, and I would regret it more if no one did anything this year in London.

Forty US states and eighteen countries participated this year - a noticeable drop from last year following the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But the cause is still strong. This year in London we talked about what had been done since the spill, and what new information had come out. It's difficult because we're still researching, measuring and analyzing the effects of the spill and we don't really have a good understanding of the environmental implications just yet. We also discussed BP's shady tactics of buying out a number of researchers in the Gulf last summer...We won't be hearing from them for several years still.

I'd like to think this is a lull in the feelings of the people while we are still sorting out this mess, and when new information revealing the true amount of damage is brought forward, there will be more people with outreached hands drawing lines in the sand.

On a personal note, this was the first environmental event I've planned entirely by myself, and it was harder than I expected. Lessons were learned and I have some experience and ideas for the next event...which I'll be mentioning soon!

I'll leave you with our tiny but happy Hands Across the Sand demonstration this year in St James's Park, London:

Hands Across the Sand 2011 Final Call

LAST CHANCE!

TOMORROW Hands Across the Sand comes to a beach (or public area) near YOU. JOIN HANDS if you think it's time to say NO to offshore oil drilling & dirty fossil fuels and YES to clean energy & a sustainable future!

Join me in London at noon and give 15 minutes of your weekend to the planet we all call home.

Find us on:
Hands Across the Sand
Facebook
Gumtree
Craigslist
Twitter
Global Ocean

Hope to see you there!

Hands Across the Sand 2011 Update

image credit Hands Across the Sand

Your local Hands Across the Sand event is happening a week from tomorrow! Get excited!!! (I know I am.)

To find your local event, check the map at the official Hands Across the Sand website, or register your own if there's not one close by! It's not too late!!

If you happen to be in the London area, come on down and join me at St James's Park for a fun, fast & free way to help save the environment and move towards a cleaner energy future. Check us out on Facebook, Gumtree or the official Hands Across the Sand site under "Global Locations". I promise it will be a good time!

Rain or shine, folks. No harm in getting a little wet while protecting our seas.

All welcome. Even YOU. :)

*ahem*
And now, I am please to bring to your attention, a lovely article which contains an interview about our event this year. I'm very happy people are taking notice of this! Click below!

Digital Journal via Alexander Baron, Op-Ed: Hands Across the Sand - To Save the Planet

I'd also like to thank London Against Cetacean Slaughter and Global Ocean for helping to promote this event. Keep fighting the good fight, guys!

One Year Ago - What has Happened since the Gulf Oil Disaster?

photo credit The Associated Press

It's been a busy week. The numerous religious holidays are upon us, but besides that we've had both Earth Day and the one-year anniversary of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. But don't worry - it hasn't gone unnoticed. So for our dear Mother Earth, let's have a look at what exactly is happening one year after the blowout that led to the greatest environmental disaster in US history.

"As the one-year anniversary of the BP oil spill approaches, some scientists have deemed the health of the Gulf of Mexico as 'nearly back to normal,' though countless workers involved in cleaning up the aftermath of the disaster are reporting mysterious and unexplained illnesses."

The people employed by BP and related agencies to clean up the mess in the Gulf have been consistently reporting symptoms such as severe headaches, nausea, respiratory infections, trouble breathing, dizziness, constant cough, rashes and other ailments. Although BP will be quick to tell you there is no definite correlation between these symptoms and working at the cleanup sites - the trend is clear. People are sick.

"During the hot summer cleanup last summer, Andre [a cleanup responder] says planes would fly overhead spraying chemical dispersants that would drift over the workers, burning people’s skin and making it hard to breathe. Andre says he watched workers collapse from exposure to toxic fumes of the oil. Soon, Andre says he succumbed himself and spent days in the hospital with 'tubes and IV coming out of everyplace in my body.'"

To add insult to injury (literally), when Andre tried to ring BP about the $21,000 in medical costs they agreed to pay for, he found the line had been disconnected.

So where does BP stand on its response program? Ask Ken Feinberg, the man put in charge of dolling out the $20 billion set aside for claims against BP:

"The program is working in terms of money going out the door. We're spent! We're paid out! In the last seven months we're approaching $4 billion, including about $1.7 billion for Louisiana."

