July 2012
FEATURES
Dear EarthTalk: I’ve seen a lot of
warm and fuzzy TV ads, some spon-
sored by BP Oil, urging me to vaca-
tion in the Gulf of Mexico. But are
things really “back to normal?”
– Paul Shea, Dublin, OH
The Gulf of Mexico may be open for
business and eager to attract tourists,
but it’s still unclear whether or not ma-
rine and coastal ecosystems there are
healthy two years after BP’s offshore
drilling rig exploded 40 miles off the
Louisiana coast, eventually releasing
205.8 million gallons of oil into the
water column.
Five months after the April 2010
disaster the Obama administration re-
leased a detailed recovery plan, calling
for spending up to $21 billion—most
which would come from BP’s civil
penalties—on clean-up and long-term
ecosystem restoration.
With much of this work—designed
to complement the restorative powers
of Mother Nature—well underway,
some observers are pleased with the
results so far.
“The natural recovery is far greater
than what anybody hoped when it
happened,” says James Morris, a Uni-
versity of South Carolina biologist.
Morris is a member of the National
Research Council committee tasked
by Congress to assess the effects of the
spill on the Gulf’s ecosystem.
“The fears of most people—that
there would be a catastrophic collapse
of the ecosystem in the Gulf—never
materialized,” says Morris.
“The fisheries have come back like
gangbusters,” Morris reports. “One
of the interesting findings was that
after the oil spill, bait fish populations
collapsed, and predator populations
boomed.”
According to Morris, “The reason
was that there was no fishing pressure
on the top predators because people
stopped fishing after the spill. So the
predator fish populations rebounded,
and they grazed down their prey.”
Not everyone shares such a rosy
view. The international environmental
group Greenpeace reports: “Through-
out the food chain, warning signs are
accumulating.”
The organization notes “Dolphins
are sick and dying. Important forage
fish are plagued with gill and devel-
opmental damage.”
Additionally, “Deepwater species
like snapper have been stricken with
lesions and their reefs are losing bio-
diversity. Coastal communities are
struggling with changes to the fisheries
they rely upon.”
Greenpeace also reports that “Hard-
hit oyster reefs aren’t coming back
and sport fish like speckled trout have
disappeared from some of their tradi-
tional haunts.”
Still other observers argue that
two years is not enough time to tell
whether the region’s ecosystems will
be severely damaged long term.
“We really don’t know the effects
the Deepwater Horizon spill had in
the deep sea because we know little
about the ecosystem processes there,”
reports Gary Cherr, director of UC
Davis’ Bodega Marine Laboratory and
a lead author on a recently released pa-
per published in the journal Bioscience.
The Southwest Portland Post • 7
It's been two years since BP’s offshore drilling rig exploded 40 miles off the
Louisiana coast, eventually releasing 205.8 million gallons of oil into the water
column. (2010 photo courtesy U.S. Coast Guard)
Cherr and his fellow researchers, in-
cluding leading oceanographers, eco-
toxicologists, and ecologists, conclude
that scientists need more time to study
how to contain damage from such ac-
cidents, especially given the trend to
seek new sources of oil in off-shore
regions around the U.S. and beyond.
“The deep sea is not a dead zone. It’s
not a desert. There’s a lot of life down
there,” adds Cherr.
“Unfortunately it’s not until a di-
saster happens that we try to piece
together the impacts. That’s difficult to
do when you don’t have a complete—
or even partial—understanding of the
ecosystem.”
CONTACTS: James Morris, ww2.
biol.sc.edu/~morris; Greenpeace,
www.greenpeace.org; Bioscience pa-
per, www.aibs.org/bioscience-press-
releases/resources/Peterson.pdf.
EarthTalk® is written and edited by
Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a reg-
istered trademark of E - The Environmental
Magazine (www.emagazine.com). Send
questions to: earthtalk@emagazine.com.
Soil at Corbett to be Tested
(Continued from Page 1)
fruit of large trees. There is a greater
danger from root vegetables grown in
contaminated soil, she said. “Getting
your soil tested is always a good first
step,” Zeal said.
The representatives were asked why
they hadn’t conducted these tests ear-
lier. “I don’t have an answer to that,”
Manzano said.
– Lee Perlman
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