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David D. Dow Says:
May 3rd, 2010 at 4:53 pm
As a former resident of southeast Louisiana, I would urge the
scientific community (state/federal government agencies; academic
institutions and marine laboratories and NGOs) to develop a regional
monitoring program to assess the impacts of the oil spill and to
follow the recovery process. This monitoring effort might have to be
augmented by some process oriented research on sensitive biota and
their habitats to quantify oil spill effects and recovery potential.
The monitoring program should build upon existing surveys/programs
that have a historical baseline to establish the central tendencies
for key parameters and the natural range of variability. This baseline
is likely to include good information on fisheries and their essential
fish habitats in coastal waters and various intertidal wetlands;
subtidal seagrass beds; shellfish populations and bird species in
selected localities. Past surveys on marine mammals; benthic
organisms; non-target fish and shellfish species in coastal waters;
plankton; etc. are likely to be much more limited. The should be a lot
of analyzed remote sensing images from satellites to support this
endeavor.
I see the major challenge in organizing these diverse research groups
and developing a long term program which can achieve funding from the
federal government. The near term focus of the federal/sate
governments will be on the oil spill cleanup and assessing the natural
resource damage assessment resources impacted. Settlement of the NRDA
process between British Petroleum (BP) and the state/federal
governments is likely to take some time and be contentious in regards
to the restoration funds made available. The monitoring and process
oriented research funding should be separated from the NRDA process,
so that this effort can begin as soon as possible.
On May 3, 2010, at 5:54 PM, Judith S. Weis wrote:
And aside from the direct toxicity that the dispersants may have, they
make the hydrocarbons in the oil more available to the marine
organisms in
the offshore water that were previously not exposed to much, since
most of
the hydrocarbons were concentrated above them at the surface.
In
Ecotone, Josh Schimal responds to a question on long-term ecological
effects of the chemicals used during the Exxon Valdez cleanup, noting
that dispersants used were relatively short-lived (see below).
However,
in a recent article, Abrahm Lustgarten (recipient of a MacArthur
Foundation grant for international reporting) notes that the
dispersants
used by BP (which bought up a third of the world's supply) may have
long-term effects.
Chemicals Meant To Break Up BP Oil Spill Present New Environmental
Concerns
by Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica - April 30, 2010 5:44 pm EDT
http://www.propublica.org/article/bp-gulf-oil-spill-dispersants-0430
Hope Woodward
Hyampom, CA
Q: There were
several chemicals used during the Exxon Valdez cleanup. How were they
used and did they work? Were there any long term ecological effects
from the chemicals?
A (Josh Schimel):
At sea, they used dispersants. Those are likely relatively short-
lived
in the environment, and given the flow patterns of the Sound, would
be
flushed out to the south-west with the prevailing currents to be
diluted into the North Pacific Ocean. Their characteristics might
also
make them somewhat biodegradable or photodegradable themselves.
--- On Mon, 5/3/10, Katie Kline <[email protected]> wrote:
From: Katie Kline <[email protected]>
Subject: [ECOLOG-L] EcoTone: Q&A-Ecologists assess oil spill damage
To: [email protected]
Date: Monday, May 3, 2010, 12:27 PM
An oil slick originating from a rig about 130 miles southeast of New
Orleans, which is dumping oil into the Gulf of Mexico at a rate of
approximately 25,000 barrels per day, is drifting toward the Alabama,
Florida and Louisiana coasts, and scientists are still assessing the
ecological impact that will result. In this Q&A, three members of the
Ecological Society of America's Rapid Response Team discuss the
current
and possible future damage of this spill and the effects it could
have on
the Gulf region.
Read the full article and comment at
http://www.esa.org/esablog/ecology-in-policy/qa-ecologists-assess-oil-spill-damage/
.