The people of Louisiana and other Gulf states, however, are not as satisfied. In a meeting with Mr. Feinberg himself, several voices stood out among the crowd:

"You know, Tony Hayward waned his life back, but everybody in this building wants their life back...You say you've paid so many people in Lafourche [Louisiana]? I don't know one of them."

"What about the people, myself included, that's lost everything that they had? Everything that they've worked for, everything that they took pride in? And you can't get no help from nobody, because there is none. Because ya'll tell everybody that everything's fine in the Gulf of Mexico. Don't worry about nothin'. Everything's gonna be back to normal...When in fact, you're sitting there lying to our faces."

"We had the best [shrimp] product in the world - Now we're known as an oil product!"

And talks of expanding offshore drilling are on the rise! Can you believe it?!

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told reporters "Some of the members of Congress are acting as though the Deepwater Horizon well oil spill never happened."

Says David Yarnold, president of the National Audubon Society, "In the wake of the Exxon Valdez spill off Alaska in 1989, lawmakers passed sweeping new laws raising the financial liability of oil companies, expanding cleanup demands and improving the strength of tanker hulls. This time, they’ve done nothing."

So the effects on the human population of the Gulf of Mexico are pretty clear...but are similar things happening to the marine life? The truth is, science doesn't know - and probably won't know for some time - but the people of the Gulf have their own observations.

"This is Dead...This is Dead...This is Dead..." says Nick Collins as he sorts through his oyster catches. "It's the biggest oyster kill in Louisiana history, probably in the Gulf Coast's history...And I wish I wasn't part of it, I wish I wasn't here."

Dead dolphins and turtles have been washing up on the shores in record numbers. Patches of seabed are smothered and dead. Oil continues to wash ashore. And yet it's been difficult to find data on the long-term effects and environmental impacts. LaTosha Brown, Director of the Gulf Coast Fund, describes it as "The Great Gulf-Coast Experiment" - and she's not half wrong.

So what needs to happen that hasn't happened yet?

"First of all, there has to be an acknowledgement that there hasn't been of the severity of the damage to the ecosystems and to the communities that rely on these ecosystems. Then, number two, if that happens, there has to be meaningful, sustained and community-informed response or decision-making about restoring - to the full extent of that impact - what needs to be done. And neither of those two mandates have been met or are really well on their way to being met," says Derrick Evans, Director of Turkey Creek Community Initiatives.

There is still oil in the Gulf. The disaster isn't over. We're beginning to get a clear idea of what is happening to the human life of the area, but it may still take years to understand the full environmental impacts. Don't let a few news articles or commercials tell you everything in the Gulf of Mexico is "back to normal." We are still fighting this battle. The residents are still fighting this battle. The marine life will continue to fight this battle for a very, very long time. Everything is not okay in the Gulf. A year on, and we've still got a hell of a lot of work to do.

More information & articles:
BBC World Service Assignment: Louisiana Deepwater - BP Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill
Gulf Oil Spill Cleanup Workers Report Mysterious Illnesses Year After Disaster - Huffington Post
A Year after the BP Spill, Drilling Discussion on the Rise - Miami Herald
Gulf Tides 12: One Year Later - BP Drilling Disaster - April 20, 2011 - Gulf Restoration Network

Gulf Oil Spill v2.0

photo credit Jerry Moran

And we're back! Blog News on the sidebar for more.

So what happened in the meantime? Well, I'm sure you've all heard by now about the second Gulf oil spill. It's just kind of amazing...the things that go on in this world...

For those late to the party, here's a rundown:

Slicks were sighted via helicopter on 18 March around the same area as the BP Deepwater Horizon drilling site. There were multiple reports of slicks about 100 miles long. It was confirmed on 20 March that the oil was not coming from the Deepwater Horizon site.

"State agents traced back the oil to an Anglo-Suisse well about 30 miles southeast of Grand Isle that had been plugged for permanent abandonment. It's not clear how much oil leaked from the well, but it's surely more than the 5 gallons Anglo-Suisse originally told the Coast Guard had leaked."

According to Anglo-Suisse, the leak has been plugged. However, evidence suggested that oil continued to flow days later.

New oil has been found on Louisiana shores, and cleanup crews still working almost a full year later on the BP spill now have an added burden.

