It’s still not Gone, It’s still harming Sea Life

So, just when you thought it was safe to go back into the Gulf of Mexico–because all those tourist ads paid for by BP told you so–you can clearly see that the nasty oil that spewed from the BP oil gusher still isn’t gone.  Not only is it still not gone, it’s still harming the ecosystem and the sea life in the area. I know, they keep telling you the seafood is safe too, right?  Well, think twice before you eat that blackened red snapper.  We’re suffering a sick fish epidemic down here.

The fear is palpable on the docks from Galveston to Panama City. Commercial fishermen working the waters hardest hit by the BP oil spill are worried sick about their future. It keeps them up at night. Many are convinced the 200 million gallons of crude that spewed into the Gulf last year have done irreparable damage to the fragile fisheries that provide their livelihood. According to a new CBS News segment, Gulf fishermen “have started catching fish with sores, fin rot, and infections at a greater frequency than ever before.”

It would seem BP’s oil is coming home to roost in an epidemic of sick fish and devastated lives. An Aug. 15 CBS News video – that’s going viral as we speak – captures the uncertainty of tens of thousands of commercial Gulf fishermen: “I don’t think we’ll be fishing in five years,” says Lucky Russell. “My opinion. …Everybody is worried.”

Everybody includes LSU oceanography Professor Jim Cowan, who has been studying the Gulf ecosystem for years:

“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.”

You can watch a news report and interviews on the nasty looking fish at CBS News.  There’s more coverage at the St Petersburg Times too.

“The fish have a bacterial infection and a parasite infection that’s consistent with a compromised immune system,” said Jim Cowan, an oceanographer at Louisiana State University, who has been examining them. “There’s no doubt it’s associated with a chronic exposure to a toxin.”

He believes the toxin in question is oil, given where and when the fish were caught, their symptoms, and the similarity to other incidents involving oil spills. But he is awaiting toxicology tests to be certain.

Cowan said he hasn’t seen anything like these fish in 25 years of studying the gulf, which persuades him that “it would be a pretty big coincidence if it wasn’t associated with the oil spill.”

If he were a detective, he’d be ready to make an arrest.

“It’s a circumstantial case,” he said, “but at the same time I think we can get a conviction.”

Red snapper are reef fish that feed on mantis shrimp, swimming crabs and other small creatures found in the sediment on the gulf floor. Anglers catch them at anywhere from 60 to 200 feet deep. In addition to the snapper, some sheepshead have turned up with similar symptoms, Cowan said.

The fish with lesions and other woes have been caught anywhere from 10 to 80 miles offshore between Pensacola and the mouth of the Mississippi River, an area hit hard by last year’s oil spill, Cowan said.

“They’re finding them out near the shelf edge, near the spill site,” said Will Patterson, a marine biology professor at the University of West Florida.

Patterson, who has been studying reef fish in the gulf for past two years, has sent some of the strange catches to a laboratory for toxicology tests. He suspects Cowan is correct about the oil being the culprit but is withholding judgment.

Red snapper are a popular seafood, with a delicate sweet flavor whether served broiled, baked, steamed, poached, fried or grilled. Asked whether the sick fish might pose a hazard to humans who ate them, Cowan said nobody would want to touch these, much less cook them.

“It’s pretty nasty,” Cowan said. “If you saw this, you wouldn’t eat it.”

It’s not just the fish.

One of the most worrisome accounts I’ve heard to date is from a veteran local crabber (and client of mine), who was kind enough to send me photos of what he’s been seeing just off the coast of Pensacola.

I should note that this is a followup to my June 24 post, Gulf “Seafood Safety” Update: Fisherman Pulls Up Sick, Visibly Oiled Crabs and “Black Goo” Off Florida Panhandle that went viral all the way up to a handful of reporters and producers at some of the most well-respected media outlets in the country (see link below). I can only hope those national outlets step up and shed some light on the grave state of our fisheries.

Here is the crabber’s report from off Pensacola in early July:

Our observation from the last two weeks is the number of these sick crabs has increased while the overall catch is down more than 70 percent since mid-April. As we have reported to the national marine fishery on our daily trip tickets, every crab we have sampled this year has come from a batch that, unfortunately, went to market. The copper-colored “stains” and holes and burns in the shell have just shown up in the last week. The stains are in the shell, so you can’t scrub them off.

BP and cronies refuse refuse to take full responsibility for the terrible accident on the rig that exploded over a year ago.  They continually blame  contractors and operators on the rig itself.  This includes the dead crew that can’t defend themselves. BP has essentially rolled up and left the area.  Problems with spills claims abound.  There’s evidence that BP’s claim process has been fraught with political decisions that may have even disenfranchised blacks impacted by the gusher.  Many locals have been asking an US Federal Judge to oversee the claims process.  The biggest complaint is that quick payment of a claim comes with signing away your future right to sue BP.  Obama appointee Kenneth Feinberg believes the process is fair.

Feinberg’s “near-complete failure to pay interim claims” is signaling victims that “the only way to ever get any more compensation is to take the quick payment amount and sign a release” agreeing not to sue for more, the lawyers said.

Feinberg’s lawyers counter in their filing that the fund has paid almost $2.6 billion in emergency payments to Gulf Coast residents damaged by the spill and another $250 million in interim payments.

“It’s hard to grasp how plaintiffs can assert as fact that GCCF has failed to provide interim relief,” Pitofsky said in the filing.

On the question of whether the fund is strong-arming Gulf Coast residents into signing away their rights to sue in exchange for inadequate compensation, Feinberg’s lawyer noted some claimants are drawn by the prospect of immediate cash for their claims.

Ongoing evidence that the impact of the spill continues shows that signing away future right to sue is not a prudent decision for Gulf Coast residents whose livelihood has been decimated.  However, they are left between having no money to live on now versus continuing problems stemming from the spill that are being well-documented by local scientists and regional universities.

This is worse than the continuing impact we’ve seen down here from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.  My local police district is still operating out of a temporary facility, just to give you an idea of what it’s still like.  Damage from the Gulf Spill is likely to accrue for some time if experience from the EXXON Valdez spill is any indicator.  Still, the pressure to to start up and expand drilling continues simply because of its short term profitability.  Here’s an article that contends there’s an “overreaction to the spill” that’s costing jobs.  There seems to be no indication that these business interests are aware of the number of small family businesses whose health, lifestyle, and economics have been forever impacted.