Expert: BP spill likely cause of sick Gulf fish

[highplainsdem]

Source: CBS News

-snip-

"I don't think we'll be fishing in five years," he said. "My opinion."

He, like many others that fish the Gulf waters, have started catching fish with sores, fin rot, and infections at a greater frequency than ever before.

-snip-

Jim Cowan, professor of oceanography at Louisiana State University, has analyzed many of these diseased fish.

"When one of these things comes on deck, it's sort of horrifying," Cowan said. "I mean, there these large dark lesions and eroded fins and areas on the body where scales have been removed. I'd imagine I've seen 30 or 40,000 red snapper in my career, and I've never seen anything like this. At all. Ever."

-snip-

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/08/15/earlyshow/main20092410.shtml

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Video of the news story at the link, too.

I caught the story while channel-surfing this morning and was horrified to see how sick the fish are. And in the video, Cowan explains that about half the red snapper they caught by reefs between Galveston and Destin -- the area most affected by the BP spill -- were sick.

[kath]

1. re: headline -- Gee! Ya THINK?!?

[AtomicKitten]

2. No shit, Sherlock.

[benld74]

3. Ehh, He's ONLY an EXPERT! Why I BET he gets taken down by the libral media,,

[PearliePoo2]

4. BP is advertising to COME ON DOWN TO THE GULF!

They even have the balls to say the seafood is good!

[Altoid_Cyclist]

8. In fact, they have the TARballs to say the seafood is good.

I wonder what all of the proponents of Corexit and magic bacteria are thinking now.

People who thought that this disaster was over a year ago with the capping of the well were way way off I'm sorry to say. Maybe if our government agencies and political leaders (all of them) had actually listened to the experts and the Gulf residents all along, the long term impact of this disaster might have been averted. Now....it's a little late to act and do what should have been done last year.

At least Tony Hayward got his freaking life back. :sarcasm:

[tawadi]

5. Ya think?

:grr:

[tomhayes]

6. Republicans respond: "Fish are sick and tired of high taxes!"

Can't be oil.

[SpiralHawk]

11. + 1,000

Too true - too funny. Too god awful true.

[pepito]

7. #BP KILLS

get on twitter,folks the clowns have killed our fish,oysters and shrimp
Nationalize those platforms......... killers its only our planet...and remember they send that fish and shrimp to the Army for our troops to eat

[Hubert Flottz]

9. Same thing we saw in fresh water fish her in the Great Kanawha Valley.

Dupont, Union Carbide, Diamond Shamrock, FMC, and Monsanto dumped anything they wanted to in this river for years. Not only did the fish in the river develop sores, fin rot, and infections, but kids were being born with three eyeballs and the cancer rate was about the highest in the nation. America is STILL shitting it's nest to this day. To try and weaken the EPA is not just ignorant, it's criminal.

[SpiralHawk]

10. "D'oh." - Everyone with at least half a freaking BrainPan*

* This category excludes Republicon apologists, who may have half a brainpan but who will in that case have sold it out to RepubliCorp for a mess of potage.

[glinda]

12. duh

[truedelphi]

13. I remember either reading or seeing a video on YouTube of

A Fisherman who took his catch to some EPA inspector. And he showed the individual all the black goo hanging off the fish he caught, and the "expert" from the EPA said, "Well that fish has black gill disease."

Something that the fisherman had never experienced on any of his catch until the black gilly-fying Oil Slick from BP.

But hey, Money talks and its bullshit walks.

[saras]

14. Why do I suspect that all of this fish is going to be sold anyways?

[No Elephants]

15. Nonsense. It's a coincidence.