tagged w/ Gulf Coast
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The New York Times...
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November 30, 2011
BP Spill Fund Raises Limits for Shrimp and Crab Losses
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
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NEW ORLEANS — Under a new formula announced on Wednesday by Kenneth R. Feinberg, the administrator of the $20 billion fund set up by BP for victims of the 2010 oil spill, shrimp and crab fishermen along the Gulf Coast may be eligible for settlement payments significantly larger than what they were previously offered.
In making the changes, the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, which Mr. Feinberg administers, said it “recognizes the ongoing uncertainty regarding the state of the commercial harvesting of shrimp and crab in the gulf.”
Under the new rules, shrimp and crab fishermen are eligible for a final settlement equal to four times their demonstrable losses from 2010. Previously, they were eligible for twice their losses, as are claimants from other industries. Only oyster farmers, whose crop takes years to replenish, had been eligible for four times their losses.
The change came during a white shrimp season that many along the coast, particularly in Louisiana, have described as the worst in memory. The cause of the drop-off remains unclear, but at least some evidence suggests the spill could be a factor.
The claims facility also announced on Wednesday that the fund would no longer presume that losses claimed by individuals and businesses in Texas or in Florida south of the panhandle were due to the spill. It based that conclusion on a comparison of revenue from beachfront hotels and county sales taxes in those places with data from other areas of the Gulf Coast.
To date, the fund has paid out $5.74 million to around 217,000 claimants.
A BP spokesman said: “While BP respects the independence of the G.C.C.F. in setting policy, the company believes the proposed increase is not warranted given the facts. BP believes that the G.C.C.F. has already compensated commercial shrimpers and crabbers far in excess of documented, spill-related losses.”
.The New York Times...
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November 30, 2011
BP Spill Fund Raises Limits for... more
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Word that the government is letting BP end its cleanup of the Gulf Coast left many residents seething and fearful over who would monitor or respond to any lingering effects of the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
Estimates that 90 percent of the region's shores have been cleaned of oil from last year's spill belie the sentiments of many locals who are likely to think first of BP when they spot tar balls or mats of weathered oil in the sand. Such waste has washed ashore for years from a variety of sources, but the spill's traumatic aftermath has linked it with BP in the minds of many.
"Everything is just not how it used to be. When you pull a fish up, it doesn't look like it is supposed to look, like they did before," said Ryan Johnson, a fisherman in Pensacola Beach, Fla.
The agreement approved last week by the U.S. Coast Guard ends BP's cleanup responsibility for all but a small fraction of the coast, and marks a shift to restoration efforts that will likely include planting new vegetation and adding new sand to beaches. Under the plan, BP PLC won't be required to clean up oil that washes ashore in the future unless officials can prove it came from the blown-out well that caused the 2010 catastrophe — a link that the company concedes will be harder to establish as time passes and the oil degrades. Still, a top company official said BP is ready to respond to any oil that's deemed its responsibility.
"We are finally at a stage where scientific data and assessment has defined the endpoint for the shoreline cleanup," said Mike Utsler, head of BP's Gulf Coast Restoration Organization. "That endpoint can be reopened."
Such assurances are of little comfort to officials around the region who think that the Coast Guard failed to protect their interests. Louisiana refused to sign off on the cleanup plan, though the Coast Guard said it would carry it out regardless of the state's objections. Among the state's chief concerns is what they perceived as a lack of long-term monitoring required by the plan.
"This has been a unilateral decision. We were supposed to work to make it right, BP said they would make it right," said John Young, the president of Jefferson Parish, a coastal area that was hit hard by the spill. "It's not clean. There are still tar mats and tar balls appearing."
Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange said the plan concerns him and he hasn't decided whether he will go to court to force BP to continue cleanup efforts.
snip
"It may be the end for them, but we're at the end of our rope. Families are suffering; businesses are suffering. It's horrible. We can't catch a fish to save our soul," said Kevin Heier, a 40-year-old commercial fisherman in Hopedale, La.
In Gulfport, Miss., fourth-generation oyster and shrimp fisherman Rudy Toler said he doesn't think it's time to scale back the cleanup. The 31-year-old is convinced the Gulf is contaminated by the spill. He blames BP for the shrimp and oysters he says he's not catching.
"It doesn't surprise me that the government is going to let BP off the hook, because they've let them off the hook before," Toler said Wednesday. "The president said we would be made whole. I think he's turning his back on us too."
