Oil Slick in Gulf of Mexico (Following Thread!)

The poor beings (not just "animals" that call our oceans home).

How would any of you reading this feel if someone/something/other being/species dumped a substance upon you that suffocated you?

We need to make BP and all the oil companies held accountable.

BP has had several "incidences" previously.

The Effects of Oil on Wildlife
We have all seen pictures and videos of wildlife covered in black, sticky oil after an oil spill. These pictures are usually of oiled birds. Many people are not aware that it is not just birds that get oiled during a spill. Other marine life such as marine mammals can also suffer from the effects of an oil spill. Even small spills can severely affect marine wildlife.

Not all oils are the same. There are many different types of oil and this means that each oil spill is different depending on the type of oil spilt. Each oil spill will have a different impact on wildlife and the surrounding environment depending on:

•the type of oil spilled,
•the location of the spill,
•the species of wildlife in the area,
•the timing of breeding cycles and seasonal migrations,
•and even the weather at sea during the oil spill.
Oil affects wildlife by coating their bodies with a thick layer. Many oils also become stickier over time (this is called weathering) and so adheres to wildlife even more. Since most oil floats o nthe surface of the water it can effect many marine animals and sea birds. Unfortunately, birds and marine mammals will not necessarily avoid an oil spill. Some marine mammals, such as seals and dolphins, have been seen swimming and feeding in or near an oil spill. Some fish are attracted to oil because it looks like floating food. This endangers sea birds, which are attracted to schools of fish and may dive through oil slicks to get to the fish.
Oil that sticks to fur or feathers, usually crude and bunker fuels, can cause many problems. Some of these problems are:

•hypothermia in birds by reducing or destroying the insulation and waterproofing properties of their feathers;
•hypothermia in fur seal pups by reducing or destroying the insulation of their woolly fur (called lanugo). Adult fur seals have blubber and would not suffer from hypothermia if oiled. Dolphins and whales do not have fur, so oil will not easily stick to them;
•birds become easy prey, as their feathers being matted by oil make them less able to fly away;
•marine mammals such as fur seals become easy prey if oil sticks their flippers to their bodies, making it hard for them to escape predators;
•birds sink or drown because oiled feathers weigh more and their sticky feathers cannot trap enough air between them to keep them buoyant;
•fur seal pups drown if oil sticks their flippers to their bodiesk
•birds lose body weight as their metabolism tries to combat low body temperature;
•marine mammals lose body weight when they can not feed due to contamination of their environment by oil;
•birds become dehydrated and can starve as they give up or reduce drinking, diving and swimming to look for food;
•inflammation or infection in dugongs and difficulty eating due to oil sticking to the sensory hairs around their mouths;
•disguise of scent that seal pups and mothers rely on to identify each other, leading to rejection, abandonment and starvation of seal pups; and
•damage to the insides of animals and birds bodies, for example by causing ulcers or bleeding in their stomachs if they ingest the oil by accident.
Oil does not have to be sticky to endanger wildlife. Both sticky oils such as crude oil and bunker fuels, and non-sticky oils such as refined petroleum products can affect different wildlife. Oils such as refined petroleum products do not last as long in the marine environment as crude or bunker fuel. They are not likely to stick to a bird or animal, but they are much more poisonous than crude oil or bunker fuel. While some of the following effects on sea birds, marine mammals and turtles can be caused by crude oil or bunker fuel, they are more commonly caused by refined oil products.

Oil in the environment or oil that is ingested can cause:

