The varied fiscal and ecological ramifications of gulf oil rupture

[Zacha341]

The varied fiscal and ecological ramifications of the gulf oil rupture

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/06...od-restaurants

BP oil spill poses growing worry for US seafood restaurants

Seafood restaurants and others are tracking the BP oil spill and trying to glean just how much impact it will have on menu prices and consumer perception.

• 

President Barack Obama visits Camardelle's, a live bait shop and seafood restaurant, to meet with residents regarding the BP oil spill in Grand Isle, La., Friday.

Charles Dharapak/AP

By Mark Guarino, Staff writer / June 4, 2010
Outside the Gulf of Mexico, where the BP oil spill besets the coastal states, the US seafood industry is bracing for a crisis that is not connected to a region but to a perception: that any seafood, no matter where its origins, may be contaminated by oil.
Skip to next paragraph

• 
  Photo Gallery
  Sticky mess: The Gulf oil spill's impact on nature

Related Stories

• What popularity of the BP live feed 'spillcam' says about us
• Louisianans to Obama on BP oil spill: Show us we matter
• 'Top cap' on BP oil spill not tight enough as crude keeps spewing

Far north of the Gulf, restaurant owners and wholesalers are tracking where the oil slick is traveling and trying to glean just how much impact it will have on menu prices and consumer perception. There are already reports of tar balls and oily substances in the Florida Keys, and worries are rising that this summer’s hurricane season will push the oil around Florida's southern tip, where it could enter the Gulf Stream and head north to the fishing grounds off the mid-Atlantic coast.

Jim Filip, owner of Doris & Ed’s, a 90-seat seafood restaurant in Highlands, N.J., is tracking the oil’s path via computer projections he finds on the Internet. He stopped buying seafood from the Gulf four weeks ago, not because he believes it is tainted, but because he doesn’t want to lie to customers who are now asking about the origin of his shrimp and oysters.

IN PICTURES: The Gulf oil spill's impact on nature
Mr. Filip worries about the ways the oil spill threatens his business: how high seafood prices may rise and how long it will take the oil-ruined oyster beds in the Gulf to be clean again.

“I can’t think of anything worse. We don’t know where [the oil slick] is going to go and what it’s going to do to you. It’s a waiting game,� he says.
For restaurants far outside the Gulf, what is known is that customers are concerned. Since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded 40 miles off the Louisiana coast and sent oil into fertile fishing areas, restaurateurs are working to assuage the fears of worried diners about where their food is coming from.
“They ask us if the fish is from where the oil is. They ask us all time,� says Linda Blyth, who works at Go Fish!, a seafood restaurant in Rehoboth Beach, Del. For Ms. Blyth, the questions are especially worrisome because her restaurant specializes in Icelandic cod, which she says is fished off the coast of Canada.

Consumer perception “is absolutely one of biggest concerns right now,� says Gavin Gibbons, spokesman for the National Fisheries Institute, a nonprofit advocacy group for the US seafood industry. Consumer hesitancy about seafood is not necessarily warranted, he says, considering that 83 percent of the seafood Americans consume is imported.

Oysters raise the greatest concern among consumers, and for good reason: 70 percent of this country’s supply comes from the Gulf, says Mr. Gibbons. To date, 32 percent of federal fishing waters in the Gulf are closed to commercial and recreational fishing. He says wholesalers are responding to the potential shortfall by raising prices on Gulf product between 10 and 30 percent.
It is not yet known how the oil is affecting the marine life in the Atlantic. Gibbons is optimistic, saying that migratory species, unlike species bound to a seabed, will simply move in the opposite direction of water contaminated with large plumes of oil.

“We’re watching that and certainly it’s a concern, but it’s also a different dynamic,� he says. “There’s not a lot you can do in preparing for it.�
Blyth says she worries about friends who own local crab houses, who depend on crab pulled up off the South Carolina's crab-rich coast.

For them, a movement of oil around the tip of Florida “could be detrimental� to their livelihood. South Carolina is "a hop, skip, and a jump from Florida,� she says.
IN PICTURES: The Gulf oil spill's impact on nature

[Flanders]

All the government and BP has to do is open up some of the closed areas to fishing in the Gulf twice or so per week.