He said oil can still be found. "I've never seen these problems before. I've been going out on the water for more than 20 years and I've never seen oil before, even though there is natural seepage."
Similar sentiments are found on Pensacola Beach in Florida, where locals are uneasy even though things look gorgeous this time of year. Kenneth Collins, who rents fishing poles to tourists and spends his days with local fishermen at the Pensacola Beach pier claimed that red fish, cobia, grouper and other fish caught off the pier have oily deposits in their intestines when they are carved up for cleaning
"It's not OK at all. We aren't scientists or anything but we are out there all the time and we can tell things aren't right," he said.
Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Gulf-Coast-upset-over-OK-to-wrap-up-BP-cleanup-2259897.php#ixzz1dKlRMpBG
More at the linkWord that the government is letting BP end its cleanup of the Gulf Coast left many... more
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The article explains that it's another major storm the size of Katrina but it's not expected to do the same damage because the levees are fixed.
... not expected to cause the same kind of damage? i guess the whole giant oil slick that came up in the past few months from the *still broken oil well* and corexit just left everyone's memory. This will be a catastrophe of epic proportions when it picks that crap up and dumps it on our inland environment.
http://inhabitat.com/six-years-after-katrina-tropical-storm-lee-hits-the-gulf-coast/The article explains that it's another major storm the size of Katrina but... more
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Novek
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5 months ago
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A slow-moving tropical depression was slogging toward the Gulf coast Friday, packing walloping rains that could drench the region with up to 20 inches.
Louisiana's governor declared a state of emergency Thursday because of the threat of flash flooding.
Tropical storm warnings were issued from Mississippi to Texas including New Orleans. The National Hurricane Center said the system will dump 10 to 15 inches of rain over southern areas of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama through Sunday and as much as 20 inches in some spots.
The depression also could become Tropical Storm Lee, the 12th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season.
Forecasts were for landfall over the weekend on southern Louisiana's coast. The depression had maximum sustained winds of 35 mph (55 kph) Friday morning. It was drifting slowly north near 1 mph (2 kph) with the hurricane center predicting slow, possibly erratic motion.
"Wow. This could be a very heavy, prolific rainmaker," National Weather Service meteorologist Frank Revitte said.
According to a hurricane center chart, maximum sustained winds could reach 60 mph by Saturday, lower than hurricane strength of 74 mph.
As hurricane season is hitting its peak in the Atlantic, storm watchers were monitoring three disturbances. Besides the Gulf depression, Tropical Storm Katia (KAH'-tee-yah) was spinning in open waters. It weakened from a hurricane Thursday, though forecasters said it would again grow stronger.
It was about 750 miles (1,205 kilometers) east of the northern Leeward Islands and moving west-northwest near 15 mph (24 kph) with maximum sustained winds early Friday near 70 mph (110 kph). It could regain hurricane strength this weekend but forecasters said it's too early to tell if it would hit the U.S. It was expected to pass north of the Caribbean.
In yet another system, a slow-moving low pressure system about 450 miles (724 kilometers) south of Nova Scotia, Canada, had a 60 percent chance early Friday of becoming a tropical cyclone in the next two days.
They all come on the heels of Hurricane Irene, which brought destruction from North Carolina to New England late last month.
In Louisiana, Gov. Bobby Jindal said he was concerned about the serious threat of flash flooding in his state, leading to his emergency action. After devastating Hurricane Katrina in 2005, nothing is taken for granted.
Craig Taffaro, president of coastal St. Bernard Parish, said some flood gates were being closed along bayous and residents were being warned to brace for heavy rain. Still, in a parish that was nearly wiped out six years ago by Katrina, Taffaro wasn't expecting a major event.
"We'd like the public to use this as a drill. Hopefully that's all it will be," he said early Thursday afternoon.
The Army Corps of Engineers, which operates major flood control structures at New Orleans, was monitoring developments but didn't plan on closing any flood control structures yet, spokesman Ricky Boyett said in an email.
Emergency officials along Mississippi's Gulf Coast expected to get plans in place Friday to deal with the effects from the tropical depression. Jackson County spokesman Ken Flanagan said conference calls were scheduled Friday with Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, along with weather officials.
In Alabama, Gov. Robert Bentley ordered state emergency management and other agencies to be ready to respond if needed.