Full articles here:
Oil Spill Reported Near Deepwater Drilling Site in Gulf - Huffington Post
A New Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico—and Insight into the Causes of the Old Spill - Time

Oil-Spill Investigators: 'This was an Entirely Preventable Disaster' - Daily Comet

photo credit USCG

Just the headline breaks my heart.

Deep down I think we all knew it, but now it's proven. We could have avoided this. All of the death of marine life and all of the hardships of the people of the Gulf coast were avoidable.

"BP failed to keep a close watch on work done by the cement contractor at its doomed Macondo oil well, even though an audit had spotlighted problems with the firm, Halliburton Co., three years before the Deepwater Horizon disaster, according to the presidential oil spill commission."

The "root technical cause" of the BP blowout last April was found to be a "failure of the cement that BP and Halliburton pumped to the bottom of the well."

"The commission previously documented concerns about the stability of the nitrogen-injected foam cement used to seal the Macondo well before BP temporarily stopped work at the site. [Well sites are first drilled, then temporarily stopped in order to attach rigs.] A faulty cement job could allow channels or vulnerabilities for natural gas and oil to escape a well during the time between when it is drilled and when it is later hooked up to a production facility.

In 2007, BP commissioned an audit of Halliburton's work on a separate project that concluded the contractor's cement foam slurry had a tendency to become unstable.

'BP's own cementing expert described the "typical Halliburton profile" as "operationally competent and just good enough technically to get by,"' the report said."

Halliburton has not yet accepted the investigation's results.

Halliburton isn't the only one to blame, however. Accountability was spread across all companies involved including BP and Transocean. A combined lack of attention to warning signs, faulty equipment and poor communication caused this terrible disaster - all of which were entirely preventable.

Full article here (Daily Comet)

U.S. Gulf Coast Dolphin Death Toll Rises - Reuters

I haven't written about the spill in a while. Partially because I've been away, and partially because the reporters have been too. It's been almost a year now, and the spill has effectively slid back in the news and is not receiving nearly as much attention as it used to. Of course we all saw this coming, but it's been especially hard to find articles about the science of the spill rather than the business. Besides, Justin Bieber got a new haircut...who CARES about the Gulf Coast?

Anyway.

Dolphins have been dying in large numbers in the Gulf. The remains of 59 dolphins have been recovered from beaches along the coast...and that's not the most heartbreaking part of it. Half of them are babies.

This is about 12 times the normal number of dolphin deaths for this time of year.

"Although none of the carcasses bore outward signs of oil contamination, all were being examined as possible casualties of petrochemicals that fouled the Gulf of Mexico after a BP drilling platform exploded in April 2010, rupturing a wellhead on the sea floor, officials said."

I did read something not so long ago...I believe it was in Leviathan or, The Whale by Philip Hoare (which is a great book by the way), though I can't be sure. Studies have shown that the contamination in adult bottlenosed dolphins along the American coast are so high that most females will lose their first calf due to their own toxicity. Perhaps with the additional contamination the BP oil spill has caused in the Gulf, this statistic is rising even higher? What if no females can give birth to healthy calves this year...then what?

At least 29 of the dead dolphins have been positively identified as bottlenose dolphins.

"The latest wave follows an earlier tally of 89 dead dolphins - virtually all of them adults - reported to have washed ashore in 2010 after the Gulf oil spill.

Results from an examination of those remains, conducted as part of the government's oil spill damage assessment, have not been released, though scientists concluded those dolphins 'died from something environmental during the last year,'" said Blair Mase, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) spokeswoman.

I think it's pretty obvious what they're suggesting.

Full article here (Reuters)

Disaster capitalists: Halliburton to make Money off Oil Spill - The Raw Story

Here's a great question to chew over:

"Does a company that both builds oil rigs and cleans up oil spills have any motivation to prevent oil rig disasters?"

Some say no. When money is to be made either way, "it makes for a very complex decision-making environment that can become problematic," says University of Louisiana professor Robert Gramling.

The recent (as in days before the spill) $240 million purchase of oilfield services company Boots and Coots has some people thinking it was just too much of a coincidence. Could Halliburton have known that something bad was about to happen?

Personally, I'd like to think not...but you make your own decisions:

Full article here (The Raw Story)

Oil Spill Panel: White House Blocked Federal Scientists from Releasing Worst-Case Scenario for Gulf Disaster - Huffington Post

Knew it.

