Scientists Find Evidence That Oil And Dispersant Mix Is Making Its Way Into The Foodchain

[ensho]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/29/scientists-find-evidence_n_664298.html


Scientists have found signs of an oil-and-dispersant mix under the shells of tiny blue crab larvae in the Gulf of Mexico, the first clear indication that the unprecedented use of dispersants in the BP oil spill has broken up the oil into toxic droplets so tiny that they can easily enter the foodchain.

Marine biologists started finding orange blobs under the translucent shells of crab larvae in May, and have continued to find them "in almost all" of the larvae they collect, all the way from Grand Isle, Louisiana, to Pensacola, Fla. -- more than 300 miles of coastline -- said Harriet Perry, a biologist with the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast Research Laboratory.

And now, a team of researchers from Tulane University using infrared spectrometry to determine the chemical makeup of the blobs has detected the signature for Corexit, the dispersant BP used so widely in the Deepwater Horizon

-snip-

some journalists even asking: Where is the oil?

But the answer is clear: In part due to the1.8 million gallons of dispersant that BP used, a lot of the estimated 200 million or more gallons of oil that spewed out of the blown well remains under the surface of the Gulf in plumes of tiny toxic droplets. And it's short- and long-term effects could be profound.
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PROFOUND in capital letters

on the one hand the authorities say the food is safe to eat and on the other hand they show PROOF that the food is contaminated.

[mikelgb]

1. I found evidence when I saw the first fish covered in oil

[mikelgb]

2. dupe

[DrDan]

3. shades of Christine Todd Whitmann in assuring the residents that the NYC air was completely safe

following the 9/11 disaster.

[Catherina]

4. Say it ain't so. The USDA lie to us for corporate profit? n/t

[dipsydoodle]

5. Avoid crabs

.

[G_j]

6. K&R

[Uncle Joe]

7. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, ensho.

[femrap]

8. Corexit will end up being

worse than the oil. Those huge plumes of toxic sludge....BP has created a monster and the US gov't let them.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

9. 'OTOH the authorities say the food is safe to eat ... and OTOH they show ... food is

contaminated'.

The contradiction may not be as stark as you may think. Bivalve shellfish take in gallons of water a day to filter algae, their primary food source. A single shellfish may filter 40 gallons of water a day.

They don't just keep the algae inside them, however. For this reason, Puget Sound and Chesapeake Bay restoration efforts, among dozens of others, have dumped millions of shellfish into their waters over the years. While the shellfish remain contaminated, other species (mainly fish) who don't take in so much water have become less toxic, while the shellfish become more toxic (but less toxic with each new generation).

Thus seeding coastal waters with millions of shellfish may be part of the answer to cleaning up the Gulf (especially the Louisiana marsh wetlands).

[ProgressiveEconomist]

12. I should add that blue crabs are especially fond of oysters

See http://www.chesapeakebay.net/oysters.aspx?menuitem=19368 . for example

[DCBob]

10. Actually they have not reopened fishing for crabs yet. at least not in Lousiana..

Louisiana fisheries officials reopened wide swaths of state coastal waters to commercial fishing late Thursday, permitting fishermen to catch finfish and shrimp off most of the eastern and southwestern coasts. Commercial harvests of crabs and oysters are still banned.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/07/gulf-oil-spill-wide-swath-of-fisheries-reopened-.html

[Edweird]

11. Super.

[glowing]

13. Something you should ALL understand is that fish are NOT being tested for corexit.

So, if they are saturated with the dispersant, you will not know. They are not testing for it. It will enter into human population quite quickly and people in other parts of the country will be subjected to toxins... Toxins pile up and can cause sickness and things like cancer.... years later. Some 20yrs from now, people will be calling it Gulf Toxic sickness. BP will be long gone. AND our sub-human health care will cause many people to die.

[ensho]

17. I recently posted a thread about seafood inspct. using their noses to

tell if fish have oil or DISPERSMENTS in them. I forget which Govt. published the info on the inspectors.

I think NOSE is in the article title.

so apparently the dispersment leaves an odor in the fish that a trained human nose can smell.

none of this is a joke

[glowing]

18. Seems like the best way to smell if a fish is full of chemicals... NOT.

[Karenina]

14. NO ONE could have foreseen...

:puke::mad::crazy::argh:

That's all I have to say. Oder nicht.

:argh:

[SlipperySlope]

15. It's not a big deal.

It's only the future of life on the planet we are talking about, it isn't like it is something we should take seriously.

[The Midway Rebel]

16. Oil spill?

What oil spill?

Hey...did you hear Chelsea is getting married?

Is that Mel Gibson a nut or what?