Already, the storm has forced two major petroleum producers to remove crews from a handful of production platforms. Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil said they would also cut off a small amount of production. Both moves affect only a fraction of production.
Louisiana needs rain — just not that much, that fast. Both Texas and Louisiana have been suffering through drought. New Orleans, which was least affected by the drought, already was being pelted by sporadic rain. More of a problem is stubborn marsh fire that has blanketed the city with smoke, though the rain will help extinguish it.
"Sometimes you get what you ask for," New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said. "Unfortunately it looks like we're going to get more than we needed."
More at the linkA slow-moving tropical depression was slogging toward the Gulf coast Friday, packing... more
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On the morning on August 29, 2005, a category three hurricane stuck the Gulf Coast of the United States. The aftermath of the disaster was the most costly in U.S. history. An estimated $81 Billion dollars in damages occurred and left one of the oldest and most beloved American cities in near ruins.On the morning on August 29, 2005, a category three hurricane stuck the Gulf Coast of... more
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Gulf sheen not from wells, Coast Guard says
'Natural seepage is very common,' official says after fears of another spill
msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated 8/18/2011 4:58:11 PM ET
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The Coast Guard reported Thursday that none of the well heads or pipelines in the area of a sheen that appeared in the Gulf of Mexico were leaking and suggested the sheen was from a natural seepage.
"The sheen has dissipated," Cheri Ben-Iesau, Coast Guard commander for District 8 in New Orleans, told msnbc.com. "Samples collected returned negative for hydrocarbons."
"None of the well heads or pipelines in the area where found to be leaking," she said, adding "natural seepage is very common" in the Gulf.
The report didn't faze residents of the coast, where small spills are spotted hundreds of times a year and many people have come to see last year's BP catastrophe as a once-in-a-lifetime event.
Gulf Coast fishermen are back on the water and businesses are again packed with tourists on sandy shores since the disaster that hit last summer, when BP PLC's well blew out of control, spooking tourists away from normally packed communities when beaches were left coated in crude.
BP said Thursday that the shiny substance floating on the water's surface didn't come from its operations, and officials said it had since dissipated. Reports of sheen are common: More than 200 were called in last year in an area far from BP's well where the new sheen was reported, and 13 were reported Wednesday alone off Louisiana's coast.
Residents say they aren't afraid of a disaster like the one last summer, when millions of gallons of crude spewed into the Gulf and many scientists and fishermen wondered if the region would ever recover.
"This was probably a once-in-a-lifetime thing this spill here, the big BP oil spill," said Rocky Ditcharo, a 45-year-old shrimp dock owner in Plaquemines Parish, the finger of land south of New Orleans where the Mississippi River empties into the Gulf. He looked upon the oil industry favorably, even though last year's spill threatened to ruin his way of life.
"I'm not mad at the oil industry about what happened. You can't hate them unless they went out of their way to intentionally do something. Accidents happen. Nobody wants to kill off a bunch of wildlife, shrimp and fish."
BP said Thursday tests indicated the substance near an abandoned well in the Green Canyon — an undersea area encompassing thousands of miles far from the company's blown-out Macondo well — was silt from the Gulf floor.
The U.S. Coast Guard said the sheen was not large enough to warrant a cleanup; even small amounts of oil can lead to a large sheen on the water.
Sheens are frequently reported in the Gulf, many of them small and a result of the 3,200 oil and gas drilling operations in the Gulf. Leaked fuel from ships can also create sheens, along with oil that naturally seeps from the seafloor or leaks from abandoned or plugged wells. For instance, the Coast Guard said several sheens reported in the past two weeks came from natural seepage or releases from government-approved discharge points on offshore platforms.
Many sheens are never investigated and disappear before anyone determines where they came from. In 2010, for instance, there were 210 spills or sheens reported in the Green Canyon area. About a quarter of the calls described "unknown sheens," without a known source. More than half — 112 of those reported — originated from platforms, but many of the reports are unverified.
There are thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells in the Gulf that are not monitored for leaks after they're plugged.
But, according to Kenneth Arnold, a Houston-based offshore engineering expert, a dead well will leak only if the cement job to close it in was not done properly. He said offshore regulations for closing in wells are stringent.
Yet reports of sheen get much more attention since the BP oil spill, when a drilling rig explosion killed 11 men and sent millions of gallons of oil spewing into the Gulf in what became the worst offshore spill in U.S. history. The coastal tourism industry struggled amid images of tar-coated beaches and oil-stained birds. Many business owners had complained that people canceled vacation plans even in places where oil never washed ashore.
