Oil Plumes Under Gulf Of Mexico After Spill Are A Toxic Double-Hazard - AP/NOLA.com

[WillyT]

Oil plumes under Gulf of Mexico after spill are a toxic double-hazard
By The Associated Press
May 16, 2010, 1:29PM

<snip>

The hazardous effects of the plume are two-fold. Joye said the oil itself can prove toxic to fish swimming in the sea, while vast amounts of oxygen are also being sucked from the water by microbes that eat oil. Dispersants used to fight the oil are also food for the microbes, speeding up the oxygen depletion.

"So, first you have oily water that may be toxic to certain organisms and also the oxygen issue, so there are two problems here," said Joye, who is working with a group of scientists who discovered the underwater plumes in a recent boat expedition to the Gulf. "This can interrupt the food chain at the lowest level, and will trickle up and certainly impact organisms higher. Whales, dolphins and tuna all depend on lower depths to survive."

She said it could take years or even decades for the ecosystem to recover.

<snip>

Link: http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/oil_plumes_under_gulf_of_mexic.html

:mad:

[aquart]

1. Yet we still don't realize that WE are part of the ecosystem.

[WillyT]

2. Yeah... Mostly The Noxious Part For The Last Couple Of Hundred Years

:shrug:

[RC]

3. That is because we are the most arrogant species.

We believe ourselves to be above the fray and immune from the consequences. We are not, we are the cause of most of it. It may take killing off the oceans to make believers of us. By then it will be too late.
We have a good start in the gulf right now to do just that.

[amborin]

4. knr the toxic dispersants BP used have probably prevented much of the oil from rising to the surfa

so it remains under water...out of sight, out of mind, from BP's standpoint

"The scientists on the Pelican mission, which is backed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the federal agency that monitors the health of the oceans, are not certain why that would be. They say they suspect the heavy use of chemical dispersants, which BP has injected into the stream of oil emerging from the well, may have broken the oil up into droplets too small to rise rapidly.

BP said Saturday at a briefing in Robert, La., that it had resumed undersea application of dispersants, after winning Environmental Protection Agency approval the day before."


WHY is BP allowed to remain in charge of this?