It’s Official: Huge Area of the Gulf Has Been Turned Into A Massive Dead Zone By The BP Gulf Oil Spill
Posted by Alexander Higgins - July 12, 2010 at 2:37 am - Permalink - Source via Alexander Higgins Blog
Loading ...I recently wrote an article about the millions of dead fish float ashore during a massive exodus of deep sea life to the coast to avoid the BP Gulf Oil Spill.
In that article scientists speculated that the fish were migrating to shallow waters to avoid oxygen depleted waters otherwise know as “dead zones” where no life can live.
I then called out the press for labeling the exodus of sea life as “strange” and “unusual”.
It seems that Government, and at points the media, is just as happy to mindlessly echo the massive campaign of disinformation being dished out by BP as if it were absolute fact.
That would signify that it is time to change gears and go after the press for continuing to disservice the public by publishing BP’s lip service.
The press needs to be held to standard of journalistic integrity that scolds them for publishing information released by BP without vetting that information first.
In my last post, Sea Life Flocks To Coast To Avoid The BP Gulf Oil Spill As Millions of Dead Fish Float Ashore, I did just that.
In that post the Associated Press labeled the mass exodus of deep sea life swarming to clean shallow coastal waters in order to avoid the oil, methane and toxic dispersants as both strange and unusual.
I find nothing strange or unusual about helpless sea life fleeing toxic waters in order to survive.
Now we have the the latest round of lies coming from BP.
They are denying the existence of plumes of methane that scientists are now finding all over the Gulf of Mexico in concentrations up to 10,000 times higher than normal.
The headlines currently in the press about these methane plumes are smack full of the same story line that was floating around in the media when scientists first reported that they discovered the underwater plumes of oil which where unsurprisingly denied by both BP and the Federal Government.
You can see some shocking photos of the sea life that couldn’t escape the BP Gulf oil spill here.
Discovery News is now reporting that scientists have confirmed a massive dead zone, covering over 1,600 square miles, has been created off the coast of Alabama and they are pointing their fingers at the BP Gulf Oil Spill as the culprit.
Dead Zone in Gulf Linked to Oil
Oxygen-starved waters that have persisted for more than a month in the Gulf of Mexico are likely due to the BP oil spill, researchers say.
THE GIST
- A zone of low oxygen has persisted for more than a month off the coast of Alabama.
- Wildlife that can move has left. Plankton in the low-oxygen zones has died.
- The long-term effects are uncertain. [In deep waters it could last for decades]
An unusual low oxygen zone in Gulf of Mexico waters off the Alabama shore has persisted for more than a month, and evidence points to the ongoing Deepwater Horizon oil spill as the cause.
Oil spills can deplete oxygen in water by providing a source of food to microbes that grow on oil and consume oxygen in the process.
Researchers can’t say how low oxygen levels will affect the region’s ecosystem in the long term, but for now, most animals that can swim away have left the area. Plankton in the zone have died.
The researchers measured low oxygen levels along the entire 40-mile stretch they sampled around Dauphin Island, Ala., from about 40 miles offshore to within a mile or two of the shoreline. The bottom layer of water was oxygen-depleted at depths of about 30 feet close to shore to 100 feet further out, along the continental shelf — a rim of shallow water tracing the coast from Mississippi to Florida.
“It’s not little local pockets,” said Monty Graham of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, who is tracking the zone. “It’s over a regional scale. It wouldn’t surprise me if there were a band of low oxygen over that entire area between the Mississippi River and Apalachicola, Florida.”
“The low oxygen was pushing up very close to the shore,” he added.
…
Now the researchers have more evidence suggesting the rivers are an unlikely culprit. The low oxygen levels have persisted past the time of the seasonal freshwater surge into the Gulf; the zone is larger than would be expected from river-borne nutrients; and the low-oxygen waters seem to be arriving via a tongue of cold water that has pushed up from offshore carrying elevated levels of methane, Graham said.