On Thursday, business groups affirmed the region was making a strong comeback.
"It's been a good summer," said Chris Laborde of the Gulf Coast Alliance, a regional business group set up after the BP spill to attract tourists and investors to the Gulf Coast. "From the tourism side, it's been good. Fishing has been superb. Everything is coming out clean (from the spill). It's a lot better than people anticipated."
He said Gulf Coast residents aren't worried a spill on the scale of the BP disaster would be repeated any time soon.
"This one serious accident was out of 40,000-50,000 drillings that have occurred over decades," he said.
And without evidence the BP spill ruined the Gulf's ecosystem, many people seem relaxed. Seafood sampling has found little to no contamination, and scientists have not found the kind of ecosystem-altering damage some predicted.
"All the tests are coming back that the seafood is safe, and that's blessing," said Bridgette Varone, the executive director of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Hospitality & Restaurant Association. The bigger challenge, she said, has been overcoming consumers' perceptions.
Laborde agreed, noting the spill was similar to the aftermath of 2005's Hurricane Katrina, "when people thought New Orleans was flooded years later."
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://media.nola.com/2010_gulf_oil_spill/photo/gulf-oil-east-grand-terrejpg-0056cf933168f378.jpg.
Gulf sheen not from wells, Coast Guard says
'Natural seepage is very... more
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United States Senate
Dear :
Thank you for writing to me in support of efforts to restore the environment and economies of the Gulf Coast following last year's disastrous oil spill. I am committed to helping the Gulf region recover, and I appreciate hearing from you on this important matter.
I led a bipartisan effort along with Senators Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Richard Shelby (R-AL) to develop legislation that dedicates Clean Water Act fines to restore the Gulf Coast. The bill was introduced as S.1400, the Resources and Ecosystems Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities, and Revived Economies (RESTORE) of the Gulf Coast States Act, on July 21, 2011. This bipartisan bill would restore the natural resources, economy, and coastal environment of the Gulf region.
As recommended by the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, S.1400 would dedicate at least 80 percent of BP penalties to the Gulf states to invest in the recovery and health of their coastal ecosystem and economies. Under the Clean Water Act, BP could be fined billions of dollars as the party responsible for the spill, and it is only right that these penalties be immediately directed to the Gulf Coast's recovery efforts.
The BP oil spill exacerbated long-standing problems faced by the Gulf Coast ecosystem, harming the Gulf Coast's natural resources - including fragile wetlands and wildlife habitat - and debilitating the region's tourism, fisheries, and other crucial industries. I believe it is our responsibility to provide support to the communities of the Gulf Coast and ensure they have the resources they need to rebuild their coastline.
The RESTORE the Gulf Coast States Act has been referred to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW). As Chairman of EPW, I will work with my colleagues to enact this vital legislation as soon as possible.
Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with me about this important issue. Please feel free to write to me again about this or any other issue of concern to you.
Sincerely,
Barbara Boxer
United States Senator
..
United States Senate
Dear :
Thank you for writing to me in support of... more
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– Hippie TV News: This week San Francisco un-cut ,Radiation kids, Ass$#%@ of the week and more…– Hippie TV News: This week San Francisco un-cut ,Radiation kids, Ass$#%@ of the... more
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KevJ
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http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/02/24/gulf.dolphins/index.html?hpt=C1
Deaths of baby dolphins worry scientists
By Vivian Kuo, CNN
February 24, 2011 8:27 p.m. EST
Dead baby dolphins found on Gulf Coast
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Twenty-four dolphin calves have been found dead on shores of Alabama, Mississippi
Marine mammal experts say the number is very unusual
Total of 30 dolphins found dead; the cause remains a mystery
(CNN) -- Baby bottlenose dolphins are washing up dead in record numbers on the shores of Alabama and Mississippi, alarming scientists and a federal agency charged with monitoring the health of the Gulf of Mexico.
Moby Solangi, the executive director of the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies (IMMS) in Gulfport, Mississippi, said Thursday he's never seen such high death numbers.
"I've worked with marine mammals for 30 years, and this is the first time we've seen such a high number of calves," he said. "It's alarming."
At least 24 baby dolphins have washed up on the shores of the two states since the beginning of the year -- more than ten times the normal rate. Also, six older dolphins died.
