Dead dolphins wash up on coast; oil's role unclear

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Post Star

Dead dolphins wash up on coast; oil's role unclear
By JANET McCONNAUGHEY and BRIAN SKOLOFF | Posted: Tuesday, May 11, 2010 4:23 pm

Federal wildlife officials are treating the deaths of six dolphins on the Gulf Coast as oil-related even though other factors may be to blame.

Blair Mase (MACE') of the National Marine Fisheries Service said Tuesday that the carcasses have all been found in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama since May 2. Samples have been sent for testing to see whether a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico helped kill the dolphins.

Mase and animal rescue coordinator Michele Kelley in Louisiana said none of the carcasses has obvious signs of oil. Mase also said it's common for dead dolphins to wash up this time of year when they are in shallow waters to calve.

The Associated Press found dolphins swimming and playing in oily waters off Louisiana last week.




Read more: http://poststar.com/news/national/article_1f6dc605-0b17-5d83-a37e-063452468b87.html

[Soylent Brice]

1. well, that sucks.

:(

[TheEuclideanOne]

2. In an unrelated story..... "Man found dead in house after fire burns house down".

However, it is not clear that the housefire killed the man. "People die in their homes all of the time", according to Michele WhatTheFucksky, who indicated that the man's charcoaled body in his burnt down house is probasbly a coincidence. There really is no evidence to show that the man's death had anything to do with the house fire.

[texastoast]

7. ...

:spray:

Bingo.

[ultracase24]

11. That about sums it up

[Grassy Knoll]

13. Love it, Faux logic. HA !

:toast:

[zeemike]

14. You must have studied modern journalism.

Because that is how most stories are written it seems.

[pitohui]

15. you probably think you're making a joke

there was a news item a year or so back in new orleans where a man's body was found in a very bad area of town (new orleans east) burned up in his car

the coroner eventually ruled the guy had a heart attack

yeah, i bet, i'd have a heart attack too if somebody shot the shit out of my car and set it on fire with me in it...but maybe i'm just funny that way...

you have to read between the lines sometimes w. louisiana news

i recently saw a GREAT many, can't count how many, atlantic bottlenose dolphins offshore, before the spill, i am really concerned for them

[Shining Jack]

19. Lol !

Bingo !

[nyc 4 Biden]

34. +100. duzy

[christx30]

37. Coyote found dead at bottom of cliff

Roadrunner's role unclear

[madmax]

39. wow the obvious must kill them. nt

[driver8]

41. File that under "no shit, Sherlock".

Oh no, the oil spill had absolutely NOTHING to do with dead dolphins washing ashore.

[global1]

3. BP Killed Flipper......

how's that for a headline. Take that BP.

[onethatcares]

4. the Associated Press found dolphins swimming and playing in oily waters

last week.

Amazing what can happen in a week. I'll wager the Associated Press could have found people swimming and playing in oily waters off Louisiana two weeks ago.

But what do I know?

[Ruby the Liberal]

5. Maybe the secret chemicals they are dumping on the oil had something to do with it

A full third of the world's supply at their disposal but they can't tell anyone what it is.

:grr:

[intheflow]

6. Yes, dead dolphins always wash up on the coast this time of year.

I'm sure oil pouring in their blow holes and seeping through their skins had nothing whatsoever to do with their deaths.

:grr:

[liberal N proud]

8. "oil's role unclear"? They sure want to play down that likelihood

oil's role unclear my ass!

[gatorboy]

12. No shit.

"We're not sure what oil's role was in these deaths."



"Really? Here you go. have a glass of oil. Fresh from the gulf. Perfectly safe."

"Hey, where you going???"

[w4rma]

9. Everything seems "unclear" when there is a lot of big lobbyists and money at stake. (nt)

[FirstLight]

10. The dispersants are killing wildlife too...don't want to publicize THAT

I swear, it's a toxic mess of oil and chemicals...and ALL of it is deadly to wildlife, and probably humans too.

and nooooooo, nobody (read:BP and Feds) would want THAT on the front page either!


I am sickened by this mess, the casualties are only just beginning to be seen...we will see nothing but death in that part of the country for quite some time to come, I fear.

:cry: :mad: :puke:

gah!

[seafan]

16. Sea turtles, now dolphins.

Dead dolphins wash up on coast; oil's role unclear , May 11, 2010


A pod of Bottle Nose dolphins swim under the oily water of Chandeleur Sound, La., Thursday, May 6, 2010. Oil giant BP PLC's oil rig exploded April 20, in the Gulf of Mexico killing 11 workers. It sank two days later, and oil is still pouring into the gulf.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)



Same thing is happening to the sea turtles. No evidence of oil contamination, but likely exposure to a proprietary mix of dispersal chemicals that BP is dumping into the Gulf of Mexico.



Swimming through patches of oxidizing oil mingling with chemical dispersants used by BP to break up oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill, a sea turtle surfaces to feed this week in the Gulf of Mexico.
(Photo credit NYT)


And BP refuses to state what is in this toxic brew.


The burning question for me, among many, is, how much longer will the US Government allow BP to call the shots for the catastrophe they have created (along with Halliburton, Transocean, Cameron and a few others)?