•poisoning of wildlife higher up the food chain if they eat large amounts of other organisms that have taken oil into their tissues;
•interference with breeding by making the animal too ill to breed, interfering with breeding behaviour such as a bird sitting on their eggs, or by reducing the number of eggs a bird will lay;
•damage to the airways and lungs of marine mammals and turtles, congestion, pneumonia, emphysema and even death by breathing in droplets of oil, or oil fumes or gas;
•damage to a marine mammal's or turtle's eyes, which can cause ulcers, conjunctivitis and blindness, making it difficult for them to find food, and sometimes causing starvation;
•irritation or ulceration of skin, mouth or nasal cavities;
•damage to and suppression of a marine mammal's immune system, sometimes causing secondary bacterial or fungal infections;
•damage to red blood cells;
•organ damage and failure such as a bird or marine mammal's liver;
•damage to a bird's adrenal tissue which interferes with a bird's ability to maintain blood pressure, and concentration of fluid in its body;
•decrease in the thickness of egg shells;
•stress;
•damage to fish eggs, larvae and young fish;
•contamination of beaches where turtles breed causing contamination of eggs, adult turtles or newly hatched turtles;
•damage to estuaries, coral reefs, seagrass and mangrove habitats which are the breeding areas of many fish and crustaceans, interfering with their breeding;
•tainting of fish, crustaceans, molluscs and algae;
•interference with a baleen whale's feeding system by tar-like oil, as this type of whale feeds by skimming the surface and filtering out the water; and
•poisoning of young through the mother, as a dolphin calf can absorb oil through it's mothers milk.
Animals covered in oil at the beginning of a spill may be affected differently from animals encountering the oil later. For example, early on, the oil maybe more poisonous, so the wildlife affected early will take in more of the poison. The weather conditions can reduce or increase the potential for oil to cause damage to the environment and wildlife. For example, warm seas and high winds will encourage lighter oils to form gases, and will reduce the amount of oil that stays in the water to affect marine life.

The impact of an oil spill on wildlife is also affected by where spilled oil reaches. For example, fur seal pups are affected more than adults by oil spills because pups swim in tidal pools and along rocky coasts, whereas the adults swim in open water where it is less likely for oil to linger. Dugongs als feed on seagrass along the coast and therefore be more affected by oil spills.

Different resources will be needed to combat an oil spill, depending on the number and type of wildlife that is affected. Quick and humane care of wildlife affected by oil spills is required by law. The National Oiled Wildlife Response guidelines [ PDF: 126KB] have been developed at both the Commonwealth and State/Territory level under Australia's national strategy to respond to oil and chemical spills in the marine environment. This strategy is known as the National Plan to Combat Pollution of the Sea by Oil and other Noxious and Hazardous Substances (National Plan).
www.amsa.gov.au...

30+ years back I have met a baby stingray and dolphin out in the wild while swimming off Pensacola beach (both came right up to me, curious and wide eyed innocently) and they do not deserve this death sentence.

I have ragged on and on about this one subject because it was caused by greed (I know how corporations work / PROFIT $$$ at the expense of human and "animal" life).

This did not and should not have happened



[edit on 2-5-2010 by ofhumandescent]

Fishing suspended in Gulf of Mexico as environmental catastrophe looms

VENICE, La. -- The United States suspended fishing across a wide swath of its Gulf of Mexico waters on Sunday as a spreading oil slick gushing from a ruptured undersea well threatened an environmental catastrophe. President Barack Obama visited Louisiana for a first-hand look at what is fast turning into the biggest oil spill in U.S. history. His administration heaped pressure on London-based BP Plc BP.L, the well owner, to halt the out-of- control flow.

Read more: www.nationalpost.com...

Has anyone brought up the idea that a deep sea earthquake could have caused this. It was one of my first initial thoughts when I heard about it.

No evidence of oil on US shores

No evidence of oil impact has been seen on US shores after a giant oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico raised concerns over an ecological disaster, a coast guard says. After days of suspension due to bad weather, a new overflight on Monday confirmed that there has been no oil on US land yet.

www.presstv.com...

Does anyone else think that the New York "attempted" car bomb was a distraction from the oil spill?

I joined this forum after weeks of reading just to ask this.

Now Im not the most informed person in the world but maybe.... big maybe.... the attempted car bomb in New York was an attempt to take the medias attention away from the Oil Spill?

I have seen little to no news reports about the Oil Spill besides the lame and uninformative local news updates. I just think it is odd that just as the "General" public was becoming aware of the severity of the oil spill the attempted car bombing dominated national news.

In my mind, just as the Oil Spill was about to be the biggest story, and the general public would get an idea of the damage that is being done, something bigger happens.

I watched the National news channels all day and only brief mentions of the oil spill while the attempted car bombing and even Arizona are dominating all topics.

Im sure im reaching out on a long, long limb but if no one reaches we'll never get anywhere.

someone posted if it might be the NY terrorist plot couldve been a distraction thats a very good point it very much seems like it. This is very devastating indeed. Also, I found this post somewhere in craigslists so I dont know how much truth it has to it but if anyone has some facts on it--


""Heard your mention of the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico this morning, and you (and most everyone else except maybe Charlie Clark) are totally missing the boat on how big and bad of a disaster this is.

