Scientists unsure why dolphins washing up dead

 Scientists unsure why dolphins washing up dead

By Vivian Kuo, CNN

April 8, 2011 1:56 a.m. EDT

Hundreds of dead bottlenose dolphins are washing ashore on the Gulf Coast.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Since February 2010, 406 dolphins have been found dead or stranded
• Sensitivity about marine life in the area is high after the BP oil disaster
• Scientists are also concerned about sea turtle strandings

RELATED TOPICS

• Dolphins
• Gulf of Mexico
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

(CNN) -- Dead baby bottlenose dolphins are continuing to wash up in record numbers on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, and scientists do not know why.
Since February 2010 to April 2011, 406 dolphins were found either stranded or reported dead offshore.
The occurrence has prompted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to designate these deaths as an "unusual mortality event" or UME. The agency defines a UME as a stranding incident that is unexpected or involves a significant loss of any marine mammal population.
"This is quite a complex event and requires a lot of analysis," said Blair Mase, the agency's marine mammal investigations coordinator.
Mase said NOAA is working closely with a variety of agencies to try to figure out not only why the bottlenose dolphins are turning up in such large quantities but also why the mammals are so young.
"These were mostly very young dolphins, either pre-term, neonatal or very young and less than 115 centimeters," she said.
Marine mammals are particularly susceptible to harmful algal blooms, infectious diseases, temperature and environmental changes, and human impact.
"The Gulf of Mexico is no stranger to unusual mortality events," Mase said.
Sensitivity surrounding marine life in the area is particularly high after the BP oil disaster that sent millions of barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico nearly a year ago.
The incident occurred on April 20, 2010, when a Deepwater Horizon rig leased to BP exploded, killing 11 workers and leading to the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
As recently as two weeks ago, scientists documented a dead dolphin with oil on its remains, Mase said.
Since the start of the oil spill, a total of 15 bottlenose dolphins have been found with either confirmed or suspected oil on their carcasses.
Even after the gushing well was capped, the agency said nine oiled dolphins have been found since November 2, 2010.
Of those nine, six were confirmed to contain oil from the incident; one was found with oil that did not match the Deepwater Horizon samples, and two have not yet been tested.
The dolphin deaths may be completely independent from the oil spill, Mase said.
"Even though they have oil on them, it may not be the cause of death," she said. "We want to look at the gamut of all the possibilities."
The agency said bottlenose dolphins are actually the most-frequently found stranding marine mammal.
Scientists say they are equally concerned about the number of sea turtle strandings.
Similar to the dolphin deaths, an abnormally high number of turtles have been found either floating close to shore or washed up on shores in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
"The vast majority of these are dead, with states in moderate to severe decomposition," said Barbara Schroeder, NOAA Fisheries national sea turtle coordinator.
The majority of them are Kemp's ridley sea turtles, an endangered species since 1970. But some strandings included loggerheads, which are also endangered.
"Since January 1st, we've had just under 100 strandings," Schroeder said. "About 87 of those have been documented since the middle of March."
Only about a third of those found were in good enough shape to perform necropsies, she said. Seven turtles showed indications that they had been in accidents involving watercrafts, while another displayed injuries consistent with being caught on a hook.
Results from the rest appeared to indicate they had drowned near the bottom of the Gulf -- possibly either from forced submergence or an acute toxic event.
NOAA Fisheries Stranding Program Coordinator Dr. Teri Rowles said tissue samples from both turtles and dolphins are being carefully documented due to the civil and criminal litigation ongoing with BP.

"We are looking at what is the impact of the oil spill and the response activities to the oil spill event, and what impact they had on the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem," she said. "We did not say that the dolphins have died because of the oil, just that they have come back with oil on them."

BP buys east beach of Cat Island

By KAREN NELSON - klnelson@sunherald.com

E-Mail Print Reprint or license

GULFPORT -- BP bought part of Cat Island last week.
A company spokesman confirmed the sale Thursday in an interview with the Sun Herald.
It bought the east-facing beach from the Boddie family, which owned a great deal of the island. The family still owns island acreage and there are about 30 private lots on another part of the island.