Reminds me of leaving the Goldman Sachs crew in charge of the Treasury and the bailout after fleecing the country blind.




And, for the record:


As did BP, Halliburton, Transocean also lined Senate coffers, May 11, 2010


Halliburton's biggest recipients: Mary Landrieu, Blanche Lincoln, Evan Bayh, Mark Udall, Max Baucus, Lisa Murkowski, Richard Burr, John Barrasso, James Risch, John McCain, Robert Bennett, Jeff Sessions., Bob Corker, James Inhofe, G. Voinovich, David Vitter, John Barrasso, Mike Crapo, Lamar Alexander

Transocean's recipients: John McCain, David Vitter

[Pavulon]

22. Makes me sick.

Yeah sure aspirating this shit has nothing to do with it. Even though it kills people dead.

We really are a virus.

[seafan]

27. Update: 315,000 gallons of surface dispersant sprayed; unknown amount sprayed deep underwater

Fishermen question use of chemical dispersants in gulf oil spill, May 12, 2010

.....

No one but the Texas-based manufacturer, Nalco Energy Services, knows exactly what's in Corexit 9500, the dispersant BP has been spraying on the slick. The company says it may pose a risk for eye and skin irritations and can cause respiratory problems, but "no toxicity studies have been conducted on this product."

.....

So far, airplanes have sprayed 315,000 gallons across the gulf's surface to control the spill.

On Monday, three Louisiana officials wrote to Tony Hayward, BP's chief executive, expressing "serious concerns about the lack of information related to the use of dispersants." They said they wanted "a BP commitment that the dispersants being used to fight the oil spill will not cause irreparable short term or long term harm to our wetlands, coast, environment, marine life, wildlife or people."

Corexit 9500 has been approved for use by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, although tests indicate it can be stored in the tissue of organisms. More than half of the agent in tests wound up storing in sediment, with less absorbing into the water.

Every time EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has met with fishing groups about the spill, she has faced questions about what effect the chemicals in the dispersants might have on seafood, agency spokeswoman Andora Andy said. For now, she said, the agency is awaiting test results.
"A dispersant doesn't get rid of oil," said George Henderson, a senior scientist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg who is the state's top science adviser on the oil spill. "It just transforms its movement."

.....

"You're making a decision to save your birds at the expense of your larval fish and shellfish population," agreed Henderson. But marine life should be able to bounce back more rapidly, he said.
That's when the dispersants are sprayed on the surface, as their manufacturer recommends. Over the past week, BP has been testing a radical approach, shooting the dispersants at the source of the leaks a mile beneath the surface, even though EPA officials say the effects of underwater use "are still widely unknown."

.....

However, Ferguson could not say how many gallons of dispersant BP has sprayed underwater.

One 2006 study found that oil droplets treated with a chemical dispersant didn't degrade nearly as fast when they were in very cold water — and the water a mile deep is just above freezing.
The shrimpers are worried that using dispersants at such a depth would guarantee that it would spread the oil droplets and dispersant on the sea floor, where shrimp larvae and other organisms could be affected.

There are no federal standards for how much dispersant could be present in seafood consumed by humans, said Nancy Thompson, director of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

.....

Not mentioned in the above article is this crucial fact:


From the NYT, May 5, 2010

.....

What is more, the main dispersants applied so far, from a product line called Corexit, had their approval rescinded in Britain a decade ago because laboratory tests found them harmful to sea life that inhabits rocky shores, like limpets, said Mark Kirby, a scientific adviser to the British government on the testing, use and approval of oil spill treatment options.

So, no one knows what untold long-term damage BP is causing in the food chain, and, ultimately to the public health, in addition to the massive oil hemorrhage itself in the Gulf. And BP sure doesn't want us to find out.


Today, the oil executives pointed fingers at each other on the Hill.

.....

BP was the exploratory well's owner and overall operator, Transocean the rig's owner and Halliburton a subcontractor that was encasing the well pipe in cement before plugging it in anticipation of future production.

.....

Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama grew frustrated grilling the executives on why engineers replaced a heavy "mud" compound in the well with much lighter sea water — thereby reducing downward pressure on the oil — when they were temporarily capping the site for future exploitation. He quoted an oil rig worker saying, "That's when the well came at us, basically."

"I'm not familiar with the individual procedure on that well," BP's McKay said.

Steven Newman, Transocean's president and CEO, and Halliburton executive Tim Probert repeatedly told Sessions they did not know how often sea water instead of the compound was used to seal Gulf wells.

"Well, you do this business, do you not?" the senator demanded. "You're under oath. I'm just asking you a simple question."

New Jersey Democrat Frank Lautenberg remarked in the day's other hearing: "The conclusion that I draw is that nobody assumes the responsibility."

(Lamar McKay, Chairman of BP America) said that a key piece of safety equipment, the aptly named blowout preventer, had failed to work and made it clear it was owned by Transocean. "That was the fail safe in case of an accident," said McKay.

But Transocean's Newman said offshore production projects "begin and end with the operator, in this case BP" and that his company's drilling job was completed three days before the explosion and there's "no reason to believe" the blowout protector mechanics failed.