First fact, the original estimate was about 5,000 gallons of oil a day spilling into the ocean. Now they're saying 200,000 gallons a day. That's over a million gallons of crude oil a week!

I'm engineer with 25 years of experience. I've worked on some big projects with big machines. Maybe that's why this mess is so clear to me.

First, the BP platform was drilling for what they call deep oil. They go out where the ocean is about 5,000 feet deep and drill another 30,000 feet into the crust of the earth. This it right on the edge of what human technology can do. Well, this time they hit a pocket of oil at such high pressure that it burst all of their safety valves all the way up to the drilling rig and then caused the rig to explode and sink. Take a moment to grasp the import of that. The pressure behind this oil is so high that it destroyed the maximum effort of human science to contain it.

When the rig sank it flipped over and landed on top of the drill hole some 5,000 feet under the ocean.

Now they've got a hole in the ocean floor, 5,000 feet down with a wrecked oil drilling rig sitting on top of is spewing 200,000 barrels of oil a day into the ocean. Take a moment and consider that, will you!

First they have to get the oil rig off the hole to get at it in order to try to cap it. Do you know the level of effort it will take to move that wrecked oil rig, sitting under 5,000 feet of water? That operation alone would take years and hundreds of millions to accomplish. Then, how do you cap that hole in the muddy ocean floor? There just is no way. No way.

The only piece of human technology that might address this is a nuclear bomb. I'm not kidding. If they put a nuke down there in the right spot it might seal up the hole. Nothing short of that will work.

If we can't cap that hole that oil is going to destroy the oceans of the world. It only takes one quart of motor oil to make 250,000 gallons of ocean water toxic to wildlife. Are you starting to get the magnitude of this?

We're so used to our politicians creating false crises to forward their criminal agendas that we aren't recognizing that we're staring straight into possibly the greatest disaster mankind will ever see. Imagine what happens if that oil keeps flowing until it destroys all life in the oceans of this planet. Who knows how big of a reservoir of oil is down there.

Not to mention that the oceans are critical to maintaining the proper oxygen level in the atmosphere for human life.
"

bp has finally capped one of the leaks, the smallest. this is great news, hopefully it will work for the other two.
news.bbc.co.uk...

Oil breaks down naturally in seawater, and in the warm Gulf of Mexico water, this would proceed much faster than in Alaska's Prince William Sound, where the Exxon Valdez ran aground.

here

perhsps doc velocity is onto something with his gulf oil spill hoax thread

or at least the theory that this is being blown way out of porportion in order to gain leverage in the 'green' community

Here's an interesting little item. Apologies if this has been posted already, but there's such an ocean of posts on these topics that I may have missed it in my search.

On 1st April HuffPo published a supposedly spoof/satire article by Andy Borowitz titled Goldman Sachs Reveals it Shorted Gulf of Mexico. The HuffPo article includes a "more" link at the bottom which redirects to Borowitz own website, where that same article is nowhere to be found. That's not too strange in itself until this surfaced today - it would appear that Goldman sold almost 44% of it's shares in BP during March, as little as three weeks before the Deepwater Horizon sank.

Original MSN Money Link

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/f2c3d7d69b18.png[/atsimg]

Now I'm not so sure the Andy Borowitz piece was a spoof after all.

[edited to add this link to an archived version of the MSN Money page]

[edit on 2-6-2010 by treesdancing]

This gets more and more interesting.

Here's another satire piece published today on Lying Dog News which carries the title BP, Goldman Sachs in Scam to Peddle Investment Built Around Flawed Diamond Wire Saw.

Does anybody else think it somewhat strange that Goldman Sachs dumped more than $270,000,000 worth of BP shares just weeks before the rig exploded? (it seems awfully quiet in here considering that ATS is a conspiracy forum).

[edit : changed sold->dumped]

[edit on 4-6-2010 by treesdancing]

I know there was a thread calculating how much oil REALLY is leaking into the Gulf of Mexico, but I can't find it and will ask here.

So, how much oil would you say is really leaking into the GOM?



I know there are some bright ones here at ATS that were trying to calculate the flow based on analysis of the ROV video stream. Did anything come of that?