In January 2009 and 2010, no calf strandings were reported, compared to four in January 2011, the institute said. During the month of February for those years, only one calf stranding was reported each year.
Blair Mase, lead marine mammal stranding coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), echoed Solangi's concern.
"It's not common for this time of year to recover such young animals. When you put the numbers together, it's quite high compared to previous years."
The occurrence has prompted NOAA to designate these deaths as an "unusual mortality event" -- defined as a stranding incident that is unexpected or involves a significant loss of any marine mammal population.
While bottlenose dolphins are actually the most-frequently found stranding animal, the season usually begins in March, according to Mase.
"We receive reports of stranding year round. We get an average of 700 total every year in the Southeast," she said.
While scientists have seen baby dolphins wash up in the past, "This is not during the months that they should be," said Solangi. "We keep getting reports of new ones all the time, and February isn't over yet."
There have been 13 unusual mortality events involving dolphin deaths in the Gulf of Mexico since 1991, Mase explained.
Marine mammals are particularly susceptible to harmful algal blooms, infectious diseases, temperature and environmental changes, and human impact, she said.
"Unfortunately we don't have a smoking gun here. We're looking at the possibility of an algal bloom but we don't see any evidence of a bloom going on in the water. Temperatures are a bit cooler, so we're looking into water temperature data and seeing if that has a role, but it's a little bit too early to tell."
The IMMS said it has been able to perform full necropsies on a third of the 24 calves. The majority of the calves were too decomposed for a full examination, but the institute has taken tissue samples for analysis.
The institute does not have conclusive results on the causes of death.
Following the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion last April, which killed 11 workers and caused the worst oil spill in U.S. history, there has been heightened concern over the environmental impact.
Due to the government's ongoing litigation with BP, which owned the oil well that erupted into the Gulf of Mexico, NOAA said it must operate under specific protocol in handling the dead dolphins. That might mean a delay in seeing the necropsy results.
"In a world when we wouldn't be dealing with oil-spill protocols, we'd typically get results in about three weeks to a month," Mase said. "We aren't going to see results as quickly as we'd like to. We will be making sure these samples are collected, taken back and analyzed, but it could take several months."
While none of the 30 dolphins were found with any oil on them, Mase said the agency is not ruling anything in or out on the cause of death.
"Frankly, it's just too early to tell at this point. It's obviously on everyone's radar screen. Everyone's concerned about any impact of the BP oil spill, but we have to be very cautious as to identify any particular cause. We won't know until we have these samples analyzed and be able to identify the source."
The most worrisome concern is that dolphin stranding season has yet to officially begin, according to Solangi.
"Whatever it is, I hope it is just an anomaly. It certainly has connotations on reproduction and the population," he said.
"Unfortunately, I think this is not the end of what we will be seeing."http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/02/24/gulf.dolphins/index.html?hpt=C1
Deaths of baby... more
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Baby dolphins, some barely three feet in length, are washing up along the Mississippi and Alabama shorelines at about 10 times the normal number for the first two months of the year, researchers are finding.
Seventeen young dolphins, either aborted before they reached maturity or dead soon after birth, have been collected on the coasts of the states in the past two weeks, both on the barrier islands and mainland beaches.
This is the first birthing season for dolphins since the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico; however, Moby Solangi, director of the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport, said it’s too early to tell why they died.
“For some reason, they’ve started aborting or they were dead before they were born,” Solangi said. “The average is one or two a month. This year we have 17 and February isn’t even over yet.”
It’s the most that Solangi has seen in the two states and he’s been watching the Gulf for 30 years, recording dolphin data in Mississippi for 20. The institute has collected 13 infant dolphins in the last two weeks and three more on Monday along the Gulfport and Horn Island beaches.