The team is still waiting for test results measuring oil levels in the oxygen-depleted waters, which would help pinpoint oil as the cause.
Long-term effects are uncertain. “I don’t think anybody can predict anything with confidence about what the ecosystem will do,” Graham said.
The good news is that the shallow waters turn over relatively quickly, so once the spill is stopped, oxygen levels should rise. In deeper waters, where researchers have measured decreased oxygen levels, it might be a different story.
“The effects off the shelf might be longer,” Graham said. “If you drive the oxygen down at 1200 meters (3600 feet), there is nothing to replace that oxygen rapidly. You might see a low oxygen signature for years, maybe even decades.”
Based on the description in the article I marked off the confirmed dead zone on the map below in red.
The area in purple is where Monty Graham, a scientist from the Dauphin Island Sea Lab who is tracking the dead zone, says the current dead zone could possibly extend.
The lighter blue area is the intercontinental shelf where Graham says the bottom layer of water was oxygen-depleted in the areas that have been tested.
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Grace Forman. Grace Forman said: RT @kr3at: It's Official: Huge Area of the Gulf Has Been Turned Into A Massive Dead Zone By The BP Gulf Oil Spill http://bit.ly/cnZDci [...]
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[...] the rest of this great post here Comments (0) Posted in BP News [...]
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This would indicate that the oil and organic dispersants are in fact being eaten by microbes. The problem is the oxygen supply itself.
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If there is sufficient oxygen to support microbes than something else is killing all the sea-life. That something else would be toxins.
No microbe could survive the same toxins lethal to sea-life.
"Dead" means the inability to support life.
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Add the incalculable tonnage of dead sea life and the sulfides their bodies are producing to the toxic soup of the Gulf.
A copy here of a related article which will be a big surprise to Gov., denied by BP, not carried on main stream news and even if it was, would be forgotten tomorrow.
——————————————–
Gulf of Mexico feeds Florida Aquifers; Tests show 50% of public water under 10 years old and “vulnerable to contamination”
By oilflorida, on July 12th, 2010
tagline: Saltwater can seep into the underground aquifers as “water from the Gulf of Mexico is pulled inland
——————————————
Millions of lives remain at risk of toxicity if the oil and dispersants seep into the groundwater and aquifers.
An aquifer is a water-bearing layer of rock, sediment or soil. While Florida is best known for its sunshine and beaches, its Floridan aquifer system is, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, one of the most productive aquifers in the world. The Floridan aquifer system and Biscayne aquifer are among only a few carbonate-rock aquifers in the United States. These aquifers supply drinking water to millions every day.
Yet, these massive carbonate rock aquifers are also most fragile and vulnerable. The Biscayne aquifer is surficial — that is, a shallow aquifer located close to the surface. Studies also define the Biscayne aquifer as, uniquely, an unconfined coastal aquifer that joins with the floor of Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. Such features provide easy pathways for contaminants to flow due to the possibilities of saltwater intrusions and surface contaminations. …
The sources for numerous bottled waters available commercially in Florida — as an option to tap water — appear to be wells within close proximity to the Gulf of Mexico.
The well selected for study typically produces water at the rate of 700 gallons per minute from the Upper Floridan aquifer. …
Samples of untreated water from the public-supply wellhead contained the undesirable constituents nitrate, arsenic, uranium, radon-222, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and pesticides…
Roughly 50 percent of the simulated flow to the public-supply well consists of water less than about 10 years old, thus making the well vulnerable to contamination from human activities.
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Dead Zones, though oxygen depleted, DON'T KILL DOLPHINS, who need air from the atmosphere to breath. Maybe it was "450 times the legal limit of COREXIT"? Just dermally absorbed, proven to cause severe hemorrhaging of blood vessels & red blood cells? Hmmmmmmm……
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what was the question? I forget.
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As far as "Dead Zones" have been concerned with, everytime it comes up in an article, it's always about "oxygen depleted water".