T

 

 

 

TIM ISBELL/SUN HERALD The eastern-facing beach of Cat Island forms the top of the T-shaped barrier island. BP confirmed Thursday it purchased this land from the Boddie family last week.

Cat is 2,000 acres, named for raccoons mistaken for cats by early explorers.
The other major land holder is the National Park Service’s Gulf Islands National Seashore, which has about 1,000 acres under federal protection. It is part of the National Seashore chain.
“We have bought much of the private land,” said Ray Melick, BP spokesman, “the whole stretch of beach that faces east.”
The island is shaped like a T, with the east-facing beach being the top of the T.
Melick said the company hasn’t decided what it will do with the land, but the purchase will help it expedite cleanup of the islands in the wake of the BP oil spill.
“It’s easier to deal with it when it’s not privately owned,” Melick said.
More than 1,700 tons of tar, oily sand and oiled debris had been collected from the chain of barrier islands as of early March.

Read more: http://www.sunherald.com/2011/04/07/3010614/bp-buys-east-beach-of-cat-island.html#storylink=omni_popular?storylink=addthis#ixzz1IwVYVE00

Tuscaloosa News

EDITORIAL: John Wathen gets environmental accolades

Published: Tuesday, April 5, 2011 at 3:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Monday, April 4, 2011 at 9:52 p.m.

( page 1 of 2 )

 Hurricane CREEKKEEPER by P. Batson, flight by SouthWings

John Wathen, the CREEKKEEPER for Friends of Hurricane Creek, is an ubiquitous figure in these parts in his efforts to protect his fragile watershed feeding into the Black Warrior River.

If someone is perceived to be polluting Hurricane Creek and others creeks that feed into it, Wathen is usually there within hours with his cameras and knowledge of environmental law. He has also been known to go a few public rounds with local and state agencies charged with protecting the environment throughout West Alabama.

But his receipt of the Wild South's

Roosevelt-Ashe Society Conservation Award for Outstanding Journalist in Conservation had less to do with his local efforts than it did his indefatigable work for the national Waterkeeper Alliance following the oil spill nearly a year ago in the Gulf of Mexico.

The award is given to people who have contributed to the environmental movement during the year by Asheville, N.C.-Wild South, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to inspire people to enjoy, value and protect the wild character and natural legacy of the South. Wathen was chosen as a nominee for the media work that he does based around environmental issues.

“We all have the same premise that these are our waters, and people don't have a right to deprive us of those clean waters,” Wathen said.

In addition to his photographic and video documentation of ongoing conditions in the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of the blow-out of the BP-operated Deepwater Horizon well last April, Wathen is a prolific blogger who can be found on the web by searching for “BP Slick.” He said the blog is a group effort of more than 300 people along the Gulf Coast over the last year and has had well over two million Internet visitors.

Nelson Brooke, the Black Warrior Riverkeeper, nominated Wathen for his work at the Gulf and at home.

“John is an amazing advocate and activist,” Brooke said. “(He) has done an incredible job in the past number of years giving up his personal time to get out and document major, national, environmental catastrophes and put the word out there in the form of blogs, photos and videos so that the masses can see what's going on out there from the ground and from the air. He's giving a viewpoint that's just not being given by the general media.”

But Wathen said despite the prestigious award he received, the attention should be elsewhere.

“I got an award for journalism and for just telling the story of people who are in pretty dire straits down there on the coast,” Wathen said. “It's their story. “

And sadly, as those touched by the spill struggle to recover, it is a story that is likely to continue for quite some time.

New aerial images deepen concerns about Gulf seafood safety

 

Facing South

New aerial images from the Gulf of Mexico are deepening concerns about whether seafood currently being harvested from those waters is safe to eat.



Hurricane Creekkeeper John Wathen of Alabama flew over the Gulf on March 19 and 20 on a flight provided by On Wings of Care and videotaped what he saw. Though Wathen works for the Waterkeeper Alliance, he did this work on his own and does not speak for any group in the video.

