[THS] Scientists warn of unseen deepwater oil disaster

[The Harder Stuff in news and commentary]

Scientists warn of unseen deepwater oil disaster
By MATTHEW BROWN, Associated Press Writer - Mon May 31, 5:11 pm ET

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100531/ap_on_bi_ge/oil_spill_mysteries_of_the_deep

NEW ORLEANS - Independent scientists and government officials say there's a
disaster we can't see in the Gulf of Mexico's mysterious depths, the ruin of a world
inhabited by enormous sperm whales and tiny, invisible plankton.

Researchers have said they have found at least two massive underwater plumes of
what appears to be oil, each hundreds of feet deep and stretching for miles. Yet the
chief executive of BP PLC - which has for weeks downplayed everything from the
amount of oilspewing into the Gulf to the environmental impact - said there is "no
evidence" that huge amounts of oil are suspended undersea.

BP CEO Tony Hayward said the oil naturally gravitates to the surface - and any oil
below was just making its way up. However, researchers say the disaster in waters
where light doesn't shine through could ripple across the food chain.

"Every fish and invertebrate contacting the oil is probably dying. I have no doubt
about that," said Prosanta Chakrabarty, a Louisiana StateUniversity fish biologist.

On the surface, a 24-hour camera fixed on the spewing, blown-out well and the
images of dead, oil-soaked birds have been evidence of the calamity. At least 20
million gallons of oil and possibly 43 million gallons have spilled since the Deepwater
Horizon drilling rig exploded and sank in April.

That has far eclipsed the 11 million gallons released during the Exxon Valdez spill off
Alaska's coast in 1989. But there is no camera to capture what happens in the rest of
the vast Gulf, which sprawls across 600,000 square miles and reaches more than
14,000 feet at its deepest point.

Every night, the denizens of the deep make forays to shallower depths to eat - and
be eaten by - other fish, according to marine scientists who describe it as the largest
migration on earth.

In turn, several species closest to the surface - including red snapper, shrimp and
menhaden - help drive the Gulf Coast fishing industry. Others such as marlin, cobia
and yellowfin tuna sit atop the food chain and are chased by the Gulf's charter
fishing fleet.

Many of those species are now in their annual spawning seasons. Eggs exposed to oil
would quickly perish. Those that survived to hatch could starve if the plankton at the
base of the food chain suffer. Larger fish are more resilient, but not immune to the
toxic effects of oil.

The Gulf's largest spill was in 1979, when the Ixtoc I platform off Mexico's Yucatan
peninsula blew up and released 140 million gallons of oil. But that was in relatively
shallow waters - about 160 feet deep - and much of the oil stayed on the surface
where it broke down and became less toxic by the time it reached the Texas coast.

But last week, a team from the University of South Florida reported a plume was
headed toward the continental shelf off the Alabama coastline, waters thick with fish
and other marine life.

The researchers said oil in the plumes had dissolved into the water, possibly a result
of chemical dispersants used to break up the spill. That makes it more dangerous to
fish larvae and creatures that are filter feeders.

Responding to Hayward's assertion, one researcher noted that scientists from several
different universities have come to similar conclusions about the plumes after doing
separate testing.

No major fish kills have been reported, but federal officials said the impacts could
take years to unfold.

"This is just a giant experiment going on and we're trying to understand scientifically
what this means," saidRoger Helm, a senior official with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.

In 2009, LSU's Chakrabarty discovered two new species of bottom-dwelling pancake
batfish about 30 miles off the Louisiana coastline - right in line with the pathway of
the spill caused when the Deepwater Horizon burned and sank April 24.

By the time an article in the Journal of Fish Biology detailing the discovery appears in
the August edition, Chakrabarty said, the two species - which pull themselves along
the seafloor with feet-like fins - could be gone or in serious decline.

"There are species out there that haven't been described, and they're going to
disappear," he said.
Recent discoveries of endangered sea turtles soaked in oil and 22 dolphins found
dead in the spill zone only hint at the scope of a potential calamity that could last
years and unravel the Gulf's food web.

Concerns about damage to the fishery already is turning away potential customers for
charter boat captains such as Troy Wetzel of Venice. To get to waters unaffected by
the spill, Wetzel said he would have to take his boat 100 miles or more into the Gulf -
jacking up his fuel costs to where only the wealthiest clients could afford to go
fishing.

Significant amounts of crude oil seep naturally from thousands of small rifts in the
Gulf's floor - as much as two Exxon Valdez spills every year, according to a 2000
report from government and academic researchers. Microbes that live in the water
break down the oil.

The number of microbes that grow in response to the more concentrated BP spill
could tip that system out of balance, LSU oceanographer Mark Benfield said.

Too many microbes in the sea could suck oxygen from the water, creating an
uninhabitable hypoxic area, or "dead zone."

Preliminary evidence of increased hypoxia in the Gulf was seen during an early May
cruise aboard the R/V Pelican, carrying researchers from the University of Georgia,
the University of Mississippi and the University of Southern Mississippi.

An estimated 910,000 gallons of dispersants - enough to fill more than 100 tanker
trucks - are contributing a new toxin to the mix. Containing petroleum distillates and
propylene glycol, the dispersants' effects on marine life are still unknown.

What is known is that by breaking down oil into smaller droplets, dispersants reduce
the oil's buoyancy, slowing or stalling the crude's rise to the surface and making it
harder to track the spill.
Dispersing the oil lower into the water column protects beaches, but also keeps it in
cooler waters where oil does not break down as fast. That could prolong the oil's
potential to poison fish, said Larry McKinney, director of the Harte Research Institute
at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.

"There's a school of thought that says we've made it worse because of the
dispersants," he said.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to Mark Crispin Miller's "News
>From Underground" newsgroup. If you'd like to donate to News From Underground,
please visit http://markcrispinmiller.com/donate - we appreciate your ongoing
support.

To unsubscribe, send a blank email to newsfromunderground-
unsubscribe at googlegroups.com OR go to
http://groups.google.com/group/newsfromunderground and click on the
"Unsubscribe or change membership" link in the yellow bar at the top of the page,
then click the "Unsubscribe" button on the next page.

For more News From Underground, visit http://markcrispinmiller.com