Oil from the BP spill remains stuck on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, according to a top scientist's video and slides that she says demonstrate the oil isn't degrading as hoped and has decimated life on parts of the sea floor. The report (not surprisingly) is at odds with a recent report by the BP spill compensation czar that said nearly all will be well by 2012.
Marine scientist Samantha Joye of the University of Georgia aired early results of her December submarine dives around the BP spill site. She went to places she had visited in the summer and expected the oil and residue from oil-munching microbes would be gone by then. It wasn't. Joye said, “We consistently saw dead fauna (animals) at all these sites. It’s likely there’s a fairly large area impacted.” Much of the oil she found on the sea floor was chemically fingerprinted, proving it comes from the BP spill.
The head of the agency in charge of the health of the Gulf said Saturday that she thought that "most of the oil is gone." And a Department of Energy scientist, doing research (funded by BP, it should be noted) said his examination of oil plumes in the water column show that microbes have done a "fairly fast" job of eating the oil. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab scientist Terry Hazen said his research differs from Joye's because they looked at different places at different times.
Joye's research was more widespread, but has been slower in being published in scientific literature. Mmmm . . . wonder why.
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