"The Obama administration blocked efforts by government scientists to tell the public just how bad the Gulf oil spill could become and committed other missteps that raised questions about its competence and candor during the crisis, according to a commission appointed by the president to investigate the disaster."

Oh shit, son. Looks like you caught...yourself? Nice one.

Remember when they said most of the oil was gone?

"...The analysis never said it was gone, according to the commission. It said it was dispersed, dissolved or evaporated – meaning it could still be there."

And guess what? It was.

"By initially underestimating the amount of oil flow and then, at the end of the summer, appearing to underestimate the amount of oil remaining in the Gulf, the federal government created the impression that it was either not fully competent to handle the spill or not fully candid with the American people about the scope of the problem," the report says.

You know, this is really the kind of thing that pisses me off. How can it be okay to lie to an entire country about the worst environmental disaster in its history? Why do people think it's alright to do these things? Shouldn't the people who live there KNOW the extent and the dangers that came with the disaster? Yeah, BP; yeah, Obama...you fucked up. But goddamn admit your mistake and tell the truth so we can all figure out what the hell to do about the problem ASAP. I mean really, if you lie about a problem does it go away? No.

Obviously, they're saying this none of this censoring ever happened now.

Grow up. Damn.

Full article here (Huffington Post)

U.S. Establishes New Offshore Guidelines - Calgary Herald

Change is good, but some things will not be changed - like the current moratorium on deepwater offshore drilling. And that's good too.

"There will always be risks associated with deepwater drilling, but we will only lift the suspensions when I am comfortable that we have significantly reduced those risks," U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said.

Even still, the moratorium is due to end next month...and they're trying to end it even earlier. So...I guess we're not really accomplishing anything. The report on the investigation into the cause of the Deepwater Horizon disaster isn't due until December. Personally, I think they should wait to lift the moratorium until then. Doesn't that make more sense? That's probably why they aren't doing it.

Canada's watching the States. They're also working on updating their offshore drilling regulations - particularly in the arctic. A tropical blowout doesn't really apply to drilling in frozen oceans, but Canada's team will be keeping an eye on the developments.

Full article here (Calgary Herald)

Mexico Expected to Sue BP Over Oil Spill in Gulf of Mexico - AOL News

Good. I was wondering when this was gonna happen.

"Three Mexican states, Veracruz, Tamaulipas and Quintana Roo, have already filed claims against BP, citing a similar list of grievances as their American counterparts: damages to fishing and tourism. Now the federal government may be joining that list, at least to reclaim the $35 million that it has spent monitoring the oil, the last remnants of which could hit Mexican shores this month."

Mexico probably knows what it's doing, too. The Ixtoc 1 spill leaked oil onto American shores and caused an international lawsuit in 1979. Mexico, however, claimed sovereign immunity and refused to pay. We'll see how it goes the opposite way.

Full article here (AOL News)

BP sees no 'Gross Negligence' in Gulf Oil Spill: New Chief - AFP

Really?

If the US Justice Department finds that BP is guilty of "gross negligence," fines the company has to pay would be dramatically increased. BP isn't worried. Now, is this because they truly believe they took all necessary precautions? Or is it because they slipped a bit of money into a few pockets when no one was looking? Just asking...

BP is currently working on changing their safety regulations.

""I wouldn't describe it as an admission of anything," Bob Dudley said in an interview posted on the newspaper's website."

Mmmkay. Whatever you say, boss.

Full article here (AFP via Google)

Panel Wants BP Fines to Pay for Gulf Restoration - NY Times

What else was it going to pay for, sheesh? Fines for environmental degradation should pay to restore the environment? What a novel idea!

"In a report to be presented Tuesday in New Orleans, Ray Mabus, the Navy secretary and a former Mississippi governor, will urge Congress to create a Gulf Coast Recovery Fund to oversee the restoration efforts."

Crap, that doesn't already exist? Because I'm pretty sure I gave them $30.

Seriously though, I'm pretty shocked this hasn't come into being sooner. I guess I just assumed that it had, I guess I just assumed that the money paid by the fines would go back into restoring the affected areas...but I guess not.

“The gulf took the risk and the gulf took the damage and the money should be dedicated to going back there,” Mabus said.