The harvested seafood could then be sold in restaurants and fish markets with the disclaimer that the seafood is indeed from the Gulf of Mexico, and name it "Haley Barbour's Seafood Cocktail Mousse", or "Glenn Beck's Crude Clambake" or "Rush Limbaugh's Natural Shrimp Cocktail "[[fried in its own juices)

RWers and Dittoheads could once again then get their weekly requirement of "brainfood" with the blessing of their leaders.

[oladub]

There are reports that cloud formation above the Gulf oil slick is reduced based on NASA photos. This is because the oil prevents evaporation. Reduced cloud formation means reduced rain in the Gulf area and possibly drought in Gulf states. Since the upper midwest recieves much of it's precipitation from the Gulf, this could also have a slight effect on upper midwest precipitation which, in turn, would decrease crop production.

[Jimaz]

Hurricane season is starting. I'm wondering if a hurricane would vacuum up all the surface oil and fling it widely inland. Who knows what problems that would cause?

Maybe the oil's effect on evaporation would inhibit hurricanes.

[Zacha341]

Affect on crops. Ugh, now that's a ramification.

There are reports that cloud formation above the Gulf oil slick is reduced based on NASA photos. This is because the oil prevents evaporation. Reduced cloud formation means reduced rain in the Gulf area and possibly drought in Gulf states. Since the upper midwest recieves much of it's precipitation from the Gulf, this could also have a slight effect on upper midwest precipitation which, in turn, would decrease crop production.

[Detroitej72]

There are reports that cloud formation above the Gulf oil slick is reduced based on NASA photos. This is because the oil prevents evaporation. Reduced cloud formation means reduced rain in the Gulf area and possibly drought in Gulf states. Since the upper midwest recieves much of it's precipitation from the Gulf, this could also have a slight effect on upper midwest precipitation which, in turn, would decrease crop production.

Alright Oladub, what are your thoughts on this?

From you past posts, I think you are a conservative-leaning individual, that's cool and I respect that.

I'm interested in hearing your views on the environmental impact, do you believe man can influence weather patterns, and is that is a good or bad thing.

[oladub]

Alright Oladub, what are your thoughts on this?

From you past posts, I think you are a conservative-leaning individual, that's cool and I respect that.

I'm interested in hearing your views on the environmental impact, do you believe man can influence weather patterns, and is that is a good or bad thing.

'To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction' should be a rough guideline. The earth is sort of like a living being that responds very slowly to changes on it's surface. The earth has self healing responses to address irritations. There will be reactions to human pollution or even more significant pollution such as that from volcanoes. If too much of the earth's water melts or freezes, I don't remember which, the earth can get a bit lopsided and wobble on it's axis to establish a new pole. This can and has created worldwide 200 MPH winds that flatten most everything. Human starvation ensues and Earth will have shaken off nuisance pests.

While we need energy, I think the best thing that government could do to conserve energy is to stop subsidizing its use beginning with oil wars. More recently, of course, we learned what we get when government policy subsidizes oil. It could have been worse. it could have been a nuclear reactor in Illinois. Gasoline might double in price if we didn't pay OPEC what they want but we could save a lot of tax money by bringing our troops and fleets home from the mid-east. Everyone would be screaming for a Volt or Leaf. As soon as that happens, our gas consumption plummets and our atmospere becomes cleaner. It will happen sooner if the government stops subsidizing oil.

China and India cannot ever come up to our standard of living using oil the way we do although they have as much right to as us. We would soon be fighting cataclismic wars over remaining oil. Wars will happen much sooner than fatal climate change caused by human activity. Consequently, I'm more concerned about resource wars than human gobal warming. Wars aren't usually good for ecology either. If enough nuclear bombs explode, they wil burn down huge forests in the northern hemisphere and cause a nuclear winter.

[oladub]

Back to the OP topic.

These have been found in the Gulf stream air quality, at much higher levels than safe.1. Hydrogen Sulfide at :1200ppb, 2. Benzene :3000ppb, 3. Methylene Chloride :3000 to 3400 ppb - posted by Hellfire 2019 on the Bar and Grill

The real reason the oil still flows into the Gulf of Mexico. I don't agree with the conclusion of this article but the connections are interesting. Some of the information below is from the letters following the article.