Read more: http://www.sunherald.com/2011/02/21/2881674/spike-reported-in-number-of-stillborn.htmlBaby dolphins, some barely three feet in length, are washing up along the Mississippi... more
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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/magazine/03turtles-t.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=all
The New York Times
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/10/03/magazine/03turtles-span/03turtles-t_CA1-articleLarge.jpg
October 1, 2010
The BP-Spill | Baby-Turtle Brigade
By JON MOOALLEM
PART ONE…
Loggerhead nesting season started this year, as usual, in May. Across the northeastern coast of the Gulf of Mexico, female sea turtles began plodding out of the water and up the beach, each burying a clutch of a hundred or more leathery eggs beneath the sand. The eggs incubate for about 60 days. Then a throng of tiny black loggerhead hatchlings, each only about two inches long, frantically boils out of the ground, all paddling clumsily with their outsize, winglike flippers. They scuttle down the beach en masse, capitalizing on a one-time frenzy of energy to rush into the water and push past the breakers into offshore currents. Once they make it there — if they make it there — they typically find their way onto mats of seaweed called sargassum. The hatchlings will drift passively around the ocean on this sargassum for the first several years of their lives, like children inner-tubing in a swimming pool. It’s a life raft from which, conveniently, they can also pluck snacks. Many turtles wind up gliding around the Florida peninsula and floating as far out as the Azores during a developmental stage biologists call “the lost years.”
The hatchlings from this season’s first nests, however, were on schedule to scramble into the Gulf of Mexico only a few months after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig, at what looked to be the height of one of the worst man-made environmental disasters in history. By June, the sargassum in that part of the gulf was heavily oiled. Soon, it appeared to be largely gone: incinerated in controlled burns, maybe, or hauled up by skimmer boats. And so state and federal wildlife agencies came up with a radical plan. Sea-turtle eggs laid on beaches in Alabama and the Florida Panhandle would be dug up during their very last days of incubation, packed into Styrofoam coolers and shipped to a climate-controlled warehouse at the Kennedy Space Center on the opposite coast of Florida. There, after hatching, the baby turtles would be released into the oil-free Atlantic. When I arrived in Alabama in late July, tens of thousands of turtle eggs, from hundreds of nests, were already in the process of being relocated — all during a point in their development when even a slight jolt to the egg could be lethal. In short, America was orchestrating the migration of an entire generation of sea turtles, slow and steady, overland, in a specially outfitted FedEx truck.
The government called this effort a set of “extraordinary measures being taken in direct response to an unprecedented human-caused disaster.” And as one U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist told me, “We immediately knew it was more work than we could do on our own.” Fortunately, a vast and well-organized infrastructure of volunteers was already in place: people who, for years, happened to have been honing some of the very skills that the survival of these imperiled animals suddenly hinged on — not because they saw such a crisis coming, but basically because they really loved turtles.
What I found in Alabama was a classic story of ordinary people called to do extraordinary things. But the extraordinary things were so eccentric, and the ordinary people were so unassuming, that it took me a while to realize that. In the middle of an environmental emergency that seemed to demand dispassionate and scientific decision making, it was an emotional connection to turtles — and, in some cases, a slightly overemotional one — that wound up making certain people indispensable.
Two of these people — a retired man and his mostly retired wife — stood on a beach in Gulf Shores, Ala., at dawn one morning in late July, guarding a set of loggerhead tracks in the sand. The man stood with his hands on his hips. The woman ambled near the water, with a white sun visor on and a Royal Caribbean fanny pack slung over one shoulder. These were the Gormleys: Dan and Jan.
CONTINUED…http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/magazine/03turtles-t.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted... more
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Nearly five million Migratory birds from Canada are now winging their way south across North America, and many of them could be in for a nasty shock when they reach the oily marshes and beaches along the Gulf Coast.
link: http://news.discovery.com/animals/migrating-birds-canada-gulf-coast.htmlNearly five million Migratory birds from Canada are now winging their way south across... more
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eva2
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If you listen to Thad Allen, Obama’s point man on the BP oil gusher, we’re over the hump. On the weekend the former Coast Guard commander said the well no longer poses a threat to the Gulf and crews will now begin the last few remaining operations needed to abandon the well this week.
In short, Obama gets to declare another mission accomplished. he problem has been lurking in the Gulf since the first days of the BP oil spill and now has the potential ignite a disaster unlike any this country has ever seen.
However, here is what Allen and the corporate media are not talking about — residents along the Gulf Coast are sick from the effects of the oil gusher.
“The harm dealt by this silent enemy is beginning to creep into the lives of those living and working in the Gulf. The problem has been lurking in the Gulf since the first days of the BP oil spill and now has the potential ignite a disaster unlike any this country has ever seen,” reports Project Gulf Impact, an organization of citizen journalists who are doing what the corporate media refuses to do. “The residents of the Gulf of Mexico are entering a crisis whose scope cannot be calculated. Several symptoms have been reported, from subtle to severe: skin rashes and infections, upper respiratory burning, congestion and cough, headaches, nausea, vomiting, and neurological symptoms including short-term memory loss and coordination problems. These health problems, if acknowledged at all, are mis-diagnosed, buried, and mis-attributed.”