His conclusion is sure to prove controversial.

"In my opinion," Wathen says, "nothing that's being caught in these waters today is safe for human consumption."

The federal Food and Drug Administration insists that Gulf seafood is safe to eat. "Although crude oil has the potential to taint seafood with flavors and odors caused by exposure to hydrocarbon chemicals, the public should not be concerned about the safety of seafood in stores at this time," the FDA states on its BP oil spill update page.

Wathen's flight took him from Alabama down to the Mississippi coast and west along the Louisiana coast. When he got to the Gulf, he witnessed the same strange purple color he saw in the water back in July and August of last year. He also caught faint whiffs of oil.

"Sheens coming in on the horizon that were miles long, rainbow on the water and this funny color of purple deep down inside," he says. "And yet there it was -- a shrimp boat with its nets in the water, catching shrimp to send to a table somewhere in Middle America where nobody sees what I see."

Wathen -- who recently received Wild South's Roosevelt-Ashe Society Conservation Award for Outstanding Journalist in Conservation -- says he's taken flak for talking publicly about what he's seeing and what he thinks it means. In his video, he assures viewers that it's not his aim to hurt fishermen or the Gulf region's economy.

But at the same time, he doesn't want people to be hurt by eating unsafe seafood.

"I think that whoever's responsible for this should be paying these people to take their boats out of the water until we can figure out what's going on," he says.

You can watch his video here:



Wathen isn't alone in raising concerns about recent images coming out of the Gulf. In a post made last week to its blog, the nonprofit group SkyTruth shared Google Earth photos that suggest shrimp trawlers are churning up oil that settled to the seafloor:

Meanwhile, Vietnamese-American shrimpers in Mississippi have pulled up nets full of oil from the seafloor and "have had to decide whether to report the oil to the Coast Guard, which would mean dumping their day's catch, or pretend they don't see the oil," according to Courthouse News Service.

(Photo at top is a still from Wathen's latest video from the Gulf.)

By Sue Sturgis on April 4, 2011 11:03 AM 0 Vote 0 Votes

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Wathen honored for his attention to Gulf oil spill, Hurricane Creek

Staff file photo | The Tuscaloosa News

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John Wathen, the Hurricane Creekkeeper from Friends of Hurricane Creek, has received the Wild South’s Roosevelt-Ashe Society Conservation Award for Outstanding Journalist in Conservation.

By Patty Vaughan Special to the Tuscaloosa News

Published: Monday, April 4, 2011 at 3:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, April 3, 2011 at 11:13 p.m. 

( page 1 of 3 )

John Wathen, the Hurricane Creekkeeper from Friends of Hurricane Creek, has received the Wild South’s Roosevelt-Ashe Society Conservation Award for Outstanding Journalist in Conservation.

Wathen was recognized for his research on last year’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill, according to a Friends of Hurricane Creek news release.

“It’s given to various volunteers and people who have contributed to the environmental movement through the year,” Wathen said. “I was chosen as a nominee for the media work that I do based around environmental issues here in Tuscaloosa County, but primarily for my work in the Gulf of Mexico last year.”

Wathen cares for the watershed and is the enforcement for polluters at Hurricane Creek. For the Gulf Coast, he works with the Waterkeeper Alliance, an international federation of groups.

“We all have the same premise that these are our waters, and people don’t have a right to deprive us of those clean waters,” Wathen said.

By traveling to the coast off and on for about a year, Wathen was able to take photos and video of the oil spill and post all of it on his blog, BP Slick.

“I got an award for journalism and for just telling the story of people who are in pretty dire straits down there on the coast,” Wathen said. “It’s their story. It was for my continued writing, photography and videography in the Gulf. That blog site, BP Slick, is a chronological record of everything I did in the Gulf of Mexico from the day I got there.”

Nelson Brooke, the Black Warrior Riverkeeper, nominated Wathen for his work at Hurricane Creek, but also his work in the Gulf.

