Tag Archives: deepwater-horizon

BP Gas Stations See Rise In Vandalism

BP gas station franchises across the United States are anxious to distance themselves from the British oil multinational as the Deepwater Horizon oil catastrophe has led to a spike in vandalism, a drop in business and sometimes hate from customers. added by: The_Global_Report

Is this the First of Many "Oil Spill Suicides"?

Well, it is depressing… Image: NASA, public domain. The 12th Victim of the Deepwater Horizon? If the BP oil spill in the Gulf of New Mexico never happened, William Allen “Rookie” Kruse might still be alive. At least that’s what his family thinks, and they’d like him to be considered the 12th victim of the explosion that took place on the Deepwater Horizon rig. … Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Is this the First of Many "Oil Spill Suicides"?

BP Oil Spill Kills its Largest Victim Yet

On Tuesday, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ship spotted the 25-foot animal due south of the Deepwater Horizon site. The water the whale was floating in was not oiled. The fate of the whales, which have frequently been spotted swimming in the oil by planes overhead, has been of intense concern to wildlife biologists. Blair Mase, the Southeast marine mammal stranding coordinator for the oceanic agency, said that scientists were “very concerned” that oil was the cause of the whale’s death, but that the whale’s body was so decomposed and scavenged by sharks that it would be impossible to say for certain. There are an estimated 1,700 sperm whales that live in gulf waters and they are known to congregate particularly at the mouth of the Mississippi River, a rich feeding ground. Unlike other whales, which travel long distances, these live full-time in the Gulf and do not usually mingle with sperm whale pods in the neighboring Caribbean and Sargasso Sea. Ms. Mase said that the dead whale was almost certainly a gulf whale. Scientists will try to determine whether the whale had been swimming through oil by using a method known as hindcasting, which looks at how bloated an animal’s body is to calculate how long it has been dead, then retraces patterns in water currents to tell where the body might have drifted from. The whale’s condition suggests it has been dead for at least several days, Ms. Mase said. Scientists are also taking skin samples from the whale, which will be tested for petroleum. The results of those tests, as well as tests on its skin and blubber to determine its gender, may take weeks to process, the oceanic agency said. Government workers are also trying to rule out other possible causes of death, like a ship strike or net entanglement. “It is a relatively rare occurrence,” said Ms. Mase, who added that there have been only five or six whale deaths in the gulf in five years, “so we are studying this very carefully.” NOAA sent a research ship to the area around the Deepwater Horizon a few days ago specifically to learn whether the oil spill was changing whales’ behavior and if so, in what ways. Because whales are large and very mobile, they are relatively less vulnerable to oil spills than other sea life. However, the whales are classified as endangered and the crude oil is toxic to them. Moreover, they prefer to dive and fish right off the continental shelf, where the Deepwater Horizon wellhead is located, and their sensitivity to the large plumes of oil droplets and the enormous amount of dispersants being used to combat this disaster is unknown. Hal Whitehead, a biologist who studies at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, said sperm whales are highly social animals that live in matriarchal groups like elephants. They communicate through noises that sound like clicks, which researchers refer to as a dialect. They have also shown behaviors that resemble mourning. In one case, Dr. Whitehead said, when a young sperm whale died, its mother carried its carcass around in her mouth. Sperm whales live anywhere from 60 to 100 years, scientists estimate. But they reproduce on average only every five years, which is why even a few whale deaths can be significant, Dr. Whitehead said. Check out this blog about the death of sperm whales in the Gulf — “Tony and the Whale,” written by a Greenpeace Oceans Campaigner, John Hocevar: http://members.greenpeace.org/blog/greenpeaceusa_blog/2010/06/21/tony-and-the-wh… “The whale's death puts the population of sperm whales that live in the Gulf at risk of extinction. US government scientists have estimated that the loss of as few as three adult whales due to the spill might be enough to cause them to die out in the Gulf of Mexico. Sperm whales produce only one calf every five years. Their slow rate of maturity and their low birth rate make them particularly vulnerable to things like oil spills – or commercial whaling, which nearly wiped out the entire species before the moratorium took effect in 1986.” (More at link) added by: captainplanet71

Texas congressman "Smokey Joe" Barton apologizes to BP’s Tony Hayward!

As stunned spectators and fellow members of the congressional oversight committee on energy watched, Texas Republican Joe Barton began his opening comments to the congressional hearings this morning into the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster by apologizing to the star witness, BP CEO Tony Hayward. http://looncanada.wordpress.com/2010/06/17/loon-extra-texas-congressman-smokey-j… added by: looncanada

What if We Can’t Stop the BP Oil Leak? The Nightmare Scenario [Worst Case]

What’s the worst case scenario for the BP oil spill ? How about the horrifying possibility of leaks in the pipe below the sea floor—leaks that could open up a “gusher… directly into the oil deposit”? More

Ocean Currents Likely to Carry Gushing Oil Into Atlantic by Summer’s End (Video)

With every attempt so far to stop the gusher of oil from the Deepwater Horizon failed, the grim news is that it could flow until Ch… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Ocean Currents Likely to Carry Gushing Oil Into Atlantic by Summer’s End (Video)

The Idiots Responsible for the BP Oil Leak Disaster [Blame Game]

It’s been one month since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig blew up, and oil is still leaking at an astonishing rate. Entire state economies might be crushed, and whole ecosystems wiped out. So whose fault is it? More