BP Oil Spill: The Gulf of Mexico One Year Later
Michael Bradbury
In a recent survey, most scientists agreed that the health of the Gulf is about 68 out of 100. That is almost in line with the pre-spill number of 71.
One marine scientist who runs an association who has BP as a client says that relative to the size of the Gulf of Mexico the oil spill and well blow out affected a rather small area.
Quentin Dokken from the Gulf of Mexico Association says the Macondo blow out was not the environmental disaster many say that it was.
He accompanied Associated Press reporter Rich Mathews on a dive to examine the artificial reef system attached to the submerged portion of oil rigs near the spill site. A year later, corals and other marine life seemed to have rebounded.
But not everyone agrees.
Paul Sammarco is pleased that it appears that life is returning to the disaster area. But he notes that the absence of large fish could mean that they were wiped out by the oil spill and subsequent use of an oil dispersant. He believes the evidence of small fish and coral returning to the area is a bit misleading.
Dr. Sammarco says, “What we don’t know right now are the sub-lethal effects.” He says scientists don’t have a clear picture of the bio-accumulation of petroleum hydrocarbons in sea life and don’t yet understand the complexity that will have on reproduction and other longer term consequences.
Several dozen scientists rated the health of the Gulf of Mexico to be a 68 on a scale of 1 to 100. Last summer the scientists placed the pre-spill health level at 71. Last fall they measured the health at 65.
While the overall health level is trending toward normal, scientists are still very worried about specific health indicators, including dolphins, oysters and the seafloor.
Throughout the first part of the year, reports of baby dolphins washing ashore dominated headlines about the continued environmental legacy of the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
Since February over 400 baby dolphins have been found all along the northern Gulf Coast. While scientists are not clear about the cause of this unusual mortality event, some of the dolphins tested did have oil on their carcasses or in their tissue.
Stillborn and dolphins just days old began washing ashore this winter. But scientists can’t definitively say that it was as a result of the BP oil spill.
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http://www.realscience.us/2011/04/18/bp-oil-spill-the-gulf-of-mexico-one-year-later/