After one of their research vessels returned from the Gulf, University of South Florida scientists say they found significant amounts of toxic oil sitting on the Gulf floor – and it is killing sea life.
Small oil droplets speckle the Gulf floor and are hard to detect. Best seen under ultraviolet light these droplets were broken apart by the chemical dispersant BP used during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
A new government report recently declared that 75 percent of the oil is gone but USF scientists think it’s just more difficult to find because the dispersant has broken it apart and the oil has drifted farther east.
The report, which was released earlier this month, says 25 percent of oil was burned, skimmed or recovered. Twenty five percent evaporated. Another 24 percent dispersed naturally or by using chemicals. And the remaining 26 percent remains in the environment.
That residual oil at the 26 percent level represents five Exxon-Valdez quantities of oil released into the Gulf of Mexico and still there these many months later.” — Ian MacDonald, USF oceanographer.
An USF report discovered that microscopic sealife contains oil. Marine geochemist David Hollander says oil found in phytoplankton could affect the entire ecosystem of the Gulf.
A report by University of Georgia scientists also refutes the government report that most of the oil is gone. They analyzed the government data and believe up to 90 percent of the released oil remains in the environment, most of it in deep underwater in plumes.
So . . . 75% of the oil in the Gulf is gone while 75% remains.
Why, this here is just good old Texas figurin’ boys. You take your 75% and your 75% and you get one plus a whole nuther half.
And the Gulf of Texas is plenty big enough for three halves. Aww, sure it is. That’s how that oil can be mostly gone while it’s mostly still there.
It’s about optics. You know, the way when you look at a fish down in the water it isn’t actually where it seems to be. It’s actually over there a little bit. It’s there but it’s not there.
Same with oil. When you look at oil in the water, it isn’t actually there unless you know how to get it out of the water. If you savvy how to get it out of the water then it’s plain to see that it’s all there, and it’s all BP’s. Why, even the gummint will back that.
As soon as Kevin Costner or some other feller figures out how to get that 75% that’s not in the Gulf back out of the Gulf it’ll be BP’s oil instantly, and he’ll have to buy it from ‘em at their price just as fast as he pulls it out. Any oil he misses isn’t theirs and isn’t there.
It’s all about optics.
And as for the safety of Gulf seafood –
no. It ain’t safe to be seafood down there, not no how.