This part I thought was interesting:
"The [Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force] will begin the longer-term tasks that the recovery fund is intended to address, with a particular emphasis on public health concerns, including many cases of stress and depression brought on by one of the worst environmental disasters in American history."

Obviously I've been focusing on the environmental impact of the spill - as we should. But I hadn't given much thought to the depression the people in the Gulf states must be feeling. Honestly, I'm depressed about it over here in London, thousands of miles away. I've never even been to the affected areas. I simply can't imagine what it must be like for those people. If it were my home, I'd just fall to pieces.

Here's a dick move if I ever saw one:
"BP has pledged as much as $20 billion to compensate those who lost their property or livelihoods as a result of the spill, but has not committed to gulf restoration projects that go beyond the immediate impact of the spill. Company executives said recently that their willingness to contribute to such work would depend on their continued access to oil and gas beneath the gulf waters."

Oh, okay. They'll help out, as long as they can continue to go after the oil that caused all these problems in the first place. Obviously, they still don't give a shit. Seriously, what happened to common human decency? Why is money the driving force of all things now? Didn't cutting costs and cutting corners lead to the blowout...Twice?

Full article here (NY Times)

Where You Can and Can't Dig at the Beach - BuzzFeed

Alright, so BuzzFeed might be my guilty procrastination pleasure...but sometimes I do find legitimate stuff on there!

Check out this video from ABC News 3 when reporter Dan Thomas tried to build a sandcastle on a Florida beach affected by the BP oil spill.

It's illegal to dig in the sand. Yep. It's illegal to dig in the sand. It's illegal to dig in the sand. Are you serious? Apparently it's also illegal to film in a public park. No home videos, folks. And quit that sand castle nonsense right now.

The federal government has made a law saying BP cleanup workers can't dig more than six inches into the sand...even though in the video you can CLEARLY see oil remains after that depth. They're considering maybe extending that depth to 18 inches. Maybe.
With rules like this, the spill will never be cleaned up. Thanks, Feds.

Video here (BuzzFeed)

Deepwater Horizon: The End of the Beginning - Nature

Ding dong, the well is dead. It's a relief, but it's definitely not over - although people would love to think so. As time has gone on from the day of the explosion, less and less news sources have been covering the event, and it's been difficult to find articles that continued to focus on the environmental tragedies rather than the business ones. But anyway, here we are today. As of 18 September, the well is sealed.

“We can finally announce that the Macondo 252 well is effectively dead,” said the National Incident Commander, Admiral Thad Allen. “Additional regulatory steps will be undertaken but we can now state, definitively, that the Macondo well poses no continuing threat to the Gulf of Mexico.”

No continuing threat - but the oil that's already there will still present a problem for years to come. "The End of the Beginning" is very appropriate.

Full article here (Nature)

The Gulf Spill Cocktail

photo credit Liquor Snob

Is it too soon for this? I had to share.

I found this here while Stumblin' around the web, but it's actually a great marine bio blog too. Here's the recipe:

"GULF SPILL

1.5 Blueberry juice oz
.5 oz Kahlua
.5 oz Chocolate liqueur (I prefer Godiva)
3 Blueberries
Sand colored sugar, like raw or demerara

optional:
Bar spoon chocolate sauce to make extra chocolatey! If you're an addict, and chocolate is your poison, might I suggest CHOCAGAVE. This stuff is amazing and sort of healthy (considering that it is chocolate sauce!)

Rim the glass with sugar that will symbolize sand.
Shake all ingredients over ice and strain into glass.
Float blueberries on top to symbolize dead sea creatures.
Cheers!"

Personally, I think the blueberries look more like tarballs, which is a nice touch.

Will I be trying this? Maybe, if I can afford the ingredients. (hah!)

DeepSeaNews put it best: "Sometimes you have to laugh so you don’t cry."

Link here (Liquor Snob)

Gulf Seafood With a Side of Oil Dispersant? - National Geographic

photo credit Ali Sanderson/Expedition Blue Planet

A short article with a good quote:

""This is the safest seafood in the world. It's like flying after 9-11," remarked the Lafourche Parish President's husband over dinner with Expedition Blue Planet last Friday night. His reasoning: The catch coming into shore here is probably more thoroughly tested than anything being imported into the state."

Full article here (National Geographic)