This 'oil leak', needs to addressed as a "hazardous material spill"! The dispersant isn't even talked about. Maybe, these people aren't even used to any of this use of dispersants, so they don't identify large fish kills, with anything other than algea blooms.
While the corexit dispersant, has been professionally identified as "only good, to hide the evidence, & for nothing else"! Because, for just hiding evidence of all the Oil, they've also gotten a "license to kill"
both the enviroment & the peoples who live there! (This, was NO ACCIDENT!)
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I also do not believe this was an accident; more negligence, complacency and greed.
It does worry me so the number of people who, because they do not live in the areas affected, are still completely disinterested in what is unfolding here and it's potential impact on the whole planet.
Disappointingly,this spill is barely covered now in UK press although anyone can check the flow of the Gulfstream to see the countries that could be affected very soon ie Western Europe.
I don't live in the USA but I have friends there and although I'm not religious, I find myself praying for those affected now and what the future holds for them.
Lets hope this latest attempt does the job as we are running out of options.
PS And a big thanks to Alexander; can't remember how I found your factual and wonderfully informative site two weeks ago but it is clear the amount of work and effort you have put into this. Thankyou for sharing this with us all xx
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karl972 says:
July 13, 2010 at 4:16 pm
Hello
I will be brief because this text in your language taduit shook slightly and not be properly translated.
I live in the small Caribbean (Lesser Antilles), I am worried about what happens in the Gulf of Mexico, we have no news media in France and also in the local media. The information will in every sense and it really is not hollowing out your home to know the truth about (or) leakage current and the extended (or) oil slick, oil.
Can you please, we indicated what happens? although this is not hollowing out for you and still less for us.
Is oil in the Atlantic?
the Gulf Stream?
Thank you for the interrelation of this message for people who cares for you and us.
THANK YOU.
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Bonjour,
Je serai bref car ce texte serra taduit dans votre langue et peu être pas bien traduit .
J’habite dans les petites caraîbes ( petites antilles ), je suis inquiet de ce qu’il se passe dans le golfe du Mexique , nous n’avons aucune nouvelles des médias en France et également dans les médias locaux . Les informations vont dans tous les sens et c’est vraiment pas évidant chez vous de connaitre la vérité sur la ( ou les ) fuites en cours et l’étendu de la ( ou les ) nappes d’huiles , pétrole .
Pouvez-vous s’il vous plait , nous indiqué ce qu’il se passe ? même si , ce n’est pas évidant pour vous et encore moins pour nous .
le pétrole est-il en atlantique ?
le gulf stream ?
Merci pour l’interrer de ce message pour des personnes qui s’inquiéte pour vous et nous.
MERCI.
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Karl – here's my advice to you. Don't get your news or scientific evidence from some dude's blog. I'm all for 'outing' the information that's been hidden around this. But there has already been a lot of (expected) hysteria created which has led to nothing but very quickly de-bunked mythology. Check the sources. If they don't very thoroughly list valid sources, keep in mind. Everybody – including many of the sources – has an agenda to convince of one thing or the other. And it's REALLY easy to do with the right language. The truth usually lies somewhere in the middle of it all.
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[...] [...]
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[...] scientists have also confirmed a massive dead zone has been created off the Alabama coast from the BP Oil Spill yet the EPA still claims no findings of oil above threshold [...]
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[...] research has already revealed that the BP Gulf Oil Spill has created a massive dead zone off the Coast of Alabama and BP is already paying off scientists and universities to keep such research from the [...]
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[...] that purports to show an immense "dead zone" in the gulf: This comes from this page: http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/201…ulf-oil-spill/ ..which says that plankton has died in the "dead zone" and all the fish swam away from it [...]
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[...] Ocean Up 300 Times Higher Than NormalNews21 in the NewsDaily Collection 2011-07-07: Chilean VolcanoOver 1,600 Square Miles Of Gulf Turned Into Dead Zone From BP Gulf Oil Spill body{background-image:none;} body { background-color: #829def; } WPFP = jQuery.noConflict(); [...]