“John is an amazing advocate and activist,” Brooke said. “(He) has done an incredible job in the past number of years giving up his personal time to get out and document major, national, environmental catastrophes and put the word out there in the form of blogs, photos and videos so that the masses can see what’s going on out there from the ground and from the air. He’s giving a viewpoint that’s just not being given by the general media.”

Wathen said his group, SouthWings,  was flying over the Gulf in airplanes and bringing back pictures and video that were refuting what the U.S. Coast Guard was reporting at the time.

OIL in the Chandeleur Barrier Islands By JLW

“(Commandant Adm.) Thad Allen said one day that there was ‘Potential oiling at the Mississippi River.’ We photographed massive oil slicks covering the islands out there, and the Mississippi River was literally weeping oil out of it,” Wathen said. “The next day, Thad Allen upgraded his statement to say that the situation was far more grave than he had been told the day before.”

Laurie Johns, president of the board of Friends of Hurricane Creek, said the organization hires him to specifically keep the creek clean.

“He does a great job of evidence gathering and documenting the violations that he finds,” Johns said. “While this award came to their attention primarily for his work he did in the Gulf, John is working as hard as he possible can to get the word out that actually everything is not OK down there.”

Wathen said his blog site has more than 2 million followers.

“I’m not trying to take an extreme amount of credit for just being a storyteller, but if there hadn’t been storytellers like myself and others down there, you would have never heard the truth about what really happened in the Gulf of Mexico and it’s still happening today,” Wathen said. “Our waters are not safe, and our seafood is not safe.”

Wathen said he has photographed shrimp boats hauling shrimp from oil-stained water.

Shrimp boat pulls nets through fresh oil By JLW

“Our people are eating this stuff, because the government says it’s safe, and we’re looking at oil all over the fishing grounds,” he said.

Wathen said anyone willing to just take a camera, a cell phone video or a recording device can tell a story of what’s happening in their area and people will listen. 

“You don’t have to be a credentialed journalist or a newspaper reporter to be able to tell a story,” Wathen said. “Everybody has that capability, and with today’s technology, it’s really amazing that more people don’t do it. Anybody can do it, and everybody should be doing it.”

BP Worker admits to threat of firing for wearing respirator.

 Louisiana offshore oil work, Clayton Matherne, describes health problems he is experiencing due to the effects of the BP oil spill.

I've talked to too many clean-up workers who all attest to the fact that BP said they would be terminated if caught using a respirator.

Clayton Matherne from Blackbird Media on Vimeo.

Shrimp Trawling Re-Suspending BP Oil?

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Shrimp Trawling Re-Suspending BP Oil?

Way back last autumn I had a nagging thought: once oil impacted areas of the Gulf were re-opened to fishing in the wake of the BP / Deepwater Horizon spill, would shrimp trawlers repeatedly churn up oil that had settled on the seafloor?

Google Earth panoramic image showing sediment plumes raised by bottom-trawl fishing for shrimp along the Louisiana coast. More images here.

As the federal government proceeds with a long and complicated legal and scientific process, the Natural Resources Damage Assessment, they are holding a series of public meetings to get input and comments from affected Gulf-area residents. At a meeting last week in Biloxi, Mississippi,

Vietnamese shrimpers said they have pulled up nets full of oil from the seafloor and have had to decide whether to report the oil to the Coast Guard, which would mean dumping their day's catch, or pretend they don't see the oil.

John Lliff, a supervisor with NOAA's Damage Assessment Remediation and Restoration Program, said no one knows how much of the seafloor is covered in oil.

Until the oil totally disappears, it seems highly likely that this will continue. But we don't have a clue how long the oil will linger, or what the impacts of this would be on the health of fishermen, the recovery of the Gulf ecosystem, or the safety of seafood.

Meanwhile, some of our politicians seem to be ignoring the fact that the world's worst accidental oil spill happened here in our own back yard less than a year ago, and are intent on returning to business as usual without assuring the public that drilling is any safer than it was last April. Does anybody else see this as a recipe for another disaster?

Posted by John at 11:22 AM