"The dispersant chemical is known as Corexit. What it does is hold the oil below the water's surface. It is supposed to break up the spill into smaller pools. It is toxic and banned in Europe." Exxon invented this chemical which is four times as toxic as oil. Haldol, a Chicago firm, manufactures Corexit. The chemical is cumulative....it moves UP the food chain.

Godman Sachs is double lucky. GS sold 44% of it's BP stock just two weels before the spill. GS also bought Haldol prior to the spill. Timing is everything. BP had so far dumped over 800,000 gallons of Corexit into the Gulf.

The oil, or the oil and Corexit, are emiting quite a bit of Benzine. Oil clean up workers are getting sick.


BENZINE
"How can benzene affect my health? Breathing very high levels of benzene can result in death, while high levels can cause drowsiness, dizziness, rapid heart rate, headaches, tremors, confusion, and unconsciousness. Eating or drinking foods containing high levels of benzene can cause vomiting, irritation of the stomach, dizziness, sleepiness, convulsions, rapid heart rate, and death.
The major effect of benzene from long-term exposure is on the blood. Benzene causes harmful effects on the bone marrow and can cause a decrease in red blood cells leading to anemia. It can also cause excessive bleeding and can affect the immune system, increasing the chance for infection.
Diseases associated with exposure to Benzene: Aplastic anemia, Encephalopathy, chronic solvent Erythroleukemia, Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia, Acute Myelogenous Leukemia, acute toxic solvent effects
Some women who breathed high levels of benzene for many months had irregular menstrual periods and a decrease in the size of their ovaries. It is not known whether benzene will affect fertility in men." http://www.home-air-purifier-expert.com/benzene.html

more-
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_594592.html
BP SPILL - MEDIA BLACKOUT AND POSSIBLE MARTIAL LAW 1/2 -tin foil more fun version of the Huffington article

[oladub]

"A marsh cannot be cleaned without destroying it. Three things break oil pollution down: evaporation, sunlight, and microbial action. Evaporation and sunlight take a long time and stop being effective when dead march plants and animals fall on the oil, burying it and shielding it. Microbial action does a lot - to a point. Bacteria will eat many of the compounds present in oil, then they'll stop and return to their regular diet. For all intents and purposes, the oil remains toxic for decades.

In 1969, the oil barge Florida ran aground in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, spilling approximately 175,000 gallons of #2 fuel oil into the bay. The scientists at Woods Hole were [[somewhat morbidly) happy about this - here was an oil spill right in their backyard - and as a result, the oil that fetched up in Wild Harbor marsh in West Falmouth is quite likely the most studied oil spill site in the world.

The last study that I know of was published in 2003, and found that the amount of oil still in that marsh remains the same as it was when it was last surveyed back in 1973, 30 years before. Another study documented that the oil in that marsh is still toxic for burrowers: mussels and fiddler crabs [[who dig down until they hit the oil layer, 2 to 6 inches below the surface, then burrow back up to the surface). All species there show diminished growth, feeding and breeding activities. Fiddler crabs who come into contact with the buried oil stagger about like drunks.

Oil in a marsh is going to stay there and remain toxic for a lifetime. At least. There's no sugarcoating this, and there's no technological fix."
-posted by papicek June 13, 11:35am http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6594#comment-649115

One more reason this oil has to be sucked up before it gets to shore .

[Papasito]

.....the seafood is indeed from the Gulf of Mexico, and name it "Haley Barbour's Seafood Cocktail Mousse", or "Glenn Beck's Crude Clambake" or "Rush Limbaugh's Natural Shrimp Cocktail "

because, of course, talk radio entertainers physically caused this oil leak. an oil leak caused by a deep sea platform constructed because environmentalists pushed oil drilling offshore in the first place. and by an oil company that donates heavily to both political parties.

some of the partisan comments I see here are just rediculous at this point... [[on both sides)

[Mama Jackson]

If the information gathered from the survivors of the clean up in Alaska is any indication, this is just the beginning of the problems. Both of the "spills" are beyond tragic.