In August, chemist Bob Naman tested the waters off Orange Beach, Alabama, and found they tested positive for the dangerous neurotoxin pesticide 2-butoxyethanol, the main ingredient of Corexit 9527A.
Months ago we were told by the government this version of Corexit was no longer in use.
Mr. Naman apparently made a mistake by making his findings public. He was subsequently threatened by BP. “I am not certain the reason or nature of the threats or whether they were financial or physical threats, but given the sudden rash of untimely deaths of those with damaging knowledge about BP I would not take any threats from BP lightly,” Alexander Higgins wrote on August 24.
On September 1, Infowars.com carried a story about a swimming pool in Homosassa, Florida, testing positive for the Corexit 9527A marker 2-butoxyethanol. Samples were tested by Robert Naman, the thorn in BP’s side. The story was ignored by the corporate media.
For BP and the Obama administration, scrubbing the oil gusher and its untold number of victims from the front page is more important than the health of people along the Gulf coast. The Democrats want the oil gusher to go away because of the political damage it will inflict on them during the mid-term elections this November. Republicans want it to go away because they are covering BP’s back. Illness and misery will not be allowed to interrupt the political dog and pony show.
On September 18, 2001, then EPA administrator Christie Whitman announced the air at Ground Zero was safe to breathe. Experts estimate that as many as 40,000 people breathed noxious pollution, including dust, in the wake of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.
But the afflicted — including heroic first responders — should not expect help from the government.
The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2009 would provide medical monitoring to those exposed to toxins, increase treatment at specialized centers for those afflicted by toxins and reopen a compensation fund to provide for the economic loss of victims. It was characterized as another Obama entitlement program by the GOP House leadership, who vowed to defeat the legislation.
If the massive poisoning of the people of the Gulf is ever exposed, we can expect a similar response on the part of the government.If you listen to Thad Allen, Obama’s point man on the BP oil gusher, we’re... more
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GRAND ISLE, La. – An offshore oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, west of the site of the April blast that caused the massive oil spill.
A commercial helicopter company reported the blast around 9:30 a.m. CDT Thursday, Coast Guard Petty Officer Casey Ranel said. Seven helicopters, two airplanes and four boats were en route to the site, about 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay along the central Louisiana coast.
The Coast Guard said initial reports indicated all 13 crew members from the rig were in the water. One was injured, but there were no deaths.
The platform owned by Mariner Energy is in about 2,500 feet of water, the Coast Guard said, and was not currently producing.
About 206 million gallons of oil from an undersea well spilled into the Gulf after BP's Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20, killing 11 workers.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_gulf_rig_explosionGRAND ISLE, La. – An offshore oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on... more
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The unbelievable devastation of New Orleans is almost beyond human comprehension. The virtually complete destruction of the entire city by Hurricane Katrina, the loss of huge numbers of lives, the ruination of the property and lives of so many, especially the poor and disadvantaged, is a tragedy of historically monumental proportions.
This year, photographer Brenda Ann Kenneally revisited two families five years after Hurricane Katrina and created a remarkable photo-essay about the effect of Katrina on children who are living along the Gulf Coast.
This piece includes a number of high-resolution color photographs, the memorable photo-essay and an additional video.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2010/08/30/children-of-the-storm-five-years-after-hurricane-katrina/The unbelievable devastation of New Orleans is almost beyond human comprehension. The... more
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August 29th is not an auspicious date for the people of Northern Orleans, as five years ago on this very day more than 1800 people were made the victims of the monstrous hurricane, Katrina. It can be recollected that this was one among the events that had resulted in highest casualties in the recent times.
Obama ended his Martha’s Vineyard vacation Sunday and headed to the Gulf, five years to the day from when Katrina roared ashore in Louisiana.
After years where halting progress mixed often with setbacks and despair, the city was getting back on its feet when the BP oil spill dealt another blow. The exploded well spewed more than 200 million gallons of crude into the Gulf before it was capped in mid-July.
Read More: http://morichesdaily.com/2010/08/remembering-hurricane-katrina/August 29th is not an auspicious date for the people of Northern Orleans, as five... more
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