And Newman wanted senators to know Halliburton was in the process of pouring cement into the pipe to plug it but the final well cap had not yet been put in place.

Halliburton's Probert said his company followed BP's drilling plan, federal regulations and industry practices.

These people should be strung up by their thumbs.

[defendandprotect]

30. "Americans are really smart about really stupid things" ----

That's what a woman from the Bikini Islands said as we prepared to nuke her

homeland --


And we're just as suicidal as ever, it seems!

Rachel Carson forewarned us, but who could imagine exploitation and ignorance on these

levels?


No single human nor group can be accountable for anything like this --

No money can repay the damage nor recreate nature and wild life lost -- nor our futures!


We have to stop judging everything by the yardstick of a dollar bill --

That's the capitalistic way -- everything about exploitation and profit --

Try to eat a dollar bill --

try to plant it --

watch it grow into food --

Drink it --


The dollar bill is a useless distraction -- nature is ALL --

[madmax]

40. Thanks for the reminder

I never read 'Silent Spring', it's way past time. Another book I need to read. TIME! I need more time.

[dixiegrrrrl]

38. Most of those people were on the 2 comittees that held hearings Tues.

What a co-incidence.

[defendandprotect]

42. Sadly fantastic post . . ..

and wondering how all goes with nuclear power plants these day????

:scared:

[L. Coyote]

17. Petroleum products exempt from US worker safety laws

No doubt people die all the time from this loophole.

[femrap]

18. And those 3

ugly rich white assholes sat in front of a Congressional Committee and pointed their teenie weenie dicks at each other trying to point blame on the other.

I'm sick of. These boyz should be in jail. That dude from BP really did look like a f*cking lizard. Maybe the :tinfoilhat: folks are right...there are Reptilian folks who have infiltrated us????

This is a complete disaster. The muck will get in the currents and FL seacoast will be gone. Hell, our oceans will be gone. Diaspora will begin...

I hate greedy, stupid white boyz.

[Bryn]

20. Perfect!!!

You're so right! Such ugleeeee rich white assholes!!

We will make them pay somehow someway.

I am so heartsick about the ocean and marine animals and wildlife (birds, etc). x(

[Kadie]

21. .

:(

[Sailing]

23. We need Fa and Bea...

to go yell a few obscenities at the oil executives.

(Apologies to those too young to remember the movie "Day of the Dolphin")

[awoke_in_2003]

24. drill, baby, drill

:sarcasm:

[Phoonzang]

25. Everything that washes up dead on the coast isn't because of the oil.

If there's no sign that it was the oil...why think that it was the oil?

[OhioBlue]

26. well, oil spill and multiples of species

washing up dead... kind of makes you connect the dots. I understand what you're saying - sometimes animals die.. and wash up... and a scientist would probably want to wait for tests to make an absolute diagnosis.. even if they greatly suspect it is the oil spill or toxic soup of chemicals being poured in to disperse it.

[defendandprotect]

43. ... because we have brains and common sense?

[defendandprotect]

28. Hmmmm . . . What would the chances be . . . ???

Meanwhile, is there any way that people on the coast are trying to prepare --

Is there anything they could do if they wanted to?

[DimplesinMI]

29. Well, how much longer.........

Are the Powers that be going to ignore the damage this toxic oil is doing to the ocean wildlife. The poor, poor dolphins. Harmless animals of the oceans that are being damaged from a Man-Made event.

[Chisox08]

31. The role of the oil is unclear

It was either the oil or the chemicals that they are dumping in the water so that we can not see the amount of oil in the ocean

[lonestarnot]

32. It's unclear alright, black sticky fucking balls of gue. What can live in that?

Anything but clear!

[flamingdem]

33. Scientists say dolphins should be treated as 'non-human persons' .. so MANSLAUGHTER nt

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/article6973994.ece

Dolphins have been declared the world’s second most intelligent creatures after humans, with scientists suggesting they are so bright that they should be treated as “non-human persons”.

Studies into dolphin behaviour have highlighted how similar their communications are to those of humans and that they are brighter than chimpanzees. These have been backed up by anatomical research showing that dolphin brains have many key features associated with high intelligence.

The researchers argue that their work shows it is morally unacceptable to keep such intelligent animals in amusement parks or to kill them for food or by accident when fishing. Some 300,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises die in this way each year.

“Many dolphin brains are larger than our own and second in mass only to the human brain when corrected for body size,” said Lori Marino, a zoologist at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, who has used magnetic resonance imaging scans to map the brains of dolphin species and compare them with those of primates.

[glowing]

35. If its not the oil that gets them, it will be the chemical dispersant.

[Nihil]

36. ... or the plastic pollution ... or the Japanese fishing fleet ...

:-(

[glowing]

45. Or the climate change.. or habitat degredation... or basically man playing God.

[truthisfreedom]

44. We'll know soon enough if it's the oil.

If there's a drastic increase in the total number of dead sea creatures, we'll know if the oil is involved. Like we don't know already, duhh.

[lovely]

46. Oil's role unclear?

Are they serious?