We need to find something other than oil and gas to power our vehicles ASAP-or invest in a transporation system that removes so much emphasis on the individual owning and driving a gas guzzler everywhere-everyday. My hats off to Great Britian. You can get anywhere in that country without a vehicle and your own two feet-if necessary. Loved travel there.

www.silenceinthesound.com/stories.shtml#Riki

[Papasito]

Finally, weeks later, BP & the Fed OK Costner's machines!

As efforts to contain the 114 million gallons of oil that have gushed into the Gulf dragged on with only partial success, BP has ordered 32 centrifuge machines from Ocean Therapy Solutions, a company backed by Costner. The centrifuges, which weigh in at about 4,000 pounds each, suck in oil and water and spin them at high speeds. Because they have different densities, the fluids are separated, the oil is trapped, and clean salt water is released back into the ocean.

http://fieldnotes.msnbc.msn.com/_new...anup?Gt1=43001

[oladub]

This computer model predicts the spread of the BP oil spill over one year. Florida's tourist business may be in for a tough time on both coasts .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAiG-TPYIFM&

[Zacha341]

Tragic what a spill [[rupture) like this will do if not stopped...

This computer model predicts the spread of the BP oil spill over one year. Florida's tourist business may be in for a tough time on both coasts .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAiG-TPYIFM&

[Detroitej72]

This computer model predicts the spread of the BP oil spill over one year. Florida's tourist business may be in for a tough time on both coasts .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAiG-TPYIFM&

Thanks, yet again to St. Ronald of Regan, and all the neo-con Republicans[[including Bill Clinton!) who have given us 30-plus years of[[failed) deregulation of government, and instead, graced us with corporate regulation!

If this current Conservative Republican Crisis has taught us one thing, let it be that when you go to the polls next election, vote for those who favor a strict regulation of the oil industry and banking, as they have proved, time and time again, you can't trust the fox to watch the hen house!

[Papasito]

Thanks, yet again to St. Ronald of Regan, and all the neo-con Republicans[[including Bill Clinton!) who have given us 30-plus years of[[failed) deregulation of government, and instead, graced us with corporate regulation!

There you go again being blindly partisan. Obama has spent more time golfing and partying than he has on making stricter regulations on offshore drilling, or on the oil disaster itself. And don't forget there was 8 years of Clinton after Reagan/Bush I, as well as a Democratic controlled congress even up until recently, that could have pushed the changes you are shoving partisanly on Republicans. This meltdown resulted from a total Government failure. It's not a good guy [[D) bad guy [[R) thing.

[oladub]

The bacteria didn't eat all the oil after all. It seems that the oil settled to the bottom of the Gulf There are some bacteria living in the oil but otherwise life is absent in this oily carpet. What we need are some seafloor Zambonis to resurface the Gulf.

Oil From the BP Spill Found at Bottom of Gulf

[Detroitej72]

What we need are some seafloor Zambonis to resurface the Gulf.

Maybe we could dump a few million zebra mussels down there and see if they can filter all the oil out. They seem to be immune to everything anyway.

[3WC]

Actually, relatively speaking, the gulf spill is no big deal. It could have been worse. BP will get off with far less than $20 billion [[much paid by taxpayers.)

See today's NYT article "Gulf May Avoid Direst Predictions After Oil Spill.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/sc...nt&tntemail1=y

e.g. "Marsh grasses matted by oil are still a common sight on the gulf coast here, but so are green shootsspringing up beneath them." We spill oil occasionally when our lines leak, usually in wheatfields, and the following growing season it's easy to spot where the spill occurrd because the wheat growing on the area is greener and the wheat taller than the wheat around it. Crude is a great fertilizer.

[rb336]

There you go again being blindly partisan. Obama has spent more time golfing and partying than he has on making stricter regulations on offshore drilling, or on the oil disaster itself. And don't forget there was 8 years of Clinton after Reagan/Bush .

you missed the part where Clinton was explicitly included. all of them, every one, including Obama, count as corporatist neo-cons or corporatist neo-liberals [[pick your poison, they are essentially the same thing)